Shannon and Ayden

Michelle and Lionel welcomed their 1st bundle of joy Shannon Lin XueWen on sep 1st, weighing 3.24kg and measuring 51cm long.
Natalie and Jeff also welcomed their second prince Ayden on sep 18.
My heartfelt congratulations to these proud parents I also call my friends!
I was fortunate to be in Singapore on 2nd sep and got to joy to meet Shannon, then barely 2 days old, at the hospital. I remember the moment I walked in and saw Michelle, I was overwhelmed with feelings of respect and awe for her and all that she went through to produce this little miracle. Perhaps this being the first time in my adult life that I have visited someone I know who just gave birth to a new life and embracing the role of a mother for the first time.

She looked exhausted, yet so beautiful and noble at the same time.

Waited a while before the baby was brought back in. She is so small, so red, so cute, so peaceful. I was offered to hold the baby, and got very excited even though I was a little jittery for fear of hurting her with my clumsiness. Lionel helped pick her up and transferred her to my arms. Her head is so soft I was worried I may leave marks or dents on her but I was reassured. She is a warm bundle, smelled good, and slept most of the time in my arms. There were a few moments when she may have gotten uncomfortable and her whole face will always turn to an alarming bright red with her little struggles, while I will panic and try to rock her back to sleep.

I realized that I could keep staring at her sleeping face and not get sick or bored or tired, and she is not my baby…I try to imagine how much much more Lionel and Michelle will feel…and another wave of overwhelm hits.
I did not get to see Ayden yet though I received a picture of him on my phone. He weighed a hefty 3.57kg and is an impressive 55cm long!! He resembled so much like Nat for now, as I am told babies’ features change rapidly. He is cute as a button too.
I will miss Shannon’s 1st month celebration on the 29th, and will probably miss out on Ayden’s too. But I can’t wait to see them next and see how much they have grown!

Crew conflict

Just back from another whopper 9-day trip to Singapore, Brisbane and auckland, the longest trip pattern we have, when good crew are absolutely essential to maintain sanity and motivation. I have to say all the crew are super nice, with the exception of 2 (out of 16) which so happen to be working in the same cabin as me. I have flown with both of them before on separate flights with a not-so-good residual impression. Let’s call them crew A and crew B. A and B also flown with each other before and made it pretty clear that they do not enjoy mutual presence.
A has been with EK from the start which equates to roughly 20 years. He loves being THE boss and made sure you know he is THE boss. B is just a generally hard person to tackle, bitchy too. To add icing on the cake, both of them are fasting muslims in compliance to the holy month of Ramadan, thus they are hungry, thirsty and sluggish half the time. A and B are similar in many ways. While some say 2 birds of the same flock together, they are more tending to two like poles constantly repelling each other. They resented each other from the start, and these feelings could only get worse and snowball with each passing day.
They are also experts in verbal war and sarcasm in their own league. I could not help but marvel in the midst of own exasperation how they manage to constantly haul insults at each other in all smiles, charm and calm. They even make coffee for each other and did stretches in the galley together! Instead of trying to avoid each other’s path to minimize friction, they love maximizing contact while carrying own potion of venom to attack at every chance.
The worst thing is, I felt victimized by it all. You see, A will bitch to me about B when she is away and B will bitch to me about A when he is away. Somehow I must have this face that says “complain to me, dump all your grievances on me”. I am stuck between the two of them, trying to maintain a neutral stance and getting sick of hearing all the bad things each have to say about the other.
On one particular occasion, B came storming into the galley. “Do you know what A just said to me?”
“what…?”, I responded half-heartedly and with dread.
“He says that if I keep eating like I do, I will soon have problems fitting between the aisles! How rude is that?! He is not skinny himself! How dare he…hmmmpphh!”
“Perhaps you can tell him it’s ok as long as your husband likes the way you are…”, came a weak response from me since she is married.
“I already said that! I am happy with the way I am and I enjoy my food and life.”
Suddenly, in came A out of nowhere.
“Oh, here you are! I was just telling Sharon what you said to me about my weight,” B coos with a broad smile on her face, while mine is getting ashen, my eyeballs popping and fighting to stay in the sockets.
#@*##^!!! I am suddenly involuntarily involved and in the middle of the war zone. It is one thing to listen to each of them complaining separately, and totally another to be caught in the middle of a cross-fire.
“Yes yes yes, you should not eat so much like I said before, “ A retorted without the slightest flinch, and with all smiles of course.
The next 30 seconds of verbal battle is all but a hazy memory coz my mind decided to shut them out. Then, I was disrupted when B proceeded to pick up a piece of sweet from the petit fours platter on the galley top, waved it deliberately in front of A before putting it into her mouth along with face and sound effects of satisfaction. Why on earth is she further aggravating him??? Realizing there is no way of diffusing the situation and refusing to stay and be a witness to two silly and immature egos fighting, I excused myself lamely and ran to business class to seek refuge.
The rest of the crew were more unfazed by the ongoing conflict between them two. Although they were all aware of the tension, they don’t need to bear the brunt of it all like me since they don’t get the bombardment of complaints that seemed to only flow toward me. We are all adults, there has to be a better way of addressing and resolving issues apart of childish and petty tactics. Don’t they get tired of all the constant bickering? I am mentally tortured and exhausted, and I am not even the one having conflicts.
My only comfort and relief is Singapore.
At least they did not engage in physical fights using fists or our very heavy and deadly silver trays like some other stories I heard. The most shocking one so far involved one passenger literally tossing his own pile of shit into another passenger’s face! You must know that before he can do that he must go to the lavatory and pick up his own shit into his own hands…what a remotely disgusting act! I try to blame that on oxygen-deprived brains messing with the mind and being stuck in 35,000 feet in a metal tube full of people. It propels strange and extreme behaviour from people somehow. But that is another topic of discussion.
Just glad that the trip is over. I am now praying that there will be no major crew conflict in my next trip in two days, which is the second longest trip we have that spans 8 days. Wish me luck.

