Today, I had a peculiar experience. It’s not something I’d generally discuss, but I booked myself in for a colonic hydrotherapy treatment at a health spa! I’d heard that the health benefits can be amazing. Apparently it can reduce the risk of cancer of the colon, as well as promoting healthy digestion and detoxing the body.

Bf  thought it highly amusing when I told him a couple of weeks ago that I had booked it, and asked if he could come and watch! I guess I didn’t expect anything else from a guy, especially my guy-who is consistently amused at the passing of his own wind! I was expecting it to be very unpleasant, but peculiar is by far a better word.  Whilst I did experience minor cramp in my tummy, that was truly the extent of the discomfort.  I feel thoroughly cleansed now, and actually feel like I want to consider more carefully what goes into my body.

I’m sucker when it comes to anything that will possibly help prevent cancer, because I’m terrified about getting it. My body has shown a tendency towards the development of cancerous cells in the past. I had cervical cancer when I was 21 years old. It’s all fine now, but, had it gone a stage further, I’d have been unable to have any children afterwards.  I still have to have more frequent check ups than most women, but so far-so good… So I am hoping it’ll be my one and only brush with the big C, and as a result I will continue to show an interest in any healthy living choices that I can proactively take to avoid it.

It’s an issue that receives a great deal of media coverage at the moment. I am not going to get massively drawn into the aviation industry’s impact on the global carbon footprint debate, because

1. My partner’s career, and our financial stability depend on this industry-along with thousands upon thousands of others, and
2. People will not stop using air travel regardless of what I say in my blog.

However, I was dismayed by something Bf told me recently.  So much so that I feel compelled to write about it. Every day, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of aviation fuel are wasted needlessly.  Much fuel wastage is due to safety of course… It costs fuel to carry fuel; but you need to carry a contingency in case of emergency situations… This I accept.  However, some of this massive wastage is simply needless. 

Here in the UK, we generally have different airports for commercial jets and private light aircraft… Here in the UK, priority is given by air traffic control in non emergency situations to commercial jets. These decisions make absolute sense.

So imagine my surprise when Bf told me that across the water stateside, this is not the case. On his first transatlantic flight, he was held on the ground in Orlando (a major airport), whilst air traffic control prioritised a non-emergency light aircraft landing!  This thing was probably burning very little fuel. I know that when we have flown in light aeroplanes ourselves, it has cost us in the region of £45 PER HOUR in fuel.  Bf’s jet however, burnt approximately 100 Kilos of fuel in just the FIVE MINUTES they were waiting for this light aircraft to land (to put that into perspective for those who don’t do weights, I weigh 56 kilos, and 100 kilos of fuel for Bf’s airline equates to roughly £120, or $240)!!! Had he been in the air waiting, this would apparently have been more like half a tonne of fuel (that’s about £530, or $1060)!

He asked the Captain if this was normal, and the Captain informed him that it was. Light aircraft are not restricted nearly as much as they are in the tightly controlled airspace here in the UK.

Pardon me for pointing this out, but this is just criminal, both financially and environmentally… In an age where we are encouraged to switch off lights when they arent needed, turn the thermostat down by just 1 degree, and wash at 30 degrees instead of 40 in an effort to reduce our carbon footprint’… This is just needless wastage.

And if you don’t yet care about the environmental effects of this enough to worry about this; just think about the implied cost of this on ticket prices! Airlines have to factor in this kind of daily wastage to the cost of our ticket prices. Losses like these eat into the already tightly squeezed profit margins of the airlines. Bf often comments that, knowing what the on-costs of an airline are like; he wonders how airlines can remain profitable in the competitive markets today.

Calculate your own Carbon Footprint

I was sent this link re the HO-stie, there’s actually some good valid comments and discussion among the crass lewd comments being made:

Discussion Thread Link

Bf and I have just returned home from France. We decided to visit my parents on a spur of the moment on Friday, as I was dropping him at the airport for his short-haul trip to Tenerife.  I packed everything we’d need for the weekend, and we went straight to Eurotunnel when I picked him up in the early evening.

It was a really great weekend. We couldn’t have asked for better weather, especially in February. It was glorious sunshine all weekend! It was so nice to get away for a few days and indulge in lots of naughty treats that we wouldn’t normally!  My uncle was over from the States. He is a skinny version of my dad, but somehow manages to look and act alarmingly like Mr. Bean! He used to work on design and engineering of aeroplanes, and was fairly active in helping with much of the type that Bf flies. He has also worked as part of several Air Crash investigation teams, which is something that fascinates Bf. He has often said that if he ever lost his pilot’s medical-this is one alternate avenue of work that he’d consider.

