Girls' picnic

Tinseltown Dress Rehearsal

Répétition générale Samedi 11 Décembre 2010.

The Dreamgirls meet The Supremes

Production Headquarters

Taking over the house.

Production Headquarters

Getting ready for Tinseltown. So much work.

80 years and counting

"On May 15, 1930, the world's first stewardess took to the sky and changed the air travel experience forever. She and seven other nurses were the industry's first professional flight attendants. They were hired to calm and comfort customers who were apprehensive about flying in those early days. Much like today, they were safety experts, emergency responders, service professionals, mediators and counselors.

"First Stewardess" Ellen Church began the journey from San Francisco to Chicago. Four stewardesses -- one for each assigned segment -- were staged along the flight’s route to complete the 13-stop, 20-hour trip on a Boeing 80A with 14 seats."

With our number 1 Flight Attendant having flown with United for over 50 years, just imagine all he has seen (yes our number 1 is a "He") through the years. All the changes, improvements, technological advances that we take for granted today, he experienced it all first hand.

In my 15 years with the company, the changes I have seen touch mostly work rules, onboard service and duties. The aircrafts have been the same with different paint jobs and cabin interiors. I have always wondered why we did not invest in making a cheaper version of the Concorde. Unveiled in the 60s that aircraft was an amazing feat of technology. The fastest commercial jetliner ever built. It became evident rather quickly though that the cost of flying that machine would not make it accessible to a lot of people. It became a sign of luxury until it was merely a sign of patriotic British and French spirit. But we never tried to improve on the Concorde. Instead we offered a "better inflight experience"
.
The Airbus A380 (which we are not getting) is the only new big change in commercial aviation in years just because of it's size. The Dreamliner Boeing 787 is still going through testing and its delivery has been delayed over and over. We are scheduled to acquire some Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 in a few years but with the looming merger with Continental I am not sure how much of our long term planning is and will still be relevant.

Crazy night at O'Hare

O'Hare airport is a ZOO tonight. Thunderstorms in the area have caused
havoc in the flight schedules. I have never seen the Departures and
Arrivals screens with so much yellow. 95% of the flights are either
delayed or canceled. We finally made it here after a 3 hours delay and
now are working another delayed flight to Baltimore. .

Fiesta island

Marathon training today with Matt. We drove to Fiesta Island which is in the middle of Mission Bay Park, next to SeaWorld. Matt started running and slowly disappeared in the distance. I expected him to pass me at least a couple of time on our circuit. I guess I did pretty good since he never did. I walked the 17.6 miles in 3h20mn (4 times around the island). This was my longest walk so far and the best pace yet; 5.28mph. First time around was the warm-up and I felt great doing rounds 2 and 3. Doing round 4 took some will power though; I really felt it in my legs. The marathon is 26.2 miles so I would still have about 2 more hours at that pace. Now I am not so certain. The next long walk is 20 miles; about 4 hours. I know that I have to slow the pace a little bit if I want to keep the momentum and not fall apart.

A helping hand

On my flight 946 on April 3rd I had the pleasure to meet two families on their way to Ethiopia. They were going on a 10 days Mission to work in an orphanage. They were two moms and dads and three teenage boys around 15 or 16 years old. I was very surprised to learn by talking to one of the moms, how excited the boys were to leave the comfort of their city lives to go help less fortunate peolpe where in some part of the country, water and electricity are still a luxury. What a wonderful way to open their minds to a world so different from ours here. They will experience life viewed outside of our suburban or city comfort. Their eyes will be opened on a world that even the Discovery Chanel cannot fully portrayed in all its beauty and horror.
They will come back to the US hopefully transformed, inspired and most of all thankful and grateful for all we have here but easily take for granted.

