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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2014 0:50:47 GMT -1
So I got home to the WE tonight thanks to him  After a week of the usual silly hours, I was at a music conference in lovely Perth today and had reserved a seat home on the 7.15 train tonight. Fecking pre-booked cab never turned up.  So I was stood there outside the venue like a total idiot, too much to carry to even TRY walking it to the station. So in desperation I flagged down a cab whose light wasn't on. Cabbie; Sorry, I'm not for hire, I'm on my way to a job R: Ah, ok, sorry. Cabbie (taking pity); Where do you need to go to? R: My train leaves in 11 mins Cabbie: Look, I'll get hell for this, but get in anyway R: I don't want to get you in bother Cabbie: It's ok, get in, they're tracking me on satellite from the control office but hey... R; <gets in> Cabbie (driving like maniac thru streets of Perth, runs an amber light); Don't worry I'll get you there in time R (secretly) My Hero! Screech to a halt outside Perth Station. Fare £3. (Which is odd, as on the way to venue this morning same journey cost £4.50...) Gave him a tenner plus fulsome thanks, pelted thru station maze: downstairs, along, along, upstairs, over bridge, downstairs, ended up peching on platform 1. Guess what. Train delayed 15 mins. But folks like him just make your day. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2014 1:22:19 GMT -1
So train rolls in, finally. Reason for delay's obvious, it's three carriages instead of the usual six, so it's obviously toiled, uber-heavy, all the way down from Aberdeen complete wi oil workers and students on their way home to Gla for the weekend...plus a huge bunch of guys on a stag party. Luggage is stacked 10 foot high and there's no seats to be had. Reservation tickets have been rendered completely redundant It's PARTY TRAIN! There is dancing in the aisles cos someone's brought a sound system So we hurtle through the darkness to The Proclaimers, Saturday Night Fever, Stevie Wonder, et al. Folks shufty up in their seats to make room for everyone. The ticket collector, who looks about 12, doesn't even TRY to collect tickets. I love this country.  |
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Post by ozneil on Mar 15, 2014 19:10:31 GMT -1
Wonderful  Restores one faith in the basic goodness and friendliness od people |
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Post by ozneil on Mar 15, 2014 20:16:04 GMT -1
I had a "party" flight from Auckland to Sydney once. It was an Air New Zealand DC8 (relatively small compared to Jumbo) from LAX to SYD via AKL. Half the passengers were either Oz exchange students coming home or American ones coming to Oz In these days it was a long flight with stops at Hawaii & Fiji so the kids had been couped up for a while.
The "party" started before take-off with the hosties giving their safety demonstration mimicked by about half the kids. mostly chanting in unison. When the poor hostie, by this time bright red, finished there was mad applause. From there on things got worse/better. Kids manning the trolleys The Hosties had sort of given up and left the kids to it though I noticed they kept a tight grip on anything hot. It was a wonderful experience being served by a giggling youngster giving her best Air Hostie/french waiter impersonation while being watched like a hawk by the hostie and later trying to sell usual airline tat.
I had a great time enjoying watching these kids having a ball. I think ANZ would be about the only airline to allow that behavior. Coming into Sydney it was rough and I mean rough white knuckle stuff but the pilot pulled off a very very smooth landing The usaual "remain in seats..." announcement was drowned out by cheering and Yahooing.
It is the only time I have seen the entire crew including pilots standing by door to bid passengers farewell. I think they enjoyed it as much as the passengers.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2014 20:33:01 GMT -1
I had a "party" flight from Auckland to Sydney once. It was an Air New Zealand DC8 (relatively small compared to Jumbo) from LAX to SYD via AKL. Half the passengers were either Oz exchange students coming home or American ones coming to Oz In these days it was a long flight with stops at Hawaii & Fiji so the kids had been couped up for a while. The "party" started before take-off with the hosties giving their safety demonstration mimicked by about half the kids. mostly chanting in unison. When the poor hostie, by this time bright red, finished there was mad applause. From there on things got worse/better. Kids manning the trolleys The Hosties had sort of given up and left the kids to it though I noticed they kept a tight grip on anything hot. It was a wonderful experience being served by a giggling youngster giving her best Air Hostie/french waiter impersonation while being watched like a hawk by the hostie and later trying to sell usual airline tat. I had a great time enjoying watching these kids having a ball. I think ANZ would be about the only airline to allow that behavior. Coming into Sydney it was rough and I mean rough white knuckle stuff but the pilot pulled off a very very smooth landing The usaual "remain in seats..." announcement was drowned out by cheering and Yahooing. It is the only time I have seen the entire crew including pilots standing by door to bid passengers farewell. I think they enjoyed it as much as the passengers. Hell yeah! Very similar experience on Qantas Mel-Syd one July when we hit the outer edge of a pretty bad storm. We were a-pitching and a-yawing, probably once of the trickiest flights I've ever been on. At one point the lovely crew put the brakes on their trolleys mid-aisle and sat down, riding out the bumps. There was a bunch of young men, an Aus junior rugby team, sitting just in front of us. To defuse the awful tension (and yes, we could see lightning out of the starboard windows, eeek!) they decided to entertain all by fashioning the sickbags into silly hats... and jumping up, hands in air, going WOAH! each time we hit extreme turbulence. I remember thinking, if we're gonna die, at least we'll die laughing  and |
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Post by ozneil on Mar 15, 2014 21:11:44 GMT -1
My main problem was I had a report to write. I was going to write it the night before but got into bad company (bloody Kiwis) so was going to write it on plane but gave that up as impossible. I also shared seats with 2 charming young ladies from Wisconsin answering a zillion questions about Oz .
