The month of October 2020 is forever etched into my memory as the darkest and saddest month in my career as a cabin crew. From early October, there were so many rumors leading up to the announcement that made the waiting period even more stressful. You just could not function normally knowing that your job and livelihood may be gone in a instant.

I was actually flying from Los Angeles back to Hong Kong on the day of the announcement. Our wake-up call was at 9 pm, and between 7 to 9 pm there were literally thousand of “panic” messages on my phone. I was worried; how can we fly and operate the fight with such emotions? Luckily just before we boarded the crew bus to the airport, we found out that all crew on our flight are “safe”.

November 8th 2020 (2 weeks after the announcement). Many of my friends are affected by the restructuring. The feelings in the last 2 weeks have been depressing; knowing, hearing, seeing, and feeling the despair of others are surreal and sad.

But we should not dwell on the negative stuff, today I am at the E-max plaza to support my colleagues who have been affected by the restructuring. Apparently, within a short period period of time, a group of aviation workers manage to organize an “Aviation Market” to help who has been affected to start a new beginning.

My friend, Yasuko, joined me on this trip. She mentioned that one of her close friend was also at the market promoting her small business. E-max plaza is not a popular mall and we were thinking whether there will be enough people visiting the market. Once we found the venue, we realized we were wrong; the place was jam-packed!!!

There were many stalls in the venue showing a variety of Flight Attendant’s own brand and products; Handmade Candles, Dried Flowers, Handcrafts, Ornaments, Fashion Wear, Japanese and Korean Clothing, Soup bags, Flower tea, Coffee, muffins, cake and dried fruit.

Before the visit, I wanted to make an introductory video of the market and perhaps even interview some of the exhibitors. But with so many people inside and outside the venue, I quickly abandon my plan. The new plan to check out as many stalls as we could and take some pictures and contacts.

The first stall we visited was a homemade essential oil candle with many exquisite aroma. The dark colored candle in the middle has a “Morocon Mint Tea with Ginger” aroma. It is really refreshing. Another creative aroma candle is the Tea Cup candle, which has the “Coffee” aroma. For more info, checkout their facebook and ig page (@el_aroma_candle)

El aroma de Candle

The next stall we visited is call Blossom & Tea Gift. They have made many refreshing blends of tea bag, and all of them are homemade. My wife has her attention on the Rose water by Roberts (an Italian brand). According to her, the Rose water is a good toner for the skin and so she bought one home. If you are interested, check out Amanda’s Blossom & Tea facebook profile:

https://www.facebook.com/blossomteangifthk/

The next startup has a unique name “HHYGGE”. According to the founder, the word “Hygge” originates from Denmark, suggesting a feeling of comfort and coziness.

There are a varieties of impressive and beautiful candle design. She even runs certificate course on Beeswax Rose and Flower Candle Course. If you are interested, checkout her website and and instagram @hhygg.e

https://www.hhygge.com

This stalls is extremely popular!!! Other than merchandizing their products, they also brought 2 small cute dogs. Both Yasuko and my wife are so distracted playing with their dogs that they forgot to check out their products.

“Witness-the-Fitness” is their creation and they focus on health, fitness and slimness. As there are many people crowding the area we did not manage to get more information. We did bought a mask however and my wife likes it after first use. There are more information on their facebook and ig (@witness_the_fitness0619)

Facebook : Witness.the.Fitness0619

Finally, a stall for me. I love coffee and Free Soul Coffee creates their own blend of coffee. As the creator of this coffee brand is not around, I could not find out more info on their products. On their website they described themselves as “Local indie roasted coffee and more. Drip bag. Cold brew bag. Beans.”. We bought few drip coffees and beans.

We bought different types of drip coffee. I especially like the Colombia brand. It has Rum flavour to it, so it feels like you are drinking coffee and alcohol. Nice! If you would like to try you can order through their facebook : FreeSoulCoffee

The next stall is Crochet and Knit products. Really love their knitting creativity. Other than tailor made baby clothing, they also have many selection of handcrafted goods and accessories. You could browse through their collection in facebook Lovin’handmade and ig : @_lovin_handmade_

Met a cabin crew whom I have flown with not long ago. The mother and son team is promoting creative game products for children. It is quite cute to see her young kid trying very hard to explain how to play the games. Hope they will have good sales on that day.

This is the last stall we visited. They are selling many high quality, natural and safe products from Japan from personal care, baby products, home care, kitchenware, clothing care, soap, cleaning material and others. We bought a cleaning liquid for clothing, with discount for crew!! For more detail details of their product, check their facebook page Shoptisfied Emart and ig @shoptisfiedemart

At around 4 pm, the crowd was getting larger and queue was starting to form just to enter. We wanted to go back in to check out more stalls but hesitated due to the growing crowds. Here I would like to apologize to all other stalls which we did not managed to cover.

All in all it was a great event. Hats off to the organizer who gave many affected crew an opportunity to showcase their products or creation. Most importantly, this event could help to jump start their start-ups as quickly as possible.

It’s inspiring to see the resilience and creativity of aviation workers in starting anew. It is not going to be an easy journey and I sincerely hope for the best of luck and success to everyone.

“Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.” 

Demosthenes