Tales from the Departure Lounge

#13 Claire Belkadi (C'est La Vie)

• Andy Plant & Nick Cuthbert • Season 1 • Episode 13

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Mangez bien, riez souvent, aimez beaucoup. The TFTDL crew meet the tour-de-force that is Claire Belkadi, head of study abroad at the University of Birmingham to talk about love, life and travel. This episode features a mystery man who Claire met at a pivotal moment in her life who changed her outlook forever. 

We discuss the cultural differences between the English and the French, Brexit and Canada. A special 'Anything to de-Claire?' introduces listeners to CANIE - the Climate Action Network for International Educators - www.canie.org

Final boarding call: Kandy, Sri Lanka

This episode is sponsored by Enroly! CAS Shield automates the CAS, visa and arrival process for universities, agents and international students. In the last academic year the  platform managed the arrival and onboarding of 1-in-4 international students coming to the UK. Find out more at www.enroly.com

Tales from the Departure Lounge is a Type Nine production for The PIE www.thepienews.com

Nick:

I'm just gonna do my little bit.

Andy:

what are your experiences of traveling

Nick:

If you are up for it, I'm up for it Welcome to Tales from the Departure Lounge. This is a podcast about travel for business, for pleasure, or for study. My name's Nick and I'm joined by my co-pilot, Andy. And together we're gonna be talking to some amazing guests about how travel has transformed their. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the journey. Welcome to the podcast.

Andy:

Today we're joined by Claire Bell, caddy, head of Study Abroad at the University of Birmingham. she's also worked at Darby and at Warwick

Nick:

Spoiler alert, there is a mystery man, who had a big influence on her life in this episode.

Andy:

Nice teaser. She seems to have a real passion for ensuring students expand their horizons, and ultimately become nicer people, which, uh, we all decided Canadians are.

Nick:

Yeah. Yeah. There was a lot of discussion about cultural differences here, and I think, Being French helped

Andy:

she's generous, adventurous, loves dancing, and the benefits of traveling alone. Let's get some tales in the Departure Lounge from Claire Bell Caddy.

Claire:

I probably have more Dutch blood than French blood. And the Dutch are even more blunt and even more direct than the French. So please don't be offended by anything that I say. When I was growing up, my dad said, if you don't have English in your life, you have nothing. The troubled at home, uh, didn't stop. I divorced and became single mother for 10 years and therefore there was limited things I could do to go traveling on my own I have no idea what I'm gonna do, but I, I feel some calling it turned out to be a life changing experience for me.

Nick:

So before we get into this episode, we are very excited to announce a new sponsor in Enrollee. Enroll platform. Cash Shield automates the cas visa and arrival process for university's agents and international students. And in the last academic year, the Enrollee platform managed the arrival and onboarding of one in four international students going to the uk, which is pretty significant. I've seen the enrollee cash shield in action myself, and I've gotta say it is the. Best tech innovation I've seen in the admission space. The platform takes the pain out of compliance and document collection. It protects your sponsor license and it maximizes post offer conversion. It also integrates with loads of other systems and private providers. So seriously, if you work in admissions, compliance, recruitment are student experience at a UK university, then check out, enroll today. It will save your team heaps of time and stress. So that's enroll. E N R O L Y. They've also come up with a great engagement idea, so I'll tell you more at the end of the episode.

Andy:

Claire, welcome to Tales the Departure. It's great to have you on. The first section is called Final Boarding Call, and this is where you can take our listeners anywhere in the world. So where would you like to take them today?

Claire:

that's been quite a little bit of a difficult questions cuz I've got a number of favorite place in the world and they tend to rotate so I've been giving quite a bit of thought to this question., but actually I've decided to take you to Sri Lanka

Andy:

Nice.

Claire:

and that is taking me back a number of years actually. Uh, it's, a trip that I did I would say around 2011. So a good 10 years ago. And actually it's funny because I've been to many, many other places since that trip, but it's still the trip and the place I've decided to talk to you about mainly because, of somebody that I met there and that has probably transformed a lot. What I think and my vision on things. So that's where we are going. We are going to, to Sri Lanka, and we are going to Colombo and we are going to candy.

