Life On The Move

Hey everyone,
Hope you're all doing well and keeping warm over there in freezing Melbourne! I'm glad I'm not there for that, although at times I wish I wasn't in Doha for their summer. We haven't had a day under 30 since I've arrived, and at the moment the temperate is averaging mid 40's. We had one day where it was over 50 degrees, although fortunately for me I had a night flight the day before and got home at 4am so I slept the whole day with the aircon pumped and missed the heat entirely. Although by 4am it had already hit 40 so I knew early on it was going to be a scorcher. Never before have I seen a weeks forcast with a 0% chance of rain, but that's life in the desert I guess.

This past month has been amazing and flew by. I really am loving my job and at times feel like I need someone to pinch me because it just doesn't seem real. I flew to Paris a few weeks ago which was my first trip to Europe. One the way over I got to sit in the cockpit during turbulance which was fun. The pilots showed me how they fly the plane and pointed out planes in the distance that you can see from the front. They also showed me their navigational screen they use that pinpoints where other planes are around them. It shows the distance from our plane, and the hight they're travelling at. They have such cool stuff in there, the controls they have look like joysticks you use for a nintendo game...almost makes me wish I was a pilot.

Paris was extraordinary and picturesque. It is impossible to escape the artistic genius and architectural marvel that makes Paris Paris! No detail has been overlooked in the stunning city that has so much to offer. The first thing I noticed was the shopping. There are big designers stores everywhere, from Louis Vitton to Channel, to Prada and Dolce & Gabbana. If you can name it Paris has a store for it! The 'IT' brand for crew is Louis Vitton so I accompanied two crew who spent $1400 on a bag each. Call me crazy but I just can't justify spending that much money on a bag, I'd much rather buy a return ticket to Thailand and purchase a dozen fakes.
We ate lunch in a trendy restaurant on Avenue de Champs-Elysee, which is the most expensive street in Europe in terms of real estate. I ate a steak, the first since leaving home. The food was divine and really lived up to the high expectations I had set due to people always raving about French food. We walked to the Arch of Triumph which was beautiful, then made our way to the Eiffel Tower. I was blown away by just how mammoth it is, which I oddly wasn't expecting dispite having seen a dozen photos, movies and documentaries containing the Eiffel. Nevertheless it is stunning at night and lights up every hour with tiny flashing lights. I stood under it watching in awe and thinking to myself how I have the coolest job in the world. It rained while it lit up which would usually disappoint me, but it was the first rain I had experienced since leaving Melbourne some 3 months earlier so I embraced it.
The following day I caught the metro train to the Louvre Museum, and their public transport system is far more effecient than Connex will ever be. I've never been a fan of art, but I think its impossible to walk away without having developed some sort of appreciation as the museum has so much to offer. I wont go into to much detail because I can't possibly find that many adjectives in my vocabulary to describe what I saw and experienced. But what I will say is the museum was unlike anything I had seen. The building itself had so much character and detail that I found myself at times taking photos of the ceiling and walls, and I hate walking around looking like a tourist but I was willing to make an exception. There were skulptures everywhere which were incredible, although I was slightly amused that with all their skills they hadn't quite mastered how to sculpt clothes onto them! Give it time though....
The walls were covered with paintings from various artists and eras. I hastily made my way through most of them as you could easily spend days in the museum if you stopped to look at each one. Plus I had my eye on one painting that I had to see....Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. It was a lot smaller than I though it would be, but still great getting to see it with my own eyes. It was remarkable witnessing the huge crowds that gather around such a small picture, and even then it has a barrier so you can't get to close to it and have to stand a few meters back. The security in the museum was very tight, I recall thinking to myself how difficult it would be stealing a picture without anyone noticing. However I later discovered that the day I was there a painting was stolen, but how they managed to pull off such an operation is beyond me. Oh by the way I magically won lotterly last week so I'm retiring and moving to an Island I just bought on the Carribean.., it's quite a coincidence really. Ok I'm dreaming...I didn't steal the painting, but someone actually did.

