A Series of VERY Fortunate Events

After yet another layover in New York, where, yet again, I spent far too much money finishing off my Christmas shopping (as well as buying some presents for myself, naturally). After waking up at 03:50am local time and then pounding the pavements of Times Square and Fifth Avenue, it was time to make one final dash to Wholefoods Organic Food Market to buy my avocado's and bagels to take back to Dubai. Urgently in the search for something to warm myself up from the nippy New York air, Momma's Chicken and Rice soup was my absolute saviour from the hypothermic conditions in Manhattan. Oh, how the warm sunny days of Central Park just two months ago, are now but a distant memory.

Before I fell asleep on my feet, I scurried back to the hotel in preparation for a few hours sleep. Five hours later, the phone rings, with the delightful Monisha advising me it was my wake-up call. Really? Already?! Feeling a little on the feral side, I threw on my uniform and tizzed myself up, ready to serve the 14 First Class customers on the 12hr flight back to the UAE. We arrived in the crew bus at JFK airport seeing the swarms of people checking in for our flight, which is not the most unusual thing to see of an evening. It turned out, however, that Etihad Airways' (our direct competitor from Abu Dhabi) flight was cancelled when a catering truck had driven into the side of the plane ripping a big hole in the fuselage, therefore, causing millions of dollars worth of damage and a flight full of people without an aircraft to carry them in. Airlines around the world have an agreement whereby when something like this interrupts a passengers travel plans, they then get transferred to another airline with available seats, and that revenue then goes directly to the new carrier.

The Emirates Duty Manager took us to one side and explained the story to us. Advised us we would now be completely full as we had accepted some of the disrupted Etihad passengers, and that, in First Class, we would now be looking after Alicia Keys.

For her own privacy and my own professionalism, I am not going to go into any more details, though I will tell you she is an ABSOLUTE DELIGHT, whom I would be honoured to care for on future flights, if I were to be so lucky. Travelling with her entourage as well, we knew that she was on her way to perform in Abu Dhabi at a one-off concert with George Michael at Zayed Sports City. Throughout the flight after interacting with several members of her party, Miss Keys' manager asked me for my phone number, so that she could get in touch with me if she could find any tickets to the concert. I happily gave her my number, but to be honest, thought that nothing would come of it, so didn't get my hopes up too high. We landed, we said our goodbyes, and were thanked by Alicia et al for caring for them so well. Our brush with the high-life was over, but what an honour it was.

The next day, lunchtime had rolled around, when my phone started buzzing. Alicia's Manager was on the other end offering me tickets! I could not believe that this was actually happening! A little too good to be true, I felt, but Adrian and I got ourselves together (I was given a ticket for him too) and made the 90minute drive to Abu Dhabi, in the hope that the tickets were actually going to be at the box office like we were promised! There they were. Envelopes with our names on them. Inside: Diamond Class tickets (the exclusive VIP section worth Dhs1000, NZ$500) that got us just a few feet away from the front of the stage. We were at the Alicia Keys and George Michael concert, as special guests of one of the headlining artists!

Alicia began her performance at 20:30, and belted out her hits until 22:30. She had brought her Grand Piano with her, and she gave the best she could to the crowd of more than 10,000 people. Growing up in Spanish Harlem, the classically trained 27 year old starlet showed her full range and talents with every song she sang. Fallin', A Woman's Worth, Superwoman, No One, every song you could imagine from her 8 year recording career, all sung with perfection to rival any studio recording ever created. It was a very strange feeling, watching her on stage being the superstar that she is, just a metre away from me, when the night before I was having a conversation with her like she was a High School friend.

Act Two began after a complete destruction of Alicia's staging requirements, and the construction of the new set for George Michael to perform just 30minutes later. Not sure of exactly what format this event was going to take, we were very surprised to then discover an entire SECOND concert than began, lasting another 2 hours!

Dressed in his trademark all-black suit, with his equally signaturesque, functionally questionable glasses, he appeared on stage with Here I Am, followed by I'm Your Man. The crowd went wild as he moved as any Greek of the 1963 era would. After announcing in June 2008, that he would no longer tour the world, he appeared at the Zayed Sports City for a one-off concert that proved he really shouldn't be hanging up his microphone cord just yet. Sounding as if he were just reaching his performance prime, it should be noted that (seeing as I was SO close, I could see it myself) he had all of his lyrics on three autocue screens, to prompt him if he became a little forgetful! It should also be noted (seeing as I was SO close, I was following along myself) that he DID muddle up some of the words... Lets get some prescription lenses into those glasses of yours, George!

By the time the concert ended, it was four hours later, at 01:10am! To say I was then beginning to feel the jetlag from the night before's arrival from New York was an understatement! My legs wanted to buckle from beneath me, but this may have been caused by the wriggling and the jiggling as I tried to have Faith-a, Faith-a, Faith-A! Baby!

Never before have I felt so fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time, than when I was on that flight back from JFK. I guess it does make up for the flight that I was rostered but taken off (as I am involved with another project in the Service Delivery department now) the week before that had Kylie Minogue, Charlize Theron, Wesley Snipes and Gayle King on board. After the initial disappointment of hearing they were all on that one flight, I feel that karma has now come around and patted me on the back by allowing me to meet Alicia and then see her live in concert! May she have many years more of the success that she most certainly deserves.