SQ diary - Final

Hey y'all,

I know this blog post is super late.

I just kinda lost my train of thoughts after writing SQ diary 1 and 2, which I will link it here:

→ SQ diary part I ←

→ SQ diary part II ←

& here I am back with part III.

I didn't expect it to be so highly requested. Like, I thought you guys were probably bored of reading all about it after part 1 and 2. I guess I was wrong because I got so much hate in my askfm for not posting part 3. Readers called me a liar for not keeping my promise and all kinda crazy accusations because part 3 of my SQ diary was not up. *inserts WTF face*

& that made me lose even more interest in writing part 3 because I felt like I was writing because I was "forced" to. -___-

Of course, there were nice readers who jumped to my defense and asked me to ignore those comments and told me to take my own sweet time and they would wait patiently because they know I'm busy and have a life too. *Love you guys*

Everything here on my blog, be it paid advertorials, sponsored product reviews or experiences, I write them willingly and I hate being chased or forced to churn out a blog entry . I just feel like it wouldn't be honest or I would just be writing for the sake of it and it shows. I believe you readers are not stupid and can tell when a blogger is just blogging for the sake of money and not writing truthfully.

Okay, enough ranting.

Let's get down to........

My SQ Diary part III

Life as an SQ girl

I've been asked "How is it like to be flying with SQ? If you didn't get into SQ, would you fly with other airlines?". And to be honest, I wouldn't fly with any other airlines other than Singapore Airlines. If I were to fail the interview, I would probably just gave up the idea of wanting to be a stewardess and move on to another job. And why is that so?

The 1st reason would be a superficial one.. I love the uniform.

Yes, the kebaya is the signature of Singapore airlines. You can spot an SQ girl in kebaya miles away from the airport. I feel proud when I don the uniform (though sleepy spells occurs soon, inside joke that all SQ crew relates to) and it has always been my childhood dream to wear one. Yes, it is super body hugging and really uncomfortable at times and despite how much complains you hear about the uniform from fellow sq girls, deep down, we all love wearing the kebaya.

The 2nd reason would be the destinations that Singapore airlines flies to and also where we are based at, which is Singapore. I have friends who flew with Emirates and have to be pack up and move to Dubai, and also friends in JAL(Japan Airlines) who had to go to Japan for a few months for training. To me, packing up my bags and going abroad to stay for a long period of time is definitely a No-No.

To me, being an SQ girl has more pros than cons.

The salary was good (not super high but good enough).
I was spending like I had all the money in the world. I didn't buy many branded bags like my other colleagues because I know that my love for most bags are just phases and I will get bored of it soon enough. But I did spend like I didn't care. I would just enter any boutiques, pick out clothes,shoes and makeup without looking at the prices because I knew I was able to afford them and my bank account would not feel a strain. Even when I do flip the tags over and it is like S$190 for a Zara blazer, I would just purchase it without feeling a pinch. Whenever I'm back in Singapore, I would want to dine in restaurants and I would order alot. I've noticed that's one trait in most SQ stewardesses. We are usually the ones to order when out with friends and we will make sure there is more than enough to go around the table. And surprisingly, even though I didn't really control the way I spent, my savings in my bank account was still growing each month. It wasn't growing as much as other stewardesses who I've met who were really strict with themselves (I once met this stewardess who ate mostly cup noodles when she was overeas to save $) but the amount of savings I had was good enough for me.

Being able to travel the world was definitely at the top of the pro's list.
If not for SQ, I would never have been to all the countries that I've flew to. I was in my early-mid twenties when I was flying around the world and going to places where most of my peers have never been to. I've set foot in United Kingdom, United States, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, South Africa, Turkey, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Korea, India, Indonesia, Philiipines, Australia, New Zealand. Come on, if I were to pay out of my own pocket money for the air ticket to these countries, I would definitely be unable to cross out 50% of what I've listed.
So for all that experience (having authentic meals at each country, visiting famous landmarks, experienced all 4 seasons, purchasing items that are not available in Singapore)  in my 1.5 years of flying, I am thankful.

Switzerland, Lion of Lucerne.

