The past is the past!!

Today I was digging around the one box I have yet to unpack in the hopes of retrieving my diary. My life has become so hectic in the past couple of weeks and I'm starting to lose track of everything that is supposed to be going on in the next few weeks, my social calendar has just exploded. lol. Whilst I was looking for my diary (which I found by the way) I found the DVDs from the 2 wards I was in at BYU. As I watched the slide shows of all the pictures that members of my ward had submitted (including some of my own) I was remembering the great times that I had at BYU and all the fabulous friends that I had made there.

This got me thinking . . . I remember all the great times so fondly, and miss the culture so much. . . And then I thought . . . I need to cherish THIS time of my life. I need to take more pictures of the people around me and the things that I do. I need to remember that BYU (as much as I loved and miss it) IS in the past and I need to make my own happy present. I need to be happy, I need to have fun, so that in 2 or 5 or 10 years I can look back at THESE times with fondness and great memories and joy.

So that is  my goal for this week, I am going to ENJOY life, whatever may get thrown my way. I am going to carry my camera with me and actually start taking pictures. I have no pictures of my English friends since before BYU, it's time that changed. As much as I LOVE America, and the culture, the past is the past, I need to stop trying to live in the past, and enjoy what I have now and just be grateful for all the experiences and friends I get along the way!!

xxx

Trials!!

So last night I come home from work feeling majorly sorry for myself because the past few days I have been suffering from a pretty nasty cold, which thankfully seems to now be disappearing quite quickly. But last night I was the picture of sickness with a mountain of tissues on my bedside table, red nose, blocked AND runny nose (how is that possible??) and with blocked ears to boot. Well last night one of my friends posted a link on facebook to an article which was about a young married LDS couple. Here is The article. 


Their story just hit me, here they are, not long married, with a 18 month daughter who has a terrible accident and this couple are just so strong and positive about the whole experience and focus on Christ. Just writing her experiences on her blog, her story about her daughter attracted readers from all over the world and changed so many people's life's, and still there are people reading her blog to see how this couple are coping after the loss of their daughter. 


Intrigued by the article I too logged on to Their blog.  My first thought was WOW!! They appear to be coping so well. It was as I was reading their blog that something she said really stood out to me. 

"As I sit in class and listen to the other girls (I'm an elementary education major, we have very few boys in our major) talk about their care-free lives it makes me think. Last semester that was me. My biggest concern after school was what I was going to make for dinner. As I sit and listen now, many times I envy them. Many of them have no idea what I'm struggling with. Not even my teachers. It's made me think, how many people around me are struggling with major trials and hiding it as well?"

This just hit me . . . I always think what I'm going through is the worst in the world and I envy those with 'easy' lives, but what kind of trials are they hiding?? And I also thought "If the worst thing I am going through is a pretty nasty cold, then my life is pretty darn good right now" It just really made me ponder on the attitude I have with my own life and my own trials, and how I can be better. Better at being more compassionate to others who I know are struggling. And also those who maybe are also struggling. I am making the goal today to have a better attitude to my trials, to remember that there are others in the world who are going through worse things than me, and to be more compassionate and to give more service to those who are struggling with things in their lives. 

Officially Moved in!!

So we officially moved in 12 days ago and we are loving our new apartment. I love the fact that I am a lot closer to work (came in handy when they called me off standby today) and I love the fact that I am closer to YSA stuff. It took a week or so until we were really organized in the apartment and everything is still not quite complete but at least it's livable instead of boxes everywhere.

Me and Mom were proper smart and put my bed up straight away and made up all the bedding. Smart because after hauling all my stuff upstairs (and some of Grace's) and a major move-in food shop, there is no way I would of had the energy to put up a bed. Once Grace was here, like typical girls we sorted out the Kitchen first, and was the first room where we had everything unpacked and organized. The lounge and Dining area had boxes in until like Sunday lol, but is now looking clean, tidy, and organized.

Have taken pre-organized pictures but I'm sure you can imagine a ton of boxes everywhere and a couch at a very odd angle in the middle of the room (with a pathway to it no less) but here are pictures of our flat :)

 Lounge

 Dining Room

 Kitchen . . . Do you like our Appliance corner??

 Bedroom

Grace's Flowers . . . What a fancy vase!!

MOVING DAY!!

