Just 6.5 weeks remaining in my contract and the last one will be without Jerry. Unfortunately it will be without Rich, the drummer, but what can you do. I'll be laughing the whole way home that last cruise, I'm sure. Probably pack my bags before the new people show up and just wear my uniforms all week.
Black and White party in the crew bar last night. Interesting. Very interesting. It was also Laura's (one of our dancers) 19th birthday.
Life has been quiet this week. We've had a mess of seasonal youth staff on since mid December . The personel changed slightly week to week, but they were always present....until now. They all disembarked last Brisbane; along with Sandra and Troy, our teen director and deputy cruise director, as the summer holiday has ended for most Aussies and Kiwi's. This has also brought the return of a slightly higher class of passenger. We were dubbing the cruises since the New Year's cruise the "Trailer Trash" cruises. Not the highest class of passenger, but that's another story. With the departure of the youth staff came a deadly queit in the crew bar. I sat with David and Neil and two other gents that night in the crew bar and we were it. It was dead. Miss those folks.
Got a lot of sun today. Didn't take the hop onto Lifou (I've already been there 6 times and we'll be there 5 more times before I leave) but had a good day nonetheless. I'm on IPM (In-Port Manning....meaning I can't leave the ship) in Vila tomorrow so I'll be working on some arrangements and edits for our female productions singer's cabaret show on my computer and hopefully getting my first ever professional massage. Yay crew discount.
May have picked up another arranging gig in addition to Kalida, whose show I'm hoping to start next week, as long as the scores arrive. Haven't heard from Talawanda in a while. Starting to think Richard just decided to have Dave write theirs anyway. Being out here on ship probably cost me there. Lesson learned.
I'm running out of time on this access card so I'm gonna sign off.
Cheers
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Friday, January 26, 2007
I hope this works
With any luck, clicking here will take you to my Facebook page where all my Australia pictures are for the moment. If it doesn't w
ork, try back in week.
ork, try back in week.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Off and running....
The fates have smiled upon me and I am able to check and post to my blogspot from the ship (unlike Facebook and MySpace.....though I'm probably gonna delete my MySpace page soon anyway. Not so much a fan anymore). This Saturday I'm gonna try and put a link to my facebook page on my blogspot profile as all my pictures are currently on Facebook. I'll see what I can do about getting pix on Picasa so they're linked directly to this blog.
Also, many thanks to my brother, Jeff, who not only turned me on to the idea of posting a blog (something I'd scoffed at for a long time prior to leaving the northern hemisphere for 4 months) and also for his help with some technical issues, including creating my header. That is actually a photo of me playing the bass, believe it or not. Pretty cool though. Thanks ffej!
Anyway, the ship is running a bit behind at the moment. We had some form of impropriety on the ship a couple nights ago. This was severe enough that we now have police on board investigating the situation and they have forced the ship to slow it's progress. Not sure how much that's going to affect us in turnaround tomorrow, though I now some people are already gonna have to deal with missed flights.
Big party tonight in the crew bar. The seasonal youth staff are all disembarking tomorrow so a big party for them plus the two guest entertainers who have been on since the New Year's cruise are disembarking as well. I know we've got Dan Shearin joining us again with his "A Little Bit of Swing" show and I'm not sure who the other guest will be. This will be a nice change though, as we haven't played a show since the Christmas Cabaret on Christmas Eve. I've been getting a little tired and frustrated with playing only trio stuff all the time for an entire month. It's especially hard when the drummer plays on the back of the beat, the piano player miles ahead of it and I'm supposed to find the pocket. If I play with the drummer, I'm behind the beat. If I play with the piano player, who is always way too loud, I'm rushing. And they're both a whole generation or more older than I am. It's a no win. Sight reading shows is far more relaxing.
I do have this to say though. This ship may not be the greatest, but the crew that make her up are some of the most fantastic people I've ever met in my life. They make the whole thing. A lot of them are leaving in the next few cruises and they will be missed. The replacements who have already come on are incredibly cool people though and I'm glad to have known them all. Hopefully my next ship will be as good.
Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!
Oy! Oy! Oy!