Switzerland, Mt Titlis.

Germany, Munich, Neuschwanstein Castle.

Russia, Moscow, Saint Basil's Cathedral.

Turkey, Istanbul, Blue Mosque.

USA, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills.

 

 

USA, Los Angeles, Disneyland.

 

South Africa, Johannesburge, Some Safari feeding a giraffe.

USA, San Francisco, Pier 39 @ Fisherman's Wharf.

Netherlands, Amsterdam, Zaanse Schans Windmills.

South Korea, Myeong dong.

I may not have been rostered all the routes that SQ goes to but it is okay. I will try to visit those places on my own with my loved ones. First destination I'm going to conquer is - Maldvies! (Can't wait for July!!!)

A lot of people love to ask "what's your favorite destination?" & boy is it hard to come up with an answer. Off the top of my head, my reply would usually be - Japan, London, Paris, Amsterdam, San Francisco. So yes, these are my top 5 countries.

United Kingdom, London, Stonehenge.

United Kingdom, London, Tower bridge.

I've been rostered for London so many times, like almost every month since I've been trained to fly on the a380 airbus. But each time I see a London flight on my roster, I still feel really happy! Some crew hate flying to there because of the long hours (12 hours avg) but I love the city so much, the hardwork onboard is so worth it!

Japan, Tokyo, Hachiko Monument.

& Japan, I mean, come on.. who doesn't love Japan!? The food, the people, everything there is just so amazing. I am planning to go next year for like 10 days mininum. I've never eaten anything horrible in Japan before. Like even food that I've bought from their family mart or Lawson (like our 7-11) is also super yummy! I can just waltz into any random restaurant at Shibuya area and have like ramen that tastes 5x better than Singapore's. So I came to this conclusion: it is almost impossible to find horrible food in Japan.

France, Paris, Eiffel Tower.

As for Paris - the city of love, even though I don't shop much there, except for occasional indulgence in expensive designer bags & accessories, I still look forward to each flight there. I'll always try to go to the Eiffel tower when I'm there because even though I've seen it a couple of times, I still find myself not getting enough of it. My best memory was when half of the crew on my flight went to the Eiffel tower together and we just laid down on the grass, have gelato, take pictures and admire the view before us.

Lying on the grass...

taking in the beauty of this view.

I WANNA DO THIS AGAIN!! With my loved ones this time round!

Waited till sunset just to witness the Eiffel Tower sparkle.

France, Paris, The Lourve.

France, Paris, Arc De Triomphe.

Another significant pro of being a cabin crew is that we do not bring our work home. Once we step out of the aircraft, it is FREEDOM~~ until the next flight. And we do not experience Monday Blues. I sometimes get home from a flight at 7+am and go to bed when my neighbours just left their house for work. I do not have to get stuck in the morning office crowd and when I do go out and shop in Singapore, it is mostly weekdays and I don't have to squeeze with the weekend crowd. And as what most crew always say "Flying is not a job, it is a lifestyle." because when you are at work, it doesn't really feel like work. & when you are busy serving out food and attending to passenger's requests, fixing drinks, taking care of this and that, the time just flies by and the next thing you know, you'll hear the captain's voice over the PA announcing "cabin crew, please prepare for arrival" and that is one of the best things to hear onboard.

So, after I've listed all the positive and fun things about flying, the next thing I'm gonna get asked is "then why did you quit flying?"

Well, even though the lifestyle of a cabin crew may seem to be very attractive and many told me that I'm stupid for quitting because so many people would love to be in my position, I still submitted my resignation letter to the office.

I left SQ not because of the irregular long hours of flying or that my body clock is permanently screwed up (sometime when I depart from Singapore, it is day time here and when I step out of the plane 10 hours later, the sun is still shining bright at the other country due to the time difference).
It was not because of the demanding passengers that I sometimes have to deal with who can be reallllly ridiculous and I still got to put on my best smile and talk to them in the most polite manner.
It was also not because of the cabin crew culture where sometimes junior crew get into uncalled for situations because of bitchy senior stewardesses.