Woot!! Can you believe it's moving day already?? I am SOOO excited, I really struggled to get to sleep last night, like struggled more than on Christmas Eve, and almost as much as before I jetted off to BYU for the first time. Yesterday I spent the whole day packing with 2 small breaks . . . 1 when one of my nails broke so I had to go get it fixed :( and the other when we watched Letters to Juliet for FHE. (More about that later). 


I never knew I had soooo much stuff, seriously I had already piled up my boot and half of the back of the car and started piling it up in the hallway and just couldn't believe how many boxes I had stacked up. I came home from BYU with just 2 suitcases and that was it, now I think I would need like 20 suitcases to fit all my stuff in. Granted some of it is like bedding and Kitchen stuff which I've bought/accumulated while I was in Stansted, but still  . . . We're taking my car and my parents people carrier, with the bed and wardrobe in there too I don't think we're going to be able to fit all my stuff in the 2 cars. Good job I'm back home next week to babysit because it means I can just pick stuff up then although saying that, choosing which boxes go up today will be hard because I'm pretty sure the TV, TV  power cable, Ariel, and Remote are all in different boxes (whoops). 

Letters to Juliet is a totally cheesy movie, but I love it anyway. Set in Italy, this American visits Verona and visits Juliet's House and finds a letter which is 50 years old, and writes back to that women . . . You'll have to watch it to find out more. It is so cute, and has really made me want to visit Verona now (the tourist board of that city must be loving this movie). I think me and Abi are planning our Italian trip when she gets back next year . . . And Ryanair are starting flights into that city so even better :D 


Well since I haven't finished packing yet I must go, I can sense that the next week is going to be claustrophobic, hectic, and frustrating as I move, work, unpack, and organize. I'll try and take some before, during, and after pictures of the move and post them up as soon as I have internet again (which will be goodness knows how long) 


Kiri x x x 

Ireland v. England

Don't you just hate it when all good things happen at once?? My collegue Emma and I were talking and she mentioned that British Airways have jobs opening for a new set of crew who are going to be "Mixed Fleet" this means that instead of being Long-haul crew or Short-haul crew, you're both. You can do the trips to Singapore, LA, and Rio de Janeiro. And you can also do the shorter Malaga, Oslo, and Glasgow. This is pretty much my ideal job, being able to mix being home at night after work, to doing the long-haul flights with stop overs in Cities I've never been to before, where I can really start to travel. Plus whilst the pay is slightly better than what I'm earning right now, the perks are HUGE. Applications close October 10th, and I'd be based in London  Heathrow which would mean moving out there, and probably spending a lot more on accommodation. 

On the other hand we have Ireland and good old Ryanair. This job has been a fantastic first job in the industry, they have worked me hard, I was able to transfer back home faster than I thought, and I have gained a lot of experience. I feel at home in the base, and even though the perks aren't as good as BA at least I know that the company is financially stable (also good to know in case another volcano goes off). I have great friends here in Bristol, and I'm just so excited to be moving into my new flat with Grace on Tuesday. The decision to move into the flat felt so right, I have no doubt that it is what I'm meant to be doing right now. So why oh why does BA have to tempt me now instead of 2 months ago. lol. I'm debating whether to throw caution to the wind and apply for my ideal job anyway. Or to follow the feeling that I've had the past few months that for whatever reason I need to be living in Bristol.


So I'm putting it to the vote . . . Ireland??? Or England??? 

Life and Sole of FHE.

So here are my new shoes: 

I love them, I had seen them a couple of weeks ago but they weren't in my size, I saw them in Cribbs in my size and I just had to get them. I love the material, and the straps, and the fact that they are really high. So I wore them to church and FHE this week and I have never had so many comments on a pair of shoes before. It was actually quite funny, loads of people were like "I love your shoes" It made me feel good . . . Is that weird?? lol.

In other news, French ATC are driving me crazy, they were on strike this week (when are they not??) and I was only meant to do ALC and back, a nice short easy day. . . It turned into the worst day of my job so far. We had delay after delay (like 3 hours on board with the passengers) and then we had no food left because we were so busy, so we had to hear so many complaints about that. And then we had a girl purposely trip like 3 of us Cabin Crew up and throw stuff at one of my colleagues. We gave her a warning and she was so mouthy back to us we decided to call the police on landing because she was affecting out safety. Well then we had to divert to BOH which was not cool. We had loads of complaints obviously because we were trying to get to BRS and we already had passengers that were trying to get to BHX and LGW (those flights were cancelled) so we had like 10 people get off, and the police arrested the girl, and then we had a smoker in the toilet who they had to arrest too. Me and one of the other cabin crew had to give police statements which took like an hour, and then we eventually got back to Bristol and had loads of people really nasty to me on disembarking. Urg . . . Worst day ever!!!

