Three simple words, that start every PA made at the start of a journey. Welcome on board. And I truly mean that! If you're taking the time to read this, then thank you! Whether you're just looking for a bit of light-hearted entertainment, your next holiday destination, or you're interested in what life as a long-haul dolly (or even short-haul which is where I started) is actually like (hint: every bit as incredible as you might imagine), then you've come to the right place, and I'm looking forward to taking you on this journey with me.
So who is this girl that is starting to ramble on at you? My name is Jordan Milano Hazrati, I'm 25, and currently living down in the South of England, although as everybody keeps telling me when they hear my accent, I'm a long way from home, which is actually 'oop North' in the North-West Midlands. You're probably staring at the name and thinking, 'well that's a conflicted situation right there', and you'd be correct! I'm part Persian, with a bit of Irish, Welsh, Italian, Turkish and strangely enough according to Ancestry.com, Mongolian thrown in there! I like to think of myself like a cocktail, a bit of everything for everyone.
How did I end up in a love affair with travel then? Travel is in my blood. Growing up, I was incredibly fortunate that my family made many sacrifices to prioritize travel, culture, and language. Within not just my immediate family, but also extended family, we made it priority that every year, we would have some kind of cultural experience abroad, and my family very much share the values that I do, which relate to finding the REAL culture of the country, or city you're visiting. Think about as 'off the beaten track' as you can get (and I'll be sharing some of these anecdotes in blogs as we go along; trust me there's some moments where even I can't believe the situations we've got ourselves into!).
My mum and my dad are extremely hard-working people, and due to my multi-cultural background, we haven't always had a lot of family around to look after me and my sister whilst growing up. So sometimes, mum would have to take us to work with her, and I have to say, she was ingenious in creating activities to keep us occupied. This involved watching reruns of holiday programmes to find destinations we would all like to explore, and watching TeleText (do you remember that?!) on repeat until bargain holiday prices would be listed. I distinctly remember one day when I was about 11, in the 6 week summer holidays, being in my mum's office. She sat me on SkyScanner, and told me to search for a flight, and if for all four of us, the price dropped below £200, she would book it. Me being me, scoured the internet all day, finding a flight from Manchester to Malaga for just over £200 for all of us. True to her word, she wouldn't book it until it dropped under, so I placed a price alert on it and low and behold it dropped! We booked the flight, and a day later we headed to the airport (although this wasn't particularly smooth sailing.... more to be discussed in later posts!).
When I became old enough, I started taking solo trips, both short and long haul to a wide variety of locations, and I can only think that this travel as a young person, and seeing how my mum organised everything from flights, to excursions, as well as my dad's frequent far and wide travel for work, made me confident enough to do this. But as for entering the travel industry as a career, despite always loving aviation (trust me, I'm the biggest avgeek out there- more on this in blogs to come), it took several different career changes to realise what actually made me happy.
Becoming cabin crew was the most natural process for me, and I worked short haul for a year (and loved every second of it), before finally becoming long haul crew for the biggest most-loved airline out there. I feel so at home in the sky, and I know where I am now, is where I hope I will be lucky enough to stay forever. Every flight is completely different, and although the antics we get up to downroute (this is a term we use for our layovers in different places), and the beautiful places we get to see, really do make the job super special, the best part of being crew is meeting and learning about our passengers onboard, and trying to make their journey memorable and special for the right reasons. That and the view from the office.... I can't wait to share with you some of the sights I've seen at 40,000 feet. Believe me when I say, there's nothing better.
I've also recently started to begin work on my PPL- my private pilot's license. I adore the feeling of flying an aircraft, and am fascinated by the work that goes into aviation at the pointy end of the plane. No doubt I'll be posting regarding this as and when we go forward, and I hope you enjoy following my journey as a female aspiring pilot.
So why now to start writing this? Currently as I write this (and I hope that when I read this back in weeks to come, the situation is starting to change), the UK is on lockdown, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The aviation industry has been incredibly hard hit by this situation, and I've found myself with more free time on my hands than expected heading into the usually busy summer season. Movement has been restricted which means I have been unable to travel from my base in the South, back to my family, and I find myself feeling almost suffocated by the lack of freedom we now are enduring. Normally, when I have time off work, I travel...that is the one thing I can't do right now. So I'm going to start living my adventures through memories and connecting with like-minded people, who I can hopefully inspire to seize the day and find some adventure when the world starts turning again.
So that's what to expect really in a nutshell. Inspiration, adventure, tips, tricks, tales and anecdotes, and hopefully, just a little bit of fun. I look forward to connecting with you in the coming weeks, months, years, on this journey. But for now, stay safe, stay healthy, and we'll speak soon!
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