The reason for me leaving one of the best jobs in the world was simply because - I don't wish to be away from Singapore anymore. I know right, like WTF do I even mean. It's not Singapore that I miss. It is the people - friends, family and of course, my dear boyfriend.

"But, don't you get off days after each flight?"

Yes, we do. But the off days are short. A 3 days flight warrants 1 off day in Singapore, 5 days flight warrants 2 off days and a 7 days and above flight will give me 3 off days. It may seem enough to you but to me, it is not.
Okay, imagine this: I return from a 3 days flight on Tuesday afternoon, I'll have the whole of Wednesday off and Thursday I'll be jetsetting to another part of the world. But, if my flight on Thursday is early in the morning, I'll have to be home early on Wednesday to pack my luggage and get enough sleep before I report for my next flight. It just seems to me like every time I come back, I have not enough time in Singapore. It was when I kept dreading to go to work that I knew I would not stay long in this job.

Another thing that made me confirm my decision about quitting was on this particular night when I was overseas, just checked into my hotel room, took a good hot shower, ordered room service and was flipping through channels on the TV when I received a whatsapp message on my phone. My brother told me that a family member was admitted to the hospital. He thought that I should be aware even though I was miles away. You have no idea how much I wanted to fly back to Singapore at that point. I felt so helpless that I was stuck at some country when I should be back in Singapore with my family members. I know me being there would not help anything but I just don't want to ever regret if anything was to go wrong and I wasn't there.

I once flew with this steward and even though we weren't particulary close on the flight, we did hang out for meals and I remembered him being really chatty and always smiling. About 9-10 months later, we were rostered to fly together again and this time round it was just a short turnaround flight and I said hi and asked if him remembered me and he did. He seemed kinda down and I decided to not ask why and just continued the conversation asking the usual thing that crew always ask one another "How's your roster this month? Any good flights or not?", and he replied that for the entire month he would be doing turnarounds or short flights. Naturally I asked why and he told me that someone dear to him just passed away and needed to be around his family. I did not ask further and I really wanted to give him a big hug but that would be inappropriate because we were in our uniforms and we weren't close enough for me to do that. & not long after, he tendered his resignation too.

Because of flying, I've missed out on my own cousin's wedding as I was still under probation and could not change flights. I've also missed out on tons of family gatherings, birthdays and dinner dates with friends because I was away from Singapore 70% of the time. I was also away on important occasions like Chinese New Year and most Public Holidays. I remembered how upset I was to be away for an entire week during CNY that I ended up crying in the hotel room because I really wanted to be back home with my family celebrating such events.

They say that you can never have the best of both worlds, so I knew I had to sacrifice one or the other. I've decided that I've seen enough, I've flown enough, I may not have saved as much as I would like to but I think it is time to leave. I rather be here in Singapore with the people that matter than in Japan having the freshest sushi alone (or rather with colleagues that I've just met).
Even though I got to visit many places but each time I visit a significant landmark, I'll always be wishing that my loved ones would be there to experience it with me. I mean, what are good times and memories if you can't share them with people that are important to you?

So yes, once my bond was up (1.5 years) I sent my resignation letter to the office and I was in the best of mood during my final few flights. I went to work smiling and being super duper ultra nice to the passengers because I knew I would never again have the chance to don the uniform, walk tall and proud in the kebaya and sashay down the plane aisle attending to passengers. Now that I'm typing all these out, I actually kinda miss doing that. Hahaha, aiya humans are "fan jian" one lah.

Okay, so here's the last point that I'm gonna address on my final SQ post which is.. finding a new job and readjusting to a lower salary. Many of the crew that left SQ told me they will never leave without securing a job. But for me, I'm the kind that goes "YOLO~~" HAHAHA, so I decided to just quit and give myself a month's worth of break before I started looking for a new job. I did go through the panic phase where I wondered if I could ever find a job with a decent salary. I was sending resumes almost every night, searching for jobs on JobsDB or Jobstreet. I just kinda decided on a career that can give me a stable income that increases quite well over time and just sent resumes to the companies. I had zero experience in the job that I'm currently holding but I just had faith & hope that I may get a call back.. and I did!

