a Flying Update

I have been told that my blog doesn't have any recent flying updates on it.  This is a terrible state of affairs.  I've now been in the left seat for six months, and it's beginning to feel normal.  I did my first recurrent sim about a month ago, although it wasn't really a normal sim.  Over the last few months we have been transitioning to a different AOC (Air Operators Certificate) which involved an Entry Proficiency Check into the new company's training program.  So my first recurrent check was actually an initial check.  

Just to make it a little more complicated, we had to change all of our SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) at the same time, and familiarise ourselves with multiple new manuals and checklists, even though we are still flying the exact same aircraft.  First we had a week's ground school, then two days in the sim, then two days' line training, topped off with a line check.  

Now about a month in to the new procedures I think I've worked most of them out - although I still lapse on the phraseology occasionally! 

My flying schedule seems to be all over the place at the moment : no two duties are the same, with random flights tacked on to the front and back of overnights and sometimes none at all.  I'm making some easy extra money working days off, as crewing seems to be very disorganised.  I find it hard to understand why they need to call people in when they have other pilots either just passing or operating one sector in an entire day!  (Ours is not to reason why, etc.)

Kurt is going away for two weeks in February on a boys' trip to Japan snowboarding, like he did last year, so I've applied last minute for a week's leave during that time so that I can a) be home to take care of Lily and b) just have a week doing nothing!  (Beach, anyone?)

In general, it's pretty good being a Captain now - and although occasionally I do have trouble with FOs, most of them are great.  There is one in particular who goes out of his way to make things difficult, which can be quite hard to deal with.  He thinks he knows much more than I do, (maybe he does!) and likes to voice his opinion on this even when it is not related to flying - I think his favourite phrase is 'well actually...'

However, thankfully this is not the norm, and most people are pretty chilled.  I've only had a couple of minor abnormal situations and plan to keep it that way!  Last week I had a pressurisation issue (it's OK Mum, it wasn't a big deal) - and Kurt happened to be at work at the time - and it was a bit weird knowing that he was following everything that was going on from the other side!

Kurt is finding Air Traffic Control quite uninspiring.  He now holds all the ratings for his group and is therefore doing shift work.  It is quite hard because he will do lates, earlies and full night shifts in succession which means his body clock is permanently messed up, and getting enough sleep becomes difficult.  Even napping for a couple of hours either side of a shift doesn't make up for being up all night.

Add to that my doing opposing shifts and sometimes we hardly see each other.  We were lucky enough to be off on Christmas Day, although he didn't finish work until 5am which meant he was pretty exhausted all day.  I am back at work now (Boxing Day) and currently sitting in the cruise, writing a blog update to stave off the boredom!  

Lily's home!

Well, this little cuddly puppy is home - and pretty happy about it.

She's a bit dopey and a little whingey but she's home, which is great news.

And now for the hard part - how to dislodge something that cute so that I can get up and go to bed?!

She was pretty happy to see me this afternoon.

It was pretty hard to leave her when all she wanted to do was snuggle.

Saying goodbye....

She seens to be doing really well though, still no signs of poisoning so fingers crossed for an early discharge tomorrow morning!!!

Yesterday I didn't shut the bedroom door properly, which basically equates to leaving it open, as apparently even "pulled to", a small little snout can push it open and find all sorts of fun things to get in to.

I left work just after 6am and returned at 1pm, to get ready to go out for coffee.  The first thing I saw when I opened the door was a hair tie on the floor - and I was pretty sure that wasn't there when I left.  Uh-oh, I thought, she's been in trouble again.


And so she had.  In no small way, she had made herself comfortable in the bedroom, investigating everything on the bedside tables - and eating a lot of it too!

When I discovered that she had wolfed down an entire packet of earplugs (the box said 10 pairs) and could have also eaten neurofen and panadol, I called the vet's, and shortly after we were enroute.  They made her throw up - yep, all the earplugs were there - they counted 21 which is weird - and then decided to keep her in for 48 hours to make sure she hadn't been affected by any medication.

Last night and this morning the update was good: she is happy and eating food, and shows no adverse signs at all.  She needs to stay at the hospital until tomorrow morning just in case - as with a dog of her size the dosage for panadol is 50mg and a single tablet contains 250!

We have a sample jar containing all the earplugs... but I don't think we'll keep it - pretty gross!

