Once, back in the old days, I had the most hilarious tannoy experience. So funny, that it still cracks me up today.
So it's only fair I tell you, right?
I was in the terminal building, a long line of passengers in front of me, boarding for a flight to Amsterdam which was absolutely filled with Stag parties, so as you can imagine the line in front of me was filled with men all ready for a good time.
The part of the usual announcement made by the ground staff is, as follows:
"Please retain your boarding card for further inspection by the cabin crew when entering the aircraft".
It was on this lovely bright summers morning that the following announcement, by the ground staff, was made. When sent me, all my passengers and everyone surround the boarding gate into fits of giggles.
"Please retain your boarding card for further inspection when entering the cabin crew".
*Giggles*
Have a great day!
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Monday, 23 April 2012
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Being me...
People often wonder what its like being an Air Stewardess, and its so hard to explain to someone who has never done it. Its not how you imagine, not at all. So I am going to try and explain it in the best way possible or better still, give you a great way to get an insight into my world!
Try to go to bed while its still light out, and you're not really tired. Make sure your neighbours are stomping around next door, and your family go about their daily business. Lay there for hours getting more and more frustrated with yourself for not being able to fall asleep. Finally drift off to sleep around 10am, but before doing so set your alarm for 3am.
When your alarm goes off leap out of bed (then sit down again because you've made yourself feel sick), grab your make up and try and make yourself look presentable, as hard as that might be at this unearthly hour with minimal sleep. Then try and ram your contact lenses into your already tired eyes. Wait for them to sting and water and generally feel uncomfortable. Get into some sort of uniform which feels too tight, itchy and just generally uncomfortable. Next try and force some breakfast down your throat, and try and have some coffee to wake you up. Next get together your things, go outside in the freezing cold and drizzle and drive half an hour to the airport.
When you arrive at the staff car park, park up and get your things out. Walk across the car park in the cold and the drizzle and shelter at the tiny bus shelter until your bus comes. Try not to fall asleep on the short ride to the airport terminal.
When you arrive walk quickly and avoid eye contact with everyone. This is imperative, if you catch the eye of any passengers they WILL ask you stupid questions. Walk quickly to security. Remove half the clothes you've spent all morning trying to put on. Using your super Stewardess strength put all this onto the conveyor belt at staff security. Spend 5 minutes trying to negotiate your yogurt and your lipgloss through security. Walk super fast, in your six inch heels, to the crew room.
When you arrive try to look like a pro and be able to easily find yourself at sign in. Go to report station and wait. Grab your bottle to fill with water, spill it over your shoes while filling up. Return to report and realise everyone has been waiting for you. Pretend to listen while the captain tells you about the flight path and makes a joke that either nobody gets or cares about considering its only 5am. Smile. Answer two questions on First Aid, try to look like a pro when really you're racking your brains while thinking "I totally don't care and wish I was in bed". Then answer 2 questions on safety. Grab your stuff and head out into the rain, hunting for whichever stand your aircraft is on. Sods law will say its on the stand furthest away from the crew room.
Get onboard and freeze. This is mandatory because all the doors will be open. Make safety checks and wait for passengers. Smile.
See the first passengers heading up the aisle will make your heart sink. You've been up for 4 hours but the day is just beginning. You'll be thrown into utter chaos. Passengers, by their very nature, have lost their brains somewhere between check in and boarding, so will need you to do the most basic of functions for them. You'll soon learn how to judge a bag at 25 metres ("there is NO WAY that is going to fit in the overhead bins" you'll think to yourself. And you will be right). Passengers will need to be shown their seats, how to put their bags up, will ask you all sorts of silly questions (and some sensible ones). Bags will be everywhere, limbs will be everywhere, coats will be everywhere. Nobody will be in their seats. You'll check your watch and panic about slot times. You'll try and get people into their seats. You'll arrange and re-arrange the overhead bins. You'll stare at the pile of bags that you just can't find room for and panic. People will be in the aisles and in your way. You'll be lifting and moving bags with such ease, on your six inch heels, that people will think they are as light as a feather. Your arms will kill, your wrists are breaking, and you'll be screaming inside...but you're still smiling.