I flew to Dhaka in Bangladesh which was hot, in the 30's but the humidity was almost unbearable. The hotel had really nice pools outside so I cooled down in those with the crew. We then made our way to a local market where I bought 6 t-shirts for $2 each. Bargain! It's quite the opposite extreme to Paris, and ironically enough I bought a Paris t-shirt. Dhaka is extremely green and has a lot of natural beauty, however the country is sticken by poverty and you see how difficult life is for people there. It's not uncommon to see people with missing limbs or scars - to raise money they sell body parts. It's so sad to think people have to do that so they can survive and feed their families. The market we shopped at smelt like something had died in it. It was horrible and sticky. They had fans blowing around the place to cool shoppers down but it just seemed to enourage the smell. The power died twice there which stopped the fans and made the place swelter, it also meant everyone had to stop wherever they were because the market became pitch black.

I flew to Berlin last week, the hotel we stayed in was right in the heart of the city so we were within walking distance of everything. I saw parts of the Berlin wall which was cool and also bought a travellers visa they used back then if you wanted to cross it. It has all the stamps you required as well, so it looks legit. The city had swarms of people about the place so we followed the crowd which led us to a big street parade that was taking place. There were people everywhere drinking and partying on the streets, it was chaos. After around 15 minutes of watching the floats go by we discovered that is was a gay-rights parade and decided to move on to more interesting things. We went to a restaurant and I ate the famous German bratwerst. The Germans sure do know how to make a mouthwatering sausage. We then went to a supermarket because food in Germany is quite cheap, so we stocked up on groceries to take back to Doha with us. And German chocolate is divine. I'll be bringing plenty of it home with me for everyone to try.

I recently discovered that the soceroos were in Doha. They played Qatar for the qualifiers. I was so disappointed I didn't know they were coming because I would've gone and tried to get photos with them. I would've been the happiest woman alive having a photo taken with Harry Kewell. Needless to say we beat Qatar.....go Aussies!

I just got back from London which was extremely sunny and warm. I was expecting freezing cold blizzard style weather but I got the opposite. It seems the sun favours me at the moment and just doesn't want to leave me alone. I caught a big red double decker bus which was fun into the city. I visited Westminster Cathedral which was stunning. I love old British buildings. I then walked to the River Thames and said hello to Big Ben. I'm not quite sure what all the fuss is about this clock...to be honest it looks a lot like Flinders Street, but maybe it's just me. I think the moving clock we have in Melbourne Central is a lot more fascinating. But still it's another world landmark I can cross of my list. After that I walked along Southbank which brought back a lot of memories of home. There was a lot happening there, people were having picnics, there was a band performing, buskers doing performances, they even had a skate park that I know Jedd and Joel would love! I made the long treck to the London Bridge. The Bridge really is magnificent and adds a lot of character to London and the river. I thought about crossing it but I had already walked 15kms and my feet were hurting so I decided to save that for another trip.

I had a few days off because I had tonsilitis. I felt fine and ok to fly but the medical team won't allow anyone to fly who has any illness. This whole swine flu thing has everyone freaked out, so the nurse told me that although I'm ok she has to give me 2 days rest regardless. So I missed out on going to the UK for a 2nd time but I know there will be plenty more as they have at least 9 flights a day. At the airport crew have a fever monitor to test if you have a high temperature. If you do they then test you manually and if that is high you get taken straight to the hospital. They take no chances. Crew also have a nurse at the airport 24 hours a day so no matter what time of the day you might have a fever there is a nurse to look at you immediately. It seems a little over the top but it's comforting at the same time. My friend flew with a passenger last week who had swine flu, the crew had to wear masks for the entire flight.

I have next months roster which I'm pleased with. I have Hong Kong in 4 days, Kuala Lumpur twice, 4 days off at the end of the month, Rome, a few turn around flights and 3 days standby. One of those standbys is at the airport so I have to go in my uniform and wait around until I get called (if at all). I have to take everything because you have no idea where they are going to send you...it's almost like a lucky dip. That's from 10pm until 2am. Ouch! The other 2 days standby are at home but from 5pm until 2am.

Well there is my past month in a nutshell. I have good news! Qatar have finally confirmed that they will begin flying to Melbourne on 6th December. So I might be able to come home for Christmas if I'm fortunate enough to get a flight. Early next year they will begin flying to Sydney and I've also been told Perth is opening up, but no date has been set. I'm very excited about that, I can't wait to go home and see the family.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I look forward to hearing from you all and hopefully seeing you at the end of the year. I'm on skype to so if any of you are on my username is ambermatthews. Free video calls are awesome, and dad finally figured out how to use it! Well done dad!
I have also added quite a lot of photos to this journal so you have to scroll through the pages to see them all, otherwise click on one photo and it'll bring them all up in order numerically.

Take care,
Amber

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