I therefore thought that Bf would quite enjoy his company; but as it transpired, Bf’s most ovewhelming emotion in my uncle’s company was irritation. My uncle seemed to lack any manners for the first 24 hours, and never seemed to say please or thank you for any thing to my mother. This really got under Bf’s skin, and I think soured the chances of my uncle growing on him much over the rest of the weekend.

We went to Dieppe market on Saturday, and had a lovely meal by the marina, I had a white fish (I’m still not quite sure what it was) in white wine and cream with mussels and mushrooms, and wild rice, followed by the most divine rich dark chocolate mousse. I shared a little bit with baby, who decided that she loved it so much she’d cry whenever her mouthful was all gone in order to try and successfully procure another mouthful… She’s certainly worked out emotional manipulation at a tender age; I’ll have to work on de-programming that fairly sharpish. Still, I’m sure it’s a sign that she’s intelligent!

Then my mum cooked a superb lamb supper, that I would have happily paid top money for in a decent restaurant! She is an amazing cook when she sets her mind to it. I do love going there and escaping the rat race here. I just wish that there were less driving involved in getting there. It takes us about 4 hours door-to-door to get there with a clear run; which inevitably means getting there ridiculously late on a Friday, and wasting much of the day light on Sunday.  Still, there’s the price you pay…

I guess I must have put on a tonne of weight this weekend. I refuse to go any where near the scales to confirm this for a few days. I’ll burn it off at the gym and be good until Thursday (Valentines day), when I will no doubt be very naughty again!!!  

Bf and I had our four year anniversary yesterday.  So we got a babysitter, and went out for the evening to a Tapas restaurant to spend some quality couple time together.  Afterwards we went for a few drinks in our local, which was really lovely and chilled out.

When I think about how we met, it brings a real smile to my face. I was in such a crappy relationship before I met Bf. My looney ex-husband’s handy work had left me in need of reconstructive plastic surgery, and I was seriously unhappy. I didn’t think I’d ever be happy again. Then Bf and I met in the most random way, online, and he put the smile right back on my face again.  I have had the most amazing 4 years of my life so far.  He helped me to find me again; and helped me remember that I don’t need to rely on anyone, including him, for my happiness and security. I gained my independence back, both personally and financially, and I am looking forward to the rest of my life.

We have another rare full weekend off together this weekend. They boys are away with my ex, so we are planning to buy a baby seat for the bike, and go for some bike rides together. I’ve become quite addicted to exercise recently.  I have even enlisted the services of a personal trainer.  I have definitely noticed a massive difference in my body.  I am down to a lean 19% body fat ratio (athletic level!) and and am in pretty much the best physical shape I have ever been in…

When I hit 30, 40, etc I want to be able to look at the photo’s and think ‘not bad!’ I have managed to get Bf to agree to do the London to Brighton bike ride with me (without baby in tow I hasten to add). So we’re going to get some practice in before hand. I’m quite excited about it. I would like to raise some money for charity too. 

I’d like to have chosen Demelza house as the charity I’ll ride for. They are a children’s hospice; a very dear friend of mine had a young child that spent time in there a couple of years ago before he sadly passed away from stomach cancer at 4 years of age.  They rely almost solely on charitable donations to continue running. However, having researched the event, it is charitably, exclusively for the British Heart Foundation (which is also a great cause, but not so personally sentimental to me).  I’ll have to find another event that I can also do for Demelza to get sponsored for!

If anybody is interested in donating to Demelza house, please follow this link

Next week is Valentines night… Last year we were in Egypt for Valentines night, we had a Bedouin meal under the stars in the desert.  It was our last holiday before we had baby, and the first time we had managed to spend Valentine’s evening together!  I am really excited about this Valentines day actually.  We are going to the city where we had our first date, and we’re going for a meal in one of our favourite restaurants!

Nothing can ruin my happy mood at the moment

I happened to comment on the story of ‘Stephanie’ the French HOstie:

• NOT because I am concerned about HER career, 
• NOT because I don’t think she has a nice body,
• but because I DO think it was inappropriate behaviour at work, when if the pilot misses a trick professionally, it would affect the lives of hundreds of people, as well as the career he worked so damn hard for. (if you were a nervous passenger, OR had lost a loved one in a plane crash, and it transpired this had been going on in the cockpit, you would be the first in queue to complain)
• and because I DO feel sorry for the innocent careers this COULD impact.

I am not jealous of her as some short sighted male readers, who have clearly not read any of the rest of my blog, have assumed (probably due to a lack of blood feeding their other vital organs at the time of commenting).

I don’t look half bad myself, I work hard to stay fit, healthy and trim-and I am finally more than happy enough with the body I have-but I don’t need to get my breasts out for random men, or indeed send you a picture to prove anything! The only people I need to worry about my image with, are me and my man. We are both happy-thank you.

