Winter itch.

Winter is so not my climate. Its so cold here in Brussels, the last I checked at the billboard from the view of my balcony - 2 degrees. Walking at the Main St. shivering and clenching my tooth. Rushing into the Zara just to get the feel the heater. Zara had nice shoes on sale tho. Then headed to a flee market. Again, nice shoes. I aint gonna shop this trip tho, plus I don't think I need more shoes. Like I don't have enough at home. :-)

Walk through a long stretch of whore street. Seriously. So nice, they promote/show themselves inside the shop through a glass and most of them were black and I'm not being racist or what-so-ever. It was just weird. They all had those giant boobs! And they were trying to lure me like I would be into them? Shish. Can't they see I'm not interested. I was wearing a rainbow colored scarf.

It's 8pm here now, had early dinner just now at a Turkish Restaurant opposite my hotel. Sandwich pitta - it looks so small in the picture but I swear it's like 3 black dicks stick together. Imagine that. 3 big black dicks I mean.

Taking the advantage of the free wifi here now to download all my episodes. It's so fucking fast here. At least 4 episodes in 2 hours. It's going at 120 kB/s for download rate. Gotta get some rest now, flying of to Toronto tomorrow in the morning.

I haz you! :-)

Jet says sorry, and takes back all sacked staff.

MUMBAI: In a stunning U-turn, Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal late Thursday night announced the reinstatement of all 1,900 sacked employees and Jet Airways takes back all sacked staff Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal announcing reinstatement of sacked employees and asked them to return to work on Friday morning.

Apologizing for "the agony" that the staffers must have undergone, he said, "The management might not like my decision but sometimes there are disagreements within the family and as the head of the family, I am taking this decision."

Goyal said he had been unable to sleep because of recent events. "I am mentally disturbed with all this and I will not be able to live (like this) as long as I live my life." Calling it the most emotional day of his life he said, "My daughter is 19 years old. They (the sacked employees) are 20 or so. I cannot see their trauma and agony."

Distancing himself from the decision, he said the management had taken it on the basis of economic conditions in the industry. He claimed he didn’t even know the number of employees who had been sacked. "I was out of town and just flew back on Thursday night." He declined to commit himself on a revision of salaries although reports suggested that the staff might have to take a pay cut.

When asked if the company worked without his mandate, he said, "As chairman, it was my mandate to them to cut costs. The management had worked out an equation based only on arithmetic. But my conscience does not allow me to look at economics alone."

He denied that the volte-face was due to any political pressure. "I swear on my dead mother that I have not spoken to any politician." He said it was purely a personal decision, taken "as the father of the family" after he had seen "the tears of all the employees".

Goyal said the sacking had nothing to do with Kingfisher and that its alliance was altogether a different issue. "The alliance with Kingfisher is Jet Airways takes back all sacked staff Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal announcing reinstatement of sacked employees a synergy and a separate issue. A steering group has been constituted to work out rationalization of routes and other things," he said.

On the issue of cost-cutting, he said, "As a family we can sit together and work out how we continue to fly." He said cost-cutting would have to be done, but reducing staff wouldn’t make such an impact.

The sacked employees were overjoyed with the announcement. "We are all extremely pleased and thankful. We had always wanted to work with Naresh Goyal. We apologize if we hurt his sentiments during the protests," said a cabin crew member.

This is from The Times of India website.

WATCH THE VIDEO

YES YES YES! Please say this involves the foreign crew as well!

Gosh it's been years since I saw that familiar face!

I guess when I hate someone, I will always hate that someone.

Then again it's history. Would history repeat itself? I'll make sure it wont.

Watch me!

Jet Airways crew protest!

Go guys! Fight for us! Since we are here in KL there is nuthin much we can do, but you guys can!




Links for more protest video.

Jet Airways employees protest against retrenchment vid 1

Jet Airways employees protest against retrenchment vid 2

A SHOCKING letter from my company. Let's hope for the best.

October 15, 2008

Dear Colleagues,

Please find below a Statement of the Company with respect to certain adjustments in our network and work force.

