The three days-off come as a blessing. The memories of Osaka still mulling in between naps and meals.

    ‘So in the past days off I really enjoyed my time. As most of my friends were also resting in Doha, I had plenty of activities to fill that time. Lunches, visits to the Souq Waqif, proper grocery shopping and tidying up my bedroom. Also, I went to the pool and had a little ‘diving incident’, the swimming pool being more shallow than I thought, I hit my nose with the bottom of the pool and slightly scratched my forehead. It didn’t hurt, it was just incredibly embarrassing!’

I don my uniform and patiently wait at the crew terminal, the burgundy sofa of the crew lounge ruling my first ever ‘Airport stand-by’. At the mercy of any sick crew, happiness can manifest in the form of a nice layover to Bali, whereas bitterness can infest the body at the assignment of a red-eye turnaround flight to Mumbai.  All crew healthy and operating, I am sent home at midnight and go straight to bed.

It’s ‘Stand-by’ duty the next day. A twelve hour shift of waiting at home for any sort of flight assignment. I check my roster after lunch and a red message pops out:

‘Hyderabad red-eye’. Not one, but two. Back-to-back. My blood boils.

Hopeful about the fact that I am still on my first day of Stand-by duty, I do not accept the changes on the roster and wait. At 21:15, my mobile rings and a voice says:

    ‘Hello, we are calling from the Rostering department. You have just been pulled out of Stand-by to operate Singapore and Jakarta, which is a four-day trip. See you at the airport in an hour’. 

My Hyderabad turnarounds are wiped out of my life completely and a conflict between hating and loving rostering linger in my head whilst I take the bus to the airport.

Bags are packed and I am off to Singapore in a few minutes.