Morning sun at O'Hare

Wet desert

Wet desert

Entrainement -Training

Matthew et moi avons décidé de faire le Rock & Roll Marathon de San Diego. En fait lui va courir et moi je vais marcher. On nous donne 7 heures pour parcourir une distance de 42 kilomètres. Je sais que je peux marcher pendant 7 heures car je l'ai déjà fait à Paris et à Sydney plusieurs fois mais par contre je ne sais pas quelle distance j'ai parcouru. En général je me promène dans la ville sans destination précise en écoutant ma musique et en regardant simplement les paysages. Je sais que je peux marcher assez vite mais j'ai voulu connaitre exactement ma vitesse. Avec le GPS sur mon téléphone j'ai calculé que je marchais à une vitesse entre 7 et 8 km/h. Pas mauvais du tout. A cette vitesse là, 7 heures est amplement suffisant. Toute cette semaine j'ai marché entre 8 et 20 kilomètres tous les jours. Ça me prend entre 1 heure et 2 heures 30 minutes. Je peux soutenir mon rythme du début à la fin mais ce n'est même pas la moitié du parcours que je vais devoir faire. Matthew a un planning qu'il suit pour s'entraîner et il doit faire différentes distances chaque jour. Je suppose que je peux faire pareil. Il faudra quand même que je fasse les 42 kilomètres au moins une fois avant le marathon.
Le marathon aura lieu le 6 Juin 2009 dans San Diego. Il faut que je continue mon entrainement pour que mes muscles s'habituent à l'effort. Jusqu'à présent je n'ai eu aucune crampe pendant mes marches.
Hier Samedi, et aujourd'hui repos. Si je ne travaille pas demain, je ferais une marche de 3 heures.
Bruler toutes ces calories m'a aussi permis de faire quelques excès quand à la nourriture. Cette semaine j'avais fait un pudding (d'après une recette de Paula Dean) que j'adore mais qui a plus de 600 calories par tranche. La crème, le sucre et le beurre y sont en abondance. Je vais essayer la recette en substituant ces ingrédients pour réduire le nombre de calories car c'est le meilleur pudding que j'ai jamais mangé.

Matthew and I decided to do the San Diego Rock & Roll Marathon. In fact he will run and I will walk. They give us 7 hours to do 26.2 miles. I know that I can walk for 7 hours because I have done it before in Paris and Sydney several times but I do not know what distance I walked. I usually stroll around town without a destination listening to my music and simply looking at sceneries. I know that I can walk quite fast but I wanted to know my exact pace. With the GPS on my phone I calculated that I was going at a speed between 4,5 and 5 mph. Not bad at all. If I keep that pace, 7 hours is more than enough. All this week I walked between 5 and 12 miles every day. It takes me from 1 hour to 2 1/2 hours. I can keep my pace from beginning to end but that's not even half of the distance I will have to do. Matthew has a schedule he follows to train, and he must run different distances every day. I guess I can do the same. Still, I guess I will have to walk the whole 26 miles at least once before the race.
The marathon will take place on June 6, 2009 in San Diego. I have to keep on training so my muscles get used to the effort. So far I haven't got a cramp during my walks.
Yesterday Saturday, and today, I rest. If I do not work tomorrow, I will walk for 3 hours.
Burning all those calories also allows me to eat a little bit more and do some excess. This week I had made a pudding (it's a Paula Dean recipe Paula Dean) that I love but has more than 600 calories per slice. The heavy cream, the sugar and the butter are the main ingredients. I will try to substitute them to reduce the number of calories, because it's the best pudding I have ever eaten.

Time and time again.....

- Excuse me Sir, what time is it? asked the young man as I was passing by.
- In Los Angeles or in Sydney? I replied, being used to hearing that question 100 times per flight.
- No the time here, the guy replied.
- We go by the time of our departure city or our destination. We are in the middle of nowhere right now and the "here" time would not be relevant.
- Uh?
- L.A. or Sydney time?
- Forget it.

As I walked away, I wondered why so many people seemed to be fixated on time. Is it because they feel they have no control over their journey and try to put it into some kind of personal perspective? "What time do we land?", "What time is it?", "How much longer?". Of course I could blame the lack of comfort for most of those questions, but even our customers in the "good" seats want to know.

- How much longer before we land?
- Are you sure you want to know, I reply with a smile.
- Yes.
- We still have about 10 hours.
- No that's not possible; still?
- If you won't believe me, don't ask me, I thought to myself but said "I warned you. You should try to sleep."

