I held my breath when the company tailor ran her measuring tape over with a seasoned hand.? ?Breathe out girl, or else your uniform will be very tight,? the bespectacled lady advised.? I nodded and HELD my breath anyway.?? Serves me right when a passenger pointed out the big tear on my seams.? Thirteen years later, I left the airline with a cabin loadful of stories to share.

The funny and the sad; the heartwarming and the bad.? I could only do them justice if they ever receive an audience.? What are we really like behind those mega-smiles?? Do we sleep around?? Is sex in the air cabin-shattering?? Do we drink and make merry, nothing more?? How do we bait the captains?? Why do some retire at a ripe 60 while others throw in the towel after 15 months?? What special training program produces such enviable flight attendants, second to none?

Spilling the beans was easy.? Writing this book was not exactly a piece of cake.?? I would like to say a huge thank you to those who enjoyed my virgin attempt.? Hopefully, my toil and tears is worth your buck.? For those who absolutely disagree with my shot at a decent read, I appreciate your honest feedback as well.? Just rein in the profanity and spare the fist-shaking, promise?

If writing and rewriting the manuscript wasn?t tough enough, getting the perfect design for the cover, reliable printer to brainstorming a sound marketing plan made me nearly swore off the entire project.? I half- wished I had approached a publisher instead!? If I tell you that writing this book was easy, I lied.?? It was bloody tough, to say the least.?? I initially thought that it was a case of regurgitating sights and sounds I had experienced over the years.?? Shouldn?t be difficult, I reckoned.? The first paragraph came out smoothly enough.?? By the time I reached chapter 8 ?Lessons Learnt the Hard Way?, I was ready to tear my hair out.

Losing drafts by an inadvertent press of the ?delete? button, coupled with the stupidity not to retrieve the files back on time, I spent half the time retyping and another half, wallowing.?? It truly was a process that involved tears, sweat and brain-wrecking in a bid to present the characters in the best manner possible.? This book is not meant to sensationalize, thus the absence of Hollywood scenarios.? What I depicted between these pages is an attempt to show the many facets of human behavior, both on the giving and receiving end of true service.? Of course, little snippets sprinkled along the way helped add meat to the main dish, in what I hope would be one relished by my readers.

My initial aim was to round up a tidy number of 15 chapters.? By then, the worst was over.? I had pulled through two deletion of precious materials and buckets of frustration.? It was time to enjoy the rest of the journey.? Before the fourth month was over, chapter 33 stared back at me.? ?Which is your favourite chapter?? He asked.?? I pondered for three seconds.? Definitely a tie between ?Survival Of The Fittest? and ?Rescue Mission?.

?Survival? lets you into the world of subtle and not-so-restrained antics among cabin staff, all in the name of healthy competition.? My good friends from the airline are stuck in the predicament faced by many other capable crew.? Year after year of failing to impress the socks off the interview panel, they could only push on.? As in the corporate world, seeing your peers advancing the career ladder while leaving you behind is hard-hitting- worse still if he or she was once under your charge.

My love for animals has always been a watered-down bane for mum.? She has what I call,? Zoophobia.?? Put a furry creature within a 2 meter radius and watch her work up a fit.? Tap-dancing, arm-flailing and screaming her karaoke lungs out-the works.? Still, it is mighty sweet of her to give in a little.? A lot, I must say, to have allowed three dogs and two stray kitties into my life now.? In ?Rescue Mission?, a Taiwanese lady did just the same.? No, I was not referring to the mad routine made famous by mum.? I meant that this angel gave a stranger a new leash and lease of life, where I least expected it.

?SNY Woes? took a longer time to churn out.? It was a bitter-sweet process when I recollect the people and incidents that shaped my starting years in the airline.? Temperament-wise, I?m like a dormant volcano.? That explains why I was the perfect target for bitchy seniors and grouchy passengers.? But that?s exactly the very reason why my crew loves working with me.? Zero stress translates to happy crew and passengers!

While my maiden efforts do not look set to win any literary award in the near century, I look back with pride.?? Certainly, everyone has their story to tell.? My partner and I are only too glad to conceive a special outlet for that voice.? Hence, the MileHiClub website was born, a club where everyone and anyone can be a member!