Money, Money, Money, Moving!!

So lately everything has been happening all at one time for me, isn't that always the case. My car failed it's MOT which was not fun but thank goodness it didn't cost as much as I feared in order to fix it enough to get it to pass. . . . phew!!

On the other hand, the dentist hasn't been as nice to me . . . Was due to have a couple of fillings, and now I need a root canal (ouch!!) It's also going to cost like double (double ouch!!).

Great news though is that I'm moving!! I am sooo excited, I'm moving in with Grace Finlay and it's going to be sooo great. We're moving to Bedminster which means that it'll be so much easier to have a church social life, and so much easier to have a work social life as most of the crew live in Bedminster. This is the apartment. . . http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-14242912.html I am hyped!!

In other news we moved into our chapel last week and it's so great. It feels so good to have a room and a whiteboard to interact with the YW more. I know it should be the same where ever you are, but I always feel there is such a great spirit in a chapel. I loved teaching last Sunday. I'm also really enjoying my calling right now, Emma and Gill are great sisters to serve with. I'm going to be kinda sad to be leaving Taunton Ward!!

Tonight me and Laura are going to go watch this movie. It looks really funny and it'll be great to spend some sister time. We're also going to eat out before the movie which should be great.

I also want to watch 'The back up plan" another movie that also looks funny!!

I love Abi, she picked me up a couple of LDS novels from the bookstore. One was called "Brianna, my brother, and the blog" was hilarious. As was the book titled "AltAered plans". I love books and these 2 I read in 1 day. It felt so great to read a couple of great new LDS books and I love Abi for getting them so I didn't have to pay postage. lol.

Anyway, until next time!!

x x x

The Lonely Hearts Club

This is a book that was recommended to me by Abi, Abi fell in love with it from one look at the cover, and I can't blame her, when she sent me the link, I decided that I couldn't wait for Abi to get home in a few weeks so I could borrow it, instead I ordered my own copy so I could read it sooner, I too, had fallen in love with the cover.

It has been longer than I could remember since I last bought a book for myself and I must say this was an excellent read. It only took a few hours to read and I found that I just couldn't put it down, it was so good that all thoughts of dinner, TV, facebook, and bed went completely out the window. So what made this book so great??? Well, the great thing about this book is the messages that are in it and it really was what I needed to hear/read right now.
1) You should not change yourself for any boy.
2) No matter how many times we think the world is full of boys who are jerks, there are actually some decent ones out there too.
3) You need to learn how to love yourself! Create, find & know your own identity. This is one that I really struggle with in my everyday life. There are times when it really hits me that I really do not know who I am.
4) There is nothing like a solid support group of friends. I am so grateful for all my amazing friends in my life. The ones that are there just to hear me rant, the ones that give me advice, the ones that are there for me no matter what, and the ones that are willing to eat a mountain of junk food and appreciate the greatness of Ben & Jerry's in the name of a girly night.

After such a success of buying and loving a book I decided to make use of Abi's closeness to the LDS bookstore to get me a few books, it was so hard to narrow the list down so that it didn't break the bank and it really made me miss the BYU library where I could go and read these books for free. However I managed to narrow down my list, and thanks to the first chapter that is posted on line, I've also got Abi hooked on some of them already. The 2 weeks she is going to be home is going to be filled with book exchanges, reading, and eating a mountain of junk food all in the name of a girly/Gilmore girls night.

My goal for the rest of the year is to try and get to know myself better, to try and get into some great habits, to try and see positives in myself instead of negatives, to try and develop a talent, to find a talent, and to enjoy the stage in my life.

Where has the summer gone??

