Update on the garden side hustle: Round 1 strawberries

I mentioned before, I'd put a few plants out on ebay and come what may. Strawberries in the bigbox retailers in my corner of Essex sell for between .50 p and 1 gbp per plant. I grouped a few together to see what would happen and listed two lots. Both lots had over 10 watchers and 10 and 7 bids. I finally ended up with a sales price that averaged around .45 p/plant, with 17 plants out the door.

One set went a few hours north by post, the other set was a local pickup in my corner of Essex. (No one else was listing strawberries within 25 miles, so I had the market cornered a bit.)

The fellow stopped by this evening to pick them up. Bla bla, they have a container garden. And the usual question for me, 'if you don't mind my asking, where are you from?' He then mentioned that his wife is from Russia, and that she is their strawberry expert.

This statement from him, with wonderment:
So I'm in the middle of downtown (my corner of Essex), buying strawberries that were grown on a roof, by an American! Who would have ever imagined that?

Who would have imagined that my strawberries were going to live with a Russian in the UK? In addition, he was mentioning that they enter some kind of garden contest and placed last year...so they're hoping that these home grown ones do the trick this year.

Super. :-) Total strawberry profit today? Around 7 gbp after reducing for paypal and ebay fees.

Today's lunch from the crockpot: shrimp in a sauce

In an effort to eat (and feel) a little better, here's what I came with today for the crockpot's inaugural meal: crockpot barbecued shrimp. It was more Southern bbq than what I know from the North as bbq, but quite good anyway. Nothing pre-packaged or processed here, and no dairy. :-)

Here are the ingredients assembled. The 'olive oil spread' that I use in place of dairy butter was feeling camera shy.

I pared the recipe down a bit, I like things saucy, but 1 stick of butter sounds exhaustive, so I went with 2 spoonfuls. I also turned up the tabasco factor (although using a close hot sauce substitute) and only decided on 1 lemon once I saw how juicy it was. I didn't have fresh basil, so dried had to do.

As the shrimp were already peeled, they went into the crockpot for an hour only, on high. I toasted two small sandwich rolls and had it with that:

Total costs:

-the shrimp were a markdown that I had tucked in the freezer a while back. 1.55 for the package, and this was half of it, so around .78 p.

-1 lemon. A package of 6 m&s lemons were 2 GBP, so this was around .33 p.

-2 rolls - another markdown from the freezer, at .50 p for 6, from m&s, so around .17 p here.

-worcester sauce - this was not previously in my cupboard, it cost around 1.29 at Tesco, but there is plenty left in the bottle for future recipes, but we can estimate .10 p here.

-butter (olive oil spread instead from m&s or sainsburys), pepper, olive oil, hot sauce, and basil are all staples already existing in my pantry, so I didn't count them in. I guess we could estimate .12 p for all together.

Total cost: around 1.50 GBP for lunch.

I will definitely do this one again, although I'll try it next time with fresh basil. It's an interesting mix, lemony, but with a bit of a kick. Perfect for a chilly and dreary Sunday.

detox week - let the games begin

During February, I've found myself getting into a bit of a rut, work has been toxic and the weather here has been grey for days upon end. Normally, I shake things up a bit with my 'alcohol-free January', but this year, most of December and January were inadvertently alcohol free due to the flu and then my law papers which were handed in on Jan 31, so I didn't have time for leisure, anyway.

I woke up this morning thinking, 'as I missed my proper January, maybe it's time for a bit of a detox.' When I don't feel well, I tend to 1. go vegan and 2. give up the alcohol. I should probably add a '3. go for more, longer walks' to that as well. Something I struggle with here in the UK is the amount of cheese in veg foods. Although, I've been attempting to introduce a bit of fish into my diet as the UK does have locally sourced fish. However, in some ways that has been a bit of my downfall...in the Philly area, we don't specialise in fish, so I'm unfamiliar to any fish variety beyond Mrs. Paul's fish sticks (on a Friday night, naturally). So in an attempt to familiarise myself with what certain varieties of fish are supposed to taste like, I've been eating a lot more 'processed' or 'prepared' foods under the heading of 'research'.

However, I fully believe, that when you set a goal and have the vision to stick to it, the universe will help you to meet it.

I stopped by my local Lakeland today, on my 'fresh air' walk. If you don't live in the UK, Lakeland is a crazy expensive kitchen boutique store, which sells top of the line merchandise. Their customer service is second to none. For my US friends, this would equate to 'the Nordstrom's of kitchen supply stores'. As expected, their pricing reflects this service level.

