17.Apr.2008 : Police Report It now looks like I will need to obtain a police report to get an ASIC card in Australia (having previously been told I would not). So I’m now researching that topic. I have also been advised to get a document from the GCAA certifying my GCAA licence as a genuine [...]

16.Apr.2008 : Mr. Flanagan Yesterday I wrote a letter to Maurice Flanagan. In an airline where change (particularly in the management structure) is a way of life – he’s been the biggest constant for us from the beginning. I’ve only met and spoken with him twice. Once was a highlight – winning the UK Ideas.Org [...]

11.Apr.2008 : Garage Sale. Today we had the first Garage Sale. We advertised two days before on the dumpsters up and down the street. Although we’d put 9 am on the ad – the door bell started ringing at 8am. When I went out there at nine, there was 50+ people crammed up against the [...]

10.Apr.2008 : Provident Fund. Today I spoke to Nick Foxton (nick.foxton (AT) emirates.com) who has clarified a few of the outstanding issues associated with provident fund payout. Because the administrators are about to change over (14 April) I’ll describe the newer system which has multi-currency advantages over the old. You still have two choices in [...]

09.Apr.2008 : Mashreq Bank. Today Meg and I went to Mashreq bank to setup closing out accounts and credit cards. More/New information has come to hand – it turns out that my Visa Card (big spending limit) is tied to my salary, thus requiring the 33 days notice. However the Master card is not, and [...]

07 Apr.2008 : Ticket Refund I’ve hit a snag in the road with Staff Travel. If you’ve been following along with my saga, you’ll know I purchased Cat A tickets for us all to go on a holiday to JFK. In the end however, I went there on my ALT, and Meg and the kids [...]

05.Apr.2010 : ID90 Freight Concession. Chris had been through the Cargo Concession process and documented it in detail for me. While he did that, I found an old spreadsheet I used once to calculate Cargo Concession. It’s only good for Australia, but I’ll find out how to get the rates for other countries as well. Organising the [...]

02.Apr.2008 : Mashreq Points. Today I’m hassling with SmashWreckBank over Mashreq Points. I have a few thousand dirhams of points to spend, and need to do it before I cancel my cards. Most of the outlets you can use them at require you to take a letter there with the pre-approved amount you can spend, which [...]

29.Mar.2008 : Back from JFK. I’ve been on holidays with my family in New York. This is one aspect of the job I’m going to miss. We had a great time and I have a great picture of Lewis in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, surrounded by culture and history, reading a book. Meanwhile – Crown have [...]

17.Mar.2008 : Selling Stuff When you move on from a Job – A Country – you leave behind a legacy of your time spent there. I’m don’t mean the relationships with friends, contributions made to the Company or the Community or any other measurable or intangible impact – in this case I’m talking about all [...]

16.Mar.2008 : 45 Days? As previously discussed, any tickets ordered from Staff Travel during your notice period must be paid for in cash at EGHQ, in person. Of course when you go to actually do this, you find out that you can actually pay with a credit card. OK fine. So when my father said [...]

15.Mar.2008 : Staff Travel So I’m in the middle of a Shanghai trip, checking the bags in at Shanghai’s airport for the return flight. My mobile rings, it’s my Father, in Perth. He’s travelled across from Melbourne that day (full fare Qantas) to catch the Ek flight Perth-Dubai-Manchester because all of the east coast Australian [...]

14.Mar.2008 : Fright Worx Freight Works came today and did the run around to look at what we have to move. It was like a bad dream revisited – same as the first move we did here when the rents were raised and Ek forced a move on us with two weeks notice. Young, blonde, [...]

13.Mar.2008 : The Pilot-Less Airline Video Having got back mid afternoon from Chennai, somewhat exhausted since I did not sleep well before the 12 hour+ duty starting at 1:50 am that took me to the minima at the runway in low cloud and rain; I went to collect my car to find that the car [...]