annie-thejourney.com

Sharon posted this comment last Dec 18 under the post – SALARY, FLYING PAY & LAYOVERS.

Hi Annie, very informative site you have here. Can you ask MGA to enumerate the countries with layovers (please include how many days) & countries which are just turnaround flights? Also, how does the free travel concession work for your family? Are friends included? Thanks Loads!

I immediately forwarded this to MGA & its just today I receive a response from him. He was almost 7 days out of Dubai from a flight of Melbourne-Auckland & he didn’t bring his laptop with him. Anyway this is his response with said inquiries.

There’s a lot of countries with layovers. As far as I know, the longest layover is Singapore-Brisbane which is 9 days you will be out of Dubai. I just arrived from my flight Melbourne – Auckland that’s why I was out of Dubai for almost 6 days. Here are the list with layover. I already visited those in blue color.

Regarding the ticket, relatives can avail their discounted tickets once you’re done with the probationary period. It can be ID 90 or ID 50. As far as I remember ID 90 means 90% discount but if it’s a full flight there’s a probability of 80% not to be in such flight since you’re not priority. While in ID 50, its 50% discount & this is somehow “sure” ticket since they can’t take you out of the list.

MGA in Perth

That was MGA response on Sharon’s inquiries. I observed that MGA wasn’t able to put the details of Layover such as number of days/time. It’s not that the list is too long to have it full detailed but I feel that Layovers might be variable.

*check “cat.5: Annie in Support: Dream to Fly” for more links

HOMEPAGE

 This year’s Christmas truly a celebration with family and I will say the meaningful Christmas that I ever had, so far.

This is the first Christmas that I am a certified MRS & celebrated it with my own family – Yoanna & my dear husband.

This is the first Christmas that I didn’t look forward for a drinking party with colleagues/friends rather a dinner with the family.

This is the first Christmas that I & my friends weren’t discussing about parties & out-of-town trips, rather a celebration with our own family.

This is the first Christmas that reminds me how great God is for giving me such wonderful friends.

This is the first Christmas that I felt joy & blessed not because of those gifts under the tree but because of the people joining me in opening those gifts.

My parents-in-law arrived around lunch time of the 23^rd. It was their first time to see the house & so far, they like it. I felt relief when my husband’s mother told me that the house is beautiful. Then we woke up early morning of the 24. I & my husband did the last minute grocery while Yoanna stayed home with her grandparents. She built her first ginger bread house. The whole day of 24 was preparation for the 10pm Christmas Eve dinner. My husband did the major cooking while I prepared the starter – my own version of strawberry dip in white & dark chocolates.

Our guests are Filipino-Americans, so our menu was composed of Pansit (Rice Sticks), Ham, Turkey, Chicken Adobo, Potato Salad, Lumpia (Egg Roll), Fruit Salad & Strawberry Cheesecake for the dessert. We invited Daniel, my husband’s officemate & a retired US Navy who recently got married with a Filipina. He confirmed & informed us that he will bring his 19-yr grandson with him. A total of 8-pax dinner, excluding Yoanna. Around 9pm when the fil-am couple (with grandson) told us that they can’t make it to the dinner for some reason. Pretty disappointing but anyway, it’s their lost of not to enjoy such meal. So, I removed some plates in the table & gave us enough space for the food.

To add more spirit of Christmas in our dinning area, I displayed the greeting cards we received this year. I bought this dried flowers with Christmas ornaments in Wal-Mart & set it in nice glassware with a white candle in the middle. Tied a Christmas ribbon & viola, I have a Christmas-table centerpiece. We purchased a light colored table cloth (with napkin). That brought out a light impression since the dinning table/chairs are in dark brown color. Then, we found this nice white dinner-set for 8 people with gold lining – complete with its silverware. Finally, I put those wine glasses. Honestly, it wasn’t an expensive table setting but it looks elegant. To completely enjoy the Christmas Eve dinner, I let my laptop played the Christmas songs.

It was a great dinner!

We skipped the traditional 12′o clock gift opening. Instead, we did it in early morning of 25^th. In such way, Yoanna was able to join us & it’s the whole family who opened those gifts. Then we had Christmas lunch at home & went out around 1:30pm to watch “National Treasure”. The whole family enjoyed the movie though Yoanna fell asleep inside the theater for some minutes. The theater was full with families & it felt great hearing some screams in every suspense scenes.

 (Yoanna opening her gifts)

(Yoanna watching “National Treasure”)

We arrived home late afternoon. I stayed in the room for a while & called some family & friends in Philippines. I’m in teary eyes when I finished my phone brigade. My last call was “somehow” emotional. I called Riz who was in the hospital taking her duty – to stay with her mom, recovering from an operation. She told me that it’s her turn to be there on the evening of 25^th until morning of 26^th.