There is nothing about Stephanie in my blog which you wont find in the Sun, so if that’s all you hit my blog for, please go to: Sun-Link

This has seriously confirmed something to me that I always believed any way… That exhibitionism may get a woman serious attention, but that it will only be from men that I personally would want nothing to do with.

One such man who has contacted me is vile. I have no idea why he thinks he is such an authority on passing comment, and being so completely shallow-the picture on his blog looks like someone who has had acid poured over his face, so he obviously has no interest in trying to look good himself… I think that even the ‘lovely’ Stephanie’s standards might be too high for someone that fell out of the ugly tree and managed to catch EVERY branch on the way down!

Following on from the story yesterday (below this entry), here’s an update… This woman has no shame, and I imagine no husband before long too.

NB The airline has since GONE BUST (quel surprise). Not that I am particularly surprised… I feel very sorry for any pilots and crew who were actually professional and serious about their careers, and lost their jobs though.

Hostie who’d rather have a career in glamour modelling (including shameless video)

THE saucy stewardess whose strips for pilots were uncovered in The Sun is at it again – flashing her bare breasts in another cockpit.

She also revealed her undercarriage and let a pilot examine it in a second shocking video.

Three French crewmen call out: “Oh la la!” and “Bravo!” as the hostess, known as Stephanie, does a full strip.

She is told in French: “Firm buttocks! Superb breasts!”

The training day film also shows another girl, who flashes her suspenders at a pilot.

It then cuts to Stephanie doing her full strip for the crew.

On Friday we told how the same girl was groped by a different pilot as she flashed her boobs.

The French airline, AOM, has since gone BUST

Published today by ‘The SUN’ (Could you tell by the ‘quality of high integrity’ journalism?)

I am stunned AGAIN.  This pilot^^^^^ has been a complete idiot… Read on-I have recently come across these articles:

IDIOT PILOT - Courtesy of the Sun (with video)

IDIOT PILOT - Courtesy of The Daily Mail

Probe launched after air stewardess performs topless mid-air striptease for the captain

An investigation has been launched after a video of a topless French air stewardess performing a sexy striptease for the captain while the plane was flying was leaked on to the Internet.

Despite the plane being in the air - and with several hundred passengers presumably blissfully unaware of what is going on - the sexy cabin attendant removes her bra and lets the captain and co-pilot get hands on.

The video was leaked onto the Internet by members of the French crew and has sparked a major probe at several European airlines to discover the crew members responsible.

In the video, which lasts a little over two minutes, the stewardess, who even appears to be wearing a wedding ring, first performs a sexy striptease for the captain.

She then removes her bra and the captain fondles and gropes the stewardess as he grins at the camera.

At first when I saw the pictures, I was convinced that it was rubbish, and likely fake. However, I have seen the video, and am now convinced that it is authentic.  My immediate reaction was that I felt sick.  Why, oh WHY are some people in this industry SO nasty?

Then I realised something, and  felt a wave of relief wash over me… These idiots were actually stupid enough to film their lurid behaviour. The airlines are searching for this crew, because the press are hunting for them. The airline will have no choice but to sack them without warning for gross misconduct; because passengers will have every right if they see the pilot walk on to their plane, to disembark, demand a refund, and complain. 

It is not only the pilot’s credibility and reputation on the line, but also the airline’s.  Even if this behaviour would have been tolerated behind closed doors within the airline industry, it cannot be allowed.  This video has been leaked onto the Internet, and the press are after blood. With air safety so high on the list of news-worthiness, this scenario is completely unacceptable. 

This is blind stupidity. These pilots, but in particular the Captain, have risked their entire career and their credibility for a cheap moment of titillation with a hostie that appears to have been married!  I sincerely doubt that they will look back on this and think it was worthy of the hangover it will cause in their lives.  I would bet money on the hostie being on the receiving end of divorce papers in the near future, and with them all being in receipt of their dismissals even sooner.

Good.

They were utterly wreckless; and to grin like an idiot at the camera catching the sordid evidence is beyond forgiveness. They deserve to be hunted down by the press and humiliated. Fine to behave this way on the ground, if you are single (and you are cheap and nasty), but in the air, with hundreds of fare paying passengers sat behind you with their lives in your hands… Think again!

I hope that every pilot in the industry will hear about this and think twice.

COMMENTS PLEASE !?!?!

I’m so jealous of Bf this week. He routinely books a week or two of time off at this time of year, as the company sub charter quite a few pilots and planes out to overseas airlines in the winter; meaning that they are pretty tight for staff here. He then puts himself in the overtime availability list with crewing in the hope that he’ll earn some extra money.