Andy:

I'm intrigued

Claire:

Right. So, basically, you need to imagine that you've just been doing a whole week of school visits in Colombo. And despite the fact that you've got a really comfortable hotel, you get up really early in the morning, you speak to thousands kids a day, and it's very hot and it's not your normal environment. And by the end of the week you are normally. Quite happy to leave. And, at that point I was going through a few turmoils at home and at the end of the week, I remember all my colleagues were sharing taxis to go to the airport or whatever. And, I decided to stay. I just thought, bite the bullet and I'm gonna stay a few more days on my own. I have no idea what I'm gonna do, but I, I feel some calling and I ended up taking the train from Colombo to Kandy. I had no idea what was in Kandy, but I was told it's quite nice. Just go. And, it turned out to be a sort of, yeah, maybe life changing experience for me. going there. First of all, it was the first time that I probably decided to do something like that on my own. And, uh, I must admit, I, I left my own country quite young and I've been living abroad for, for. A long time, but it was the first time that I was actually traveling alone. And immediately I felt this sense of freedom and this sense of relief that I didn't have to be anywhere. I had let go of any of my responsibilities back home. My work was finished for the week and I could just do whatever I wanted. So it was just an awesome feeling. And then I took the train, the train, from Colombo to Kandy was already an experience. I dunno if you've had ever had a chance, but it was just magnificent and enhanced that feeling of, wow, I'm doing something so much different today. It's really amazing. When I got to Kandy, I was bombarded by taxi drivers wanting to take me somewhere and I was a little bit nervous, I must admit. Uh, it was dark. I had no idea where I was. It felt proper third world country. And, eventually I got this driver coming to me and he said, I'll take you to your hotel, madam. I take you to a hotel. I said, okay, okay, let's go. And I'd booked a hotel, so I knew where I was going, and he started to talk to me in the journey, and he was very talkative. And I was just like, wow. Kind of leave me alone for a minute. Because he was just talking and talking, what do you wanna do and what do you wanna do, madam? And where shall we go? And then what do you wanna do tomorrow, madam? And I was like, I just wanna go to my hotel. Thank you. You know, and, and, and at first I was a little bit assertive because I, I was a little bit nervous, I think, but anyway, It turns out that this guy was called Blackson Tours and he called himself Black boy. And he insisted on saying, I'm gonna come and pick you up again tomorrow morning and I'm gonna take you places. And I said, well, I'm okay. Honestly, I'm just gonna do my plans. I'm okay. And he said, look, you've got nothing to worry about. Just look at my book. And before he dropped me off at the hotel, he made me read that book, which was essentially a, a log book of all the people that he had, transported and they wrote some stories about how amazing he was and how trustworthy he was, et cetera. So he said, what do you wanna do tomorrow? And I said, well, I don't know. I don't know, candy. And he said, okay, well I'll pick you up. I'll pick you up at eight o'clock and I will take you, I will take you to the botanical garden. I will take you to the sickle factory. I will take you to the temple. I will take you to the elephant orphanage. I will, I will be your tour guide. I said, oh, so that sounded too good because I was like, well, how much are you gonna charge me for this? with my western world of a driver looking after me all day, not only being my driver, but my tour guide and my bodyguard, I was like, how much is this gonna cost me? And I think he just asked me for, I don't know, maybe 4,000 rupees or 5,000 rupees, you know, the equivalent of less than 10 pound. And I was just like, you what? You're gonna do all of that for just that? And he said, yes, madam, I pick you up. I pick you up at eight o'clock. And then I remember going to bed and, um, thinking. I don't know if I need to put my alarm because that guy is never gonna show up for me. is he really gonna show up at eight o'clock for me and do I really wanna get up and do all these things? But I did, and I'm just gonna cut it short a little bit now because I feel I'm going on a little bit. But basically, Blackson changed my life because he gave me this abundance of goodness and of generosity, and he ended up spending a whole four days with me because after the first day of taking me around, Candy. We had built that trust and he offered to take me on different tours in the south of Sri Lanka all the way until dropping me back to the airport at the end of my tour. And he made me discover so many amazing places. And he also made me discover Buddhism. And I'm, I'm a little bit of a, shameless atheist at, at the moment, and I, I don't preach any religion, but I think if I was to have a religion, I would now, because of Blackson choose to be a Buddhist and, and all this, um, learning and, and. Giving that he showed me during those four days and explaining me how he believed in reincarnation and the best he would be in that life, the better his next lives would be. And that's why he was being so good and so generous to people. And it just gave me a, a completely different perspective on my trip and on how initially I just wanted to be selfishly four days on my own and do my own thing. And I now know that that calling I felt at the start of the trip was because I needed to meet Black Boy. So if ever you go to Colombo, and if ever you wanna go to Candy, look for black son Tours.

