Amazing Grace : Singer Unknown

"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn with words written by the English poet and clergyman John Newton (1725–1807), published in 1779. With a message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of the sins people commit and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God, "Amazing Grace" is one of the most recognizable songs in the English-speaking world.

Newton wrote the words from personal experience. He grew up without any particular religious conviction but his life's path was formed by a variety of twists and coincidences that were often put into motion by his recalcitrant insubordination. He was pressed into the Royal Navy and became a sailor, eventually participating in the slave trade. One night a terrible storm battered his vessel so severely that he became frightened enough to call out to God for mercy, a moment that marked the beginning of his spiritual conversion. His career in slave trading lasted a few years more until he quit going to sea altogether and began studying theology.

Check steward mugged (robbed) in USA.

We,the check stewards ( old name for CCEs) arrived at San Francisco and stopped for a night on our way to Seattle. There were about 7 or 8 of us,sent by the company to study the B727 galleys first hand and to teach our cabin crew back in Singapore.
It was for most of us our first time in SFO. The summer was nice and cool and we did not need to wear jackets.
After checking into our hotel we proceeded to explore the vicinity of the hotel and to look for some nice food and drinks. As we ventured further, we met a stunningly beautiful tall black Afro American girl of about 20 years old. She smiled at us and we returned her smile. Ravi, one of colleagues like a hero quickly went up to her and shook her hand before we were even near her. She seemed to be more interested in Ravi than anyone of us.
Before we knew it, Ravi told us to proceed to whatever we were supposed to do and he excused himself and left with the girl. Ravi took the girl back to his hotel room supposedly for a drink.

What we didn't know was that Ravi was almost shot in his head by that black girl while back in the hotel room. The next morning while checking out of the hotel, Ravi related to us how he was robbed at gunpoint by that girl whom he picked up the night before. He lost all his cash and his watch. Thankfully he was not killed. The matter could have been reported to the police but Ravi would have to stay back in SFO for a long while,so he was told by the hotel security. In the end, Ravi  let the matter rest as he did not want to miss Seattle.

Besides attending the B727 course in Seattle, we also spent our time in pubs and playing cards among ourselves in the hotel room. The following is a story of Ravi our colleague again.

The setting was a smoked filled sleazy bar in Seattle back in 1977. Ravi our good friend and colleague was boasting to his new found friends of jobless drunkards,some as old as 70 years old that he was a prince from India on a trip to Seattle to buy a Boeing 727 aircraft. He pointed at us as we entered the bar and told them we were his pilots and engineers out to test the aircraft. All the bums in the bar believed Ravi because he had bought them,estimated to be a dozen round of beers and whiskies. Ravi carried on with his tales of his Indian royalty surrounded by his liquored thirsty American friends who were clamouring for another round of free booze.
Out of a corner of the dimly lighted bar,an old haggard lady staggered towards the direction of where we were sitting. When she reached us, in a soft whisper,told us to warn Ravi not to tell his new found friends of his wealth. She said "They will mugged him and even strip his pants". We laughed and it annoyed the little old woman. She did not realised that Ravi was mugged just two days ago in San Francisco.......

Murder in cabin crew, one or two only lah.

To prove his love for her, Chinese national Wang Zhijian got a picture of his girlfriend Zhang Meng tattooed on his back in May 2007, when they were both in Tianjin.

Sixteen months later, he is alleged to have killed Madam Zhang in a frenzied attack in her Yishun flat in Singapore. She was found with 44 knife wounds....more here

There were cases of suicides,fights,hair pulling,blackmail etc in cabin crew over love affair,money and jobs etc as well as one prominent case of murder involving a Taiwanese stewardess.

The was one involving an ex chief stewardess who is serving time in Changi Prison for causing the death of her lover's 4 year old daughter.

Cases of suicides involved a captain who jumped to his death over huge gambling debt, another pilot who killed himself because his stewardess girlfriend jilted him and a trainee steward who committed suicide after he was fired from his job for falsely declaring that he was never involved in taking drug.

We hope that none of the above would ever happened in cabin crew again. 

Posters in USA

I saw the above at a bus stop in Chicago,USA

This one was in New York City

SCOOT video

In May 2011, Singapore Airlines announced that their intention to establish a no-frills, low-cost subsidiary airline for medium and long-haul routes.

In July 2011, Singapore Airlines announced Campbell Wilson as the founding CEO of the new airline.