The doors close, the doors are armed, the passengers are sat down and everything is calm. Until the demo video won't work. You grab a demo kit and walk, one the taxiing, bumpy plane, in your six inch heels. You'll have to point to exits, pull on oxygen masks, demonstrate life jackets. No-one is watching, but you have to smile anyway. Then its to your jumpseat for take off. Your jumpseat is mid cabin, facing the passengers, who just insist on talking to you. All you want to do is relax for 2 mins, rest your tired feet and tired body, but the passengers believe, that because the stewardess is sitting amongst them, this must be an invite for a conversation. You have to answer the same questions everyday "Is this your first flight today", "Is this your only flight today" etc etc. Soon the flight deck release the crew, and while you're excited to get away from the mindnumbing conversation, its back into the heels. Walking on an ascending plane, at an angle, in high heels is tough.
The next few hours will pass in a daze, you will serve numerous drinks, and meals. You will get up more times than you ever imagined because people will press the toilet call bell thinking it is the flush, despite it having a picture of a stewardess on it and being nowhere near the toilet. You'll have to tell people 80,000 times that the seatbelt sign is on and they cannot get up during this time. You'll be stood on your feet for 8 hours, with passengers demanding things of you left, right and centre. You'll be at the end of a massive toilet queue with everyone else. You'll be running back and forth, in your six inch heels, earning every penny of your money. And if you get to eat your food in one sitting you'll consider the day a success.
Finally you will be ready to land, the passengers will have made a total mess, be asleep in all sorts of weird and wonderful positions and you will have to wake them to get them ready for landing. You will have to tell everyone they need their belts on, you will then have to tell most of them again. You will put more tray tables and seatbacks up than you can keep count of. You will repeatedly tell people we're preparing for landing and they need to remain seated. Then you will need to tell them again. Finally the cabin will be prepared for landing, everyone is seated, belted and packed up and ready to leave. You will have to return to your jumpseat for more mundane conversation, but its ok this time, because you'll be getting rid of them all soon, the shift will be over and you can almost feel the soft hotel pillow against your head.
The plane lands, everyone stands up while taxiing and you'll have to jump up and scold them for standing, reminding them how dangerous it is, and make them sit down and belt up. The seatbelt sign will go off and everyone stands up immediately. Bags and people everywhere, phones beeping to life, people on the phone uttering the same boring lines "Yes, I've just landed". As they all leave you'll repeat the line "Thank you, Goodbye" more times than you'll care to remember, with the best fake smile plastered all over your face. As the flow eases and the passengers take a break from coming at you you'll drop the smile and rest your face. As soon as another comes into view its back on with the fake smile.
Once they are all gone, you'll close up the trolleys, grab your stuff and head off the plane. Then its through customs, out of the airport and another wait, for another bus, in another country, in another city. You'll get to your hotel, check in, arrange with your colleagues where you're going later and head up to your room. Its been fifteen hours since you got up this morning. Heels off, uniform off, make up off. Into bed, set an alarm and sleeeeeeeep.
Congratulations, you just completed your first shift!
Try to go to bed while its still light out, and you're not really tired. Make sure your neighbours are stomping around next door, and your family go about their daily business. Lay there for hours getting more and more frustrated with yourself for not being able to fall asleep. Finally drift off to sleep around 10am, but before doing so set your alarm for 3am.
When your alarm goes off leap out of bed (then sit down again because you've made yourself feel sick), grab your make up and try and make yourself look presentable, as hard as that might be at this unearthly hour with minimal sleep. Then try and ram your contact lenses into your already tired eyes. Wait for them to sting and water and generally feel uncomfortable. Get into some sort of uniform which feels too tight, itchy and just generally uncomfortable. Next try and force some breakfast down your throat, and try and have some coffee to wake you up. Next get together your things, go outside in the freezing cold and drizzle and drive half an hour to the airport.
