Hectic day yesterday!

Since I was at SPL today I passed by Planning & Assignment (also known as crewco) and spoke to Ralph S., my new RSA. I knew him already, because he used to be a SA (Service Agent) at SPL/PH and then GA (Gate Agent) at SPL/PG. He got my flight changed for an earlier date. So Accra ACC is out and Bonaire BON is in for Thursday. Dank je Ralphie-boy! I'm going to BON with an excursion flight to Lima LIM and back. I'm glad I'm getting a chance to do the LIM segment, because as of the summer schedule the LIM flights will no longer stop in Bonaire. The flights will be carried out non-stop on the 777. That's not a problem for me, because I'm also 777 type-rated. KLM-ers are not happy with the lost of the BON flight, because it is getting harder to bid on them now. The only thing that now remains is the UIO/GYE flights. I couldn't care less. Why should I go to BON, if I can go Aruba AUA? I was at Schiphol today and I read on our slip-site that AUA flights are also being rerouted. 2x weekly AMS-AUA-AMS, 2 x weekly AMS-SXM-AUA-AMS and 1x weekly AMS-BON-AUA-AMS. In all 5 cases the crew will lay-over in AUA. Didn't expect that, I have to say...

But you know what is seriously funny? This is my schedule...

THU  8 Mar 09:10 KL0741 6/6 M11 AMS-BON 10:50-20:50 (53)
FRI  9 Mar BONAIRE 46:55
SAT 10 Mar KL0741 M11 BON-LIM 21:55-01:45
SUN 11 Mar KL0742 M11 LIM-BON 03:20-07:10
MON 12 Mar BONAIRE 34:40
TUE 13 Mar 05:30 KL0754 M11 BON-AMS 20:00-05:00

 

... and this is R's schedule...

THU  8 Mar RV
FRI  9 Mar RV
SAT 10 Mar 09:10 KL0741 6/6 M11 AMS-BON 10:50-20:50 (53) V+

SUN 11 Mar BONAIRE 59:05

MON 12 Mar BONAIRE

TUE 13 Mar KL0753 M11 BON-GYE 10:20-13:10

TUE 13 Mar KL0754 M11 GYE-UIO 14:10-15:00

TUE 13 Mar KL0754 M11 UIO-BON 16:15-18:50

WED 14 Mar BONAIRE 35:40

THU 15 Mar 17:55 KL0742 M11 BON-AMS 08:20-17:25

Can you see it? Well let me explain... Saturday the 10th, when I go to LIM and back, I am actually relieveing R. and another friend of ours! Lol! They are coming in on the 741 from AMS and I relieve them on board and continue to LIM. I didn't even realize this, because I thought R. was doing BON until next week Saturday. I thought he had a Seoul ICN this week, but I switched th dates around. So when I told R. I was heading to LIM on Saturday, he said "Man! Je lost Bri en mij af! We zullen een paar dagen samen op BON zijn"! Well... I am exstatic about that. The only thing is that we are staying at Plaza and R. and Bri at the Divi. The one thing that I don't like is that I'm returning on the754, because it's a daytime flight and its hard work everyone told me. The 742 is a piece of cake, because it's a nighttime flight and everyone is sleeping. Oh well... het kan niet altijd feest zijn, toch?

After Ralph fixed up my schedule, we took a bus to Schiphol-oost where there was the final farewell ceremony for the lasts 767-300ER airplane from KLM fleet. It's last flight was to/from Washington IAD on March 3rd. After 10 years it's over for the 767. The aircraft in question was PH-BZK "Zeelandbrug". It was kinda boring actually. Speech, food, drink and a last walk on board the plane.



PH-BZK









Farewell ceremony

Going on board

Flight deck

Ralph

Just like this PH-BZA, the PH-BZK will be painted in Zoom colors and be shipped off to Canada. All the above pics are from Ralph S. Thank you for giving me permission to use them.

I didn't stay long, because I had a dinner party in Amsterdam to celebrate my co-worker Ricardo 10 year employment at AF. Because Lesley lives so close to Amsterdam I showered and changed at his house and took the train to Amsterdam Centraal. I decided to leave the car at home, because I was planning to drink a little. I am very careful with drinking and driving, because those of you who are reading my blog for a while now, know that I was involved in a car accident last year that put me in the hospital and killed my co-worker Winston van der Horst ( R.I.P.) at the age of 29. The trial against the now 19 year old girl is still going on as we speak, so I'm not going to talk about it. But drinking & driving is a big no no!

Anyway Ricardo only invited 5 other people to this dinner. Raymond, Henk, Rob, Dennis and me. It was fun! The food was great, the wine was excellent... it was just great fun. Ricardo is the Manager Information Technology. I love this guy! He is so open and friendly.



Ricardo & Raymond

Appetizer

Dennis & Rob

Raymond

The whole group. Let me tell you what we all do withinn AFC Holland: Ryan (Lead Consultant Asia Specialist), Dennis (Associate Consultant team #2), Rob (Lead Consultant Engineering & Maintenance), Raymond (Executive Consultant), Ricardo (Managing Consultant Information Technology) and Henk (Lead Consultant European Specialist)

Shrimps! Hmmmmm!

Dessert! Lekker hoor!

After dinner, we all took a stroll through Amsterdam before heading home

Around 23.00 Dennis and I took the train to Dordrecht. All-in-all a very hectic, full but very fun day with co-workers. Nogmaals van harte gefeliciteerd met je 10-jarige jubileum, Ricardo!