After the gorgeous weather that we had in May and June you would think that the summer would of continued to be beautiful. . . . but then we remember that we live in England. I can't believe how miserable the weather has been the past couple of weeks, it feels more like October than August. If only there were a summer holiday to look forward to. :)

The volcano that caused me to get stuck in Amsterdam happened 4 months ago, well today I got a email from Delta saying that I could get reimbursed for my hotel, but since I made my own way home that will be it. It's a blessing really because it's like €95 Euro that I didn't have yesterday. But still, it's kinda frustrating that it happened at all. I wish I knew that airspace would of been closed for a week because then I could of enjoyed a week in Amsterdam, it would of been great to actually see a city I've never seen before lol. Maybe one day I'll go back and see it.

I also realized this week that I really am bad luck. Due to horrid thunderstorms in Rzeszow we had to divert to Katawice (These are in Poland by the way) lol. Anyway so we diverted and decided to drop our passengers off to endure a 3 hour bus journey back to Rzeszow. We decided that we would try and get into Rzeszow but if the thunderstorms were still there then we would go back to Bristol empty. however the thunderstorms had moved and we managed to get in, pick up the passengers, and made our way to Bristol all before our original passengers managed to get to Rzeszow. . . The poor passengers, I really did feel a bit sorry for them.

The D word started this week. Man is it hard to eat healthy. lol. Not only is it expensive but it's so hard to be munching on fruit and veg instead of chocolate and crisps. I've been doing really well this week though and have had great fun experimenting with different ways to eat my favorite meals. My aim is to lose 5lbs in 2 weeks. We'll see if I can make it huh.

Haagen-Dazs sure likes to jump.

Last week I endured Young Women's camp, I had been dreading camp since I had been called into Young Women's but actually I was pleasantly surprised. I went pretty much straight from work, so was pretty tired, but it was great. Emma, bless her heart, had already set up the tent and everything when I got there which was really nice since I was so tired. Camp was so much fun, it was so great spending time with Emma, and the YSA leaders that were there. We had a lot of fun. Here are some of my highlights from camp: 

1) When shopping for food in Asda with Emma, we happened to walk past the Haagen-Dazs which was on offer for £2. It just happened that a tub of the chocolate cookie dough jumped into our trolley. And since we were camping, we had no freezer, so oh what a shame, we just had to eat the ice-cream. lol. The next day after the service project I came back and Emma had been to Asda to pick something up, and another tub happened to drop into the trolley again . . . Oh what a shame!! lol. 

2) My double airbed. It was so great being able to roll and not fall off an airbed, and with my sleeping bag, duvet, and blankets, I stayed toasty warm. I dislike camping, but if you have to camp you should do it in comfort. 

3) Emma telling the YW lies. Lol. It was so funny, she told the YW that me and Joe were married (he was our priesthood leader and we're cousins by the way). Joe then made it worst by saying we weren't married, we were engaged. My gosh the girls pounced on this, but it really was quite funny how the girls were so excited, and how Joe really needs to learn when to stop talking when it comes to YW lol. 

I had to leave camp early because I had to go back to work, but I was actually sad to leave and wished that I could of stayed for the whole of it, which shocked me no end. Sleeping outside is not my cup of tea lol. And the best part is that despite burning just a tad, my tan lines have improved again. The weather was just perfect which made a change to the past few weeks. 

Continued . . .

May saw the start of Bristol Convention which was really good fun, it's always soo good to spend time with heaps of friends and TONS of YSA. It was a blast. However on the Saturday I was on my way to Laura's I was involved in  . . . 

A car accident: I was stuck on a roundabout and as I got going a

 car came zooming by cutting me up as he exited the roundabout from the middle lane and clipped my drivers side. It shook me right up and I couldn't really stop shaking for a few days after. Despite thinking that we were going to sort out our own damage he then a month later, decided to go through the insurance company as neither one of us are accepting liability. We're still waiting to hear the outcome. 

The dreaded roundabout. 

My Second overnight: The ash from the Volcanic Eruption caused some problems for a couple of weeks after canceling flights where the ash cloud was located. I didn't have any other problems as far as that was concerned. But one Sunday in May I had gotten called of standby to do Gdansk (GDN) Belfast (BHD). When we landed in BHD, the captain found ash in the Engine . . . Not much but still enough to ground  us until it could be checked by an engineer (who was in Dublin). A Stansted crew were also there and I happened to know the Supervisor from when I was based there which was good fun. We ended up overnighting because of how long it takes to clean a aircraft engine. Stansted got to stay in a 4* hotel in Belfast . . . and we got The Salty Dog in Bangor Bay. lol. We had a really good crew though and had a lot of fun before getting back to Bristol the next day. 

