teddyman,
maybe tomorrow I will fly from a base which is not really what I call home, I will fly with someone who is on a different contract and will be discussing why he or I do the same job in the same base for less money,maybe I will be flying my 5th day and looking forward to the next 3 dats off 'cause I'm in a 5/3 base,maybe I will be on annual leave that I haven't chosen (impossible from next year in july/august when I will be working while the kids & wife are on holiday) or on my unpaid month off,maybe I will be sick at home without pay nor medical care (unless I have arranged my own), maybe I will be travelling to EMT or STN for my sim paying for transport&hotel, maybe I will be signing a cheque for my own loss of licence or pension scheme, maybe I will be working on a day off without any extra money, maybe I will paying for my wife's ticket so she can come visit me because we have no discounted tickets for family (brk),maybe I will be calling OPS or maintenance at my own expense from abroad to discuss operational issues, maybe I will be reporting 20/30 minutes before the official reporting time just to be sure I can get a printer that works and be ready on time, maybe I will be paying for my airport carpark and ID, maybe I will be on my 7th or 8th STBY day of the month, maybe I will have been waiting for my base of choice for a couple of years with no luck, maybe I will have to live in one of those beautiful new bases alone because there is no international school for the kids in a radius of 500nm, maybe I will get sent out of base and will have to travel on my days off at my own expense.....and so on teddyman.
Don't want to sound pessimistic but just want you to realize that just because you are one of the few "happy at home" ones it doesn't mean that the other 2999 are smiling like you are (there are around 3000 of us right?).
There are surely good things about this company but there also are bad ones, and making it a better place to work should be an aim for all of us.
P.S.: I will also fly one of those shiny jets tomorrow and will be thinking how to make a good life even better because the one we have is far from great....at least for most of us.