However, I always pop in to see their 'dent and scratch' section. They have a 'no questions asked' return policy and anything that is not perfect, even if it is only the outside carboard packaging is heavily discounted.

Lo and behold, the universe thinks that I need a juicer. It has stated that opinion by offering me one at half price:

I liked my juicer in Germany a lot. However, space was limited when I came over here, and I always wanted to expand my juicing option, to do more than just citrus fruits. This 'absolutely new in box' discontinued bargain will enable me to make juice from apples (my favourite) and carrots (plentiful and cheap here in my corner of Essex).

Something else on the shelf was a slow cooker. I've never owned one, but I've eyed them up in charity shops, but they were always too gigantic. This little gem is 1.5 litres, and half off due to a 'slight blemish on the internal ceramic pot'. When I looked at it, the manufacturing dent of sorts was there, on the outside of the ceramic pot, the bit that you do not see as it is encased inside the metal heating element. Perfect for me to try this one out, to see if I like slow cooking...

I do like lentils and soups, and there are plenty of slow cooker fish recipes, actually, using non-breaded, non-processed fish, so I'm hoping this one will be a winner.


And for dinner tonight:


Kicking things off on the right foot, a salad (the photo is deceiving, it was actually bigger than it looks). Inside we have:

• a lettuce mix from Tesco, I'm a big fan of this particular one, it has young leaves, spinach, and some fresh herbs in there. 1.50/bag, this was about 1/3 of the bag
• tomatos from M&S, marked down to 2 gbp, this was around 1/8 of the box (from Spain)
• 2/3 of a marked down avocado from M&S - .50p for the entire avocado
• 2 spring onions, from a marked down bunch in Tesco
• a sprinkling of black pepper and dried oregano
• a swig of olive oil

I'll try to post further thoughts this week, on this detox adventure...

From the rooftop garden: garlic

I try to keep garlic always outside and growing; not only do I like fresh garlic and the greens from it, Slocombe the cat loves to chop the greens down to the dirt level. She does a little better with the garlic than with regular grass digestion-wise, so further reason to encourage garlic eating by growing more of it. For the record commercial grown 'kitty-grass' seems to bore her, so garlic it is.

I have one garlic bulb left from the fall's rooftop production, I noticed that some of the cloves were starting to sprout. As the weather was warm, I went outside and filled up two recycled pots with dirt from the compost pile and placed the cloves in it, and put them on my kitchen window. After about a week, I had this:

Peeking inside the tall one, it looks like I have some stowawy seeds tucked in there from the compost pile, and they like the kitchen window temps too:

(My guess on those is that they are tomato seedlings based on the looks of them, but we'll see.)

My re-purposed plastic growing container was a 1 litre fizzy water container, check out how the roots have so quickly grown to the bottom:

On the side hustle prospects: garlic plants do sell on ebay, but not for so much. It's only worth one's while if you are propogating from 'free' stock like I am. As well, garlic is one of the easier things to grow in a garden, in general, just drop the cloves into the ground and wait.

These plants however, are all for me, as long as I can keep them on the windowsill and away from Slocombe's attention. :-)

This spring's side hustle: plants

A side hustle is a little job on the side, to make some extra cash. I mentioned a few years ago, about a little side hustle I was doing, to do something completely different than my normal job, and to make a little cash. While benevolent company J treats me very well and gives me a paycheck to boot, it's nice to try out another 'career' on the side, on the evenings and weekends.

In my fantasy world I don't have to worry about renewing a UK work permit. In my non-fantasy world, I need to keep my eye on the UK legislation, and one of the conditions of renewing my UK work permit is a certain salary level--one which computer work readily supplies. Let's save that topic for my next 'UKversary', coming up shortly. Anyway, in my fantasy world, I'd be an organic gardener, with maybe a few chickens as well.

Some months back, I mentioned the 'accidental avocados'. I did end up putting one of the avocado plants up on ebay, and then watched in wonderment as it received multiple bids, and finally sold for 5 GBP, plus shipping. I boxed it up and it went north to its' new home, near the Scottish border...

Then I started to think a little further about this idea...