Definitely salary wise, it will not match up to what I was drawing per month at SQ, but I am glad that I found a job that pays reasonably well.

I've left SQ for about 1.5 years already and I must say that sometimes when I think back on those memories of me being a crew, it kinda feels like I'm dreaming. Like, did I really did all that? When I go to the airport for dinner or when I'm traveling, I'll look at the stewardess and think to myself that "Hey, I was once like them!" because it just feels so surreal. I don't know how to explain but it just felt like it sort of happened but didn't happen. If I'm not making any sense to you, sorry. HAHA.

So right now when people find out I'm an ex-SQ girl, they will always ask "Have you ever regretted quitting? Do you miss flying? " and here's my honest answer: OF COURSE I MISS! But, I mostly miss the shopping and the money. LOL.
I miss shopping at the Lawson or Family Mart in Japan, buying all the super cute snacks. I miss shopping in London, PRIMARK I LOVE YOU AND THINK ABOUT YOU ALL THE TIME. I miss buying makeup from the states because almost all the brands are cheaper than Singapore and I miss going to outlet shopping and... IHOP, I want those pancakes in my belly NOW! I miss the freedom I get when I'm overseas because once I check-in to the hotel, the entire duration of my stay, I do what I want and I go wherever I want. I miss doing nothing and just relaxing in the hotel room and enjoying all the shiok amenities like super huge and comfy beds, 5 star classy hotels and bubble baths anytime.

But you know what?

I know that I will miss my family, boyfriend and friends more than all the superficial stuff that I've mentioned above if I were to go back to flying.

So............ to ultimately answer your question: YES, I do miss flying for its perks... but I am genuinely happier now.

Ok, brain-fart.

I'm not sure what else to say.....I'll just leave it here and maybe continue tomorrow morning if I feel like adding anymore content.

XOXO.

SQ tales part 2

Life of an ex SQ girl part 2

So after posting up part 1 of my SQ experience, I’ve been receiving quite a few requests for the next part and here it is.

I left off the last entry with what I went through during the 4 months training at SIA training school and now, time for me to spread my wings and soar.

First 6 months of flying – aka the noob

So the 1^st official flight ever of mine was to Johannesburg, South Africa. It would be the first time I’m so far away from home and to a foreign land and I was super nervous. I think I had less than 4 hours of sleep. Was worried about the senior stewardess and stewards on flight, worried about my knowledge with the food/drinks, worried about remembering where all the necessary thing are placed in the galley. But it turned out that the people on my flight were pretty nice, though this steward told me that I could keep my luggage in one of the overhead compartments which was clearly meant for passengers and I got kinda nagged at by my Inflight Supervisor, all was well.

During the 1^st 6 months, all freshly graduated stewardess/stewards are on probation. You will be check/graded on your work onboard and if you make any serious mistakes, your probation will be extended. What does being on probation means? It means no taking of leave, no swapping of flights and not being able to learn how to serve in business class, so that means economy class all the way for us.

& when you are tagged with ‘P-plate’, there will be a handful of mean/crazy/bitchy/fierce/yaya papaya/backstabbing stewardess/stewards who will make your life a living hell onboard. They will try their best to find fault if everything you do, test your knowledge for the most ridiculous things on board and make you do everything for them while they relac-one-corner during the flight.

Some examples I’ve got was this red uniform stewardess asked my batch girl to pour coffee and after she took one look at the cup, she told her to redo it because the coffee did not reach the correct “level”.(She was just making my batch girl’s life difficult on purpose) My friend had to re-pour about 5-6 times before she was satisfied and commented loudly to a green uniform stewardess “See nowadays the new stewardesses are all bimbos”.

What I personally experienced was this green uniform stewardess saying that I have no proper family upbringing because I did not use the word “Please” when I asked her to pass me a bottle of red wine for a customer. My exact words to her was “Hey XXXX, can you pass me the red wine”. I did say “Thank you” and gave her a smile when she handed the wine bottle to me but clearly she needed to hear me say “PLEASE”. Because if you don’t say Please = no manners, no father mother teach.

