C-c-c-cold!!
WTF?! How cold can this place get? And it's going to get colder! Seriously, I need to be somewhere in the Caribbean and not here in Holland. Anyone who knows me, knows that I hate the cold with a passion! I just can't stand it. But alas... what can I do than just deal with it.
Despite the cold on Friday evening around 80 of my Delta co-workers and myself enjoyed a nice meal at a wok restaurant in Amsterdam to celebrate the single operating certificate (SOC) that Delta obtained on December 31st, 2009. Officially Northwest Airlines is dead at the age of 83. It has taken 426 days to obtain the SOC.
Worldwide Delta employees celebrated this milestone, because Delta is now officially the largest airline in the world. Holland was no exception, except that our Area Manager decided that it would be awesome if we celebrated it with other Delta stations in Europe. So said, so done. You have to remember that some of these people are 'real' Delta employees and some are just performing services in the name of Delta like the Dutch team whom are KLM'ers, the French team whom are Air France employees and the Italian team whom are Alitalia employees. But it didn't matter... we were all a big DL family and it had to be celebrated.
People who wanted to attend started to fly in from Thursday on. The flights were courtesy of Air France and KLM on a seat available basis and the hotels were courtesy of Accor Hotels for 2 nights on a room available basis. You see AF and Accor are longtime business partners. Accor supplies AF crew(and sometimes KLM crew) with hotel rooms for lay-overs and when AF ground employees travel abroad more often than not they stay in an Accor Hotel (Ibis, Novotel, Sofitel, Mercure, Dorint, etc.).
Accor & Air France
A event planning company organized the whole thing and they did it well. It was a good wok restaurant without too much luxury, but the atmosphere was out of this world. I enjoyed myself!
Jan de Boer (NL) & Karl Kraan (NL). I'm sitting next to Hassan (Cairo) in the background
Magdalène (Brussels) & Pjotr (Prague)
Hans (Paris) is our Area Manager Europe. He's about to give a welcome speech
Delta people
Nilgün (Istanbul) and me
DL'ers
Khadija (Dubai), Nilgün & me. Khadija was in-transit from Atlanta to Dubai and was invited to join before continuing to DXB the next day
Time to eat!
Sakin (Istanbul) with Patricia (London) in the background
Joanie (Nice) with Mehmet (Amman) in the background
DL'ers
Mediha (Budapest) & me
DL'ers
Brother & sister team: Ron (NL) and Yvonne (NL)
In the foreground you have Bassand (Mumbai) and Ragoenathsingh who is Manager Line Maintenance in NL. Ragoenathsingh (nickname is Mon) is Remesh's oldest brother... so kind of my brother-in-law. We don't work in the same building though
Marcel (Atlanta) and Peter (Zürich)
In the forground you have Leonardo (Milan)
Marco (Rome), Gérard (Stockholm) and Marcel (Atlanta)
William (Atlanta)& Nilgün
DL'ers
Sharon (Dublin) & Michael (Dublin)
DL'ers
Khadija, Peter & me
Joanie, Ron & Khadija
Khadija, Mehmet & Sakin
Great conversation and lots of laughs among co-workers
It was great. I slept over at Lesley's house in Hoofddorp and while everyone else flew back home yesterday morning, I took the train to Rotterdam dreaming of sunnier destinations while looking at the snow through the window. Sigh....
Despite the cold on Friday evening around 80 of my Delta co-workers and myself enjoyed a nice meal at a wok restaurant in Amsterdam to celebrate the single operating certificate (SOC) that Delta obtained on December 31st, 2009. Officially Northwest Airlines is dead at the age of 83. It has taken 426 days to obtain the SOC.
Worldwide Delta employees celebrated this milestone, because Delta is now officially the largest airline in the world. Holland was no exception, except that our Area Manager decided that it would be awesome if we celebrated it with other Delta stations in Europe. So said, so done. You have to remember that some of these people are 'real' Delta employees and some are just performing services in the name of Delta like the Dutch team whom are KLM'ers, the French team whom are Air France employees and the Italian team whom are Alitalia employees. But it didn't matter... we were all a big DL family and it had to be celebrated.