• My balkon in Essex is hotter than hot. In peak weather it's above 40.
• Certain veg and plants do very well up here, others not. In particular, because I'm so far up off the ground and because of the glass walls, it's a little more of a greenhouse effect.
• Except that I have a lot more space than the average greenhouse.
• I get a jump start on the UK growing season, and mine lasts longer as well, just due to the warmer temps up here.
• The UK plant market is a bit more 'closed' than some other EU markets due to government regulations.

For kicks and giggles, I listed extra strawberry plants in the fall, the runners that wouldn't stop coming. I still have over 60 runners in little pots, here are some of them, on the left:

Then I sold a set of strawberries on ebay as well, those were carefully boxed and went to live with Ben in West Yorkshire. As they were runners, they are essentially 'free' items to me. 5 down, 60 more to go...

While I cannot orcestrate a full salad to be produced off my my space (something I could easily do by late July in Germany, on 1/10th of the space), I am able to grow and sell warm weather items, so that I can them buy my salad. ;-)

So here is part of the back balkon. Last year I lined it with tomatoes. As you can see, it's a lot of spare space.

This year, I'm thinking to go after starting off a lot seedlings to sell small plants, and then those crops that do exceptionally well up here (and not so well in Essex or the UK). I usually do half decently on getting seeds started, due to that greenhouse effect.

I'm curious to see how much pocket change I can make from something I enjoy doing on the side...

Thoughts or ideas are welcome of what I should grow to sell, or how to do it...
Plants that have done well up here:

• avocados
• chilli peppers/any hot pepper variety, although they're not a big profit maker as peppers from Thailand and Jamaica are sold cheaply here.
• thai basil, from seed
• cat nip (cat mint) - last year's plants are already getting new growth for this season. I started with two small seedlings from the nursery and they mushroomed into 18 inches with pretty purple flowers on top. They over-wintered on the balkon and are now coming back with a vengence

Those who have failed up here, to various degrees:

• The cauliflowers - I attracted the white butterflies that created worms that demolished them.
• Lettuce - it gets too hot up here, so it goes quickly to seed
• Eggplant - couldn't get the seeds to sprout

Indifferent

• Potatoes - they do ok, but my winter ones flopped with our early freeze
• Tomatoes - they like the heat, but my plants get too hot and then get wilty. I actually had better tomatoes in Germany, by far

More frugal eating: zucchini boats

In a quest to use the cheap zucchini, it ended up a a side one evening, in a thrown together recipe of zucchini boats:

Nothing fancy again...the sliced in half zucchinis went into the oven for a little, with a little olive oil on them. While that was happening, just a little chopped onion and garlic in a pot with some olive oil, and in when all the veg I had on hand: a few sliced mushrooms, some tomatoes, and a carrot. The boats then came out of the oven and were hollowed out.

Next, the filling that was hollowed out was added to the pot, along with some sage. That was then scooped into the boats, along with a little cheddar. It went back into the oven for around 7 min. At that point, some breadcrumbs were sprinkled on top, and back in the oven for another 5 min, enough to brown them.

Total meal cost:

.15 p each for 2 zucchini

I had already incorporated the other veg and cheese costs into the main meals where they were used, so let's add it all up to .10 p per zucchini, so a total cost of .25 p for this side serving pictured.

New friend Ian deemed this one a success and asked for a repeat performance.

Frugal eating: Zucchini

Here in the UK I'd love to be able to grow Zucchini (or courgettes for the British trained amongst us)...however, my balkon here is way to warm. While in Germany I had no problem to spit them out in containers, in the UK I fizzled once they got to flowers and about two inches. It was just too warm, and they'd rot. (grumble, grumble)

However, I made the 'Markdown Madness' rounds last night. Often, I'll step out for some fresh air and will make a habit to allow Tesco and M&S prices to dictate my menus, making my rounds around when the good markdowns should have just taken place.

Normal price at Tesco for 2 courgettes is 1.20 GBP (1.42 EUR/1.61 USD). Yikes, yikes, yikes!! That's for zucchini about 4-5 inches, and NOT organic!

I realize that is sorta expensive for the US and EU costs, and I've yet to bring myself to pay this. However, let's see ('Schau mal' for my German friends), what I found:

Going to my local tesco around 18.30 results in finding things 75% off. So I picked up 4 packages of them. :-) At .3o p for 2, that's .15 p (.18 EUR/.24 USD) each, or 75% off. I could have purchased 3 more, but the expiry was on Thursday. After giving them a short tap, I estimated they'd be fine until Sunday, so thus I purchased 4 total.