Everybody has a watch or a cell phone but still feel the need to ask the crew. Do they think "our" time goes faster than theirs? The map on the video screen also shows where we are and how much flight time we have left. Still not good enough. They have to ask us. We must be "in the know" or something....have some information that is only shared with the customers on a need-to-know basis.

- Sir do you know what time we land?
- Yes, I reply as I keep on walking.....

Journey North #4

27 Jan 2010
2:40pm. Did not sleep. Not much to see outside so just chatting with mom. Going through some small towns and stop in Salem.
3:56pm. After a few more towns, we arrive at Portland's Union Station. Our journey nears its end. Although the scenery this afternoon has not been as beautiful as before, the trip is still very enjoyable. Smooth, quiet, relaxing.....such a change of pace from my regular travel experience when I run through airports from one plane to another. Smokers get a break here too.
4:40pm. Arriving in Vancouver, WA, litterally a few minutes away from Portland. Beautiful views of Mount Pleasant shining like gold in the sunset.
5:20pm. Dusk is upon us. We are stuck on the tracks outside of Vancouver waiting for a southbound train to pass us. There are constructions and only one side is usable. Unfortunately the Seattle area will not be visible by the time we get there. One day, I'll do the trip in the other direction. The schedule is opposite so you get to see what you missed at night going north.
5:42pm. We are moving again and it is now dark outside. I can see lights reflecting on the river's surface but that's about it.
5:52pm. We're leaving Kelso/Longview. Dinner with mom.
6:33pm. We stop at Centralia after crossing some other towns.
6:58pm. Stop at Olympia. After we leave, I can still guess water on and off through the trees. However, I can't make out anything but lights in the distance.
7:39pm. We passed a lot of water. Too bad we can't see where we are. We stop in Tacoma then continue on 2 minutes later. You can guess the size of the towns and cities you go through by the size of their train station and the buildings and lights you can see.
8:24pm. Our journey is over. Both mom and I wish it wasn't so. Passengers disambark at King Street Station. The train station is very unimpressive compared to San Diego's Santa Fe Station and Los Angeles' Union Station. We head out to reach our hotel for the night. It is chilly and the air is crisp but there is no wind so it is bearable. As we walk downtown to get to the hotel, we are face to face with the Space Needle. We leave too early in the morning to visit the city but at least mom gets to see that.
This has been the most relaxing trip I've taken. Even cruises can be tiring as you try to fit into your schedule ship activities and shore excursios. There you only had to sit and enjoy the view.

Journey North #3

27 Jan 2010.
All I remember from last night are the lights being switched off at midnight and the train leaving Sacramento at 12:26am. We have pillows but no blankets. I guess I did not think of everything. It is rather cold in the car.
Woke up at 6:45am and although the day was barely dawning we could tell that there was snow everywhere. We are still in the forest and for a while all you can see are pine trees.
7:16am. We have left the forest and are now surrounded by vast snow covered plains with mountains in the background. Just majestic. We have crossed the border between California and Oregon.
7:45am. We arrive in Klamath Falls, OR, which is a "smoking stop", the second so far since we left L.A. Instead of the 2 minutes stop smokers get about 15 minutes to light up. Mom and I eat the breakfast that I had packed for us.
8:30am. Klamath Falls is behind us and we are now riding along Klamath Lake. It is overcast and the water looks rather gloomy but it must be breathtaking on a clear sunny day with the mountains on one side and the lake reflecting the azure above. It is still beautiful. We are next to the lake for 14 minutes before leaving its shore.
10:25am. The sun is peaking through the clouds and we are starting to see some blue sky. I have no idea where we are (no GPS signal) but we are surrounded by mountains and the scenery is amazing.
10:50am. Full sun now and a beatiful cloudless sky. We have been through a series of tunnels and now the snow has completely disapeared like by magic.
11:45am. We pass the town of Oakridge completely surrounded by high mountains. A river runs through it...didn't see Brad Pitt though. :-)
I found out that this is the Willemette River. We ride along it until we reach the beautiful Lookout Point Lake.
12:10pm. The lake is harnessed at one end by the Lookout Point Dam which controls the water going into the Dexter Reservoir.
12:40pm. We reach Eugene and I get off the train for a couple of minutes to get some fresh air. We've been on this train for about 26 hours now. We get lunch from The Snack Car and then mom takes a nap. I'm too afraid I'm going to miss something so I am glued to a window changing side every few minutes.
1:52pm. We arrive in Albany. I think I'm ready for a nap. To be continued...