How I dealt with such nasty colleagues was to tell myself that I will not be seeing them the next flight (we fly with different colleagues each flight). Just be above them, don’t get upset or feel defeated or go hide in the bathroom to cry(like some stewardesses do). Instead, when I was lectured, I apologize and smile at them saying “So sorry I wasn’t aware of that, thank you for sharing with me, I’ll take note of this”. And after that I continue to do my work properly and to the best of my ability so that they wouldn’t have much to say/nag about.

All in all, my probation period wasn’t that bad because I did not get “zapped” or “aimed” by seniors often, I think less than 5 times only? Also, I guess not appearing to be timid or soft spoken and an easy pushover helped?

After probation – bend the rules

After probation was over, I was starting to enjoy flying and the anxieties I had before each flight started to go away. I was quite confident of my work at about my 4-5^th month of flying and needed fewer reminders to do this and that by the seniors.  I also started to be more relaxed on my hair & makeup.

See, when we were in training school, we were given a specific eye shadow color, lip + nails color as well as the style we should do our hair. I was told to wear blue eye shadow with bright red lips and tie my hair into a bun. I followed the standard given to me during my probation and once it was over I did a 360 degrees alteration.

This was my training school make up...

And this is after 6 months. My hair was still in a bun because I only learnt how to do French twist much later.

I applied brown/gold eyeshadow instead of blue and styled my hair into a French twist instead of bun. I think I looked better that way because the blue eyeshadow on my fair skin had such a huge contrast, I look too made up. I would have gotten into trouble if anyone checks my color chart to see that I did not follow the color standards given to me but thank god, no one questioned me for the remaining 1 year +.

Promiscuous affairs onboard

This is one stereotype that stewardesses are unable to get rid of. Everyone thinks that what we do is: get paid to travel the world, shop and party with opposite sex. Erm, I think that nowadays there isn’t as much scandals and crazy games played between stewardesses and stewards/pilots as compared to the past? I’ve heard from the senior stewards about the many adult games that they used to play in the hotel rooms and I was really shocked. Not sure if they were exaggerating with the stories but I’ve heard from different sources and it all seems to be about the same. & I must comment that the crew in the past were really daring.

What I’ve experienced was many harmless flirting from stewards. I’ve had them asking me out for lunch/dinner when we are overseas but I will only go if I know other stewardesses are going. Even when we are back in Singapore, some will try to share cab with me home from the airport even though we stay nowhere near each other, they would asks me out for supper, offer to bring me out for breakfast and when I rejected, wanted to send the food up to my house!!

There was this one time, we were in London shopping and this steward brought me into a guitar shop, asked me to sit down on a chair while he performed a song for me. Yes, he played the guitar and sang a song when there were others around. I was so embarrassed OMG.

But what I’ve learnt is that, if you make it very clear to the stewards that you are attached and is in a very serious relationship, 90% of the time they will back off and stop the flirtatious talking. The other 10% just doesn’t give a rat’s ass if you are attached or not. As long as they find you cute, they will continue to shamelessly flirt with you because they are bored during the 5 days flight and they just want to have some fun.

Nowadays because of technology, most cabin crew hide in their room using the wifi to connect to love ones back home. We video chat with our boyfriends all the time and some of the cabin crew were forbidden by their boyfriend/girlfriend to hang out with opposite sex so they end up staying in the room during the night.

For me, my boyfriend as pretty alright with me hanging out with guys but in a group of mixed gender and not being the only girl of course.

What we usually do is buy alcohol + snacks from supermarket and then all head into 1 person’s hotel room (usually the stewards’s because us girls don’t want to dirty their rooms) or the crew lounge and drink, talk cock just hang out. We do have a lot of fun, laughing and talking about anything from crew-related to our daily lives. There were a couple of times where we were so loud that the security came up to ask the rest of us to leave the hotel room and said that only 2 people can be in a room. Da fuck? HAHA.

Strawberries and champagne in a steward's, prepared by the other stewardess. I remember it was 9pm but London was still bright outside. 