In-flight episode

Had a senile 70 year old lady with us on flight the other day.
She got into panic mode mid flight and I was assigned to sit with her for landing since I don’t have a door.
Talking to her during that short 25 minutes before landing, I have come to learn that she was on the way home to Australia after a 6-week vacation which she just can’t recall where at first and thus got rather frustrated with herself. Tried asking her about her previous connecting flights to trigger her memory bit by bit and came to realize that she had travelled to the UK for her holidays while visiting some relatives.
She was traveling all alone.
She had no children or family to pick her up from the airport when she arrived back home after a grueling trip.
She regretted choosing not to have children, but it is all too late.
She is so vulnerable, fragile, confused.
At one stage, she asked me where she was. Then she asked me if we were on a helicopter. A few minutes later, she asked if she was on a ship. She also attempted to get up a few times to get her hand luggage while the aircraft is still descending, thinking she could get off. Time and again, I tried my best to sit her down while answering a sea of questions in natural and unfound patience that will be non-existent if dealing with a normal passenger. I kept her talking in a bid to distract her and lessen her anxiety and confusion probably caused by the long journey. She had done well getting this far considering, and I do not want her last half an hour from home to be worse than it already had been. I asked her questions about her vacation, and started holding her hand. It helped to reassure and soothe, and she settled down for a while, before getting upset again about not knowing where she was and where she was going.
I saw the helplessness in her eyes, a pair of eyes so lost, and frightened. She touched my heart, and I feel for her, not for pain or misery, just helplessness. Yet knowing there is no one at the airport to pick her up, to give her a kiss and hug welcome home made it more painful for me like she is an unknowing and oblivious victim of her predicament due to her delicate state of mind. I could feel tears starting to well up, but I just have to keep smiling, for her. I was overwhelmed with feeling so much for a stranger whom I barely met for 30 minutes.
She was the last passenger to get off, and the airport medics came onboard to escort her out. She was still confused and frustrated for not knowing or understanding what was happening. She was still unaware from time to time that she is home, and now looked to me for the next thing, to explain what was about to come, for some form of direction.
She thanked me before she left, and I saw the genuine gratefulness in that same pair of eyes that are still lost, and felt touched by her gratefulness.
Still, no one is picking her up…I really wanted to send her home to her doorstep, but I know it was beyond my call. She was all I can think of during the journey to the hotel, until I crashed into slumberland.
Wherever she is now, I wish her well from deep down my heart.