When you arrive at the staff car park, park up and get your things out. Walk across the car park in the cold and the drizzle and shelter at the tiny bus shelter until your bus comes. Try not to fall asleep on the short ride to the airport terminal.
When you arrive walk quickly and avoid eye contact with everyone. This is imperative, if you catch the eye of any passengers they WILL ask you stupid questions. Walk quickly to security. Remove half the clothes you've spent all morning trying to put on. Using your super Stewardess strength put all this onto the conveyor belt at staff security. Spend 5 minutes trying to negotiate your yogurt and your lipgloss through security. Walk super fast, in your six inch heels, to the crew room.
When you arrive try to look like a pro and be able to easily find yourself at sign in. Go to report station and wait. Grab your bottle to fill with water, spill it over your shoes while filling up. Return to report and realise everyone has been waiting for you. Pretend to listen while the captain tells you about the flight path and makes a joke that either nobody gets or cares about considering its only 5am. Smile. Answer two questions on First Aid, try to look like a pro when really you're racking your brains while thinking "I totally don't care and wish I was in bed". Then answer 2 questions on safety. Grab your stuff and head out into the rain, hunting for whichever stand your aircraft is on. Sods law will say its on the stand furthest away from the crew room.
Get onboard and freeze. This is mandatory because all the doors will be open. Make safety checks and wait for passengers. Smile.
See the first passengers heading up the aisle will make your heart sink. You've been up for 4 hours but the day is just beginning. You'll be thrown into utter chaos. Passengers, by their very nature, have lost their brains somewhere between check in and boarding, so will need you to do the most basic of functions for them. You'll soon learn how to judge a bag at 25 metres ("there is NO WAY that is going to fit in the overhead bins" you'll think to yourself. And you will be right). Passengers will need to be shown their seats, how to put their bags up, will ask you all sorts of silly questions (and some sensible ones). Bags will be everywhere, limbs will be everywhere, coats will be everywhere. Nobody will be in their seats. You'll check your watch and panic about slot times. You'll try and get people into their seats. You'll arrange and re-arrange the overhead bins. You'll stare at the pile of bags that you just can't find room for and panic. People will be in the aisles and in your way. You'll be lifting and moving bags with such ease, on your six inch heels, that people will think they are as light as a feather. Your arms will kill, your wrists are breaking, and you'll be screaming inside...but you're still smiling.
The doors close, the doors are armed, the passengers are sat down and everything is calm. Until the demo video won't work. You grab a demo kit and walk, one the taxiing, bumpy plane, in your six inch heels. You'll have to point to exits, pull on oxygen masks, demonstrate life jackets. No-one is watching, but you have to smile anyway. Then its to your jumpseat for take off. Your jumpseat is mid cabin, facing the passengers, who just insist on talking to you. All you want to do is relax for 2 mins, rest your tired feet and tired body, but the passengers believe, that because the stewardess is sitting amongst them, this must be an invite for a conversation. You have to answer the same questions everyday "Is this your first flight today", "Is this your only flight today" etc etc. Soon the flight deck release the crew, and while you're excited to get away from the mindnumbing conversation, its back into the heels. Walking on an ascending plane, at an angle, in high heels is tough.
The next few hours will pass in a daze, you will serve numerous drinks, and meals. You will get up more times than you ever imagined because people will press the toilet call bell thinking it is the flush, despite it having a picture of a stewardess on it and being nowhere near the toilet. You'll have to tell people 80,000 times that the seatbelt sign is on and they cannot get up during this time. You'll be stood on your feet for 8 hours, with passengers demanding things of you left, right and centre. You'll be at the end of a massive toilet queue with everyone else. You'll be running back and forth, in your six inch heels, earning every penny of your money. And if you get to eat your food in one sitting you'll consider the day a success.