The past week was stressful for me. Not just for the Christmas preparation but knowing a special person diagnosed a stage 4 cancer. It was a VERY unexpected news & a very untimely event. Though as Christmas day approaches I realized why things need to be in such way. Not many people knew but Riz’ mom done a lot of things to me. She was very considerate during the times I was down. She was also happy whenever good things come on my way. I was there when she usually celebrate having a great deal in business. I was also there when she experienced some family problem. I was “somehow” part of the family.

I had some minute with her in the phone. It was the first time that I told her how much she mean to me – to us. She was truly an ICON to us. I’m praying for her recovery & chance to live more. I want her to witness how I live my new life, so she will see how I admire her in balancing family-career life & still fabulous!

I love you Auntie Sally & we’re praying for you.

*check “cat.3: Annie in More Personal” for more links

HOMEPAGE

What did you receive that was a real surprise?

 - A Black Coat from my Husband

Enjoy FEW survey questions & EARN!

 Girls look what I found - Victoria Secret’s Beauty Rush Luminous Shadow! – In short, Eye Shadow.

For sure some of you out there are pretty jealous with those wonderful eye make-ups that can’t figure out how it’s done. I, myself, wasn’t that much make-up expert. Up to this moment, I still fails in proper make-up application. So what I usually do is that I stick with “safe” colors which is near to my complexion – the family of brown. Although we’re so much comfortable with these “safe” colors, there are instances that we need to go beyond & required to use colors far from our “safe” limitation. You know when? -  When job demands. See flight attendants, make-up is one of the top requirement every time they’re going on board and its part of their training – proper grooming.

But let’s face it girls, even though you had weeks training on that, still it requires more practice. Otherwise your face specifically your eyes would be in different shades.

That’s why when I found this in VS Shop I got excited. I don’t know if I’m late for this but when I checked VS site its still not included in their list. So, I feel that it’s new in their list.

The application is so easy & not that long. Just a minute or two, you will have a fashionable eye shadow. Apply & use your finger tip to spread it nicely. Their collection of colors are very trendy.

Mothers, FAs & other girls-on-the-go out there, you must have this on your purse!

*check “cat.3: Annie in More Personal” for more links

HOMEPAGE

 It’s not just girls-women who need to take good care of their face. Let’s admit it boys – Nowadays you’re more conscious on how you look. Don’t worry guys it’s not really vanity, rather a more responsible human being – Who knows how to take good care of their selves.

Especially if your job requires pleasant personality like cabin crew or in sales/marketing industry, it’s pretty shameful to face other people with rough face & a lot of dark spots in it. Am I right?

When my husband moved here in Arizona for a new assignment as navy recruiter, I told him that he better show himself in impressive way. Dealing with people is not just informing them of what you got but convincing them that what you’re saying is true – confident personality. How are you going to be confident on yourself if you have dark spots in your safe? Honestly my husband is very limited in lotion application after a bathe. Other than that, he already consider it too much. I can’t convince him to use body oil for an extra moisturizer neither an expoilant for his face. He told me body oil feels so uncomfortable and expoilant hurts.

I did a little research in beauty shops & found this POND’S White Beauty Detox. It’s a cream to reduced dark spots & marks on your face. And it will visibly lighter your skin. It works perfectly in my husband’s face. Plus, it just require a minute to apply on your face. Wash your face or right after a bathe, put a small amount on your finger & spread it in your face in circular manner. Some recommend applying it twice a day but my husband use it once a day only. Still works perfectly in his face.

You might want to try it guys, especially those who are flying & requires a fresh looking face.

*check “cat.3: Annie in More Personal” for more links

HOMEPAGE

 Last night around 9pm we visited a 24-hr supermarket. Not really to buy grocery items but to do some transaction in Western Union. Thinking that W.U. is still open since its a 24-hrs supermarket.

Why 9pm? I’m not feeling well yesterday. My right arm is really painful – “IS” because until now it still hurts.  The other day we went to Chino Valley for the completion of my immunization as well as Yoanna. It’s part of the requirement of our adjustment of status here in US. So, Yoanna don’t have any choice but to comply with the needle. I was amazed too by learning yesterday that I need to take good care of her immunization record. Such record will be part of her requirement to enroll in school. How I wish the same thing goes in Phils. Anyway, as what I’m saying, we end up going out 9pm last night because I can’t drive & need to wait for my husband. It was already 7pm when he reached home & very much hungry. So, we ate dinner first.

9pm we reached the supermarket & the W.U, was already closed. I feel so disappointed. My husband knew how much I want that errand to be done last night. Instead of ending up to nothing, we took some time to check the grocery alleys & bought some items.