People who wanted to attend started to fly in from Thursday on. The flights were courtesy of Air France and KLM on a seat available basis and the hotels were courtesy of Accor Hotels for 2 nights on a room available basis. You see AF and Accor are longtime business partners. Accor supplies AF crew(and sometimes KLM crew) with hotel rooms for lay-overs and when AF ground employees travel abroad more often than not they stay in an Accor Hotel (Ibis, Novotel, Sofitel, Mercure, Dorint, etc.).
Accor & Air France
A event planning company organized the whole thing and they did it well. It was a good wok restaurant without too much luxury, but the atmosphere was out of this world. I enjoyed myself!
Jan de Boer (NL) & Karl Kraan (NL). I'm sitting next to Hassan (Cairo) in the background
Magdalène (Brussels) & Pjotr (Prague)
Hans (Paris) is our Area Manager Europe. He's about to give a welcome speech
Delta people
Nilgün (Istanbul) and me
DL'ers
Khadija (Dubai), Nilgün & me. Khadija was in-transit from Atlanta to Dubai and was invited to join before continuing to DXB the next day
Time to eat!
Sakin (Istanbul) with Patricia (London) in the background
Joanie (Nice) with Mehmet (Amman) in the background
DL'ers
Mediha (Budapest) & me
DL'ers
Brother & sister team: Ron (NL) and Yvonne (NL)
In the foreground you have Bassand (Mumbai) and Ragoenathsingh who is Manager Line Maintenance in NL. Ragoenathsingh (nickname is Mon) is Remesh's oldest brother... so kind of my brother-in-law. We don't work in the same building though
Marcel (Atlanta) and Peter (Zürich)
In the forground you have Leonardo (Milan)
Marco (Rome), Gérard (Stockholm) and Marcel (Atlanta)
William (Atlanta)& Nilgün
DL'ers
Sharon (Dublin) & Michael (Dublin)
DL'ers
Khadija, Peter & me
Joanie, Ron & Khadija
Khadija, Mehmet & Sakin
Great conversation and lots of laughs among co-workers
It was great. I slept over at Lesley's house in Hoofddorp and while everyone else flew back home yesterday morning, I took the train to Rotterdam dreaming of sunnier destinations while looking at the snow through the window. Sigh....
posted by Traveller at 6:36 AM
14 Comments:
Wanna join me here in Singapore? :)
greetings,
Dev
Het is wel leuk wanneer je collega's over de hele wereld verspreid zijn. Dat is uniek aan de luchtvaart. Je mag dan bijvoorbeel op kantoor in Amstelveen of Schiphol werken, maar je werkplek is eigenlijk de wereld.
Niemand kijkt op als iemand zegt 'ik was vorige week in Abu Dhabi voor werk en...'. Gewoon uniek.
Lies
Wel again let me congratulate you on working for the world largest airline. It's snowing really bad here in Hoofddorp.
Anyway tomorrow I'm going apartment hunting in Haarlem, so I took off. Wednesday I am heading to London for a course and 2 workshops in Waterside for my new job. I will fly back Saturday morning.
Did I tell you that there were 4 BA diversions at SPL a few days back. 3 777's and 1 747-400. Heathrow was closed due to WX. We put everyone up in hotels at SPL, A'dam, Den Haag en even R'dam. It was hard finding hotels according to my colleague, because Virgin Atlantic and BMI also had diversions. This weather needs to stop.
Maybe I should just join Devon in Singapore and leave your *ss here in the cold! XD
Les
YES PLEASE, DEVON!!! LOL!
Don't forget to enjoy some singapore white chicken with Jasmin rice. Oh, I just love that!
@ Liesje: Dat is inderdaad uniek. Ik praat de hele dag met mensen over de hele wereld. Daarom lijkt de wereld nu ook zo klein. Als mij verteld word dat ik bijvoorbeeld volgend week naar Atlanta moet voor werk, denk ik er niet over als een hele reis die je moet maken, maar gewoon een hop 'over the pond'... over de Atlantische Oceaan... je doet je ding en gaat weer naar huis. No big deal. In het begin (9 jaar geleden) toen ik bij KLM Ground Services en daarna Air France Consulting begon, vond ik het allemaal overweldigend en geweldig. Maar dat went zeer snel. Maandag in Shanghai, woensdag in Osaka, vrijdag in Parijs en zondag avond weer thuis in R'dam. Soms vind ik het zelf wel jammer dat een stukje opwinding bij me weg is. Vind het allmeaal nog hartstikke leuk hoor, maar het is gewoon anders nu. Misschien is dat wel heel normaal. Who knows?