Finally you will be ready to land, the passengers will have made a total mess, be asleep in all sorts of weird and wonderful positions and you will have to wake them to get them ready for landing. You will have to tell everyone they need their belts on, you will then have to tell most of them again. You will put more tray tables and seatbacks up than you can keep count of. You will repeatedly tell people we're preparing for landing and they need to remain seated. Then you will need to tell them again. Finally the cabin will be prepared for landing, everyone is seated, belted and packed up and ready to leave. You will have to return to your jumpseat for more mundane conversation, but its ok this time, because you'll be getting rid of them all soon, the shift will be over and you can almost feel the soft hotel pillow against your head.
The plane lands, everyone stands up while taxiing and you'll have to jump up and scold them for standing, reminding them how dangerous it is, and make them sit down and belt up. The seatbelt sign will go off and everyone stands up immediately. Bags and people everywhere, phones beeping to life, people on the phone uttering the same boring lines "Yes, I've just landed". As they all leave you'll repeat the line "Thank you, Goodbye" more times than you'll care to remember, with the best fake smile plastered all over your face. As the flow eases and the passengers take a break from coming at you you'll drop the smile and rest your face. As soon as another comes into view its back on with the fake smile.
Once they are all gone, you'll close up the trolleys, grab your stuff and head off the plane. Then its through customs, out of the airport and another wait, for another bus, in another country, in another city. You'll get to your hotel, check in, arrange with your colleagues where you're going later and head up to your room. Its been fifteen hours since you got up this morning. Heels off, uniform off, make up off. Into bed, set an alarm and sleeeeeeeep.
Congratulations, you just completed your first shift!
Friday, 20 April 2012
Welcome to my morning...
Being a Stewardess is not a job, its a way of life, and some people can't handle that way of life at all.
Think about your life right now, imagine having to live permanently from a suitcase. Then imagine having to wake up at 3am, try to make yourself look presentable (ever tried putting contact lenses in when all your eyes want to do is go back to sleep) and sneak out of the house while everyone else is warm in their beds.
Climb into your freezing cold car and head off the airport, thinking (and sometimes dreading) about what this immensely long day will hold for you. Next imagine dragging your suitcase across a freezing cold car park at 4.30am, drizzle hitting against your face, to wait for the staff bus to take your to the terminal, all the while all your eyes want to do is close and go back to bed. Now imagine walking into the bright lights of the terminal building, people coming up to you asking bizarre questions. All you want to do is scream at them "leave me alone and let me go back to sleep" but you have to smile and somehow help them with their bizarre requests. Next is security, you can't be dozy here! Grab the tray and its shoes off, and then coats and jackets on top. Handbag and suitcase have to go through too (and don't forget any liquids in any part of your bag...because really, you should know better) before you start the long walk to the crew room to report by 5am.
Its 5am, no-one you know who doesn't work in this industry is awake yet, yet you feel like you've just ten rounds with Mike Tyson with the amount of stuff you have had to go through in the last 2 hours. Grab a coffee, head to report. The hardest part of all that is sign in, trekking through sheets and sheets of paper and try and find yourself amongst all the other 75 million flights reporting at the same time. Its off to the crew station, meet your fellow crew, meet you flight deck, and wait for report to begin. Next its rounds, 3 questions before you can fly...two on First Aid, one on flight safety. Get these wrong and you're grounded for the day...bye bye flight pay.
And then its back out into the rain to find your aircraft and to set up before the passengers arrive. Is it time to go home yet?
Onto a freezing cold plane is never nice, and with the front and back doors open, as well as the food company bringing onboard all your food trolleys, the plane is as cold as it is outside.
Before you're ready passengers start arriving, there are bags, coats and people everywhere. The overhead bins are getting filled up and passengers are looking at you for help, as if you can magic extra space from you a*se. People are getting agitated and people are standing in the aisles. The queue of passengers is getting backed up with people standing in the way in the aisles. I check my watch, we need to close the doors in 10 minutes, and its still mayhem in the cabin. The overhead bins are crammed with bags put in at bad angles, or with bags that are far to big to really be carry on luggage. With my super Stewardess strength, and my ability to evaluate whether a bag 10 metres away is going to fit in the bins, within a few minutes all bags are in correctly, and more space has been found. The passengers are in their seats and its time for head count. Now we're missing someone, so another headcount, and then a third one. Missing passenger arrives at the last minute, straight into their seat and I am left to find the offending passengers bag a home. Passengers seated, bags stowed, all with a few minutes to spare. Phew!
