lows, highs, and clear skies

Tuesday 29th August 2006

2:06 a.m. BST Went to the do at James’ on Friday and that was good, there was a well-timed temporary lull in the unfavourable weather and we had a couple of hours of warm unbroken sunshine. We had some food and a couple of drinks and I lay on the back lawn for a while which I found very therapeutic.

Friday night was quiet despite it supposedly being the busiest night of the week. Saturday night went well, I played confidently and was generally very well received by the audience. Last night and tonight were a bit of a wash-out, but I had some positive feedback so that stopped me from feeling despondent!

It was Top Secret’s last night tonight, apparently they had a grand finale and a dramatic send-off which I would like to have seen, but I was tied up upstairs (as usual). Alex and True Nature are back tomorrow for a two-week stint, then they are due to be replaced by a six-piece Bulgarian band, who should be on for three trips before I disembark on the 18th September.

Was stood on the deck earlier tonight, and for the first time in a while the sky was completely clear. Got a pretty good view of the night sky, and it would have been even better had it not been for the multitude of fluorescent lights that adorn the ship!

Early start tomorrow; I’m going to give the band a hand with lugging their equipment back down to their van. It’s amazing that they’ve been on for six weeks, it has gone really quickly. It won’t be the same without them.

looking up

Thursday 24th August 2006

4:48 p.m. Didn’t have a great night last night as I was met with a largely unreceptive audience. Having said that, there was a couple in for most of the evening who requested a few songs and gave me some very nice compliments. I got chatting to them afterwards, and they gave me some very timely encouragement, which along with a few other things has set me in a lot more of a positive frame of mind.

Ended up not going ashore today, but I did do some practice earlier on, and went to the office to print out some new lyric sheets for some songs I am in the process of learning.

Friday 25th August 2006

12:06 p.m. Had a better night last night, played and sang well and got a much more positive reception, so feeling a bit more encouraged today.

Have just uploaded some new pics to my web-space, most of which I took yesterday. To get there, click this link or the 'Pics' option on the menu bar.

James has got a bit of a house-warming get-together at his new place in Hull this afternoon, so we're all piling down there for a bit. Should be interesting!

back on board

Monday 21st August 2006

4:15 p.m. BST Arrived back at the ferry terminal about two hours ago after six nights off. Immediately checked onto the ship, came up to my cabin and unpacked. It didn’t take as long as last time as I didn’t bring as much stuff with me (since I got the train). The journey only took four hours door to door, which wasn’t bad at all.

Wednesday 23rd August 2006

12:07 p.m. BST Have now done the first round-trip of my new contract, and it's business as usual aboard the Pride of York (hereafter referred to as 'the PoY' (possibly)).

Have just discovered that P&O have a virtual tour applet on their web-site which you can use to look around the fleet, including the Moonlight Lounge on the Hull-Zeebrugge route, which needless to say is my current place of work. Have to say I was pretty impressed by the show-bar on the Hull-Rotterdam boats (the two newer ships). You can find the tour at:

P&O Ferries Virutal Tours

Have been considering the future, and have to admit that despite the fact I have now begun pursuing a musical career, I have no idea where I see myself in five years time. