Mauritius
31. júlí 2009 klukkan 08:05
Hello all!
I just arrived back from Mauritius last night, and I must say that this island is heaven on earth! For those of you that don´t know where it is, Mauritius is situated in the southwest Indian Ocean, to be more specific-approximately 900km east of Madagascar.
Well, I had this flight on my flight-roster on the 29th July at 3am in the morning. I was really sleepy when I arrived to the Headquarters at Emirates to sign in for my flight, as I couldn´t sleep for this flight, and I can hardly never sleep for those night flights. Anyway, I tried to enter the E-gate with my access card but it wouldn´t let me, so the assistant told me to go and sign in for my flight as I did, but the machine wouldn´t print any tag for my suitcase, so I went back and told him. Then the purser of my flight was there and she was having the same problem, but then she told me that we would probably be deadheading to Mauritius. Deadhead means to go as passenger, our heads are dead cause we are not working, heheh...so we were told to go to the crew standby-lounge to wait for the rest of the crew. I couldn´t believe my luck!! Deadheading to such a nice destination and only work on the way back!
So when all the crew was there we went through the security like all the other passengers and walked to the departure gate, we already had gotten our boarding cards from the standby lounge and I was given seat in economy, as it goes as seniority, those who are working in business and first class get seats there.
After a short while at the gate waiting there is a man there from groundstaff saying that some of us had been upgrated to business, that he was going to read some numbers and if we would find that number on our boarding cards it would be us. The first number he read was me!!!!
My crew already knew that this was my last flight so they were all there standing and clapping for me, hehe...I still couldn´t believe my luck, a nice present from Emirates on my last flight!!
We had an hour delay because of some technical problems so we didn´t take off until 4 in the morning, I was just thinking, thank god I didn´t have to opearte that flight, as I was already half a sleep in my big seat! After take off I waited for the service to come as I was so hungry, and when I'm hungry I can´t sleep, hehe...So in few minutes they came with the trolley, but in business class they start in the very last row and then they move backward, and I was sitting in the first row of business. When I saw them pass I thought I had to wait for a while, but in 2 seconds they were already by my side asking me what I wanted to eat and drink, but I was the only one on my side that was awake and wanted to eat! hehehe....
So after making my stomach happy I had to study my seat first as I´ve never been a passenger before in business, so on my armrest just one button needs to be pressed and then your seat reclines and goes all the way down and becomes a bed!!!! I made myself so comfortable there that I slept for the next 3 hours! just woke up for the breakfast service 1h and half before landing in Mauritius
It is winter time now in Mauritius, but for our Icelanders it´s not so much of a winter, around 25-30 degrees and sunshine! It´s more like winter in Dubai, get´s quite chilly in the evening but during the day all you need is shorts and a t-shirt, what a difficult winter, hahaha..
We were welcomed by breakfast and all the meals there for us were free so it was really nice!
As we all slept during the flight there was no need to go and rest or sleep again, it was 12 in the afternoon when we arrived there, so me and 4 other girls went straight to the beach. I swam in the swimming pool first, then went with the girls snorkling. We went on a boat with a local guy that took us quite far from our beach and there we got to see the fishlife, beautiful colors and small fishes, and the corals! After trying this out, me and Shoko, a japanes girl from my crew went waterskiing, but she tried the board. This was actually my first time and it is much more difficult than I thought!! As soon as I stood up and the boat went on full speed I managed to stand for like whole 3 seconds and then I lost the balance and dropped the band I was holding on to, hehe...I had a few tries but always the same, heehehe..guess I just need more practise!
After trying those watersporst I still hadn´t had enough so I went to the gym and did some 30min intervals running and push-ups
So finally after that I admit that I felt my muscles aching a little, but then it was time to take shower and go for dinner.
We had a 31 hour layover in Mauritius so the next day we weren´t picked up until 16.30pm, so in the morning I just stayed at the beach with the girls chilling, I think I deserved it after all the hard work from the day before
The flight on the way back was really easy, we were on the Boeing 777-300 aircraft where in economy are seats for 304 passengers, but we had a really light load, only 97 passengers!! So I must say that my last flight with Emirates has been and will be quite memorable
The passengers where though mostly Indian men that didn´t speak any English at all, didn´t know how to ring the call bell or how to ask for things or reading the menu...so their way of getting your attention is calling to you: sister! sister! Hello! it was really funny though, even you are irritated at that time as they dont leave you alone it is funny when you think about it later! one of them was calling me just before second service, he was showing me with his hand that he wanted to eat, when I asked him what he wanted he wanted only Rice! I kindly told him that we didn´t have any rice, but he still repeated Rice,Rice!!! hehe....
Upon decent into Dubai the pilot makes an announcement about the timing and temperature and all that, and to my surprise he mentioned me, that Frida is leaving us and we wish her all the best success in her new carrier and job, I was so honoured, even it´s just words, it makes you fell so well cause all the passengers are listening, it nearly made me cry
hehe...
When we were off the aircraft and in the bus on the way to the terminal, the purser took out a small bag and the captain made an announcement that this gift was for me and everybody where wishing me good luck and farewell and clapping! so nice of them, well, but the gift from them was an Emirates Cockpit Remote Control Aircraft that they had bought for me from the dutyfree onboard, a really good souvenir from my airline, so now I can go and play
It´s strange to think about going home after all this time travelling around all the world and just stay in one place during all winter! hehe...but at the same time I´m looking forward to it as I miss my Carlos a lot and finally we will be together
Today is Friday, a weekend here so everything is closed, things I have to do now are giving back the uniform, get my last paycheck, taking my things to the cargo, I can have 100kg there and then on my flight to Iceland 50kg. So only 4 days to go now as I will be travelling home on the 5th August!
Take a look at my pictures from Mauritius, as I say, it is a total paradise!!
So see you all soon, hope you have enjoyed my blog and thank you all for the comments.
yours, Frida
I just arrived back from Mauritius last night, and I must say that this island is heaven on earth! For those of you that don´t know where it is, Mauritius is situated in the southwest Indian Ocean, to be more specific-approximately 900km east of Madagascar.
Well, I had this flight on my flight-roster on the 29th July at 3am in the morning. I was really sleepy when I arrived to the Headquarters at Emirates to sign in for my flight, as I couldn´t sleep for this flight, and I can hardly never sleep for those night flights. Anyway, I tried to enter the E-gate with my access card but it wouldn´t let me, so the assistant told me to go and sign in for my flight as I did, but the machine wouldn´t print any tag for my suitcase, so I went back and told him. Then the purser of my flight was there and she was having the same problem, but then she told me that we would probably be deadheading to Mauritius. Deadhead means to go as passenger, our heads are dead cause we are not working, heheh...so we were told to go to the crew standby-lounge to wait for the rest of the crew. I couldn´t believe my luck!! Deadheading to such a nice destination and only work on the way back!
So when all the crew was there we went through the security like all the other passengers and walked to the departure gate, we already had gotten our boarding cards from the standby lounge and I was given seat in economy, as it goes as seniority, those who are working in business and first class get seats there. After a short while at the gate waiting there is a man there from groundstaff saying that some of us had been upgrated to business, that he was going to read some numbers and if we would find that number on our boarding cards it would be us. The first number he read was me!!!!
My crew already knew that this was my last flight so they were all there standing and clapping for me, hehe...I still couldn´t believe my luck, a nice present from Emirates on my last flight!!We had an hour delay because of some technical problems so we didn´t take off until 4 in the morning, I was just thinking, thank god I didn´t have to opearte that flight, as I was already half a sleep in my big seat! After take off I waited for the service to come as I was so hungry, and when I'm hungry I can´t sleep, hehe...So in few minutes they came with the trolley, but in business class they start in the very last row and then they move backward, and I was sitting in the first row of business. When I saw them pass I thought I had to wait for a while, but in 2 seconds they were already by my side asking me what I wanted to eat and drink, but I was the only one on my side that was awake and wanted to eat! hehehe....
So after making my stomach happy I had to study my seat first as I´ve never been a passenger before in business, so on my armrest just one button needs to be pressed and then your seat reclines and goes all the way down and becomes a bed!!!! I made myself so comfortable there that I slept for the next 3 hours! just woke up for the breakfast service 1h and half before landing in Mauritius

It is winter time now in Mauritius, but for our Icelanders it´s not so much of a winter, around 25-30 degrees and sunshine! It´s more like winter in Dubai, get´s quite chilly in the evening but during the day all you need is shorts and a t-shirt, what a difficult winter, hahaha..
We were welcomed by breakfast and all the meals there for us were free so it was really nice!
As we all slept during the flight there was no need to go and rest or sleep again, it was 12 in the afternoon when we arrived there, so me and 4 other girls went straight to the beach. I swam in the swimming pool first, then went with the girls snorkling. We went on a boat with a local guy that took us quite far from our beach and there we got to see the fishlife, beautiful colors and small fishes, and the corals! After trying this out, me and Shoko, a japanes girl from my crew went waterskiing, but she tried the board. This was actually my first time and it is much more difficult than I thought!! As soon as I stood up and the boat went on full speed I managed to stand for like whole 3 seconds and then I lost the balance and dropped the band I was holding on to, hehe...I had a few tries but always the same, heehehe..guess I just need more practise!
After trying those watersporst I still hadn´t had enough so I went to the gym and did some 30min intervals running and push-ups
So finally after that I admit that I felt my muscles aching a little, but then it was time to take shower and go for dinner.We had a 31 hour layover in Mauritius so the next day we weren´t picked up until 16.30pm, so in the morning I just stayed at the beach with the girls chilling, I think I deserved it after all the hard work from the day before