Now its a few minutes to sort out the last minute things while the passengers are engrossed in the video of the safety demonstration. Everything safety-wise is done, doors armed and cross checked, food onboard, bars counted. Everything is ready to go.
The warning for crew to prepare for take off is issued, I climb into my jumpseat for a few minutes sit down until the rest of my work begins. As we bound along the runway I run I take a few seconds to relax, i've been up 3 hours and I already feel like I've done a full days work. And I've done it all in 6 inch heels. Kudos to me for even getting this far!
Feel exhausted reading all that? Well my day is only just beginning...
Think about your life right now, imagine having to live permanently from a suitcase. Then imagine having to wake up at 3am, try to make yourself look presentable (ever tried putting contact lenses in when all your eyes want to do is go back to sleep) and sneak out of the house while everyone else is warm in their beds.
Climb into your freezing cold car and head off the airport, thinking (and sometimes dreading) about what this immensely long day will hold for you. Next imagine dragging your suitcase across a freezing cold car park at 4.30am, drizzle hitting against your face, to wait for the staff bus to take your to the terminal, all the while all your eyes want to do is close and go back to bed. Now imagine walking into the bright lights of the terminal building, people coming up to you asking bizarre questions. All you want to do is scream at them "leave me alone and let me go back to sleep" but you have to smile and somehow help them with their bizarre requests. Next is security, you can't be dozy here! Grab the tray and its shoes off, and then coats and jackets on top. Handbag and suitcase have to go through too (and don't forget any liquids in any part of your bag...because really, you should know better) before you start the long walk to the crew room to report by 5am.
Its 5am, no-one you know who doesn't work in this industry is awake yet, yet you feel like you've just ten rounds with Mike Tyson with the amount of stuff you have had to go through in the last 2 hours. Grab a coffee, head to report. The hardest part of all that is sign in, trekking through sheets and sheets of paper and try and find yourself amongst all the other 75 million flights reporting at the same time. Its off to the crew station, meet your fellow crew, meet you flight deck, and wait for report to begin. Next its rounds, 3 questions before you can fly...two on First Aid, one on flight safety. Get these wrong and you're grounded for the day...bye bye flight pay.
And then its back out into the rain to find your aircraft and to set up before the passengers arrive. Is it time to go home yet?
Onto a freezing cold plane is never nice, and with the front and back doors open, as well as the food company bringing onboard all your food trolleys, the plane is as cold as it is outside.
Before you're ready passengers start arriving, there are bags, coats and people everywhere. The overhead bins are getting filled up and passengers are looking at you for help, as if you can magic extra space from you a*se. People are getting agitated and people are standing in the aisles. The queue of passengers is getting backed up with people standing in the way in the aisles. I check my watch, we need to close the doors in 10 minutes, and its still mayhem in the cabin. The overhead bins are crammed with bags put in at bad angles, or with bags that are far to big to really be carry on luggage. With my super Stewardess strength, and my ability to evaluate whether a bag 10 metres away is going to fit in the bins, within a few minutes all bags are in correctly, and more space has been found. The passengers are in their seats and its time for head count. Now we're missing someone, so another headcount, and then a third one. Missing passenger arrives at the last minute, straight into their seat and I am left to find the offending passengers bag a home. Passengers seated, bags stowed, all with a few minutes to spare. Phew!
Now its a few minutes to sort out the last minute things while the passengers are engrossed in the video of the safety demonstration. Everything safety-wise is done, doors armed and cross checked, food onboard, bars counted. Everything is ready to go.
The warning for crew to prepare for take off is issued, I climb into my jumpseat for a few minutes sit down until the rest of my work begins. As we bound along the runway I run I take a few seconds to relax, i've been up 3 hours and I already feel like I've done a full days work. And I've done it all in 6 inch heels. Kudos to me for even getting this far!