On 1 November 2011, the new airline was unveiled and the name "Scoot" was given.It's website was also officially launched that day.

The airline is expected to commence operations by April 2012 from Changi Airport's Terminal 2. The new airline will compete with Jetstar Airways and AirAsia X.

Fleet

As announced on 1 November 2011, Scoot's fleet is expected to consist of four Boeing 777-200. Its initial fleet would be acquired from its parent airline and reconfigured with a new seating layout. The new seating layout is proposed to have a two-class cabin configuration with 32 to 40 premium seats and about 370 economy seats in a 3-4-3 configuration. Scoot will also be purchasing 777-200ERs, which have a longer range, and therefore be able to offer services to destinations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. There are plans in place to have 14 aircraft by 2016.

PS: In an unprecedented move, retiree CCE boh tong from SIA  is currently being considered by the airline to be it's advisor.

No space for a jacuzzi in your bathroom?

Who are these poster boys?

How to take a bath in Japan hot spring or onsen.

Some of the crew love to soak themselves in the hot spring in Japan during their night stops but
aren't aware of the dos and don'ts. Here, I have come up with a few rules. Remember those with
tattoos on their bodies aren't allowed into public hot spring. In Japan, they have hot springs which
allow people with tattoos but they would often be occupied by the Yakuzas or gangsters cos they
too, often than not have their bodies tattooed ( they tattooed themselves cos of gang identification
and not for "stylo-milo" like our crew)

1)	Your clothes should be taken off in the changing room and place them into a basket together with your bath towel.

2)	You have to be nude. It is customary to bring a small towel into the bathing area, with which you can enhance your privacy while outside of the water. Once you enter the bath, keep the towel out of the water.

3)

Rinse your body with water from either a tap or the bath using a washbowl provided in the bathing area. Traditionally, just rinsing your body is considered sufficient (and many older baths do not even provide showers and soap), but particularly among younger bathers you will find an increasing number of people who insist on taking a shower before entering the bath these days.

4)	Enter the bath and soak for a while. Note that the bath water can be very hot (typical temperatures are 40 to 44 degrees). If it feels too hot, try to enter very slowly and move as little as possible.

5)

After soaking for a while, get out of the bath and wash your body with soap at a water tap, while sitting on a stool. Soap and shampoo are provided in some baths. Like in private Japanese bathrooms, make sure that no soap gets into the bath water. Tidy up your space after you finished cleaning your body.

6)	Re-enter the bath and soak some more.

7)	After you finished soaking, do not rinse your body with tap water, for the hot spring water's minerals to have full effect on your body.

Ex stewardess Jamie Chua settles divorce suit.

The high profile divorce suit between socialite Jamie Chua and Indonesian tycoon Nurdian Cuaca was settled yesterday.

The couple came to a settlement under confidential terms following which a freeze on Mr Cuaca's $93 million worth of assets was lifted by the High Court yesterday...click here to continue

No Bad Chicken Please!

A stewardess has decided to resign after receiving her bonus. And so she did not care about passenger's complains.

On one of her last flights, a passenger asked to exchange for the chicken meal as he said the chicken was bad.

This stewardess took the tray, pointed at the chicken and said, "Chicken chicken, why are you so bad, please behave yourself", and returned the food to the passenger.

The pax was stumped with his mouth open for at least 5 mins.


Contributed by Cool Ann

SCOOT--ing for a cabin crew manager

Some are tyrannical, some are boobsy others are naggy while one is chubby and bubbly. Who do you think will be scooted by SCOOT as its cabin crew manager?
My guess is the latter.....JL!

My classmate David, a spoilt brat.

