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Thursday, September 30, 2004

The Lost Days

Today is a day that did not exist for I have slept thru it all. I got back to Dubai yesterday late in the evening. Had a chat with Miquel before he had to go to bed for his NY flight this morning. Afterwards I unpacked and had a bite to eat before collapsing in bed at around midnight.

Woke up today around 1 pm, had 'breakfast' and went back to bed. Slept thru the afternoon and woke up again around 6 pm to collect my uniform in the laundry and get some money at the bank. Am now at home waiting for the Lebanese restaurant to deliver dinner before going to bed once more. It is a day lost in sleep.

Tomorrow is October and it has been one year with this blog. Crazy how fast the years are going by. Therefore I have decided to celebrate my next birthday in style for 30 years happen only once. There will be a major party in Curitiba on the evening of January 13th so we all sing Happy Birthday together once midnight strikes!

My week in Brazil was great! Could not see many of my friends but at least I spent the first days in the amazing new house together with the family! Got a bick ill and am recovering just now. The flights back to Dubai were eventless. Managed to squeeze in the Lufthansa flights with Air France tickets, joys of travelling with Employee Discount Fares. Met a nice Mexican guy at Frankfurt airport which made the whole transit time there go way too quick! And to my surprise, once back in Dubai the weather has already turned great!!! There is no more that awful foggy air and it even feel cool in the evenings! Winter is back!!!

For October my roster is quite simple. 3 flights only. Perth in Australia on the 5th, Sydney and Auckland on the 15th and Khartoum on the 26th. Piece of cake. Will try to get back to the gym, lose some weight, get in shape again after one and a half month of indulgence and laziness. As for my time off, will cook for friends, maybe fly for a few days to Japan and at the end of the month will meet the family once again but now in New York City!!!

Sounds exciting! So keep an eye on this page!


Dog´s life


We are family


The Momas and the Children

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

already in Frankfurt

Just landed in Frankfurt after 11 hours stuck between two fat men on a 747!!! But in a way it was luck because I was having a calm lunch at Guarulhos Airport and decided to have a look to see if there were any seats available on the Lufthansa flight that was leaving 30 minutes later. Got the last seat and made my way earlier to Europe. Now it is 6 am here and I am looking for a cheap hotel to sleep until 2 pm in order to wait for the Emirates flight back to Dubai.

I REALLY miss Brazil already!!!

Sunday, September 26, 2004

Curitiba >>> Dubai

Am still in Curitiba for a cold, rainny weekend (typical) at my parent´s new house. Will be flying back to Dubai on Monday. Hope not to get stuck in Paris or Frankfurt...

Saturday, September 18, 2004

over excited

Back home from the other side of the world. Melbourne is nice, Christchurch is boring! The flight is endless....and we had heavy turbulence... almost shat on my pants!!!

now at home, tired, resting, just got my new Italian passport and tickets. Still need to pack but feel soooooo tired.... will take a nap and go straight to the airport. Tomorrow, PARIS and on Monday Rio de Janeiro!!!

Curitiba, well, on Tuesday to sleep with my family on the new house for the first time. Dont have a clue of the new telephone number there but will post it here once I reach Curitiba City!

Bye

Sunday, September 12, 2004

Efêmero

Estarei dando uma passada efêmera por Curitiba na semana que vem, isto dependendo da carga dos avioes da Air France...

me explico:

estou com uma passagem de funcionário de companhia aérea, que custa baratinho baratinho mas que eu só vôo se houver lugar no aviao. Caso haja muita gente ou carga eu fico de fora, esperando o próximo. Entao vou tentar embarcar no vôo da Air France entre Dubai e Paris do Domingo de madrugada. Passo o domingo inteiro (19 de Set) caminhando por Paris e à noite sigo para o Rio de Janeiro.

No Rio fico dois dias e chego em Curitiba na Terça feira à noite (21 de Set), pronto para dormir a primeira noite na casa nova dos meus pais! Fico em Ctba até Domingo, dia 26.

Amanha cedo estou indo para Melbourne na Austrália e Christchurch na Nova Zelândia para me acostumar com o frio pois se fosse direto daqui para Curitiba iria sofrer com a diferença climática! :)

Bem, torçam para que haja sempre um lugar para mim nos vôos!

Saturday, September 11, 2004


MAURITIUS, Indian Ocean


yesterday on my little trip to Mauritius!!!!