The flight on the way back was really easy, we were on the Boeing 777-300 aircraft where in economy are seats for 304 passengers, but we had a really light load, only 97 passengers!! So I must say that my last flight with Emirates has been and will be quite memorable

The passengers where though mostly Indian men that didn´t speak any English at all, didn´t know how to ring the call bell or how to ask for things or reading the menu...so their way of getting your attention is calling to you: sister! sister! Hello! it was really funny though, even you are irritated at that time as they dont leave you alone it is funny when you think about it later! one of them was calling me just before second service, he was showing me with his hand that he wanted to eat, when I asked him what he wanted he wanted only Rice! I kindly told him that we didn´t have any rice, but he still repeated Rice,Rice!!! hehe....
Upon decent into Dubai the pilot makes an announcement about the timing and temperature and all that, and to my surprise he mentioned me, that Frida is leaving us and we wish her all the best success in her new carrier and job, I was so honoured, even it´s just words, it makes you fell so well cause all the passengers are listening, it nearly made me cry
hehe...When we were off the aircraft and in the bus on the way to the terminal, the purser took out a small bag and the captain made an announcement that this gift was for me and everybody where wishing me good luck and farewell and clapping! so nice of them, well, but the gift from them was an Emirates Cockpit Remote Control Aircraft that they had bought for me from the dutyfree onboard, a really good souvenir from my airline, so now I can go and play

It´s strange to think about going home after all this time travelling around all the world and just stay in one place during all winter! hehe...but at the same time I´m looking forward to it as I miss my Carlos a lot and finally we will be together

Today is Friday, a weekend here so everything is closed, things I have to do now are giving back the uniform, get my last paycheck, taking my things to the cargo, I can have 100kg there and then on my flight to Iceland 50kg. So only 4 days to go now as I will be travelling home on the 5th August!
Take a look at my pictures from Mauritius, as I say, it is a total paradise!!
So see you all soon, hope you have enjoyed my blog and thank you all for the comments.
yours, Frida
Bjarnfríður Sveinbjörnsdóttir
7 athugasemdir
7 athugasemdir
Emirates gave me a sick leave for 2 weeks cause of that so I went to Antwerpen, Belgium to stay with Carlos where he is working.
don´t like this number, but what can I do?? but hey, isn´t it good to be able to live one more year? I think it is not so bad, and if we are lucky, one day we will live to be parents, grand-parents, grand-grand-parents and so on!!