Journey North #2

10:15am. Leaving Union Station. Going through some very "interesting" neighborhoods.
Around 10:40 we pass the Burbank airport and continue through backyards, backlots, back of everything. Can't wait to get close to the ocean again.
11:30am. Finally nicer scenery as we go through the Topanga Canyon.
We enter the agricultural Simi Valley on our way to the coast.
12:00pm. We arrive in Oxnard. I've always thought that was a funny name.
12:18pm. We finally reach the water. The weather is not as nice now. It is overcast but the ocean is still beautiful.
12:51pm. We roll into Santa Barbara station as we are eating lunch in the dining car. It is raining raining a little bit now.
2:00pm. We are back in our seats after a long nice lunch break with our charming table mates, Grace from Seattle and Joanne from San Jose. It is now pouring down. You can't tell where the Sean ends and the sky begins. From the train we watch the waves explode against the cliffs below us. On the other side, green rolling hills disapperaring in the mist in the background. It is impossible now to take any pictures as the camera focusses on the drops on the window pane. The groundcover along the shore has the fall colors usually associated with California going from greens to yellows to oranges to reds.
2:25pm to 2:32pm. No cellular service. Well I guess I can't move here, no matter where "here" might be. According to the GPS in my phone we are now near a town called Betteravia (if my guess is correct it means beet; the word is betterave in French). We are approaching a town called Guadalupe. Pretty ironic.
3:10pm. The sun peers through the clouds as we are approaching San Luis Obispo. Some white puffs hang in front of the hills like pieces of cotton candy.
4:00pm. We left San Luis Obispo a little while ago and are now litterally going 1.5mph through the most beautiful and green hills where a few cows graze without a doubt enjoying the grass that the rain showers from the past few days have helped grow.
4:55pm. I fell asleep for a few minutes but my phone woke me up as we were leaving Paso Robles. The light of day is diminishing and soon we will be plunged back in darkness.
6:00pm. It is night time and we have been traveling now for 12 hours. So far it's been such a wonderful trip. The rain did not take anything away from the beauty and serenity of the sceneries we have experienced. We will be going to dinner soon and probably have an early night since we had to wake up so early this morning. To be continued...

Journey North

26 Jan 2010.
6:10am. The train leaves on time and we slowly glide through the sleeping city. It is still dark outside and the forecasted rain is still a no-show. Mom and I are on the upper level so we can have an unobstructed view of the ocean once the sun rises. The train is comfortable and quiet and the ride is very smooth.
6:30am. Darkness gives way to daylight.
6:39am. We reached the seashore. Still foggy with big waves. It is really cool to be so close to the ocean. Lots of surfers are already riding the cold waves.
6:41am. Del Mar racetracks. It is so nice to see parts that you don't see or just zip through when you are driving.
6:42am. Solana Beach. We pick up some passengers and leave 2 minutes later.
The sky is clearing up and I hope that the rain and thunder that we were expecting have gone somewhere else.
07:01am. Oceanside station. Not much to see for the past 10 minutes as we go through neighborhoods. It looks like it will be a nice day though with blue sky and sunshine.
7:07am. We go through Camp Pendleton and get by the ocean again.
7:35am. San Juan Capistrano station. Slowly going inland now.
7:52am. Irvine station. Just been going through industrial areas and suburbs.
8:04am. We reached the beautiful Santa Ana station.
8:12am. Anaheim station. Spectacular views of the snow capped mountains as we leave the station.
8:21am. Fullerton station. Still nothing of interest to mention. Hundreds of storage places, business offices etc....
8:50am. Los Angeles Union station. Right on time. We have to change train here. To be continued....


Santa Fe Depot Station, San Diego



Los Angeles Union Station