Dubai is amazing!!!


can you see me?


and never feel thirsty anymore...


this is the Sagrada Familia from Prague


dont do this to meeeeeeee...


future London classic


a truly London classic

Thursday, September 09, 2004

the joys of air travel

Two aircraft were hijacked in Moscow the other day. JFK is constantly on red alert. And so is Heathrow. There has just been a bomb attack at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, one of our destinations. The joys of air travel…

But I try not to think of it as much. Working for such an industry has its downsizes but the positive aspects far outnumber those. To be able to spend an afternoon in a tropical paradise in Africa while at work does not happen in an office in London, nor in Barcelona. To be confused as to where to go on holidays because working life seems like holidays is also great!

Yesterday I did dinner at my place for a few friends. The first time I cooked a large meal for 5 other people. It felt nice to have friends over and to talk. I love this much more than going out to the clubs, something I actually have not done in ages.

Was in bed trying to rest for my flight to Mauritius tonight but could not fall asleep…

Monday, September 06, 2004

from the sands of the desert

It is Monday morning in Dubai. 10 am precisely and I have woken up a short while ago to witness a drama in my flat. Went into Miquel’s bedroom to take a look at his plant (he is on holidays and I am responsible for watering his plants) and felt the carpet slightly wet. Than heard dripping noises in the bathroom and once I took a peak inside the bathroom my heart froze! It was flooded! And the carpet in the bedroom was soggy and wet! There was a crack in a pipe while he was away and slowly but surely water took over the whole bedroom! Now I am waiting for the cleaners to come over and start trying to dry the carpet… And we just had the whole carpet in the flat changed a week ago!!!

Anyway, once more I cannot sleep properly. Guess that my bio-rhythm is messed up ever since I came from Prague. I had very little sleep during the last day of the trip. Had to stay on a boatel (a hotel on a boat) in Bratislava. At first is sounded really cool to sleep on a boat on the Danube River but during the night there were so many mosquitoes and the rocking of the boat drove me mad!


At least I made it to Vienna Airport in one piece, had a nice flight back to Dubai and did not spend too much time re-organizing my room after the carpet change. I needed to sleep because the next day I had a flight to London Heathrow, which is a tough one, and I needed to be well rested.

London was great, but extremely short. I met an old friend from Brazil and we had brunch in Green Park, visited the National Gallery and had a walk in Covent Garden. It was all I had time for since the layovers in Europe are always very short. I managed to get some sleep at the hotel before the flight back but it is never enough, specially sleeping in the middle of the afternoon, when the whole world is alive and kicking!

It was only on Sep 30th that I was mentally and physically back to Dubai. It was quite a shock! Because I was the whole month running from place to place both on layovers and holidays I had not time to go around Dubai, not even to the supermarket. So when I finally go out to Carrefour and see Dubai again it made me realize where I live and all of a sudden I got excited again. Ever since I have had a few days off, have met my colleagues, been to the gym and so on. It is nice to get into a routine, even if it for a few days only.

September started really on a rush. My roster (schedule of flights) for this month is quite simple:

03 SEP: Dubai – Mauritius (done)
04 SEP: Mauritius – Dubai (done)
07 SEP: Dubai – Bombay – Dubai (tomorrow)
10 SEP: Dubai – Mauritius
11 SEP: Mauritius – Dubai
13 SEP: Dubai – Melbourne
15 SEP: Melbourne – Christchurch
16 SEP: Christchurch – Melbourne
17 SEP: Melbourne – Dubai
and from the 19 SEP to 03 OCT: holidays!!!

To be in Mauritius for a few hours only is quite a surreal experience. One leaves the desert, the Middle East, burkas and mosques and after a 6-hour flight straight south one lands in paradise. Sugar cane plantations, blue water, green forests, bikinis! And all of that for 5 hours!!! The rest of the time there I need to sleep to be able to operate the flight back!!!

The last days in Dubai I have seen 3 movies:

The Village: liked it but saw it at the movies and going to the movies in Dubai is the most stressful experience as the locals don’t give a damn about the others and talk endlessly with each other and on their mobile phones. They stand up, laugh at weird moments, film the screen with their mobile phone cameras and simply don’t stop making noise!!!

The Terminal: quite interesting and entertaining!

Farenheit 9/11: interesting but sometimes it felt like a talk show where they make people cry in front of the cameras only to boost the audience. Plus the DVD I had was a bad pirate copy from Dhaka, where they film from the screen in the cinemas so you could see when somebody from the audience went to pee!

And now I am reading a book called: La Sombra del Viento, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. So far it is fantastic. It was the best selling book in Spain in 2003, has been translated in several languages and keeps on selling like mineral water on a hot day! Highly recommended.

Will stop here for today. Have to keep an eye on the cleaners. And also sit down and decide where to go on my holidays!!! :)