David, CS and I were classmates in Geylang English School. David was from a upper middle class family whereas CS and I were from a lower middle class family. David had almost everything a primary school kid would have....lots of pocket money, chauffeured driven in a big Cadillac and a nanny to look after him. CS and I were given 10 cts as our daily pocket money. Compared to David, CS and I were considered poor.
David was a spoilt child and he got his way with the teachers and principal of the school. The teachers and principal were afraid of his father who was influential and wealthy. David was a bully in school and wasn't that bright compared to other kids. No one dared to challenge him, be it in sports, general knowledge etc.
One fine day, CS and I had enough of David's nonsense. I challenged him to a fight after school. He agreed and CS was the referee.
After school was over, we went behind the school to a small field which was known as our "battle ground".
There, David and I roughed it out. Mid way through the fight, realizing he was losing, David whipped out a pen knife and charged at me. Fortunately for me, CS caught hold of David and warned him not to use the knife. He kicked CS in the groin and he fell to the ground. At that point of time, I managed to stranglehold David and forced him to drop his knife.
Seeing he was held by me, an angry CS punched David in the face. The punch was so powerful that David was sent crashing to the ground. When he got up there was blood oozing from his nose. It would have been worse for David had it  not been for the school gardener who stopped us from walloping David further.
Next day, David came to school with his dad. A complaint was lodged with the school principal. CS and I was subsequently caned by the principal for the fight.
We went to different secondary schools after our PSLE. David and CS went to some average secondary schools while I went to RI, one of the tops schools in S'pore. We lost contact until I met CS at SIA catering kitchen. In my earlier story, I mentioned that CS was murdered in Holland.
Thirty years after the fight with David, I met him. He looked gaunt but I could still recognized him. He did not look like a rich kid anymore. We were in our early 40s.

David related to me how he was kicked out of school because of poor results. He ran away from home after his dad passed away. David led a sheltered life and without his dad he was like a lost sheep. He couldn't find a proper job and was involved in gangland activities. He became a pimp in Geylang at one time but fell out of favour with his boss. He wanted to borrow  a few grands from me but I did not lend him as I knew he would gambled at the races and lost. David's dad would have been left with a broken heart had he knew what had happened to his son.

The last I heard David was serving time in Changi Prison for credit card fraud. If he is still alive he would be about the same age as me....65 lah!

Mr Quek Ying Chong the murdered school teacher.

Mr Quek taught me till 1959 in Geylang English (Primary) School. He was the one that I have circled in the photo below.
He was a kind man who would give pocket money to some of my classmates who were very poor. He used to buy English newspaper for the class to read so we could improve our English. Many of us liked Mr Quek but we were also afraid of him whenever he loses his temper. If we misbehaved ourselves, he would either pull our ears or give us a big tight slap across our faces.
We were young boys then and could barely be considered as teenagers. We loved to play as well as fight among ourselves. Each time we fought and if caught we would be punished by Mr Quek.
One of my classmates hated Mr Quek so much that he once punctured the tyres of his Morris Minor.
Mr Quek was killed by the acid that was thrown at him when he was the principal of a school in the 1960s.
I have no contact with his family but I understand he was married at the time of his death. I really hope to meet his family members one of these days and tell them how much I appreciate him for being kind to most of us.

My classmate from GES, a SIA Catering Assistant and a murdered teacher.

Above: 2nd from left front row was Miss Kathleen Lee,my primary 1 teacher 1954. 3rd from the right last row was Mr. Quek Ying Chong my Pr. 6 form master 1959

CS and I attended the Geylang English School from 1954 to 1959. He used to live at Lorong 17, Geylang, a place infested with thugs and gangsters. I remember visiting CS at a coffee shop owned by his body tattooed father called Ah Kow at Lorong 17.

We spent 6 years in the primary school. After our PSLE, we went separate ways to different secondary schools.
In 1968 I joined the airline as a flight steward. At the airline training school, I met CS who was working as a catering assistant. The cabin crew training school was situated in the same building as the airline catering and kitchen at Paya Lebar.
CS did not have the necessary educational qualification to be a cabin crew and so the next best thing was for him to be a catering assistant. I remember CS used to ride his powerful Norton motor bike to work. He was a handsome looking young lad but aggressive in many ways as he was when in school. He was a fighter to the core. I remember we were caned by our school principal for beating up David another classmate.
CS used to fly to Holland whenever he could obtain his leave from work. He did many trips to Holland from 1971 to 1973 (  as an employee of the airline he had free and discounted air tickets every year). At first I thought he had a girl friend in Holland but later I was told he was involved in the drug business there.For a week, he did not report for work.Later, his body was found floating in a river in Holland, apparently died of a gunshot wound in his head. I was told he was killed by a rival group.Years later, I met another classmate of ours from Geylang English School. He related to me how and why CS was killed. It seemed, the killing was an act of revenge for gunning down the head of the rival gang by CS a year earlier.

The death of CS took a toll on his father's health and within a few months, Ah Kow fell ill and died.