The first offerings...nothing fancy...a little olive oil and onion, and then I added two sliced zucchini, and at the end sprinkled them with black pepper. Here is 1/2 of that. So I had one half on the first night, and then leftovers on the second night.

-->Don't you wish that you lived near my corner of Essex? We have 3 more packages to go through! ;-)

Tomorrow, they'll be making an appearance in fajitas, when New friend Ian will be here.

Slocombe's revenge

Dear Internet humans!

Slocombe the cat here. I've taken it upon myself to update you, because 'someone' has been going to work this week and leaving me all alone. That is not a very wise move, because then I get up to no good...

Even though I'm a retired ancient cat, I'm pretty sharp mentally, if I do say so myself! Someone noticed her avocado plant (raised from the compost heap) hasn't been looking so good in the past few days. She brought it in when the frosts came in the fall, and it's been fine, until the past week or two...

Here is a photo of it from a few months back:

What she finally figured out tonight, was that due to her office visits the past weeks, I've been lacking in 'structured outside time' on my lead! I like nature and smelling the fresh Essex air and getting a little dirt under my paws. To make up for it, I figured out how to balance myself on the plant pot, and, uh, water it.

Yes, I have a perfectly fine and functioning litter box.

Why must I do this then?

-->Because I'm terribly bored since someone leaves me here alone all day, and I don't have a balcony cat flap!

So now, she's finally figured out the mystery of why her avocado is suddenly keeling over and damp...because she caught me in the act. Drat! Curses! Foiled again!

Well, it's only Tuesday, and she's at the office through Friday this week. I can think up some new mischief in the meantime...

back in the saddle

I am very blessed to be able to spend most of my time working from home. However, I acknowlege, appreciate and validate that blessing by periodically coming to the office when requested by my employer. As I only go into the office 2 days on average per month, when I go in, I make the best of it and I go in with bells on.

Starting tomorrow, I need to go in for the entire week. Periodically, I spend a week in Germany in the office, but it's been at least 18 months since I last spent a week in my local UK office.

My lunch is packed and in the fridge.
My pc, notebook, office key and badge are all packed in the backpack, as are my cereal and office snacks.
It takes me about 25-28 minutes to walk to the office.
The weather report has been reviewed and my clothes are selected and set aside.
My main alarm and backup are set.

Now, all I need is for Monday morning to begin...

ask and you shall receive

Looking out at the front balcony this morning while on work calls, something caught my eye:

Once I was finally off the phone, I was able to investigate further:

It's a fluffy white feather, which somehow drifted onto the wet clothesline, and then remained there. I never get birds (or feathers!) on the clothesline or on the balkon because Slocombe is a fierce and mighty presence. I do occasionally see blackbirds on the roof however, or pigeons lower. It's quite a fluffy feather:

You may recall that my mother periodically sends messages, but she prefers the back balkon, so I don't think this one was from her.

Of course the internet is the source of all knowledge. Tiny white feathers are either an angel's calling card, or specifically related to a Guardian Angel. When I looked out a few hours later the rain had dried and the feather had moved on.

A few days ago, I asked for a sign. I guess I got it.

The balkon garden: oregano

It was mild in my corner of Essex today, around 11 degrees, and not raining during the day. Most of the garden is looking like it is supposed to in wintertime.

One of the few bits of green that I have is the oregano that I started from seed outside last summer:

Once we get some warmer temps in a few months, I expect this to go crazy. I was curious to see if it would survive the snows and our numerous days of below freezing temps, especially being in a container rather than the ground, and it has done much better than I anticipated.

The plastic bag vending machine at Stansted

Forgot your plastic ziploc bag for your carry-on liquids? No problem, for 1 GBP you can get one from the vending machine in Stansted.

• Kinda clever to use a design similar to a kiddie gumbal machine, like the ones you often see that cost two quarters in the US or 1 GBP here.
• Kinda highway robbery, 1 GBP (1.20 EUR/1.58 USD), for a plastic baggy. Especially so, when you consider that more often than not I've forgotten to put an item or two, such as my eyedrops, contacts, or blistex into the separate plastic baggy, and I've never been called out on it.

When I was in Germany last month, they didn't even bother to ask people to show their plastic bags or to separate out their liquids from their hand-luggage. Everything went through the x-ray in Frankfurt and the very serious Germans took a long time to look at my backpack on the screen.