Andy:

I wanna know what you wrote in his book at the end.

Claire:

Really that it was amazing, and thank you for his generosity and, that we needed more people like him in the in, in the world.

Nick:

Claire, I'm absolutely loving this story. The, there's a man on the other side of the world who in four days influenced your life. so two books are coming to my mind here. One is, eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert, and which is very spiritual about finding yourself in different places and the other one is Chanam. The, the story of a man who arrives in India and as soon as he gets off the plane in Mumbai, he's inundated by the tour guides offering to help him discover the city. And he had a, he has almost exactly the same experience he meets, a guide and basically they become, The most incredible friends, with all these adventures. What you were saying is almost exactly the start of that novel, which is one of my favorite books.

Claire:

Yeah. Oh, amazing. Well, thanks for the recommendation. Sh I'll, I'll look it up. That was my, my trip to Sri Lanka and, over 10 years on, I still think about that guy, and he probably has no idea who I am, but nevermind.

Andy:

What was the best thing or or memorable thing that black boys show?

Claire:

It was definitely the elephant orphanage and that would be really lovely for your kids as well. And you can go there and you can feed the elephant baby elephants with bottles of milk., it was so funny at one point because they take them from the orphanage to the river and they literally have to, cross the village to get to the river. And I come from the south of France, so it's very, regular to see some herds of sheep or even cows crossing the roads to go from one field to the next. But this was a herd of elephants crossing a very small village, and they were so big that they couldn't, it felt like they were gonna break everything in the village, but they go straight for the water and then you see them doing a shower. And I've got some really lovely picture at home of me sort of showering them. And that was quite cool. And I've subsequently since, then gone to,, Thailand and saw some elephant there as well. But in Sri Lanka, the elephant orphanage was definitely the best.

Nick:

You started your description of Sri Lanka saying you had some personal troubles at home, and it was the first time you'd really traveled on your own. Has that continued, have you found a sense of adventure after that?

Claire:

I'd like to think yes, but I'm not sure it's properly materialized because the troubled at home, uh, didn't stop. And, uh, subsequently I divorced and became single mother for 10 years and therefore there was limited things I could do to go traveling on my own, so I've continued doing some, trip for work, and often you are part of a group and you just do your dates, but every time my date's finished, I had to rush'em to be back with the kids. And so I don't think I've really proper had another opportunity to be completely on my own. I did, I, I did do a, another life changing trip, to Whistler Canada, which is one of my other favorite place in the world. But that was really to go and see a mate and to have a sort of a, a post divorce type. 15 days of partying and being completely crazy. But I wasn't really on my own. I was with a mate and we met lots of other mates and it was a fantastic trip, but for other reasons.

Andy:

Um, never met a bad Canadian though.

Claire:

no, I mean, Canadians are just really, really amazing. They're just the better version of the u the the Americans only honestly such.

Nick:

You said it, Claire, not me.