Playing in the Engine

In the flight deck

The Salty Dog

I just love all the gorgeous weather that we've had this summer, it's been so good to be able to wear shorts, flip flops and spend lots of time in the sun. Other than getting burnt it has really made the summer seem more summery, instead of cold, wet and miserable which is what we're used to in England. For Father's Day we went up to see Laura in Bristol and went to Blaise Castle. I've never been here before despite it being just up the road and was great to see another local attraction. It was another beautiful day and perfect for a picnic and walk through the woods to the castle. 

Josh, Dad, and Laura at Blaise Castle

Alton Towers: I love Alton Towers, it is by far my favorite theme park that I have ever been to. It has sooo many fab rides but I think my favorites are definitely Air, Oblivion, Nemises, Rita, then the new ride Th13teen. Although they all come quite close together. The whole theme park is amazing and this week a group of us decided to use our buy one get one free tickets to go to Alton Towers for the day. It was great, we drove up in the morning and used walky talky to communicate between the 2 cars which was really good fun. We didn't get to go on all the rides in the park as the lines were really long. We had to wait for over an hour to get onto Rita, and like 45 mins for Air and Nemises. We did get on all the big rides however and a few little ones before we drove home that night. It was so worth it though and thankfully it was warm but not baking, and we only had a few drops of rain. 

This is Amy in front of Nemises. 

That pretty much brings us  up to July lol. It's been great the last couple of months working a lot more now that we're in the summer season, and we are flying to a few new routes which is always exciting. We have also had a few new people arrive at Bristol base which has been fun, and a few fantastic people leave which is not so fun. I still love being based in Bristol though, it's just so friendly and you get to know everyone. I love it. There have been a couple of long-haul jobs available for Monarch and Air New Zealand and I printed out and filled out the application form, but I just don't know if it's the right thing to be doing right now. I feel really content where I am and whilst my dream is to do long-haul flights, there is  just something that keeps making me put off sending the form off and I don't know what it is. Maybe I'm meant to stay put for now :)

The problem with blinking!

So the problem with blinking I have found is that at one point it is January, and then you blink and it's July. I can't believe it has been that long since I last updated by blog, that's forever, so much has occurred since that to write it all would take the next year. lol. However here is a brief re-cap of all that has been happening. 

My first overnight: In February I had my first overnight in . . . Lanzarote!! First image that comes to mind is hot weather, bright blue skies, and beaches right?? We had grey sky and torrential rain. 

So the story . . . We were doing a Lanzarote flight (ACE) and the weather was sooo bad and we got hemmed in by thunderstorms (we could see the lightning outside the aircraft) so we couldn't land in ACE so we diverted to Gran Canaria (LPA) and re-fueled and waited a little while for the storm to pass. Well they decided that it wasn't moving but to give it a try anyway so off we went again warning the passengers that if we couldn't get in we were going to divert again and have to disembark. So off we went and you can guess we diverted to Feurteventura because ACE was still closed. We then got told that we were to disembark the passengers and leave them there (on the wrong island) and go back to Bristol empty. However, it took ages to disembark because the passengers were refusing to. We then went off again empty and were told to try ACE one last time since we were

going past it. As you could guess we got in this time but didn't have enough hours to go back toBristol because we would of been flying too long. So we had to overnight. However, it wasn't all as glamorous as you may think since we didn't get to our hotel til 00:30, we went to get something to eat then had be at leaving for the airport at 11:00. However it was a pretty cool experience and oddly enough we felt like real cabin crew lol. And we got to stay in a 5*hotel. :) 

Dublin: For my birthday, me, Laura, Mum, and Lucas went to Dublin for the day which was really good. After a meeting for work, we went to the Titanic expedition, and then (window) shopping on Grafton Street. It was really good spending the day looking round another city and fun that we could spend just a day in another country. I love the fact that this is possible in Europe because we're all so close geography wise. 

America: So work assigned me a week of Annual Leave for the first week in April which I was not allowed to change. As I didn't want to twiddle my thumbs at home for a week and there aren't many places I wanted to go to just for a week, on my own because all my mates were still in Uni, I decided to book a second week off and I booked my ticket to AMERICA. I literally booked the plane ticket 10 days before I went. I was sooo excited to be going back to America to spent time with all my Uni friends. I've been missing living in America since I left. I spent 10 days in Utah first, spending lots of time with Megan, Craig, Rob, Nadine, and seeing a lot of people from my BYU ward, my friend Katie from Teriyaki Stix and I met her baby Naomi. It was sooo good to have some closure on BYU and just bask in the Utahn-ness off it all, went to conference, temple square, shopping, and ate at lots of places I've been missing. 