@ Lesley: It is snowing here in R'dam as well. But I'm in Dordrecht now at my parents and it's snowing hard1 we are making cinnamon rolls, can you believe. I hope they come out well. Anyway, damn that snow and the icey sidewalks!
LHR was one hot mess! Good luck in Waterside. will you immediately hear if you passed or not?? When do you sign the contract? Anyway, I will call you tomorrow to see how the apartment hunting went. oh and when in london you need to go to Tesco Supermarket and pick me up some Iced tea powder and of course Welch's Grape Juice. And no, I am not asking, I am telling you what you have to do. Just saying...
Ry
Wel yesterday I had a:
KL0835 77W SIN-DPS 10:25-13:10
KL0836 77W DPS-SIN 14:30-17:05
As you already know ASIA is not my thing but i'll try out that SIN white chicken with white Jasmin rice NOT... And sinds i'm on a strict diet no rice for me!!! My hubbie says i'm to heavy lol.
I've noticed Ryan, you like & eat every damn thing, NOT ME. I remember some time back when u worked for AF consulting u posted pics at a market somewhere in China I guess(Chengdu) where people sold Dog head for dinner/snack and you said it was delicious, man you nasty. Lollllll u remember Lesley?
@Lesley: Good luck with your course en workshop. Uhm, what job is that? And don't forget, u'll be surprise when Ryan post a blog saying that he's on the island of Aruba. I'm gonna request AUA 100punten, see what that damn PBS going give me. I so miss my P&G :(.
turbulence.
Fumara riverfront,
Dev
Ik denk dat je de Furama bedoelt, Dev. Heerlijk hotelletje.
Maar goed, je kan zeggen wat je wilt, maar die Singapore witte kip met pandan rijst is heerlijk! Het heet eigenlijk Hainanese Chicken Rice. Als je veel geld hebt om uit te geven moet je die maar halen bij de Raffles Hotel Singapore in Beach Road, maar het lekkerste vind ik toch bij Sin Heng Kee in de Hoy Fatt Road in de Bukit Merah buurt!!!! Je moet het gewoon proberen. Het ziet er allemaal wit uit, maar de smaak is gewoon hemels. Elke keer dat ik in SIN ben, is dat het eerste dat de crew meestal wil eten. En je leeft maar 1 keer, geniet van je leven en eet wat. Als je hubby je te dik vind, moet hij maar iemand anders zoeken!!!!! LOL!
http://foodappraise.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/hainanese_chicken_rice.jpg
Hé veel plezier daar in Singapore. Ben 2 daagjes geleden teruggekomen uit MNL. Man wat was die vlucht lang!! En dat op de 77W met die nauwe gangpaden. Geef mij maar de 772 en NIET de 77W!!
Rob
Dus dat is de broer van je vriend. Maar waar werkt je vriend? Wat doet hij precies? Vertel eens wat over hem, ik ben al heel lang heel erg nieuwsgierig!!!
Miriam
@ Lesley: How many flights does British Airways have to/from Amsterdam and where do they come from? Also does BA world Cargo have dedicated freighters into Amsterdam?
@ Ryan: Iced Tea and Welch's Grape Juice. Okay, got it. Anything else? perhaps a case or two of Frappuccino from Starbucks Coffee? Maybe Mocha Latte? :-)
@ Dev: Definitely try the Singapore Chicken, diet or no diet! But I can't agree with Robin. Last November I was flying to Sydney and I made a 2 day stop in Singapore. The hotel clerk recommended me a place where the locals go. The Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice stall in the Maxwell Food Center. It's very popular and DELICIOUS! Go back on a riceless diet when you're back in AMS.
That dog thing was sarcastic I recall. I remember on one of my first IPB trips after I started at BA a few years back. Ryan had been to PEK with AFC and I wanted to see it for myself before the Olympics started, so we both went to China. We were on a market and there was a stall with some really weird sh*t on a saté stick like worms, bugs etc. Ryan threw up right in front of the stall. the Chinese guy started to curse him out in Manadarin. OMG! So I don't think he would eat any dog. lol!
