Hi there VITB
Maybe a little far-fetched? Perhaps, but take twenty-four years (between us) of working in one of the maddest jobs ever and condense it in to 160 thousand words and it will seem that way! Don't worry, there are plenty of dull and tedious days too, but who wants to read about that? And you are not working for the wrong airline, you are working for a fantastic airline, but your next comment made us chuckle!
Who has been 'taking drugs'? That's outrageous! Oh yeah! Bob Marley, John Lennon, Jesus Christ, Aldous Huxley, Pablo Picasso, Joni Mitchell, Abraham Lincoln, Art Garfunkel, Bill Gates, WB Yeats, Bill Clinton, Steve Jobs, Alexander Dumas, Anthony Eden, Peter Fonda, Sigmund Freud, Victor Hugo, Carl Sagan, Queen Victoria, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jean-Paul Sartre, to name a very small few! Oh, and a fella we really love and admire who owns a massive international airline, and is a right funky dude who built his empire on the great ideas and mind expansion that comes from smoking a bit of weed to chill out, relax and think interesting things.
Come on, we were honest about this and expected someone, somewhere to disapprove. It's an emotive subject, a huge debate in itself, and a topic we have fluid ideas on. We are prepared to listen to other sides of the story happily. If, that is, the ideas are well reasoned, well prepared and come from a source that is credible. What we don't do is listen to knee jerk, media led shock chatter and condemnation. (No industry is more saturated with and fuelled by drugs than the media. Got to admire that hypocrisy, it's really quite breathtaking!)
To an older generation, saying the word 'drug' is like sticking them with a pin, a really bad and shocking four-letter word. It makes them think of skanky, track marked dreggy scroats with needles hanging out of their arms. Say that same word to our generation, our age group, our friends, our colleagues, our social network, and it's like tickling them with a feather. They think of clubs, parties, laughs, great music, open minds and good times. You must learn the difference between soft and hard 'drug' use. It's the difference between someone who enjoys a few drinks with friends and a hardened alcoholic. (Yet this drug, Alcohol, is perfectly acceptable, joked about, discussed openly, encouraged. We even glamorise it for children, saying, 'Are you drunk!' when they fall. We both consider alcohol to be one of the most dangerous and unpredictable drugs, yet our world is awash with it. Sometimes our passengers are awash with it. Very often on night stops, our crew are too. But that's fine as long as it's out of the body to fly, as it's all legal and beautifully taxable!)
We will not believe you do not have a drug of choice. (alcohol, nicotine, promiscuous sex, sleeping tablets, gambling, take your pick) When you fly you cannot be so pure and sniffy about human conduct. (You certainly shouldn't be or you will be ineffective in your role of carer of worldwide human nature.) If you are pure, we salute you, you are special but in the minority. We neither condemn nor condone the use of recreationals, it's an individual choice. You have never taken anything? Never tried anything? Stayed entirely away from the 80% of the British population that have? Good on you if you have, but then you are not the one to get on your high horse about this. Never take drug advice from someone who has never taken drugs. That's like taking sex tips off a virgin. And please don't say 'I disapprove because my cousin/friend/sister took drugs and now they are a drug addict.' Yes, and Julie's cousin had her first sweet sherry at a wedding and now she's an alcoholic. And my friend had sex with a new boyfriend and got pregnant. But would you ban sherry and sex for the rest of us? No, you wouldn't, but they are just as damaging and dangerous if used incorrectly. All of the pleasures are. Prohibition of any of them does not work; it just makes them more appealing.
We have never, ever been under the influence while working; we have never, ever taken a day off because of it. We have had a wonderful time, great experiences, met amazing people, opened our eyes and educated ourselves to a high degree about what 'drug use' entails, it's dangers and the myths that surround it. We thought that perhaps you objected to us mentioning this behaviour in reference to our profession, and that we can understand. Unfortunately instead of being cool about it, here in this forum you have highlighted it, so perhaps that's not it at all. We would really like to know the reason, maybe you could email us privately and we'll happily hear all you have to say. To make a sweeping statement here will not chastise us though, we are far too well up on our beliefs, lives and experiences for anyone to shame us. We are just not ashamed, and we are not ashamed because we are intelligent, hard working, tax paying, and life loving women who have never once been in trouble with the law.
VTIB, it's all around you, it will never end, and it will never diminish. Because people like it, you may not like that they like it, and perhaps you know best.
For you, absolutely yes, but not for anybody else.
And hello thelaceys! Yes, sorry about some of the things we wrote about, we may have swamped you with naughty stuff and you may have missed all the amazing things we wrote about flying, aviation and the people who do this job. (Lately we have been in a hotel where a Middle Eastern crew behaved really badly, and you know, they had a religious background. We were going to write about it, but we may reconsider!) But we would be sad to think that you passed over the hard, hard work we all do, the kindness, the dedication and the devotion we show and what we go through to fly. Perhaps the camaraderie and the team spirit were lost within the misbehaviour, but in an industry as vast and worldwide as ours there will always be something going on. We were very baffled when we read what you said about smashing up hotels, but we remembered about the girl who put her stiletto through the TV and the Pilots who brought down the curtain pelmet. But they were both accidents! There was no malice, and we all loved staying at that hotel, plus it wasn't us!
If the truth was told about every profession, you may be very afraid to call the police, go to a hospital, believe a newspaper, support a politician. Maybe ignorance is bliss? But thank you so much for reading us again in the future. Maybe you did enjoy our book really despite your unease, and we do very much appreciate your opinions because we knew this would be controversial. It is the ying and yang of life, and for everyone who reads it and loves it, the same number will hate it. If we could tip the balance completely to the former we would be very wealthy women indeed!
Big post! We don't know if here is the place to debate these huge topics, but they are certainly interesting and engaging, stimulating and challenging.
Love,
Liz & Julie x