(it's Australia Day)
Also, many thanks to my brother, Jeff, who not only turned me on to the idea of posting a blog (something I'd scoffed at for a long time prior to leaving the northern hemisphere for 4 months) and also for his help with some technical issues, including creating my header. That is actually a photo of me playing the bass, believe it or not. Pretty cool though. Thanks ffej!
Anyway, the ship is running a bit behind at the moment. We had some form of impropriety on the ship a couple nights ago. This was severe enough that we now have police on board investigating the situation and they have forced the ship to slow it's progress. Not sure how much that's going to affect us in turnaround tomorrow, though I now some people are already gonna have to deal with missed flights.
Big party tonight in the crew bar. The seasonal youth staff are all disembarking tomorrow so a big party for them plus the two guest entertainers who have been on since the New Year's cruise are disembarking as well. I know we've got Dan Shearin joining us again with his "A Little Bit of Swing" show and I'm not sure who the other guest will be. This will be a nice change though, as we haven't played a show since the Christmas Cabaret on Christmas Eve. I've been getting a little tired and frustrated with playing only trio stuff all the time for an entire month. It's especially hard when the drummer plays on the back of the beat, the piano player miles ahead of it and I'm supposed to find the pocket. If I play with the drummer, I'm behind the beat. If I play with the piano player, who is always way too loud, I'm rushing. And they're both a whole generation or more older than I am. It's a no win. Sight reading shows is far more relaxing.
I do have this to say though. This ship may not be the greatest, but the crew that make her up are some of the most fantastic people I've ever met in my life. They make the whole thing. A lot of them are leaving in the next few cruises and they will be missed. The replacements who have already come on are incredibly cool people though and I'm glad to have known them all. Hopefully my next ship will be as good.
Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!
Oy! Oy! Oy!
(it's Australia Day)
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
New things everyday
It took working a cruise ship for 4 months in Australia and some prompting from my brother to finally get me to put up a blog. So here it is. Hopefully I'll be able to update this from the ship. If not, I'll try and update it in Brisbane every week.
At the moment, I'm in an internet cafe in Cairns which is in tropical northern Queensland. The Great Barrier Reef is about an hour away by bus. It's January 24 and it's about 88 degrees and humid outside. Feels like I should be teaching a band camp. Feeling pretty good at the moment, despite everything I imbibed last night. We overnighted here in Cairns and the night off was a much needed release for many of us. Somebody played a Rage Against the Machine tune at one point and I can recall screaming the lyrics with my hand in the air. Realized just how much I needed to get out of the fishbowl.
We set sail for Willis Island and Brisbane later this afternoon. We're throwing a party for our departing deputy cruise director tonight. We worked up a little skit for him and everything. It should be hilarious. Friday is Australia Day (their 4th of July). Should be interesting. Friday will also be the last day that the seasonal youth staff are on the ship. They're good people and I've been hanging out with them quite a lot so I'm sure I'll miss them when they're gone.
I'm gonna work on posting pictures here eventually. For now, they're all up on my facebook profile. I'll see if I can get a link up here to that. I need to do some shopping now before I head back the ship though.
cheers
At the moment, I'm in an internet cafe in Cairns which is in tropical northern Queensland. The Great Barrier Reef is about an hour away by bus. It's January 24 and it's about 88 degrees and humid outside. Feels like I should be teaching a band camp. Feeling pretty good at the moment, despite everything I imbibed last night. We overnighted here in Cairns and the night off was a much needed release for many of us. Somebody played a Rage Against the Machine tune at one point and I can recall screaming the lyrics with my hand in the air. Realized just how much I needed to get out of the fishbowl.
We set sail for Willis Island and Brisbane later this afternoon. We're throwing a party for our departing deputy cruise director tonight. We worked up a little skit for him and everything. It should be hilarious. Friday is Australia Day (their 4th of July). Should be interesting. Friday will also be the last day that the seasonal youth staff are on the ship. They're good people and I've been hanging out with them quite a lot so I'm sure I'll miss them when they're gone.
I'm gonna work on posting pictures here eventually. For now, they're all up on my facebook profile. I'll see if I can get a link up here to that. I need to do some shopping now before I head back the ship though.
cheers
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)