After 10 days in Utah I spent 5 days in California with one of my old roommates Anna. It was so good and the weather was perfect temperature. We went to the beach, and Disneyland, and shopping in a huge mall. I also got to see Downtown LA which was awesome with the walk of fame and the Hollywood sign (which you could barely see because of all the fog) It was so fun to see another culture within the USA. 

Volcanic Eruption: On the way home from the States I flew LAX to Minneapolis, and then from there to Amsterdam and then I was meant to fly to Bristol from there. Everything was great and after hearing all about the fantastic weather England was happening I was shocked to fly over a black cloud when we went over England. After landing in Amsterdam I got told the flight to Bristol was cancelled. With no other information, and they weren't rebooking any

 flights. After finally finding out that they had closed

 UK air space I decided to try and drive home 

since I was meant to be at work and we wouldn't know when air space would open again, and I would need to be back in time for work. So I managed to rent a car and drove from

 Amsterdam to Rotterdam to Gent to Lille to Arras which is as far as I was allowed to take the car. Because I had gotten stuck in traffic and lost in Rotterdam I had missed the last train to Calais which is where I wanted to catch a ferry. So instead I stayed the night in Arras. At that point all the the ferries and trains were fully booked the next day but luckily Mum and Dad were in France as well and Dad and siblings came home early and picked me up on the way home, and Mum  had to come home on the Monday via hire car and ferry. In the end though air space was closed for 6 days . . . could of had a nice holiday in Amsterdam lol. 

To be continued . . . 

Of not much happening for weeks on end . . .

Oh gosh, so not much has happened over the last couple of weeks that has been particularly notable. 

Sunday 17th January: Bratislava (BTS) Dublin (DUB)

Monday 18th January: Milan Bergamo (BGY)

Wednesday 20th January: Dublin (DUB)

Thursday 21st January: Bratislava (BTS) Dublin (DUB)

                . . . . . . . Well this week of lates was generally uneventful, the most being that I saw a passenger on one of the Dublin flights that I'm pretty sure I know, and I'm pretty sure he knew me. But we were each giving the other the "You look familiar but I can place you out of context" look and I didn't want to ask him just in case he wasn't who I thought he was, and I turn out to look like an utter idiot. I also worked with the same guy (Francesco) every day that week. Insignificant you may say, but this is something that would NEVER happen in Stansted. I marvel at how close Bristol is still, it's so nice walking into the crew room and actually knowing most of the people in it. :D

                

. . . . . . . Here is the view from my office window on what I do believe was one of the Dublin flights (although to be fair it could of been taken from any one of the flights I did that week. 

So thus starts another week on earlies. After getting like not much sleep Sunday night I have to drag myself up and out of bed to do . . . 

Monday 25th January: Dublin (DUB) Belfast (BHD).

 . . . . I also found out that on this day one of the old Ryanair aircraft that Ethiopian airways was now using, crashed off the Lebanon coast, there were 80 people on board and no survivors have been found. Kinda makes you think really how much we take the safety for granted. Anything could happen all of a sudden really. Still, the chances are really slim and so I carry on flying without too much fear of my life. lol. 

Wednesday 27th January: Tenerife (TFS). Oh Tenerife, I was fully expecting to be delayed/diverted on this flight, but alas, finally I do a Tenerife flight where we actually land on time for one (Hurrah). However, I was quite amused on this flight by the passengers. To be precise, the ones who lost the watch. They were on my flight on Wednesday and wearing what looked like missing watch. Also they very obviously ignored me, turning away and sticking their nose in the air every time I asked them if they wanted anything. It made me chuckle. On the upside there were a few very nice passengers that had also been on my previous Tenerife flight who made the effort to talk to me and see how I was doing. Little things really do make your day. . . . . 

               . . . .  . . . . . For example, I was babysitting Lucas for an hour or so after said TFS flight, and I just asked him "Do you love me Lucas??" To which he replied with the following video . . . (I had to get him to repeat it so I could film it, it was too cute not to share. I can't believe he just came out with this. It really did make my night, he can be so cute at times (and such a rascal at others). 