Reports seemed very unimportant at that time
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Post by notanimby on Mar 15, 2014 21:17:41 GMT -1
During week one of easy jet flying glasgow to london( Luton) about 16 of us had occasion to use them to fly down to a company do.
First easy jet plane was cancelled at 1300 with no guarantee of getting on the next one at 1700, we had a bus picking us up at Luton to ake us into central London.
After much psh from ground staff, I phoned easyet HQ up and asked for stelios himself, they put me through to him, I told him in rather plain west of Scotland terms that we were somewhat disappointed and that all the good publicity they received over past week would suddenly o the other way with one phone all to glagow herald ( a client f hours, so we knew who to speak to)
He arranged free drinks for everyone etc, we went with British midland for a guaranteed time anyways.
On our return, we pitched up at Luton for the flight, it was a hoot, as the crew done the demos, they were crap, the three demonstrators were doing different things to the commentary and he plane was in uproar with people taking the pish.
The captain came on the intercom and scolded everyone for laughing......
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Post by ozneil on Mar 16, 2014 22:36:36 GMT -1
I may have posted this before
I was flying down from Coffs Harbour to Sydney on a regional airline either Ansett or Airlines of NSW about an hour's flight when the Captain came on saying he had been asked to "pop into", his words, Newcastle to pick up a group of passengers who were going overseas and whose flight to Sydney had been cancelled. He said he knew we wouldnt mind and we would arrive in Sydney about 15 minutes behind schedule. I thought at time "only in Australia".
From my window I could see a bunch of 6 or so passengers standing anxiously outside the terminal building watching us taxiiing in. They looked terribly pleased when they boarded.
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Post by notanimby on Mar 17, 2014 5:59:43 GMT -1
I may have posted this before I was flying down from Coffs Harbour to Sydney on a regional airline either Ansett or Airlines of NSW about an hour's flight when the Captain came on saying he had been asked to "pop into", his words, Newcastle to pick up a group of passengers who were going overseas and whose flight to Sydney had been cancelled. He said he knew we wouldnt mind and we would arrive in Sydney about 15 minutes behind schedule. I thought at time "only in Australia". From my window I could see a bunch of 6 or so passengers standing anxiously outside the terminal building watching us taxiiing in. They looked terribly pleased when they boarded. In an opposite scenario, I was once running a tad late for a flight from Birmingham to Glasgow - got to ticket desk with a couple of minutes to spare, they phoned ahead to see f gate was still opened and off I ran - got to gate ( it was a walk on to tarmac job - no skywalk thingy) and the door was closed. As it was a glass sliding door I could see the plane just outside and it still had the gangway in position. The staff said captain said no you weren't fast enough - as I looked out the door at the plane - the fekkin captain gave me a "cheery" wave choorio - basturt |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2014 18:19:21 GMT -1
hoho! Did you wave back, Nota?
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Post by notanimby on Mar 17, 2014 18:39:18 GMT -1
hoho! Did you wave back, Nota? To busy signalling - aw FFS geeza brek and let us on ( arms outstretched like a wayward fitba player sooking in wae the ref) - the groundstaff who told me to run on down disappeared toot-sweet - the basturts By christ did I feel like a dick, having to walk back to check in, by all the folk I'd sprinted past shouting excuse me......... |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2014 18:47:40 GMT -1
Ha! Pure comedy, Nota!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2014 18:49:58 GMT -1
I may have posted this before I was flying down from Coffs Harbour to Sydney on a regional airline either Ansett or Airlines of NSW about an hour's flight when the Captain came on saying he had been asked to "pop into", his words, Newcastle to pick up a group of passengers who were going overseas and whose flight to Sydney had been cancelled. He said he knew we wouldnt mind and we would arrive in Sydney about 15 minutes behind schedule. I thought at time "only in Australia". From my window I could see a bunch of 6 or so passengers standing anxiously outside the terminal building watching us taxiiing in. They looked terribly pleased when they boarded. I like this story, even 2nd or 3rd time round  |
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Post by notanimby on Mar 17, 2014 19:56:11 GMT -1
It was back in the days when airline staff were still allowed a sense of humour..............jokes about being hijacked to Cuba, getting a seat on the "black-box" and just general good-natured banter. At one time you just jumped on the BA shuttle and they came round collecting the fares, just like a bus - that created many a good laugh Now they're all po-faced and saying anything at all will get you chucked aff and banned |
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Post by ozneil on Mar 17, 2014 20:04:27 GMT -1
 Dont think this one. We, the family had been on holiday on Great Barrier Reef. On the way home the plane, a Fokker Friendship, from Proserpine back to Brisbane where we had to change for a flight to Sydney was running late. We calculated we would either just make the last flight or just miss it. As we landed in Brisbane I was still hoping but....... The PA came on and the hostie told everyone to remain seated to let the passengers onward bound to Sydney get off first to catch their flight. We duly got off first and were herded, no other word for it, at a very rapid pace across the tarmac (this was the days before air-bridges) to a waiting aircraft with hostie leaning out the door waving us on. We were bundled aboard being handed seat numbers inside the cabin. Out the corner of my eye I saw a baggage trolley being hauled across at a rate that would have put Jackie Stewart to shame. I wasnt even seated when I heard the engines start and the baggage door slam. The had held plane about 10 minutes for us Well done Ansett I was sorry when the went bust several years ago. They were a friendly bunch.
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