Herr X had something identified on the screen and Frau Y asked if she could search my bag. However, my bag has many zippers and she was not finding what she wanted, so I peered over to see what they spotted. In my 'school' section, I carry a small metal pencil sharpener, it is encased in a metal capsule to catch the shavings. I pulled it out.

Ach so! says Frau Y, and holds it up for Herr X.

Herr X: Ach so! Eine kosmetisch yadda yadda.

Yes--my 'cosmetic pencil sharpener' and I have spent over two days here, that was long enough, thank you.

And they didn't give a rat's behind about all my liquids like my hand sanitizer, eyedrops, contacts etc. rolling around in the various pockets, sans plastic bag. But all that brainpower was working hard to confirm that my pencil sharpener was authorized to travel internationally to the US.

Tonight's frugal dinner: Polish cauliflower with a twist

A long while back, I mentioned that I had made Polish cauliflower.
I like to eat as frugally yet healthily as possible, meaning, I want to eat well, but cheaply. ;-)

Here was tonight's modification to that original version:

It's one quarter of a cauliflower (from France) 4 mid-size carrots (from in the UK, East Anglia), 1 spring onion, olive oil-based butter, and bread crumbs.

Throw the carrots in a pot of almost boiling water for a few min, add in the cauliflower for another brief few min, and then separately melt the butter with the breadcrumbs and chopped up spring onion, which should be ready in under a minute. Put the cauli and carrots into a bowl and then pour the contents of the other pot on top.

The reason for the dish?
Tonight, I went to Essex Boot Camp, where I had a groupon offer from December. It's a might fun way to spend an hour on a Tuesday evening, traversing through the park and then doing push ups around a tree and other silly but generally varied tasks. After all that fitness, I thought it best to skip the pizza deals mentioned yesterday. ;-)

As well, I've been finding a lot of good deals on produce. The cauli, carrots and spring onion were all on the 'sell-by' mark down date. It's kinda silly, as the carrots look superb and have at least another week and half in them, but who am I to complain about cheap produce?

Costs?
the cauli: .75 p for the entire head, so maybe 20 p for this portion
carrots: the bag of 12 was .38 p and I used 4, so let's say 12 p
the spring opion was in a bunch of 10 that was down to .58 p, so 6 p for this one
I'll skip the butter and breadcrumbs cost as they's been costed out previously.
Desert was a marked down kiwi: .25 p

Overall cost then for the meal was around .53 p (.63 EUR/1.56 USD) and there were no leftovers. :-) Even if I would have purchased the produce at its original cost, it would have only doubled or tripled the meal cost, so still ok for the UK.

I did have a carb heavy lunch though in anticipation of working out, so this was only meant to be something lighter.

Wondering if new year's resolutions are in place?

Papa John's pizza here in the UK sent me an SMS today that in January I can get any pizza buy one/get one free. Domino's is offering any pizza for 9.99 this week only.

I'm wondering if the pizza business is taking a hit, if people are sticking to their New Year's resolutions to eat less, lose weight, exercise, etc?

I however, can be tempted, probably later this week. ;-)

Since I survived the flu (which started on this side of the Atlantic, and then raged while I was in the US, only to be carried back here), I've been carefully watching my food intake. The flu managed to hang on until last week Sunday, so it basically brought me down in the work weeks before I left and then proceeded to decimate my hols.

However, I am now back.

A mid-December tale

And the stocking was hung
from the bookcase with care,
In hopes that the fat man
soon would be there!

Until it was felled
with one mighty jump!
Someone can be quite active
when they get off their rump.


And what do we have here,
is it catnip I smell?
Can anything in life
be quite as swell...?


All these toys and balls too
oh what the joy!
Except that I'm retired and semi-active
so I probably don't need another toy.



Moving on to new challenges,
my conquering today is done.
Someone repacked the stocking,
to relive again at Xmas the fun.

And with that I'm on the road for work and then back to the US for some time off. Slocombe has a jam-packed holiday schedule of visits here in the UK, and some well deserved catnaps as well. Posting will be sporadic for the rest of the year (as if it can be any more sporadic than it currently is?)

Snow in the UK this past week

we really got hammered in my corner of Essex. schools were closed and many people were off from work.

Oh Terry...pay your bills already

Previously, I mentioned that my work phone issued by benevolent company J belonged to Terry, who makes it a habit to not pay his bills. It's been a while since I received any calls for Terry, but in the lead-up to the December hols, Terry must be having issues again. Interestingly, it's around the same time last year that I posted on this topic.

