Happy 17th of May

To all Norwegians (and non-Norwegians) HAPPY 17th of May!!! The celebrations in Stockholm will take place at Skansen followed by dinner with some friends of the family.

 

Making the best out of a long delay

It is 0258 and I am just home from a longer than planned shift at Arlanda. The reason is the following:

08-05-11

17:15

Heraklion

NVR261

5

Departed 02:00

NOVAIR

When the aircraft was ready to head south the pilots noticed something wrong with the engine and decided to return to the gate. Finally, all passengers were deplaned and told that the new departure time would be 0145 as a spare part had to be flown in from Copenhagen.

 At 2100 I was assigned to work the gate from just before midnight and prepared myself for what I could be facing. After a few stress free flights I took the “frog” out to gate 9 where I met up with J. and together we started updating ourselves on the situation and taking care of the people who had questions and concerns. Stage number 2 was to sort out blankets for all passengers as it was quite chilly in the terminal and people were trying to catch some sleep. After a few phone calls and a small “theft” we managed to source cover for everyone who wanted. As the clock came closer to departure time we were worried that we would have to delay the flight further but then  we obtained an ok sign from the ”tech team” and to everyones content we could start the boarding aided by R. and the Apollo representative and also SGS colleague C.

 After some small calculation problems and finding the last boarding cards J. retracted the bridge at 0153 and we could complete the last of the paperwork before heading back to the office to sign out. I arrived back home at 0247 just to have the morning newspaper delivered right in my hand. 

Looking back at this episode it shows that the key to good results is teamwork with a dialogue between crew, tech staff and gate and keeping the passengers informed. The last point is valid even if there is nothing to inform about as you show you know as much as them and you’re not trying to hide anything from them. Then do it all with a smile and no one can blame you for not having done your best.

To J,R,C, the techies, the crew and anyone else involved, I would like to say GOOD WORK!

  

                                               A late or early arrival home from work?

First mini-weekend of the year

                                                       

Tomorrow, after a morning shift at work, I shall board SK405 to Copenhagen and then change to SK1593 taking be to the Capital of Europe for a mini-weekend. The trip might also include a visit to Amsterdam or somewhere else on the Dutch side of the border. Look out for a trip report upon my return.

Back with flying

…but only as a passenger. Anders send me a message asking if I wanted to tag along to refuel at Barkarby so he would have enough fuel to fly to Sundsvall tomorrow. So at 1700 we took-off together with Leif from Vassunda and headed 20 minutes south.

  After a nice landing ooooon the center line Anders taxied us to the fueling station where I took care of the ramp service (after all, I do work for a handling agent ) We then had a quick cup of coffee before heading home again in the evening sun.

I think this picture describes how much I missed flying and that I MUST fly myself soon:

       

  

When they call you on a Saturday,

and ask you to work 0315-11 instead of 1800-0130 the answer you give is much like Ms. Piggy:

… Not this Sunday anyway

Caught between jobs

                                              

                                                               

Not much new from the tales of Arlanda at the moment but I shall try to maintain the frequency of the updates better than in the past weeks.

Fan mail to the editor

As I came in to the apartment after work tonight, there was a letter from a company asking for money and a small package. As I wasn’t expecting anything I examined it and saw that it was sent from one of the readers of this blog in Denmark and contained this book:

Accompanying it, was a nice little note from the sender. If you have read the comments to some blog entries, you might be able to guess who this person is and if not, well then he/she will remain unknown to you. ;) However there is a small message I would like to give this person and it is:

 THANK YOU VERY MUCH! I shall start reading it as soon as possible

Happy new year, when 23 becomes 24

09:17 on Friday, March 28th marked the moment when I became yet a year older and even if it was celebrated in a slightly calmer style compared to last year it was still a great day.

 After getting people to where they were going at work and eating a lot of cake with my dear colleagues I headed to Uppsala for a nice Greek dinner followed by a fantastic chocolate moose ehrm mouse and tea with Ms I.

 

My birthday mouse!

Only thing I missed this day was to fly but my annoying cold put a stop to this!

Happy easter from STOKESK

Today’s shift at Arlanda involved a 50/50 split between terminals 4 (domestic) and 5 (international) with a wide variety of passenger types making the day fly by, even if there was still plenty of time to catch breath and chit chat with colleagues. As we were all “in the same boat” a colleague had painted easter eggs and decorated the break room.

Throughout the day, I had frequent updates from my old friend Anna working for “KR” a.k.a. the ramp services about how little she had to do. A comparison at the end of the day showed that she had been scheduled 38% of the time whereas I had 108%!! talk about an interesting case of staff planning. Thus, the last hour when we had nothing scheduled it was time to pay her a visit and as you are well aware, one should try to blend in with the culture of the place you are visiting and making an exception would be ignorant:

 

Now you know why your bags always take so long to arrive!

The first step back to studying

While Sweden has taken a few days off for the Easter holoday, I’ve been busy with work and of course appying to my masters prog. in September. However, it will take until July 15th before I have my final answer.  The application has been submited as follows:

1. UU-P2113 - Master in Strategic Marketing Management,  Uppsala universitet, Uppsala 2. UU-P2111 - Master in Management of International Business, Uppsala universitet, Uppsala

3. UU-P2112 - Master in Management in a Global Society, Uppsala universitet, Uppsala

All remaining now is to send my grades and other required documents to Strömsund where they will collect a nice layer of dust.