So far his strategy has always worked. He might ordinarily get 1 or 2 days overtime a month, but its always significantly more when he does this.

He’d done pretty well out of his first week off, then on Sunday, they rang him and offered him a full week! 7 days overtime to do a really exciting trip to several Caribbean islands (with some island hop flights). VERY nice by all accounts. The hotel he’s staying in is a dream, he’s got a huge suite all to himself. Apparently it normally costs $500 a night to stay there, which is an exorbitant amount for that area of the world.

Thinking I should have become an airline pilot myself!

Still… Looks like its going to mean a lovely birthday for me as a result. He’s taking me to New York for 4 days-I can’t wait!

I am stunned. Today, an Air Canada flight was grounded because the FO apparently had a complete break down in flight…

An Air Canada co-pilot had to be taken to a psychiatric hospital in Ireland after acting strangely aboard a mid-air flight when he “fell ill,” it was reported Tuesday.

Some accounts suggested the unnamed first officer suffered a nervous breakdown and had to be restrained by cabin crew and passengers, including a member of the Canadian armed forces.

Officials are now investigating after the Air Canada Toronto-to-London flight was forced to divert to Shannon, Ireland, on Monday.

The Irish Independent newspaper reported local airport officials as saying the co-pilot had to be forcibly escorted from the flight after he began talking to himself and acting in a “peculiar manner.”

One passenger said the pilot was having a breakdown and calling for God.

Sean Finucane said the co-pilot was bound by restraints and carried into the cabin.

“He was very, very distraught. He was yelling loudly,” he told CBC.

“His voice was clear, he didn’t sound like he was drunk or anything, but he was swearing and asking for God,” Finucane said in an interview from England.

“He specifically said he wants to talk to God.”

A doctor and paramedics boarded the flight to remove the co-pilot, who was transported to hospital and later transferred to the psychiatric ward, the newspaper stated.

An unconfirmed posting to an online air traveller’s forum by an individual who claimed to have witnessed the incident up close suggested that crew and passengers had to restrain the troubled first officer.

The airline refused to confirm details of what happened aboard AC848 which left Toronto’s Pearson International at about 8 p.m. Sunday night and was supposed to land at Heathrow Monday morning.

“As you can appreciate, this is a personnel issue and there are also privacy issues surrounding it,” said Peter Fitzpatrick, a spokesman, adding that at no time were the safety of the 149 passengers or crew members compromised.

The Air Canada Pilots Association, representing 3,300 members, issued a statement last night saying the co-pilot was being treated in hospital.

“ACPA has sent a fellow pilot to assist in whatever way is required,” it said.

Capt. Andy Wilson, president of the association, said in an interview that although such incidents are rare pilots are trained to deal with a fellow flight crew member falling sick or becoming incapacitated mid flight.

“As we train for many emergencies never seen in a pilot’s entire career, this is just one more that we train for,” he said. “Although it’s a two-pilot aircraft, either one could certainly perform the operation and land the aircraft.”

Air Canada will be reviewing the incident in the coming days, as will Transport Canada and possibly Irish safety authorities. 

Allison Hanes, National Post  Published: Tuesday, January 29, 2008

I am full of respect for the Captain who obviously held his composure in the face of this wildly bizarre and potentially dangerous behaviour.

However, knowing how tough the recruitment process is (in terms of: criminal record checking, and scrutiny of medical records, and psychoanalytical and personality checks) I am shocked that this man slipped through the net.

It’s a wonder that nobody was harmed! I seriously hope that Bf never has to deal with a co-worker this mentally deranged at all, let alone on the flight deck!

I obviously don’t know how dangerous his intentions were likely to be, but the fact remains that he was obviously mentally unstable-yet he had access to a crash axe and a jet full of fuel, and was trusted with the lives of hundreds of people in his hands (and that’s only the ones on board!)

It worries me that someone like this could fly in under the radar and permeate this security obsessed industry. If it was something more recent that triggered his state of mind-were there tale tale signs that were ignored? This industry protects it’s own, and whilst I find that for the most part comforting; it worries me at times. I have actually heard of airlines putting alcoholic pilots (who have had a proven track record for sound flying) through ‘dryout’ rehab, in some circumstances more than once! I do not believe that alcoholism should be tolerated in pilots, and certainly repeat offenders are a concern.

I’ve even heard of one pilot who had been a repeat offender who was breathalysed after crew expressed concerns about flying with him. Although he passed the test, his airline (knowing his alleged past history) insisted on a full liver function test; which he failed, and lost his job as a result. It’s sad that someone so bright and obviously passionate about his career, could knowingly risk it all for alcohol. He was less than 10 years from retirement when he lost his job, which makes it all the sadder.