This past Saturday was Family Day at Airbus (where my sweetheart is an electrical engineer). When Davy first told me about it, I was a little apprehensive...my only experiences with company picnics bring back hazy memories of the ones my dad took us to when I was a kid. Bless his heart, he only asked us to attend a handful of them before realizing what torture it was for us. Let’s just say that the one year that really sticks out in my mind, the festivities were hosted inside the eye of a tornado, we were greeted by really intoxicated rednecks, and the crawfish had run out as we arrived. Good times.
No, Family Day is a big deal--it only happens approximately every 4 years when Airbus opens its hangars to let curious onlookers gaze at the planes and inner workings of the newest aviation projects they have going. I was informed that tickets were selling for hundreds of pounds on the web and that most workers’ family members were traveling from countries all over. It brought more of a feeling of “Willy Wonka is opening the doors of his chocolate factory!” While they didn’t have fizzy lifting drinks (how appropriate would that have been?!), they did have plenty of beer. (And some free drinks for us when we accidentally found ourselves in the VIP lounge. Score!)
I was looking forward to seeing the place he retreats for many hours a day, although I didn’t get a tour of the nooks and crannies where he spends time studying for his exams OR the tea break area...
We spent the day wandering around the buildings surrounded by thousands of people, all squished in to get a sneak peek of things like new A380--a plane so enormous it features first-class suites with their own bathrooms and showers! This part of the tour was still under a photography ban, making me feel like I should take notes to relay back to Slugworth...if only I had a Slugworth!
Because I know very little about what was on display around me (and the explanations were all in German), I just enjoyed a day holding Davy’s hand, ooh-ing and aah-ing at all the machinery and keeping an eye out for pretzel stands...
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