Claire:

No, I, I, I mean, I have nothing against the Americans. I love the Americans as well. I think the Canadians have got that little bit. Enhanced Genuity about themselves. So I'd like to see more of Canada. I dunno if you've managed to, catch on TV at the moment. They've got this race around the world, program, and they're going across Canada and, they're seeing some fantastic sceneries. I'm watching that with a lot of, excitement

Andy:

There's those iconic sea planes, that land in the, in the bay. Um, everyone was lovely, you know, it's a very beautiful city Vancouver The sunshine the whole time I was there. beautiful scenery. I got speaking to a friend, actually, of my dad's who lived out there, and he drove me around. And then he showed me how expensive property was there. And, and you know, just a two up, two down. It was about 4 million or something.

Claire:

Well if you ever wanna move back, my best friend, who lives in Whistler? She's a property, um, retailer. Real estate. They call them,

Andy:

I need, and I also need black boys card

Claire:

there you go. See, I'm gonna change your life.

Nick:

The race around the World Series is fantastic, but Canada does feel like a safe option. It's race across the safest, peaceful country on earth and get people who don't lock their doors to give you, a ride to the next state.

Claire:

Fair enough, unless you get eaten by a bear. Last year I took my three kids, for Easter to Rio on my own. We went to see a football game there and then we went to the actual, carnival. because of Covid, the carnival was pushed from February to, the end of April. And we went to the sunroom and we literally went there from 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM and that was one of the best thing I've ever done in my life. And, playing in the waves in, in Ima and yeah, just the chill atmosphere of the city. That was amazing as well. And not scared at all.

Nick:

It's another place that I'm desperate to go it must be the most incredible celebration of color and dancing and music.

Claire:

That's what it is, at least the sunroom night is, and one of the particularities of last year, normally you've got all these blockers and for a whole week there's noise and people and massive sort of atmosphere in the Hall of Rio as well as in the sunroom. But last year for some reason, and because of Covid still. It was a little bit more low key than normal. And so the main event was the sunk, and that was three nights in a row and it's just an explosion of color and music and dance, and it's a show, but it's not a show that lasts for an hour or maybe two hours. If you go and see a show in the uk, it's a show that lasts all night and you're thinking, do I have time to go and get a drink? Of course you have, because by the time you go and you come back, it will be there and bigger and greater and it's just incredible. The volume of the costumes and the colors and the music. Like I said, it, it's one of the most beautiful thing I've seen in my life,

Andy:

So the next section, Claire, is called any laptops, liquids, or sharp objects. So what are your favorite travel hacks, or what do you have to take with you when you go traveling?

Claire:

I tend to take way too much. But, for work, what's becoming more apparent is that you need a good phone charger because you do so much more stuff on your phone than you used to, not. Photos, but taking notes and paying and finding a last minute accommodation and using the translator, using the currency translator. if your phone is out of battery, you are properly stuck. So make sure you have a good phone charger. And that means not just the lead, but also obviously the good plug.

Andy:

I wonder whether it removes a little bit of the experience if you actually turned your phone off and had to be a bit more analog. Whether your experience of travel would be more immersive, than it is now.

Claire:

having said that, the phone doesn't solve everything because, uh, a recent trip to Asia again showed me that they have a different alphabet and they have a different language. And sometimes you think that they're gonna understand, take me to Carlton Hotel because there's not gonna be millions of Carlton Hotel, but they don't even understand what Carlton means. So then you think, well, I'm gonna show them how it's written on my phone. Look, it's there. It says Carlton Hotel, but they don't read those letters. So actually your stuff, whether you've got a phone or not, what you need to make sure you have is the address of your hotel in the language of your country of destinations before you go. So that at least, you've got somewhere, and a means to get to your hotel safely. And actually, I, I almost ended up in Cambodia last time I traveled to Bangkok because my taxi driver didn't know., the website said 4 91 for the Carlton Hotel, but actually a bit like in New York, they count the street in the length, but also in the width. And so the taxi drivers would've understood Sovi 21, which is the street that crosses where the Carlton Hotel is. But Sovi Hotel 4 91, he was like 4 91. And he said, who fa. And I thought he was gonna take me to Kaja, to be honest. So then I decided to put the hotel on my sat nav, and she said, right, let's just follow my sat nav. And then I thought he knows where he is going, but then he missed the exit that the satin nav wanted me to go in. So I said, just exit, exit, exit that way. And then when I got to the hotel, I said, what is this all about 4 91 against 27? How does that work? And he said, oh yeah, the taxi driver, they don't understand. For nine one you have to tell him 27. I said, well, it'd be useful if your website would actually say that, wouldn't it? So the phone was absolutely useless on that occasion, I'm afraid.