Thursday saw me being on home standby and found me in the baking mood again (I had made homemade brownies on Tuesday), so whilst I was making cupcakes Lucas was making play dough pancakes. So whilst the cupcakes were in the oven, I went over and make a play dough gingerbread man and women, which we called Kiri and Lucas. I was then in high demand to make a Josh and so forth . . . . Here is our finished product.  So from left to right we have: Mom, Dad, Lucas, Kiri, Jake, Josh, Cheryl, James, and Laura. And we all had to hold hands because we're a family. I think we may make real pancakes for breakfast tomorrow, and when I'm off sometime next week, work on making real gingerbread men and women from scratch. We'll see how home-makey I feel next week. Either way Lucas and me will definitely make another pan of brownies just for Laura. 

After another night of tossing and turning and no sleep . . . . 

Friday 29th January: Alicante (ALC). And finally we come to the end of a week (and a month) and I can't believe how fast time is just flying by (no pun intended). It's crazy to think that I've been back from BYU for 9 months, that I've been actually flying as my job for 6, and that I've already been in BRS for 2. That just seems so crazy to me. How can time be going that fast??? Am I going to blink one day and suddenly be like 50? 

More snow = More delays.

Wednesday 13th January: Tenerife (TFS) . . . Via Faro. 

Seeing as it was the 13th of the month I should of known something would happen. This something (which caused all the problems) was the snow that fell overnight. As we were going to Tenerife yesterday, the night before our aircraft was loaded up with fuel to prepare for the long flight, however with all the snow that fell they hadn't been able to clear all the runway and as it's such a short runway, we basically had too much fuel in order to be able to take off on such a short runway. Problem number 1. 

We boarded anyway whilst waiting for a decision to be made about this slight problem, and after much waiting, the captain says that we either have to de-fuel or change aircraft. Problem number 2. To de-fuel you need to disembark and an empty fueler (which wasn't in Bristol) and to change aircraft you need a spare aircraft (which also wasn't in Bristol). We then have to wait a bit longer until the aircraft from Shannon landed so that we can kick off the Shannon crew and swop aircraft. 

So after a bit more waiting while we get de-iced etc, we are FINALLY up in the air at about 9:30 . . . 2 and a half hours after we were supposed to. 

Problem number 3. Because we can't take off with as much fuel as we need to get to Tenerife, we need to make a pit-stop in Faro Portugal. So once we topped up we got back up in the air and on our way we went. 

So thus lies all the problems, and luckily most of the passengers were really understanding about the whole delay (I think because they could actually SEE the snow). But there was this one particular passenger that was soooo rude to us. You would think that with all the time we were sat with these passengers on our aircraft, she would of said something sooner, but no . . . half hour before landing in Tenerife, she pipes up saying that her husband had taken off his really expensive watch and left it on the original aircraft (why you would take off your watch on an aircraft I really do not know). She then expected us to ring around trying to find said watch. After trying to explain that if said watch had been found it was most likely found in either Bristol or Shannon and that she should contact those airports, and no we don't have the number for each airport (really, do I look like a phone directory??), and no we won't know if a Ryanair crew handed it in. She started raising her voice and exclaiming that it was all OUR fault that they lost the watch as we had to change aircraft (yes I took the watch off his wrist and purposefully lost it), and that surely we could find out if another crew had found a watch as there would be a record of it (nope), and what if we had found £1000 cash on the floor (really the most we find is hats, jackets, and the odd game-boy game). So she ended up taking our names and saying she'll report us (obviously when she gets back to England in 2 weeks because she doesn't have internet connection in Tenerife (otherwise she could find the airports numbers)). 

But what made me chuckle was when I was outside directing the passengers to the bus (it's still nice and hot in Tenerife), her and her husband were obviously going to great lengths not to look at me, and her husband even walked around her to make sure he wasn't walking close to me. It made me laugh!!

Man I do hate rude passengers and I really hope she is not on my flight when I do Tenerife in 2 weeks time. 

So yeah, after a speedy turnaround in Tenerife and thankfully no more problems, we get back into Bristol just before 7pm. 

Oh what a long long day!!!

Where I've been to this week.