Lesson to self: make sure the doors are all properly closed, as apparently Lily does not know the difference between food and non-edible items - I think she has pica !

I got a text from work yesterday asking me could I do an overnight today, into tomorrow which is my day off, which was funny because I just had four days off sick during the days I should have been working.  And to make it even better, I worked my 2 days off prior to going sick also, and am thinking maybe I should make this a habit, as it's far more lucrative to be off with salary when supposed to be working, and getting extra payments on days off.  Just satin' - although it would have to be without the wry neck - I'd go to work over that any day!

So anyway, I've been somewhat AWOL lately on this blog, because it's just so hard to be bothered.  There's work, and when I'm at work I'm working - well or Facebooking, or chatting, or, or... I think I just reasoned my way out of my own excuse... And when I'm at home I'm obviously far too busy to blog.

After my awesome weekend in Noosa I worked the next two of my six days off, followed by actually having two days off (I was exhausted) when I managed to get the Christmas tree up - saved by my amazing husband who drove up to Bribie to get the Christmas decorations knowing how much I was looking forward to doing it - and also knowing that I had completely forgotten they were there!  I must also give credit to my mother in law who reminded him that they were there!

On my last day off (Thursday) I woke at 0450 by moving funny and 'putting my neck out' which for me means a sort of grinding pop and searing pain.  Kurt, being the best husband, called his work and cancelled his shift for the day to look after me.  He then waited on me hand and foot for the day, bringing me everything I wanted whenever I either yelled or texted him!  I was pretty impressed :)

After spending two days in bed, on Saturday I was able to move around more and begin to potter around the house, and my last two days (there are a lot of two days in this post) I was just working on getting back to 'normal'.

And then, of course, I got called in for another overnight and am now in a hotel having flown one whole 1.5h sector to get here.  It's tough being me.

Oh yeah, and tomorrow I just pax back to Brisbane in the morning.  Nice one :)

So there you have it, my life in a nutshell.  Ooh yes, also today I gave Lily a haircut, having bought a pair of (very expensive) clippers on EBay.  She was relatively good until towards the end when she began to freak out so she is now mostly done with just a little clean up to do on her feet and ears tomorrow!  She does look cute though :). No pics til I get home.

That's all for now, I have to go play Clash of Clans while waiting for Kurt to finish work so that I can say good night (cue: aaaawwwww)

Christmas is almost here!

Lily helped me put up the tree

  

The finished product!

(gated so that Lily doesn't eat it)

Noosa

After three weeks of getting up early, my body clock is determined to keep it going.  While waking at 5 on holiday isn't ideal, it does give me time to sit alone on the balcony in the still-fresh warmth of the morning and listen to nature undisturbed .  Humans do a good job of adding their noise to the world and even now as I type a car has driven past and spoilt my morning.  How very dare it.

There's a bird's nest perched precariously on a tree outside the apartment window - with absolutely no shelter from the elements, so one wonders what it was thinking.

Having had three very busy weeks at work, I was then rostered six days off, so decided to go away for the weekend with my friend, Hana.  We're up at Noosa, and she's still fast asleep.  Mind you, I think she went to sleep much later than I did, as I fell asleep half-way through Godzilla.

We drove up on Friday and had a gloriously relaxing afternoon by the pool, topped off with takeaway pizza and a movie.  Yesterday we started off nice and early to go to the Noosa farmers' markets, which were small but quite pleasant, and I had a nice breakfast there of fresh crepes.  Hana had some strange unpronounceable cocktail of vegan origins and a vegan protein ball.  I'd choose lemon & sugar crepes any day!

After this, we went to the beach, and being quite a concerned human being, as human beings go, regarding the sun, I sprayed lots and lots of sunscreen (factor 50) on before we left, also ensuring that Hana did the same.  Once at the beach I re-sprayed multiple times - but apparently that was my first mistake- spraying, that is.  So I have some nicely reddened patches which hopefully won't peel, and today will be using proper old fashioned slap on sunscreen.

(making Lily in the sand)

Once thoroughly burnt, we came back to the apartment for lunch and then proceeded to our next event - a 60 minute remedial massage at the Noosa Spa.  It was so good, I wished it would never end!

Today we're starting early - hopefully - if Hana wakes up - and heading off to the beach (with proper sunscreen) to have a final swim before going back to Brisbane at lunch time, after which I'll pop on my uniform and fly off into the sunset...

(staying protected from the sun at the pool)