While the three of us waiting for our turn in the cashier, I was checking the magazines & thinking of getting one copy.  I really can’t choose. You know why? The headlines are too much SPEARS – Britney’s case, Britney’s babies for drug test & Britney’s sister pregnancy. I was like – WHAT?! As far as I remember Jamie Lynn Spears is only 16 yrs. old & her boyfriend is only 19 yrs old! SPEARS truly took the headline bars nowadays.

When my husband asked me if I’m done selecting what magazine to include in the cart, I told him that I will just check the internet. I really don’t think that these magazines’ headline will entertain me while I’m in the “white king’s chair.

Checking the news & other’s people point of view on the net, with the recent SPEARS flash led me on answering a survey!

*check "cat.3: Annie in More Personal" for more links

HOMEPAGE

 Welcome to the new home of THE JOURNEY!

This site would still be under construction if not with the help of a good person, SHERWIN – referral from my friend Riz. He included me in his daily routine for almost a week inspite of busy work schedule. Just to transfer my files from the old blog site. I never thought that file transfer would be that hard & complicated. I never thought that opening a new site with my own domain name & web host subscription will be that much complicated. It’s not that I’m threatening you guys but I am just giving you a truthful insight.

If you found this site in its default theme, well bear with me since I’m still in the learning process of the new system. Although, it may look plain but I will try my best to give you much information & in daily basis update.

Moving to the new site also inspired me to think of other ways to entertain you guys, at the same time an informative one.

For those aspiring cabin crew searchers & regular readers, I am currently working on with an interview of my friends currently working as Flight Attendant. To give you more detailed information on how they dealt with their own applications. Some may not be under Emirates airlines but they will surely give you an idea on how they started their flying career. So, if you have certain question in mind kindly post it below (comment section).

For those who concern the first category – moving form Phils to USA, well I am polishing my personal notes (from tips, learnings & expenses) & share it here in the blog. I am looking forward to post the PROJECTED EXPENSES FOR K1 VISA APPLICATION by end of this week or even earlier. I will definitely share my personal notes on how I went thru on this entire application & in a very smooth waiting period.

 Other than that, I am also thinking of adding more features on this site. Not to irritate you but something to encourage readers to post their own opinion/insights. THE JOURNEY wasn’t created to brag & just share what I got. Rather it was created to seek other’s opinion/insight in certain matter. For me, life is a continuous learning process and hearing other’s input might give us the other side of story.

Hey, do I sound like a Marketing Person now? I’m so sorry. Honestly, I just want to be a part of your daily surf routine.

Feel free to enter your email address in the subscription part (right sidebar). Thanks!

HOMEPAGE

 In this season, I really miss home. I miss my family & friends. Philippines is very colorful during holidays. Not just with the decors but the season itself put colors on the face of people – color of joy, giving & love. I can imagine how Filipino families celebrate Christmas Eve. We have big family back there. By all means we find ways to celebrate holiday season.

This is my third Christmas of being away from my original home. The last two Christmas was spent in Bahrain. In an Arab country that somehow recognized Christmas & respect Christians in celebrating it. Since my boss’ wife is a Filipina, we usually celebrate Christmas with a HUGE lunch. Huge because of Turkey and party until late evening with videoke & wine.

This Christmas is very special to me – to my own family. This is our Christmas as an official Abarca Family. We invited some friends to join us on our Christmas Eve dinner. This week will be a full schedule of preparation for Christmas. The same thing my parents-in-law will be traveling from Las Vegas to join us until Dec 27^th. Then in New Year, its us who will join them in Las Vegas for New Year celebration.

Last night, I was busy baking the blueberry muffins. My one way of some kinda personal touched Christmas gift. In my list are my husband’s officemates, our neighbor, some Fil-Am friends & those ladies in Social Security Office who helped us on a very smooth application of my own Social Security Number. I did this food-giving before in Bahrain, although there I just prepared brownies. But these brownies put smile on the face of my colleagues there. I just hope that they will love my muffin this year. Back there in the Philippines, I never done this kind of gift, though the whole Christmas day there includes FREE buffet! Kids are all over the street. Making their way on their godparents’ house, say their greetings, eat some food & asked for Christmas gift. Lovely isn’t it.

Speaking of Philippines, SCART tagged me with this LAKBAYAN post wherein it’s like a rating on how many places you have been visited in the Phils. Well, for others who don’t have an idea, Phils has three major islands Luzon, Visayas & Mindanao. My roots are from Visayas but they transferred in Luzon & its there where I was born.

It’s my first time to receive a tag message from a fellow blogger. It’s pretty cute and for this to continue, I am tagging KARMI & ITOT54JONI. Hope you enjoy it too guys!


