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| An OT day today  . Seems like we are continuing to be short of staff in our team. I have been rostered a day off today, but was asked a few days ago to work at the check-in area. It's good for my savings, need more work... I can survive on one day off a week. It's nice to have two days off, but might as well work as much as I can to brace myself for when I get minimal hours, just like the saying 好天斬定落雨柴. Anyway, even though I have been called in, we were still one staff short on the 'Bag Drop' counter =_='''. Anyhow, the rain came back to Sydney today just after 1pm or so... we saw it pouring down whilst check-ing in. Luckily no major delays were caused. I went out to the gate at around 15:20 for the BA10 departure. I was tasked to do boarding and it went relatively smoothly. We had the majority of passengers well ahead of time except about 3 at -10mins... and the last pax came running down... oh well... Push back was late today due to ATC and would most likely be weather orientated. Since work finished at 5:30pm today, traffic was extra congested due to the weather. Rain was pouring down very hard at times... I decided to take the Eastern Distributor motorway to avoid some traffic, but that came to a cost of $4.50 for the toll $__$. Anyway, it was so much better than using the roads through the city as those would be super congested. Then I dropped by Chatswood to buy a few things before heading home. I reckon the weather today has seriously affected the shopping centre's business as there were not many people there for late night shopping and parking was quite easy for tonight. So looking forward to tomorrow when I have my only day off for this week. I've put a big cross in tomorrow's box for overtime at work, so they better not call me... hahhahha. Hopefully I can get a few personal things done tomorrow such as tidying my room  . | | |
| A long day at work today. Check-in was quiet since one of the flight wasn't too busy. Sometimes you just feel that we have overstaffed the check-in counters. I've only processed 30 passengers today and there was no lines... so it couldn't have been my fault for the low productivity. Anyway, after the check-in shift, I noticed the first Emirates arrival had a rather early ETA of 16:43. Due to this, all us BA check-in staff on long shifts have been asked to meet the Emirates arrival before taking our break. But when we got to the gate and waited for a while, the pilots called up that they won't be landing till 17:05. As we only have one pax requiring special assistance, two of us were released for a break (but I wasn't one of them). So we kept waiting and a few minutes after my colleagues left for their break, the flight had another revised ETA of 17:17  (I could have also went on my break as I was starving at that time). Anyway, we met the arriving flight with minimal staff, two of us plus the supervisors (first time since I was at Menzies). After that, I went on my break before heading out to help out with the departure of this aircraft. As i thought we might be short of staff, I went and had a quick meal at McDonalds and found that they have a special meal for a limited time featuring Shrek!!! Attracted by the menu poster, I ordered a medium Shrek meal which is basically a quarter-pounder meal with a mint-choc thick shake instead of the soft drink. It was quite nice to try a new thick shake at McDonalds . They also have a mint-choc McFlurry as well as Shrek pasta  . Might give the McFlurry a try, but not the pasta... So I quickly ate my meal and tried to drink as much thick shake as I could, but it was so thick and cold that I could only consume half of it  ... When I went back to the departure gate, I found that we had unusually few staff. Only 4 of us plus the supervisors  , normally we get about 6 to 8 of us there! Due to the lack of staff, things were a little chaotic and stressful as 2 of us (including me) was tasked to do the boarding (which is normally manned by 3 staff) and the remaining 2 did passport checks (which usually takes 3 to 4 staff to do). Luckily no major problems occured. This was rather strange given that we usually have to find things to do since there were plenty of staff. Have they cut back on the staff? But anyway, the rest of the night went okay thanks to a very few number of passengers requiring assistance. | | |
| I'm back . Haven't been updating xanga for a looooong time now... Anyway, after finishing my Bachelor degree, I've been working at the airport and currently at Menzies Aviation as a Passenger Services Officer performing check-in duties for British Airways. Anyhow, today is worth a mention as I have accepted my offer to study a Master degree at UNSW. Commencing 23JUL07 (Semester 2, 2007), I will be studying the Master of Commerce (Marketing) part time alongside my part time work at Menzies. Hopefully I will be able to manage it with my work roster. More to come as I iron out my class enrolment. Work wise, things have been running well since I started at Menzies. I've settled into checking-in for BA quite well, doing it smoothly with minimial problems. Main concerns alway come when checking travel visa requirements for customers as well as explaining/enforcing the airline's new baggage and seating policy. Oh yeh, something interesting happened today at the airport. As we were setting up our counters for check-in at about noon, Pier B of T1 had a power outage for about 5 minutes . Majority of the ceiling lights went out and all the computers had no power. Most of the Flight Information Displays (FIDs) were out, except for aisle D (used by Qantas). Interestingly, the baggage belts, the PA as well as selected shops still had power. Luckily, the power supply resumed after 5 minutes or so, or else delays would most likely occur. Oh well, enough of me writing and I'd better head to bed recharing for a long day at work tomorrow. I shall gradually recap more of my recent activities soon. | | |
| Had a really wonderful night at tha J*A*W*S concert on Friday night  . It was really good, especially Justin  . When will Justin's concert CD/DVD come out  | | |
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Totally annoyed by Sydney's traffic. It took me 1 hour and 50 minutes to get home when it usually only takes 30 minutes!?!?! Was pretty much stuck in Chinatown for 50 minutes watching the traffic lights change while no cars were getting through... really BAD. Then it took another 30 minutes to pass through the bridge and get off the freeway... haiiiiii 