Andy:

When I first started going to China, you had to pretty much take everything written down with you we had a crib sheet that went around and it had all the phonetic ways of saying certain things to help you,

Claire:

That actually also reminds me of another event, I traveled to St. Petersburg, um, and it was an incredible city and I loved it. However, I found the Russians horrible at the time, and, uh, I couldn't understand. Tube system because I couldn't read the destinations and I felt so stupid cuz I speak three languages, but I didn't speak Russian and I had no idea how to get to where I wanted to go. I had no idea what color it was meant to be or what direction, up, down, whatever. And then everybody I tried to ask for help, they just pushed me away and they were so unwelcoming and so unfriendly. He was absolutely horrible. I almost wanted to cry at the time. I was so lonely. I was like, why are they not more welcoming with a, a nice young French lady who's coming to visit their city? But yeah, honestly it was quite difficult without a phone there to, to figure out where to go as well. so the moral of the stories, uh, we have multiple alphabet in the world, and, uh, it's better if you know more than one. Then the other thing that I always take with me, is my trainers. And I know that I've listened to someone, Lance in your podcast who said, you always take the trainers and make sure that you always go for a good run around the city. I get to use my trainers 99% of the time. so I'm quite happy, and proud of that, if it's not too hot outside, I'll go and explore the city,

Nick:

I'm totally with you, on the running. Get rid of some of the adrenaline or some of the jet lag, get some fresh air,

Claire:

When I run abroad, I allow myself things that I don't allow myself when I run at home, which is, Stop, walk, take pictures. I remember having a run in Taiwan and I ran along the Mega River and then I got through this park and it was very early in the morning, like before seven, and there was this massive group, at least 15, 20 elders, and they were all doing Tai Chi and it was like, wow, like a different world. And you know what? I stopped my run and I joined them and I did a bit of Tai Chi with them. And it was just so exciting just to do something a bit different and just to take the time.

Andy:

This section Claire is called, what's the purpose of your visit?

Claire:

Well, that's a big one, isn't it? I don't know whether it's seren serendipity or whether I just really created my own destiny and my own chances, but, I think travel was, was in my d n a from a very young age. And when I turned 18, there was no way that I just wanted to stay in Paon. I'd had already done quite a few. Traveling, uh, with the family. And I just knew that Papino was such a small, closed-minded place. So I studied and then I studied abroad and it changed my life. And so what I do now is to try and change other people's lives. And, uh, I seem to be continuing to carry that passion, for talking about my travels or for encouraging people to travel. But, I am so honored and privileged to have worked in this field for 20 years and to have traveled and discovered the world and learned about others, learned about myself, learned about cultural differences, I think in the western world sometimes we can be very, inter centric. Whether that's a word or not, I don't know. But just like looking at our own, interest and be very individualist. And I'm very, very interested in cultural differences, and I'm interested in learning about the difference between, individualist societies that we are in the western world and, and those capitalist countries and those collectivist societies that are more looking after one another. In England you don't have to learn languages. when I was growing up, my dad said, if you don't have English in your life, you have nothing. So obviously, what's the best place to learn? England is to go to England and learn the language, right? So if you don't have to do that, you don't have the desire to travel in your DNA perhaps as much as others have, but then you miss out on that learning and that experiences that makes you grow into an adult with more open vision on the world. I've always felt welcome in this country up until 2016. And it's very sad to, to, to say that. Uh, but that's, that's the reality. And Brexit has changed a lot for me and it's changed a lot for foreigners who live in this country and, and that's quite sad. So let's hope that in the next 30 years they reverse Brexit and, and, we have the opposite journey back into belonging to the Europe, or belonging to any other group, um, that may make the British nation open to the world.