Sunday 10 January: Alicante (AL C), Knock (NOC)

Monday 11 January: Beziers (BZR)

Of precious moments, snow fun, and delayed flights!!

Wednesday 6th January: Milan Bergamo (BGY)

So for starters, just something

 that I found so adorable, on Tuesday Lucas enticed me and Laura to play a game of hide and seek with him. He was quite insistent that we 

stop what we were doing in order to play. It was quite adorable really. Here are a couple of pictures of his favorite hiding places. 

Yesterday we woke up to a blanket of snow, Josh and Jake 

woke me up with their shouts of glee of not having to go to

 school . . . and Lucas woke me up wanting my Lucky Charms. As we were struggling to get the car off the drive anyway we got out all our snow gear and walked Lucas to Nursery, whilst

 having some snow fun along the way. It was such a beautiful scene with all the snow, and one I haven't seen

 in England, it was definitely a Provo image in my mind and made me a little bit homesick for BYU. 

So due to all the wonderful snow that we received yesterday, Bristol Airport

 

was closed until like 3. All the morning flights were cancelled and Easyjet just didn't fly at all. So I wasn't having to report until like 3:20. Just as we're reporting the Knock crew finally take off after 2 hours of de-icing and being in total 3 hours late. Anyways, just as we finish our briefing, we find

 out that Knock have taken our aircraft and there are no spare aircraft until they get back. So we camp out in the crew room with the airport standbys and wait for them to come back with our plane. 

So then we find out that Knock we're diverted to Cork and then had a technical problem and are now not due to land until 7ish. So we continue to wait.

 Then just as they are about to land into Bristol . . . they can't, the runway is too icy and they are diverted to Birmingham. Urg. Frustrating or what. So in the end after more waiting, we find that we are kicking the Dublin crew off their aircraft (Dublin was closed and there was another plane going there anyway), we wait a bit longer for them to get all the passengers off and eventually we get onto a plane. So we board the aircraft and guess what . . . more waiting as the plane is de-iced. We eventually take off about half an hour after we were supposed to be back in Bristol. Luckily, no more problems occur (I don't think I could of taken it) and we eventually land at 2am, meaning that I don't get home until 3:30. What an eventful day. I think the question is "Why do I always get delayed on my Day 5??" 

Oh and just for Nadine, this is on the road on the way to the airport, the picture doesn't do it justice but it was stunning. 

The funny thing that happened on the ground.

Monday 4th January: Malaga (AGP) 

So todays funny story didn't happen at 38,000 feet, instead it happened right on the ground. So for a few weeks now I have been meaning to change my wiper blades, I have even brought said new wiper blades (they are currently sat in my room). Everyday on my way to work it frustrates me that my wiper blades make my windscreen all smeary instead of clean and shiny. Today I left for work at 10 . . . I scrapped about 10 layers of ice from my windscreen, got in my car, 2 minutes down the road and the I realized that my screen-wash is frozen, and thus my windscreen is now smeary once more. 

There is a point to this story. 

After work I go back to my car and once again have to scrape ice . . . I also check to see if my screen-wash has defrosted yet (it hasn't) so I find a bottle of water that I have in my car (which is half frozen too) and decide to clean my windscreen with it . . . It freezes instantly. And thus continues the scraping of ice. The guy from the airport fire department that was in the car next to me found it amusing at least. 

The wiper blades will be changed tomorrow. 

The start of the new year!!

As this is the start of the new year I decided to create some goals . . . One of which, is to improve my journalling skills. Since most of my life now is work, I decided to share all the wonderfully funny, strange, gross, annoying, and disturbing things that happen at 38,000 feet in the air, along with other interesting tid-bits that occur in my life - hence, creating a type of Journal. 

Last year saw me make some major decisions within my life, one being that I was going to drop out of BYU and instead move back to England and become Cabin Crew. This was a really hard decision as I left a lot of fantastic friends and a great life in the states to move back without any guarantee of a job. Luckily, I managed to start training with Ryanair after a month of being home and then started working straight away from London Stansted airport. 

The end of the last year saw a move from Stansted airport over to my local Bristol airport. Anyone who knows me will know that I was thrilled with the move, and am now back with my family and amongst the YSA in the Bristol stake once more. I'm really enjoying being in Bristol base right now, we don't fly to as many places as Stansted, but there is a really amazingly friendly atmosphere among the crew, and I am having a lot of fun.