The aviation industry in India, a USD 6 billion turnover industry, is expected to lose USD 2 billion in 2008-09. The economic viability of the industry has been severely affected by the record high fuel prices and most recently due to the crisis of the financial markets globally and the downturn in traffic.

Jet Airways had planned for a continuous growth in the domestic aviation market and the implementation of the first phase of its international expansion program.

However, the domestic market has declined by double digit figures in recent months. Apart from this, Jet Airways’ long haul expansion had to be pruned down due to international developments. Also in these difficult times, the number of flights Jet Airways will be offering in Winter schedule will be approximately 15% lower than originally planned. This is inevitable in view of the declining traffic volumes. Jet Airways expects these difficult market conditions to continue for some time. Jet has been watching the situation for some time in the hope that it may turn around, but has now reached a stage at which some hard decisions are inevitable.

As a consequence, personnel hired for the expansion, probationers and unconfirmed personnel, (who have been recently hired), will have to be released. As a first step, around 800 flight attendants, recently recruited for the planned expansion program, which has now been suspended, have been released. We are in the process of releasing personnel in other categories also.

The other categories include probationary and unconfirmed personnel in other areas including cockpit crew and management personnel to reflect the lower number of flights and seats offered. This will cut across all the activities of the Company. We wish to clarify that the reconsideration of our operations has been ongoing for some time now and this adjustment in personnel numbers did not result from the planned alliance with Kingfisher Airlines. If at all, improved economies in other areas would help obviate such step in the future.

As painful as it may be for every single person affected, this adjustment was inevitable in the greater interest of regaining viability of Jet Airways and to securing its economic health.

With best regards,

Wolfgang Prock-Schauer

Chief Executive Office

A shocking letter that I received today. Dealing with it is so hard - my fucking rice bowl is at risk and everyone knows no one messes with my food. I've been depending on people I love so much this pass months and sometimes I feel like I'm a burden to them. I sometimes feel useless when they ask for help. And finally I thought, hey since now im back on my 2 feet let's give them a rest. But it's not like the world's gonna end, I could do something else - right?

Brilliant idea?

Been thinking alot about my future, and obviously I want a stable and bright one. I don't think I wanna be in this career line for long. Something has to be done, and it's gotta start now. Research must begin.

Suddenly tonight, a brilliant idea was thought. Myrez's room.

Well I have been thinking about it, and I have brought up this matter - a good idea it seems. But tonight made me thought of it even deeply, and there is no harm on trying to propose this idea. I guess gathering some information regarding this and doing surveys and research should start.

Budget? Well, that must first be discuss. When there is a will, there is a way!

This could maybe be a good opportunity. Guess we gotta find out.

Just some scribbles in Brussels.

Its 2125 here, thats about 0325am at home. Brussels is lovely, the weather here is so nice. Internet is free here. YAY! Well we stay at Blooms Hotel. It's like a boutique hotel, very very ZEN interior. In my room, the walls are like painted - some kind of design/grafiti. Really cool!

Arrived Brussels from Chennai at about 0630 - 11 god damn hours of flight time. Thank god it was a light load. Surprisingly tho, it's normally damn freaking full all the way! Even tmrw my flight to Toronto is very light. Pheww. My set crew is nice, im the only steward tho besides my IFS. Got my allowance upon check in and fell asleep for a couple of hours. Oh, i'm flying with one of my batchmate - Suhaila.

Walked around the town, didnt had much time. Bought a sweater which is so cool, and a pair of skinny jeans. I had to! H&M. Not yet in Malaysia. The clothing line is really cun! On the way back I'll have another night in Brussels - might go walk around more. Didn't get to see much. Since I was at H&M for nearly an hour. LOL!

Cant wait to be back home. Shish, I've gotta get use to going away thingy. I hate it! Everything is so expensive. Calling, even sms-ing is so bloody expensive! Planning to get a local line here. It's much reasonable according to one of my crew.

Anyways heading to bed now, missing you badly my love. Cant get enough of you. ARGH! You really got me this time. I'm loving it! :-)