Feel exhausted reading all that? Well my day is only just beginning...
So...You want to be an Air Stewardess?
People judge, they always have and they always will. I just try to ignore them, it just means they are uneducated if they really do activity believe what they say they do.
You're probably thinking "oh Mia, what the hell are you talking about now?"
I'm talking about the (minor) prejudices you face, day in day out as a Stewardess, and that from people in your every day life to people you meet when you are out and about to you passengers. A lot of people have an opinion, let them say their piece, and then correct the hell out of their statement. I once got asked on a job interview, during a brief moment of "maybe I should get a job working 9-5" (which of course didn't work out ;) ) why I had become a Stewardess. The man in question asked me in such a disgusted tone, but I told him just what my job entailed and thanked him for his time and walked out. No-one talks sh*t on my job and gets away with it. And so the love affair continued.
What annoys me most is the term 'Trolley Dolly" as if that's all the job entails. Yeah, I'd love to push a trolley back and forth up a plane for 12 hours a day. Its why I got into the job don't you know! I think the most common misconception about the job, is exactly what it involves, and its not everyone else's fault that they don't know, the media and such portray the job so poorly that they know no different. But maybe, just maybe the job should be viewed a little more highly than it is, maybe people could realise just exactly what we're there for. Yes I serve you food, drink and am there to answer any questions you may have about the flight, the plane, the location we're flying to and sometimes, if you catch me on a good day, I might even be able to comprehend how planes actually fly! But did you know I am there ready to assist first aid in almost any situation? Did you know I am trained in how to deal with all types of dangerous situations on board? Of course you know I am there incase of an emergency, but did you know I am there primarily for your safety? I may spend my days serving tea & coffee, bringing your dinner to your seat and giving you as much information on London as humanly possible, but in an emergency situation (and God forbid those never arise)...that's when my job really begins.
Its easy to judge before walking in someone else's shoes...but if you so care to spend a day in my shoes I have one piece of advice: Bring plasters.
You're probably thinking "oh Mia, what the hell are you talking about now?"
I'm talking about the (minor) prejudices you face, day in day out as a Stewardess, and that from people in your every day life to people you meet when you are out and about to you passengers. A lot of people have an opinion, let them say their piece, and then correct the hell out of their statement. I once got asked on a job interview, during a brief moment of "maybe I should get a job working 9-5" (which of course didn't work out ;) ) why I had become a Stewardess. The man in question asked me in such a disgusted tone, but I told him just what my job entailed and thanked him for his time and walked out. No-one talks sh*t on my job and gets away with it. And so the love affair continued.
What annoys me most is the term 'Trolley Dolly" as if that's all the job entails. Yeah, I'd love to push a trolley back and forth up a plane for 12 hours a day. Its why I got into the job don't you know! I think the most common misconception about the job, is exactly what it involves, and its not everyone else's fault that they don't know, the media and such portray the job so poorly that they know no different. But maybe, just maybe the job should be viewed a little more highly than it is, maybe people could realise just exactly what we're there for. Yes I serve you food, drink and am there to answer any questions you may have about the flight, the plane, the location we're flying to and sometimes, if you catch me on a good day, I might even be able to comprehend how planes actually fly! But did you know I am there ready to assist first aid in almost any situation? Did you know I am trained in how to deal with all types of dangerous situations on board? Of course you know I am there incase of an emergency, but did you know I am there primarily for your safety? I may spend my days serving tea & coffee, bringing your dinner to your seat and giving you as much information on London as humanly possible, but in an emergency situation (and God forbid those never arise)...that's when my job really begins.
Its easy to judge before walking in someone else's shoes...but if you so care to spend a day in my shoes I have one piece of advice: Bring plasters.
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Its not easy to make a change
Life isn't easy, I think most of us can agree on that, its hardwork, its expensive and things rarely go our way. But we persevere, we're good like that us humans!