Halloween party in Switzerland - Zurich. We decided to draw our faces, eat & drink in the crew lounge with the pilots as well. it was one of the best gathering ever. :)

Many times I was asked to go clubbing but I rejected them because... my boyfriend doesn’t like me to club when I’m overseas because he knows I can get a little cray cray when I’m too drunk.

So, all in all, I would say that the stereotype of cabin crew being “easy” is really just a stereotype after all. Throughout my time in SQ, I’ve only seen with my own eyes twice – stewardesses making moves on stewards. 1 was under influence of alcohol, another was probably because she was bored and wanted some company because the guy was totally not interested at all.

Sleeping alone

Another thing that people often ask me about is, do stewardesses share rooms.

Answer: No we don’t.

We are each given a hotel room but it is up to you to bunk in with other stewardesses. I’ve personally slept with other stewardesses instead of my own room whenever I feel a hotel is too eerie and my imaginations were running wild. I also shared rooms with stewardesses that were super nice and we got along really well. So we spent the day shopping, and the night hanging out in our rooms.

But other than that, 90% of the time I sleep alone.

In my hotel room in Shanghai. My bed was too big and empty so I placed my small cabin bag on 1 side of the bed while I slept on the other side. I always do that when the bed is too big and my stupid brain will always tell me "someone" is sleeping next to me so I decided to occupy the space with my luggage. LOL

And looking back, I am really surprised that I am able to do that. Because, before flying, I was a super coward. Whenever I go overseas with my boyfriend, I would be so terrified to even shower alone and when I sleep, I have to be in my boyfriend’s arms. I was that scared of ghosts. HAHA.

How I got over that hurdle?

I told myself that if so thousands of other stewardesses can sleep on their own and not be a baby about it, why can’t I? I knew it was all in my head, those fears were irrational and I temporarily blocked them out. I would leave all the lights on and even the TV when I first started flying, then after months, I started to off the TV and eventually my bedside and room lights. The bathroom light will always be on though.

Eating & Sleeping on the Plane

A question that never gets old, “What do you eat on the plane, do you eat after all passengers have eaten? Or are there meals set aside for you?”

Well the answer is, we eat whatever the passengers are having that day. The same food. We do not have any special or yummier meals hidden in the galley (kitchen). The catering staff will bring up extra of 15-20 meals for the crew’s consumption.

So for instance, today we are serving Chinese - Fried Rice with Chicken or Western - Fish with Potatoes to the passengers, we will the same meals too. But most of the times some of us stewardess/stewards will give up our meal choices because an angry pax wants to have the chicken but the chicken was a popular choice on the flight and its is all gone. So we will end up having to eat whatever that there is left.

Of course, you can choose not to give up your meals and just let the pax be angry because what if there are 10 more pax who wants chicken? But it is entirely up to your decision and I’ll usually see how the pax react. Some pax gets really really pissed because there isn’t a meal of their choice.

Oh, you can choose to bring your own meals up to the plane too. Some of my colleagues do that but not alot because it is quite a hassle to have to heat up the food all over again and to find place to keep them in the very full galley.

As for sleeping on the plane, there are crew rest areas in the plane for us to rest. Yes, there are beds for us to lie down and curtains for privacy. On some planes, the crew rest are is above the cabin and for some it is below the cabin. So don’t be shocked when you see crew going into a magic door and disappearing for hours. We get a max of 3 hours sleep on a 12-13 hour flight and frankly speaking, it is not the best rest ever. Because you’ll have to keep your hair in place and makeup all intact after your crew rest.

This is me lying in the crew bunk. All I did was remove my red lipstick and apply a later of lipbalm over and sleep!

Some crew will undo their French twist or bun before they sleep and wake up 15 minutes earlier to retie their hair. For me, I’ve mastered the art of sleeping on my side and not moving during my rest. So all I gotta do when I wake up from my rest is to touch up my lipstick and rinse my mouth with mouth wash (don’t wanna kill the pax with my morning breath) that’s all.

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Okay, that’s all for part 2 of my SQ experience, I think the final one would be about the countries I’ve been to, which left the most impression and why I decided to quit flying.

So... stay tuned!

(Most of the questions I’ve answered were from my askfm)