dimanche 28 septembre 2008

The stewardess's new clothes

I've been visiting my lovely Amsterdam friends this weekend - they are about to produce child number 2 and they have a hard job ahead of them, making sure that number 2 is as cute as number 1. Anyway, after a lovely weekend en famille I got the last flight back from Schiphol to CDG this evening.

Because this flight gets in pretty late, my only option for heading into town is the train. This would normally be my last choice - it's hot, it's slow, it stinks and it's crowded. The Air France bus is quicker and drops me off at the end of my street. Which is handy. Anyway, the bus had already stopped running, so I was consigned to the train.

As you'd imagine, on the way to and from the airport there are often flight crew members heading to / from work. On the train tonight there was an Air France stewardess who looked wiped out. Judging by her bag she was fresh back from Shanghai. But I digress. The point is that she got on the train looking exhausted.

She put her bags down and started to rummage away. Before you could say 'please keep your clothes on Madame, this is a public place' her uniform jacket and top was off and she was standing in her skirt and a grubby looking vest. The colour would be best described as 'hot wash grey'. She undid the button of her uniform skirt and, pulling a pair of black trousers from her bag, proceeded to wriggle into them under the skirt.

Off came the skirt and out of the bag came a succession of black and grey 'upper body garments' which combined to make a startlingly stylish outfit.

With her clothes now back on, she tied a scarf around her head and proceeded to put on her make up. She gave herself a pair of smoky, Amy Winehouse inspired eyes, and buffed up her cheekbones. Then the scarf came off and she ran some kind of putty-ish product through her barnet.

When she got on the train she looked like a generic Air France stew. Nothing special, a bit dowdy and absolutley knackered.

Alighting from the train she looked like Agyness Deyn having a beatnik moment. Stunning.

Now, I'm quite used to seeing girls put on a bit of lippy on their way to work in the morning, but I've never really witnessed a transformation like this before.

It was all I could do to stop myself applauding.

18 commentaires:

softinthehead a dit…

I love your posts - I never know what you are going to come up with next - there never seems to be a dull moment in your life! :)

A Lewis a dit…

oh dear god. she didn't. speaking as a fellow flight crew member, i've never subjected anyone to dropping my trousers or taking off my uniform shirt on a bus, train, or hotel shuttle. (fi you come to my room, though, that's a whole different story). but maybe i should start. it sounds awfully exciting.....to know that people are watching and may even write a story about me! but i will have to stop at putting the makeup on. unless it's saturday night, of course.

Unknown a dit…

a girl's gotta do what a gurl's gotta do, right?!? um -- something tells me that you were just jelous. ;-)

Louise a dit…

What can I add to the 3 comments already here? Definitely, whose life has all this drama in it? How do you witness so many things? I think A Lewis should start doing the bus/train transformation just so someone can write about it.

And I think applause would have been in order. You have to give a girl credit for being resourceful and not caring one whit about who is watching her!

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Softy - many dull moments...I just don't share them!

Lewis...I think you should go for it - as long as I get to see the video ;-)

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Mike, no-one needs to be seeing me getting changed on a train. It's not fit for public consumption ;-)

Louise, She was most definitely a resourceful gal. I think she was heading out in a 'just got in from work' kind of way....

Anonyme a dit…

I wish I had skills like that...

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Marjolein, it was a skillful manoeuvre - she'd obviously done it often enough to get it down to a fine art....

aims a dit…

I wish I had skills like that too - but doing it in public? Hmmmm....a bit of a turn on - maybe - but not for anyone else. And Lewis a flight attendant? I should have known....

Unknown a dit…

You have to admire the chutzpah, a bloke would just get arrested for flashing !

Daryl a dit…

And I thought the woman who puts on ALL her make up on the bus was odd ... she times her mascara brush swipes against her lashes with the bus stops ... and I stare at her the whole time it is simply amazing .. but this wins the prize ... I wish you had applauded I am sure she would have taken a bow!

:-Daryl

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Aims, a bit too much exhibitionist for me...and Lewis? Oh yeah, you can sooo see him doing the 'coffee, tea or me?' routine...!

KP. I tried. I did. I won't do it again...!

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Aims, a bit too much exhibitionist for me...and Lewis? Oh yeah, you can sooo see him doing the 'coffee, tea or me?' routine...!

KP. I tried. I did. I won't do it again...!

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Daryl, I love watching the girls doing their make up on the train. I'm willing for it to jerk suddenly and for them to end up with a big black stripe across the forehead!

Brett a dit…

This reminds me of a trip we made on that train, heading to the airport, think that this will have to be tomorrows post.

Lane Mathias a dit…

I would love to have seen that! If only you'd filmed it:-)

(although maybe not wise in the circumstances:-)

travelling, but not in love a dit…

Brett - looking forward to that post....

Lane, hmm, filming undressing girls is not something that's socially acceptable, even here in the home of the worlds greatest lovers (self-styled, natch).

Swearing Mother a dit…

I do something similar every night when I get home from work, ripping off the boring Ms Medical PA outfit and donning a pair of gravy encrusted jeans and a tee-shirt with a bleach spot on it, run my hands over my face, artistically smudging that morning's mascara over my care-worn visage, and voila!

Ready to collapse on the sofa.