To recap:
-Terry was employed by company J in a different office. When Terry left the phone number went back into the benevolent company J pool of numbers and I was issued it in Feb 2009.

-There have been a few calls, of people seeking Terry at various times, in particular, the water company wanted him to pay his bill...or someone named Paula sent him an SMS to please go and check on her sister as she's not sure if the electricity has purposely been turned off or is having technical issues.

-Most bill collectors are polite enough when I inform them that it is a company issed phone, and here is the Company name and here is their phone number.

-The folks at Capital Finance One, however, are getting on my last nerve. I have now told them three times that it is a company issued number, and I skipped to answer the phone other times where I noticed their number. Perhaps they do not believe me, as their call center people are always very polite, but then obviously are not doing anything to stop the calls.

Further--someone named Lynn from benevolent company J called while I was in DE, and I missed the call but she left a message asking Terry to call her back. Neither Terry nor I did. It was a busy week in DE. Fortunately, she called back, looking for Terry.

'Hi, this is Lynn from benevolent company J, can I speak to Terry please?' (And it was our exchange, so I knew it was an internal person.)
'Hi Lynn, this is Heather from benevolent company J, and I've had this number since Terry left the company prior to Feb 2009. Is there something I can do for you?"
'Um. well. no. um. Thanks very much!'

So I missed a call again today--sure enough the fine folks at Capital (which is an online payday loan provider--borrow 80/repay 111, borrow 750/repay 1042.) At repayment rates like these, i can see why they can afford plenty of phone time and call centers on the other side of the world who are trying to find Terry (and their money).

Fortunately--as it's my work mobile and not a personal one, it is only on during my awake hours, and off all weekend. Unfortunately for the fine folks at Capital One, it's another call straight to voice mail.

Next, I need to do a little googling to see what I need to do to halt these folks as there are 32 more days to Christmas and I imagine Terry's money woes will only escalate...

The last of the Emirates flight posts

I thought I'd give you a peek of the food and beverage options in business class on the Really Big Plane I was on a few weeks back.

I've been easing fish back into my diet, so I pre-ordered a seafood meal. Here was the starter:

I specifically had to mention the special meal selection on the Big Plane, and the stewardess seemed annoyed. I did not have to mention on the Normal Emirates plane--they came through in advance to confirm it with me. It was another signal to me that
1. They haven't figured out the right staff/passenger ratio or serving procedures since the plane is so new or
2. They've cut back on staffing too much.

Here was the main, it was salmon.

I was starting to get a little crabby as me and a fellow passenger near me were the absolute last to be served. I was wondering if it was the 'female' prejudiced mentality like I got in Emirates...but the other person was a young male around my age. I had been warned that in addition to the female thing, I'd be double-whammied in that age is highly valued in Emirates society as well. In looking around the cabin, the other folks flying were at least 20 years older then us, many even more.

I did find it irritating, however, as they starting to clear the plates for those passengers before we were even served our mains. Did they not have enough plates and have to wash some quickly to be able to serve? As well, there was around a 50 minute gap between starter and main. And finally...to complete my rant....the bread was as hard as a rock.

However, here is the menu for your viewing:

I saw everyone else's meals as they went past, and everything did look good.

After the appalling meal service, I told them to hold the dessert, that I didn't have another hour to wait. I did enjoy something from the drinks menu, however:

Still on the agenda:

As much as the entertainment was nice, I decided to talk a walk to the back of the plane and found the business/first class bar, complete with a bartender with nothing to do:

I ended up spending the rest of the flight at the 'bar in the sky'. I have a habit that I like to ask people about their jobs, especially when they seemed to be enjoying them. This fellow very sweetly allowed me to take his photo and told me all about his work as the Sky bartender. He was a pilot in his home country of Brazil, but wanted to see the world and knew that he had to get experience with an international airline (European, American or Mid East) to someday be a pilot for one of them, and this job with Emirates came up. So for now he builds up his time as a Sky bartender, with visions to work his way up in the Emirates organization.

Interestingly, i was asking him why the bar was so empty of people? No idea, the Heathrow flights usually are, but the Birmingham flights are packed. He took the opportunity to ask me some English grammar questions. He was explaining that the flight crew is international (he introduced me to his backup bartender who was floating around on other duties, she is from Australia), but that most of the time he is dealing with people whose first language is not English, or it's a mix of British and Aussies, so he doesn't get a chance to speak so much with Americans, and in particular in trying to piece out which phrase or which slang goes with which English speaking country. Occasionally people would pop around for a drink refill and then scurry back to their movies, so he ended up being the highlight of my flight back to the UK.