I'm Mia by the way, Hi! I am a single girl, living it up and enjoying the high life in London town, and by living the high life I mean every day, I walk the airways, doing my best impression of a robot dancing at 40,000ft. That's right I am a Stewardess.
My job isn't as easy as it looks, and trust me I am more than just 'a waitress in the sky'. I have to spend 14 hours a day most days on my feet, my feet that must be adorned in beautifully high 6inch heels. That's not easy to start with, in fact that is really quite hard. I then have to deal with a polyester uniform which clings in all the wrong places and in a colour that really does nothing for my complexion - all these trials and I haven't even got to work yet. There are the early mornings, late nights, unsociable hours, flights that never end, angry passengers, reheated, congealed plane food, passengers elbows which always poke out into the aisle meaning I permanently have bruises all over my thighs. There are trolley which are not only as heavy as pushing my car one handed, but I then have the added trials that straight after take off I have to push this bad boy from the back of the plane to the front, while the plane is still ascending to the cruising altitude this is like pushing my car, with one hand, up hill. In heels. Jeez.
Someday's my passengers are happy, sometimes they are sad, sometimes they are angry and a lot of the time they are asleep. I experience everything with them, people always have a reason for going somewhere, to visit or show off a new baby, to say their final farewells to a beloved relative, to begin their ultimate travelling experience, to go off to start their new life abroad, to get to that important business meeting, or most of the time, for the holiday of a lifetime.
Its hard to get a moment to myself, in-between call-bell's, service and all the general duties I have to perform on a daily basis, I somehow manage to get five minutes to sit down, rest my tired feet and get some food down me, but then again that's usually interrupted by a call bell, which is usually someone pressing the call button in the toilet rather than pressing the flush.
All this aside, I love my job. Its long, its tiring, its painful. I never see my family and friends, I am always ironing my uniform and my flat is always in a state of packing, but I think I have the best job on earth and I wouldn't change it's little quirks for the world.
One thing I can say about being a stewardess is: Its always sunny in my office. Think about it.
I'm Mia by the way, Hi! I am a single girl, living it up and enjoying the high life in London town, and by living the high life I mean every day, I walk the airways, doing my best impression of a robot dancing at 40,000ft. That's right I am a Stewardess.
My job isn't as easy as it looks, and trust me I am more than just 'a waitress in the sky'. I have to spend 14 hours a day most days on my feet, my feet that must be adorned in beautifully high 6inch heels. That's not easy to start with, in fact that is really quite hard. I then have to deal with a polyester uniform which clings in all the wrong places and in a colour that really does nothing for my complexion - all these trials and I haven't even got to work yet. There are the early mornings, late nights, unsociable hours, flights that never end, angry passengers, reheated, congealed plane food, passengers elbows which always poke out into the aisle meaning I permanently have bruises all over my thighs. There are trolley which are not only as heavy as pushing my car one handed, but I then have the added trials that straight after take off I have to push this bad boy from the back of the plane to the front, while the plane is still ascending to the cruising altitude this is like pushing my car, with one hand, up hill. In heels. Jeez.
Someday's my passengers are happy, sometimes they are sad, sometimes they are angry and a lot of the time they are asleep. I experience everything with them, people always have a reason for going somewhere, to visit or show off a new baby, to say their final farewells to a beloved relative, to begin their ultimate travelling experience, to go off to start their new life abroad, to get to that important business meeting, or most of the time, for the holiday of a lifetime.
Its hard to get a moment to myself, in-between call-bell's, service and all the general duties I have to perform on a daily basis, I somehow manage to get five minutes to sit down, rest my tired feet and get some food down me, but then again that's usually interrupted by a call bell, which is usually someone pressing the call button in the toilet rather than pressing the flush.
All this aside, I love my job. Its long, its tiring, its painful. I never see my family and friends, I am always ironing my uniform and my flat is always in a state of packing, but I think I have the best job on earth and I wouldn't change it's little quirks for the world.
One thing I can say about being a stewardess is: Its always sunny in my office. Think about it.
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