Row : noun. (r)

1. A series of objects or people placed next to each other, usually in a straight line.
2. A succession without a break or gap in time
3. A line of adjacent seats, as in a theater, auditorium, classroom, or seats in an aircraft.

End of July for Airboy wasn’t what he had dreamt of… far from it. Crew Scheduling have something against me. I’m feeling exhausted after doing 7 turnarounds in a row, and not the easiest ones (Bombay > Tehran > Karachi > Doha > Jeddah > Bombay > Bombay). Adding to the already challenging Jeddah flight, it was delayed big time because of Jeddah’s ground staff thinking seats 23H, 43B, 17G and 34D make one single row ! WRONG, COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY WROOOOOONG : 16A-B-D-E-F-G-H-K makes a bloody row……God. And as predicted, an entire family was separated all over Economy. Leaving us award-winning Cabin Crew to deal with the issue. Shifting single males here and there, playing a real-life puzzle with human beings. But one family to reunite is ok……..ish, depending of course on how large that family is. But trying to reunite 16 entire smalas is a totally different story. Needless to say the crew was on the tipping point, and we hadn’t even left the bloomin tarmac yet. After take-off we got the lights dimmed so that our passengers could sleep tight and relieve some of the call-bells.

I will skip the rest of the flight and save you from WOWing at my adventures and the stories we’ve experienced in what is called a quick, straightforward turnaround…. *sigh*

So with all those delays, missing our take-off slots and landing in Dub-Dub nearly 2 hours late… I managed to find a bus with the little grey cells I had left from the trip and got home at around 4 in the morning. Of course I went to bed presto. Waking up in time for my next flight. The Almighty Bombay. So in fact I had two flights the same day. Of course there was 11 hours in between, leaving me as fresh as an expired maquerel in it’s foil tin to perform another 12 hour shift. So gathered my cool, hopped on the bus and left for CBC (BTW we’re moving tomorrow for the new one). Thank god the crew was fun and we got along very well from the start until finish. I flew with the girl (Corrine) who took care of Lima 3 on my return to Dubai after my leave. As well as Lilian, Khalsom, Cathy, Anna and Ilona. Good laughs. The flight over was a breeze, with a fairly light load and some very nice pax. But, with fatigue kicking in, the return was quite hard. It’s over now, one more Bombay left and I’m indulging myself with some nice layovers… at last. Hong Kong (possible swap with a Nagoya, hope schedz approve this one) thrice, then 2 more turnarounds and finally a long awaited JFK (New York). I’ve already got in touch with Matt (a journalist for Business Week I met whilst working in FrogPubs back in Paris), so he’s willing to tour the Big Apple, also Lee (whom I also met at FrogPubs) will be enjoying drinks with Airboy in Hong Kong. In the meantime go check the picture I took before our return sector from Jeddah.