Aboard the Emirates A380 back to London

After checking out the Emirates Business Lounge, it was time to board the plane. Here was a view of the plane prior to boarding. When you see the A380 in photos, it looks big, but standing next to it, you feel its sheer size and bulk.

It has an interesting layout in business class. (From my vast experience of approximately two biz flights a year!) ;-) The seats are arranged with a table setup next to them, so you don't really have a neighbor. Then, the one behind you and in front of you are reversed in the seat/table format, so you don't have a person directly in front of you.

Here's a closeup of the little table area. It holds a variety of water, fizzy drinks and juice. It also has a glass and the usual pair of sock, eye shades, and ear plugs. Here is a photo of the complimentary champagne upon boarding:

I have to say...I actually wasn't so fond of this setup, because the flight attendants seemed to only be half attentive to your drink needs, maybe due to this item. I compare this to my 'normal' Emirates biz flight over where I was on a non-A380, and the flight attendants were on top of everyone's drink order. If you took your last sip they were on the way over to refill you. In addition, they seemed to be keeping track of everyone's preferences which probably wasn't the easiest when they offer two white wines, two red wines and a full selection of everything else imaginable.

As well on this A380...I don't drink soda, so half of the stuff I didn't touch, but certainly could have done with a refill in the drink cabinet there of water or fizzy water. I drank both and left he empty bottles on the table and then had to ask for refills from someone who was hurrying down the aisle.

Because it was so big, my business seat was 23K. It was the front of the second business section, there were another 6 or 7 rows maybe behind me.

The TV entertainment thing was pretty good, as was the little footrest shelf. I'm not especially tall, but when buckled up I could not reach the remote thingy. Fortunately i could use the touchscreen one that was with the table setup, but it would go out of juice in 45 minutes and was a real beast to put back into its cradle and get out again. (Yes, I'm whining about business class amenities, I realize!) ;-)

23K on Emirates is a great seat however, as it's the bulkhead row of the section, so no one was in front of me. There was some kind of galley for the flight attendants but the toilets are a walk to the last row of this section.

Food and drink details still to come...

The Emirates business lounge in Dubai

A while back in the comments, J mentioned about someday flying business class. As I don't travel so often in business class myself, I thought I would take a few photos on the Dubai trip, so come along with me on a little virtual tour of the Air Emirates business lounge. This is not to be confused with the Emirates First Class lounge, this was just the Business lounge. ;-)

This one reminded me of the adverts where they show relaxing passengers. The view in front was the main concourse shops one level down, and further outside were some parked aircraft.


There were plenty of food and beverage stations, all serving the same menu in a self-serve buffet fashion. I originally started off with a plate of Indian food, but it was not edible, way too salty. There were plenty of other options like fresh fruit, ice cream, and cereal.


There were plenty of ways to whittle away your waiting time...worship rooms, an internet rom with painfully slow access, free newspapers and magazines, shower areas, televisions set to news channels, a discounted spa and video game areas:


And plenty of video game areas there were:

Interestingly, though, none of the executive types were playing them. ;-)

I was erring on the side of caution in taking photos as the guidebooks warn about photographing the Muslim women without first obtaining permission. As I was still on Emirates soil, I played it safe and photographed no one at a close distance, except for the sleeping Indian fellow in the first photo.

Overall, it was a mega-lounge experience and too big. The new A380s are zipping in and out of Dubai and hauling plenty of business passengers, so being in this lounge wasn't too special. I didn't spend so much time in the general airport, but it seemed to be a pleasant airport experience, with lots of space, as opposed to somewhere more cramped like Heathrow where the lounge can be a little more of an oasis of peace to preserve one's sanity.

I missed to take any photos on the outgoing lounge at Heathrow. That one was much smaller and I found the staff there to be more pleasant than at this one. At Heathrow they would operate the coffee machine for you and be generally friendly, whereas in Dubai you would be standing at a counter and have to wave someone down to get you something behind it, as they were too busy gabbing with their colleagues. I thought perhaps the Dubai thing was gender driven, but then I realized they ignored everyone equally, males plus females.

Next up, on boad the Emirates A380...