flight attendants

We recently had a new business class airline start-up, and quickly fail here in Australia withing a matter of a few months.

I was lucky enough to fly with them a few times, and saw some great improvements on what is offered by our monopoly/duopoly airlines here.

I used to recruit cabin crew, flight attendants, flight crew, hosties or whatever you want to call them, for Australia's premiere airline, Qanatas. That airline ran its flight crew like military teams. Highly disciplined, literally never a hair out of place, and very obedient. It wasn't for everyone. Many many people applied for these roles, but we were instructed to turn people down on personal hygeine, hair, skin, and a number of other characteristics that would be illegal to screen for if it was written down as criteria.

Qantas air staff received lessons in hair and make-up preparation, were regularly inspected, and were expected to tow the line. They reminded me of that old Robert Palmer video clip with the identical models dancing in the background.

OzJet, the failed business class airline, hired nice, friendly, and slightly less than perfect cabin crew. One very nice young lady I saw on a couple of flights (who incidentally remembered me) had a couple of tattoos. Whilst they were not visible as such, they were covered with bandages, one of the bandages, the one on the back of her neck, was coming off on one flight.

She was gorgeous, friendly, and tattoo'd. I was in love. But that was also part of the problem with the airline. The regimented way Qantas does things is the main reason they are known around the world, have outlived much of their competition, and continue to this day to be the most successful airline in the region.

But, they are still boring. Tattoo neck, if you're out there, drop me a line.

Cologne New Philharmonic Orchestra

I am going to see the Cologne New Philharmonic Orchestra this week.

I have been each year for the last three years.

They play Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart etc in large churches and cathedrals. This week they are in St Paul's cathedral in central Melbourne.

Tattoos are evil and will make your children worship satan

How does a piece of ink on your body make you a bad person?

I was reading Inked recently, and it made me remember all of the times I have seen people who stand out being marginalised. A piercing here, an interesting haircut there.

People judge very quickly those who look a little different. I don't get too much of this, as I have to remain pretty corporate for work these days, but if anyone sees my tatts or piercings, usually on the weekend, the gym, beach, or just out and about in short sleeves, they look at me completely differently to when I am in a suit.

It goes both ways too. I can go somewhere on the weekend "dressed down" where I go during the week dressed for work, and get better service if it is a hole in the wall record store, or a "student" eatery. Its still me.

Anyway, if anyone reads this, check this article: Woman asked to leave aircraft

Protecting my new iPod

These iPod covers are great.

I only wish I'd had one the minute I got my new 30GB Video iPod, but a bit of Brasso does wonders apparently. I got some pretty cheap plastic screen covers on eBay from a seller in Hong Kong, and they are just fine. They even cover up the fine scratches from everyday use.

It's interesting to note how many opinions and variations people have on the subject of protecting the iPod, but most agree that they can be quite prone to scratching.

Some people even scratch them intentionallyfor decoration.


But my favourite is the iPodWizard.netidea of hacking your iPod firmware and changing graphics, fonts etc to customise the look of your iPod.




I replaced my apple symbol with skulls and did a few other minor things.

I want this.