As for my job: It's not a sure thing as yet, but I am leaving BA World Cargo. I will be joining the BA Marketing & Sales department for the region The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany & France. I have to go through some stringent tests first, but I'm not too worried. I also was approached twice by KLM to join Air France-KLM Cargo, but I've had enough of cargo for now. I've learned a lot and now it's time to move on. BA is a good company to work for, so I can't complain. The travel benefits are also as good and at times even better than KL.
@ Angelo: 9 flights per day on Saturdays & Sundays and during the week we have 13 daily flights. All from London (LHR, LGW & LCY). BA World Cargo uses the pax flights for their cargo and mail. About 4-5 times a year we have a 744 freighter in AMS. Most times horses, cars etc. are invloved requiring a widebody aircraft.
Les
DOG? Ryan, WTF? That's just nasty! Wait until I tell oma!
JD
@ Devon: You don't know what u missing!! Remesh better don't come tell me no shit about being too heavy. He knows better than that! Ha ha ha! That man eats everything in sight and does not gain a pound and maintains a sixpack. No gym, no nothing! He's just like my Dad who weighed 65 kilo's since he was 19 years old!!! Me... if I look at a Whopper or Big Mac too hard, I gain a kilo! It's so unfair!!! But hey... like I said in my New Year post... live like it's heaven on earth! Also I'm lucky that Remesh doesn't really care about my weight. And he really doesn't!
@ Robbedoes: Niet klagen. Je krijgt 3-4 uur pauze om te slapen.
@ Miriam: Ik respecteer de privacy van m'n vriend. Hij wil (nog) niet alles op mijn weblog hebben. Maar als je mijn blog had gelezen dan is het wel duidelijk dat hij ex-KLM'er is. Ik kende hem al 4 jaar vaagjes, voordat we met elkaar begonnen te werken. Na meer dan 2 jaar met elkaar gewerkt te hebben begonnen we met elkaar om te gaan als meer dan collega's/vrienden.
Hij is bij KLM weggegaan voor een baan bij Unilever (Knorr, Bertolli, Dove, Axe etc.) als Business Development Manager Inflight. Hij heeft daar de leiding over een team van mensen die zich bezig houden met het ontwikkelen/implementeren van maaltijdconcepten voor vliegtuigmaatschappijen en luchtvaart cateraars. Hij werkt in de 2 hoofdkantoren van Unilever. Voornamelijk in R'dam en soms in Londen. De rest laat ik aan hem over om te vertellen als hij daar klaar voor is.
@ Angelo: Who cares how much flights BA has into AMS anyway? When going to London people fly KLM, then BMI, then easyJet and finally British Airways. Last on the list. Just saying...
@ Lesley: You would bring all of that just for me???!! Thanks dude!!!! You are the best! Hahaha!
And just for the record: I NEVER ATE ANY DOG, CAT, SNAKE OR ANY OTHER WEIRD ANIMAL IN MY LIFE! That's just crazy talk by Devon!! Ha ha ha! Just the thought of that makes me sick! I am not afraid to try new foods in my travels. I think the worst I ever ate that I didn't like was iguana soup in Aruba, horse meat at a friends' home and kangaroo meat in a restaurant in Breda. In Florida I ate shark meat (just like fish), alligator tail (just like fish) and I enjoyed some ostrich steak in Vienna.
I looked for the post in question for everyone to read! Click on the link --> Chengdu food
So there you go. Anyway, I'm off to bed. Gotta work in the morning!
Ha, die Ryan. Het is alweer een tijd geleden dat ik een berichtje op je weblog heb achtergelaten. Ik ben net wakker. het is nu bijna 10.30 en ik zit lekker in KUL! Niet al te ver van mijn collega Dev dus. Heb vandaag een shuttle naar CGK en dan nog 2 dagen hier.
Je moet eens een keer langskomen na werktijd. Dan ben je toch in de buurt. Bel me. Wel doen hè!!!
Ik ga ontbijten en dan lekker de stad in. Moet een laptop tas zien te scoren voor een zacht prijsje voor Alex.
Kus!
Jens
Oh, het is hier 28 graden. Erg man! ;-)
Oh ja en Dev... zolang je in je uniform past, zie ik geen problemen. Ga maar lekker je witte kip halen. Het is inderdaad een aanrader, collega!
Jens
Ryan, watch your mouth. when wanting to fly quality, people UPGRADE to British Airways! Our Club World beats Delta's business class any day! Even KLM's WBC!
Les
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