BT:  Mr Quek (circled) was murdered by people (unknown) who threw acid in his face and body. The suspect/s was never arrested. It was believed he prohibited illegal hawkers from selling their wares near the school and they were angry with him and consequently killed him. It happened in the 1960s.

A gentleman and a great passenger.

Many may not have heard of this man called Chang M. T. who used to own a big bank in Singapore and Malaysia as well as a string of hotels. He was one of my nicest passengers besides Robert Kuok, Eric Chia and many others.
I had in my 35 years as an SQ crew served Mr Chang on many occasions. He never demanded for service and was a cool, calm and composed first class passenger.
I first met Chang in 1969 when I was a leading steward. My first impression of him was excellent. Being a chairman of a big bank, he was humble,soft spoken and courteous. He never pushed the crew around like many of the CIPs (company's important passengers) did. After having served him a couple of flights over a few years, he gave me his business card with his signature on the back of the card. He told me to show that card of his to his manager should I needed financial help from his bank.
One day, I needed a small loan to start a business. Remembering what Chang told me, I proceeded to his bank and asked to see the manager Mr.Ker. The manager's secretary spoke to her boss and then asked me to wait for a little while. That "little while" turned out to be almost an hour. Not wanting to wait any longer, I handed Chang's business card to the secretary who showed it to Ker. In less than a minute, Ker came out of his office and apologized profusely to me. He showed me to his office and asked his secretary to give me a drink.
As we sat down in the comfortable chairs, Ker told me not many people has got a business card with Chang's signature on it. "You must be someone whom Mr. Chang is fond of " he told me.
" I hope so" was my reply.

On one particular flight, I remember Chang was seated in the economy class. He embarked from S'pore and since there was no first class seat available, Chang was "involuntarily downgraded" by the check-in staff.
I was the chief steward on that flight and knowing that Chang was not feeling comfortable sitting in the small economy seat, I insisted he be given the first class lounge seat. In those days, the first class lounge seats ( 4 in total) may be allocated to revenue passengers,subjected to the Captain's approval.
Chang was pleased with my action because I had given him "face".

The next time I met Chang was nearly 4 to 5 years later, also on a flight. It was on this flight that he offered me a deputy general manager post in one of the hotels he owned in  Pattaya, Thailand. I couldn't accept the job as I did not have any hotel industry experience but nevertheless I was happy. In fact, Chang encouraged me to leave flying. In his own words he told me " you are getting older and flying would be tedious for you, so try and do something else".

He used to live in Bintong Park, a upmarket residential area. He once invited me to his house but I was not in Singapore and could not visit him.

Just a year later, I read in the newspaper that he had passed away in Malaysia.

Got the cheek ah?

Below is a comment left by one of the crew and wah yaya papaya want to threaten me ah? Ok ok I won't delete the comment cos I am soooo scared one.....hahaha.....have fun.

BT: If you are gonna delete my posts and keep your visitors from the truth. I will create a CHOICE blog to clear the air and spill all the mistakes ALAN made. Further more, I will report to SIA management for you to allow vistors to post untruth information so to create disunity among Cabin crew.
I keep copies of my postings even if you have deleted. 

Amazing Grace using only the black keys

Wintley Phipps is the President of The U.S. Dream Academy, an organization for children of prisoners.
He makes a statement that most Negro Spirituals were written on the black keys of the piano, and then he proves it. He plays “Every time I feel the Spirit”, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”, and then “Amazing Grace”, a so-called “white spiritual.” The white spirituals were written by white composers who used only the black keys.
The five keys (notes) are called the pentatonic scale, but in early America were referred to as the “slave scale”. They built the power and pathos of the Negro Spirituals with their unique West African Sorrow Chant sound.
The words to Amazing Grace were written by John Newton, a former Captain of a Slave Ship. After Newton came to salvation through Jesus Christ, he heard a melody coming from the belly of the ship, and it is believed it was to that sorrowful melody that he wrote the words and named it Amazing Grace. Go to the Copyright Office and you will see “Words, John Newton. Music, Unknown.”
Wintley says he believes God planned it to be written that way to remind us that we are all humans in common, no matter what race, creed, or color we happen to be. We are all connected by God’s Amazing Grace.

The SCOOT Airline song.

"SCOOT" the name of new budget airline

What a name! Does it mean "Sorry Cannot Operate On Time"?.....aiya there are other better meaning names out there so why use "SCOOT" huh?