“THE”

How much power does a negative thought have over a fairly positive mind? The answer is – a LOT. Say what you may, we all know that fears take over our thoughts that manifest into actions that we are apologetic about by the end of the day. It has been a week now that the fear within me has made me go back and forth with my decision to alter my time spent at work.

Is it better to give in to fear or is it better to face it? Try being at the receiving end of flying short even when the fight hasn’t left short. Then we have those in charge who decide that the best thing to do is to smooth out the creases by avoiding THE problem. THEN, when we manage to find the courage within to actually address THE problem, THE problem finds a problem in you.
The common denomination is “THE”. Slice the cake with a gold knife or plain dig into it with your bare hands, if the ingredients were stale the taste will be, SHITE!

So, after a lot of back and forth and after being lucky and blessed with situations that have sheltered me from being exposed to negativity, I now find myself staring at it in “THE” face. So much so that here I am, typing out my thoughts at 8:36 am on my off day. Time always heals but some wounds involve over 10,000 steps in a span of 2 hours in a confined space of 45m a lot harder to come to terms with. This is especially true when it involves wounds related to callouses on your little toes on both feet. Remember, the duty day spans over 12 hours minimum. How do you pace yourself? All the pacing around is done by the rest of us while “THE” takes a snooze on the last seat. I am loving this use of “the ” article. There are a lot of “THE”‘s that I am surrounded by but a good majority of them are once-in-a-year kinds of interactions. Layovers and road trips end up providing you with the opening to disconnect and rejuvenate your soul. The problem arises when you take “THE” on the road trip with you. WHY “THE” HELL? See, the “THE” personality isn’t the” in-your-face ” kind. It is more subtle, give it time it’ll make itself known.

This leads me to the following conclusion. I have two choices. Face it and have a heavy day or not give it so much importance, still have a heavy day because it will physically drain you, that part is inevitable because someone has to pick up “THE”s slack.

There is however a 3rd option. Wait another 12 minutes and let the clock tick 9 and see how your luck changes. Till then, dark chocolate, a side of 2 chocolate labs and a piping hot cup of Rosemary tea is doing the trick.

There might be a second part to this story. Curiosity is killing me and the hunger pangs are gnawing at me. This calls for a cheese omelette with sourdough toast.

-Jas Out

What a start, what a start!

HAPPY 2023! I am so pumped to get this year rolling. The last few weeks have been quite hectic work-wise but all in a very good way. It is a good problem to have when you have no time to ponder and dwell on things. Days are passing by so fast and here we are, already in the new year. Another year, new adventures await and more memories to create.

Yesterday’s flight was interesting. You know you have been flying a lot when passengers start recognising you with your face half-covered with the mask. Fooling this man would have taken more than just the face being covered with a mask. As we get ready to close the door and I head towards the aft, doing the baggage check, I get stooped by this little man

“Oh! Habibi!!!”

My reaction to his utter open-arm gesture and friendly pleasantries was,
” UMMM no. Not me. You are confusing me with someone else”.
” No Habibi, it is you. You brought me to Cuba in the middle of December. You will remember me I promise you, but I can recognise you even with your mask on. It’s the eyes I remember.”

I acknowledged his politeness and friendly “HABIBIII” and carried on with my checks.

This niggling thought kept pestering me as the flight progressed. I tried to dig into my memory bank and figure out if he was on the ball or was plain pulling my leg.

Oh, he was on the ball. As we got ready to commence the meal service, something clicked and I went back to “Habibiii” and said to him

“HABIBIII, I REMEMBER YOU!!!!!”
You grocery shopped from our meal cart and bought EVERYTHING, (leaving the rest of the aircraft hurling insults at us coz we had nothing left to sell to them, but that was quickly sorted out with the sale of alcohol instead of food. Some people love eating Heineken for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner)

YES HABIBIII YES, NOW you remember me!!
We both laughed. This little gentleman, with the impish face, was with his wife who seemed so bogged down with the load of dealing with 4 kids looked at me and said, ” I knew you would remember us.”

How did I even forget them? They were friendly, they were kind, and they were happy as they were leaving on vacation and they went grocery shopping. Today’s return flight was no different. The “R side” was stopped by Habibiii and his actual Habibi and they purchased everything my colleagues had in their cart. As our service came to an end, my co-worker came to the back and said

“WE HAD NOTHING LEFT FOR THE REST OF THE PLANE. This family (and in unison, we both said) ” Went grocery shopping”.”
Her gaze was met by my roar of laughter as I explained to her my experience with Habibii and his cute little family.

Some days are so hard on the body with the movement and non-stop action at work but it is passengers like Habibi x6 that make it all the more fun and that long long day a memorable one. I wouldn’t trade my job for anything.

-Jas Out