Nick:

I'm really pleased you've started reflecting on Great Britain. Uh, you, you managed to offend Americans already and the Russians, so I think it's only fair that we get more French perspectives on the British. So tell us about, um, some of our cultural differences.

Claire:

Well, I mean, for anybody who's listening, please don't be offended. Um, you know, I'm only French. This is why I always say, and not only I'm only French, I probably have more Dutch blood than French blood. And the Dutch are even more blunt and even more direct than the French. So please don't be offended by anything that I say. I absolutely love England and the English, and I've always felt very welcome., culturally, it's very different to have a, a conversation. Or even a debate, an English person might call it an argument, but it would have this con negative connotation. Whereas, you know, I'm from the south of France, I've got Arabic blood, I've got Mediterranean upbringing. We talk with our hands, we talk loud and we talk fast, and And that's just what we do. And we're not arguing. We're just talking. And so, you know, in the past, I've been told that I needed to. Temper my approach because I was too ab abrupt and too loud and maybe, not adapting to the British model enough. but at the end of the day, this is who I am. And sometimes I think stop apologizing about who you are cuz it's never gonna change.

Nick:

How does that make you feel? For me, the older you get, the more you realize that the way to make yourself happy is to be yourself, that's quite difficult, isn't it? If someone's asking you to change.

Claire:

Well, the thing is, when you're a foreigner into a country, so I'm the, I'm the immigrant From France to England, and I live in England, so it's my choice. So, I am the one who has to adapt to living in this country,

Nick:

How do you feel about the food

Claire:

I I wasn't gonna talk about the food. I was actually gonna talk about our relationship with alcohol, and how in England you really have to be pissed to have a good time. Whereas in France we start the other way around. We have a good time and we have a few drinks, and then maybe we end up pissed. But the relationship with alcohol, especially in the youngsters and the young generations in UK is a little bit scary. And I've got four teenagers in the house, so at the moment I'm, a little bit worried about what that may turn like for them. The relationship with alcohol and that binge drinking thing is really something I've never, ever been able to get used to. that's definitely one of our main cultural difference.

Andy:

It's part of our cultural heritage. This has happened for hundreds of years with, market towns go to pint in a, and it's.

Claire:

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And actually the pub culture in England is phenomenal. I absolutely love it. You can go to the pub with the kids, you can go to the pubs with the dog. You can watch football, you can have a chat with people at the bar. You can have a really nice family gathering, but outside the house, which is lovely. Whereas in France it was probably gonna be a little bit more formal, there is this strict education that when your parents are taking you out, you have to behave at the restaurant and you have to sit for five hours without moving. And I'm glad I've never had to impinge that on my own children, to be honest,

Nick:

I'm intrigued then. So with your own children, have you taught them French from a young age?

Claire:

oh, it's not always as easy as people think because after 20 years in England, you work in English, you talk in English, you dream in English, you eat in English, and therefore talking in French to my children is an effort. And, um, people don't always, understand that. So I do my absolute best to talk to my children in French. It's worked better with my daughter every time I tried to talk to them in French, it was like, don't talk to me in French and don't talk to me in French in front of the school. So it's a constant effort and despite all of that effort, she ended up with a nine at her G C S C, which I was really proud of. So I said, right, you've got your nine. Just make sure you continue a level because that's just an easy A level and you know, it's an A in the bag job done. And what she's decided, at the beginning of, year 12 is that she wasn't going to do French A level, and for that matter, she wasn't gonna go to university. And I'm just like, oh my God, for 17 years, all of these efforts in trying to work in higher education and giving her some ideas of what it may be like to go to uni and to do abroad, and how she could get an AA level, and she'd have a really good place at a good university. and actually now my daughter's decided that straight after array levels, at the end of the month, she's going to France to work for the whole. Summer and possibly to the whole year. She wants to do ski season in the Alps. It really makes me feel proud. She's got what I wanted her to have, which is the language, the culture, the awareness that English is not the only thing in the world. And, both of my sons have that, which, which is lovely.

