Friday, February 22, 2008

Diary of an airshow usher

Hi pple, how are all of you doing? Wanted to share my ushering experience during the 4 trade days at the singapore airshow. Singapore airshow this year was the first from Singapore, and third largest in the world.

As it was during trade days, all the many businessmen and women were present. The men were all dressed in suit, ties and pants. The women were dressed in variable fashionable clothing. But most were very well dressed. As usher, my job was to direct the people, greet them and reject those who were not in proper attire. Haiz..cause this is a blog..cant say some stuff, but then alot of stuff still can say, so will say.

So, on first day, I learnt that ushers can stand until their feet get blisters after 11 hours. I also talked to 2 plain clothes officers, one was an ex-army ranger, who gave the advise of "taking everything in the right spirit", yep. I also helped some driver of a foreign general to carry free gifts back to the car. Learnt that the drivers are really pressured to drive properly, with such delegates and important pple as passengers. One wrong move..scratch on the car or shaky hands could mean termination of their part-time job.

Second day, I manned the main entrance. One eurasian scolded my colleague the f word, when she rejected him for bringing in a minor, which was not allowed on trade days. I will never forget the look of the tears in her eyes, even though it was only for a brief moment. She was a tough and experienced woman, and an uncivilized visitor was not going to bring her down.My manager told the guy off and threatened with security. Really admire her style.

Third day, I watched the aerobatic displays of the black knights, F-16, Airbus, and RAAF. The black knights did something romantic. They used their planes to draw a heart shape in the sky, and one plane drew an arrow across the heart. Guess it was a Valentine's day special. The airbus was simply majestic. At an amazingly low altitude, the flying fortress, A380,largest airline in the world, made tight turns to awe the audience. A passenger airline doing such aerobatic displays is like asking me to do gymnastics. The pilot was definitely a trained professional.

Fourth day, a woman brought a doctor without proper attire in. I stopped her, of course. She tried to intimidate me, with relations to big shots and false impressions, even asked for my name. I was not to be. She gave up finally, walking away.

All in all, I took back 5 business cards most from delegates who had nothing to do in the time they were waiting for their guests at the registration booth, and was subjected to my questioning. I learnt that there are much more commandoes in poly than in jc, problems faced by the frontliners,and a bit of oral skills as well. People here were the movers, ie.the generals, captains, bomb squardon members, CEOs, majors, bosses, engineers, etc all around the world. Highest density of big shots per square metre ive seen in my life.

Yep, hope my experiences were beneficial, or worth a good read. Brace yourselves for Alevel results, they're coming out pretty soon. All the best for that, and take care everyone, even though there are machine gun shells 2 cm above your head or a nasty woman telling you to do things you don't want to.Heheh;)