My Lakbayan grade is C!How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!Created by Eugene Villar.

HOMEPAGE

 Yesterday, I intended not to update THE JOURNEY with a new post. It’s not that I’m not in the mood again but I was trying to learn the new system, so I can finish everything & start posting on my new site www.annie-thejourney.com. I started studying around 9:30AM. Finished the “Getting Started Link” & Tutorial Video. When I realized that I’m ready to start everything, I tried to settle things by myself, by my little knowledge and Oh well, I end up NOTHING. I was almost crying of not getting the new system. I was thinking if I’m getting odds now with the new technology & I’m having a hard time in simple logic. Until now I’m looking for a right word to define the feelings I got from doing something that you’ll never knew was pretty damn hard. I had this kind of feeling before when I was trying to solve Thermodynamic Problem during my college days.Time to recharge, so I called my husband & asked him to drop by in Starbucks for a cheesecake – something to ease the pain!

It’s around afternoon when I decided to use my life line – “dial-a-friend”.  I send emails to the people whom I knew will definitely help me in this technical issue of mine and hoping to receive an immediate action from them. It was already dinner time when I catched ITOT54JONI (my fellow blogger in WPP) in the chat room. He tried to help me & gave me a very nice tutorial video. The video was great & it just made me feel sh*t, realizing that it was just as easy as that to install the Wordpress.

So, I was watching the video while I’m cooking – for the dinner. The meat was almost done when my husband asked me if we already have rice. Then I realized I forgot to cook rice. My very supportive husband took the rice cooker & started preparing rice for us, while Yoanna was roaming around the kitchen & shouting -  “I’M HUNGRY!!!!”. My husband knew that I’m rushing the new site, so he just told me to focus on that & he’ll do the rest in the kitchen.

Then I got another message from CUTECARMI! Yehey! Another life-line response. I was really looking forward to catched her in YM since the web host I subscribed was the same as hers. Ahhh, but it’s our dinner time. So, I need to cut everything for some time again.

Anyway, just to make this story short, SCARTY got online after Carmi. After sometime, SHERWIN dropped me a message too. So, here it is –  MY FOUR LIFE – LINES! The three bloggers need to attend on their personal stuffs so I took the opportunity of Sherwin being in the office in night time. Bad Me! We we’re trying to figure out everything until exactly 2:20am, Sherwin told me that some images here in the old blog were in other format that’s why the file loading was interrupted. Oh, this Sherwin by the way is not blogger neither a close friend of mine but as far as I know he’s a programmer and Oh, he’s an artist too! He’s my friend Riz’ high school best friend. At first, I was hesitant to ask help but yesterday was really TOUGH. When Sherwin saw THE JOURNEY (this blog), he said “SWEET”. When I saw this word in my monitor, I took some time to check this blog – Is this sweet? Does it really look like sweet?

I don’t know how Sherwin defines SWEETNESS on this one but it’s a pretty cute compliment.

http://www.annie-thejourney.com/ is still down up to this moment. Sherwin told me that he will take care of the file transfer this afternoon & I’m really praying that tonight it will be done. Its new theme was loaded by Scarty & I do love it.

Guys thank you so much…Sherwin I’m holding on you (*wink).

 *check “cat.3: Annie in More Personal” for more links.

HOMEPAGE

 I just recently purchased my own domain name. For now, since I’m still working with some more technical details, the site is redirected to this Wordpress Blog Account.

I started blogging since year 2005. I started in my Friendster account. At first, it’s just my way of making my Friendster profile a little trendy. Then, some of my friends posted comments there. My “used to be” chat sessions over coffee or drinks with my friends were made possible even though I’m in the middle of nowhere – thru that blog.

Until this July 2007, I encountered Blogger & Wordpress sites. Seen sample blogs & testimonials of bloggers who done a lot other than everyday posting. It took me a while to show to the internet world this blog – “THE JOURNEY“. Technically, it was just last August 2007, when THE JOURNEY was fully published & searchable by Google search engine terms. It required me a lot of readings, sleepless nights of studying & try-outs until finally I reached 100+ hits (the blog statistics).

Friends from PPRUNE gave me support on my links about Becoming Cabin Crew and now new viewers from another forum of aspiring cabin crews are frequently visiting my posts. You just don’t know how you guys motivate me to continually dig information & post it here. Not just the compliments but when you mention how THE JOURNEY helped you with your application, it is pretty rewarding.

Now, upgrading to new domain name & new web hosting is another big challenge for me & I’m looking forward for more learning experiences.

Take a look where everyday’s post of THE JOURNEY starts.

 *check “cat.3: Annie in More Personal” for more links

HOMEPAGE