Nick:

It's such a strength to be bilingual, and I'm sure she's gonna feel the benefit and be so appreciative. They all are. When they grow up, that you took the effort.

Claire:

When you're a teenager, somewhat, you don't want a bit different. You think that being different is a bad thing, and then you turn into an adult and when you're adult you realize that actually it's your differences that make you who you are

Andy:

you should be proud, Claire. You've raised a strong, independently minded young woman

Claire:

I wonder where she get that from? I'm really jealous of my daughter now and I just wish I was her, I would just wish I could be eating again I'm really excited for her

Andy:

the last section of the podcast, Claire, is called Anything to Declare. This is a space where you can talk about whatever you. So have you got anything that you'd like our listeners to know about?

Claire:

Actually since I've got the floor, I might as well try and make it a little bit useful. And, I've been, hearing a lot about a particular network, recently that I wanna talk about to help them out because it's a cause that I really believe in, I've talked about how much I love traveling but it comes with the reverse of the coin, and the impact on carbon and on sustainability. And unfortunately, I'm having to think more and more now about whether each trip is really relevant and necessary, and I'm almost, having to decide should I be using that carbon for myself or shall I leave it to someone else? And these reflections started, in the last couple of years, but mainly as I came across. A network called Kani, so it's C A N I E. It's the Climate Action Network for international educators. It's a fantastic network of fantastic people using their own time and their own energy to try and make us think about it all and somebody that I work, closely since I've met her is, is a girl called Margarita. She's part of the, European chapter for Kane., one day she said to me, every flight that you are now taking is a flight that you are taking away from your children to be able to fly. So have you not flown enough in your life and have you not seen enough? And she was thinking the more you spend now, the less they'll have to spend. And so I'm really wanting to be involved more in this network and for people to talk about it in higher ed. I really encourage you to talk about sustainability and how we can, adapt, and mitigate our activities

Andy:

I've just looked them up actually whilst you've been talking and I see they've got their own podcast so people can check them out and we'll put a link to their website in the episode notes as well.

Claire:

But I don't wanna point out just at the higher education sector. And I don't wanna point out just that the people who travel, cuz that wouldn't be fair. And I have a vetted interest in all of this because my husband is an airline pilot. So actually if he can't fly anymore, I don't know how we gonna be paying the mortgage. Let's try and get some good education out there and really try and understand. And, and one of the things that I was told is that actually the construction industry is the worst one for the environment not just the airlines and not just the people who take flights. Cuz I wanna be able to carry on taking flights and I want my children to be able to take flights and I want my husband to have a, a job. Um, but we can also mitigate and a adapt the way we do things.

Nick:

Please can we have your husband as a guest on this show? Uh, there's so many questions I wanna ask him about being a pilot, without getting him fired, of course.

Claire:

If you are interested in having him, I'm sure he'll be interested Nick, no problem. And he has millions of stories and he loves stalking way, way more than I do.

Andy:

Awesome. Claire, thank you so much for coming on. It's been wonderful having you.

Claire:

It's been, it's been lovely just to reflect on a few stories,

Andy:

Send us your address and we'll send you a sticker.

Claire:

Amazing. I love stickers. I've got loads of stickers on the back of my computer, so, uh, I'll try and find some space for yours.

Nick:

Perfect.

Claire:

All right, talk soon guys. Bye-Bye.

Nick:

Hello everyone. Thank you so much for listening. As always. Now, we've teamed up with our sponsors and Rollie to get you our listeners involved. What we wanna know is where would your final boarding call be? Where's that bucket list destination that you can't wait to travel to, or where's the place that you can't wait to return to? You can tell us at Sick bag at tales from the departure lounge.com or social media. We'll be recording a special episode of the Frequent Flyers Club to discuss your suggestions. Safe travels everyone. Tales from the Departure Lounge is a type nine production for the pie.

People on this episode

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Andy Plant

Host
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Nick Cuthbert

Host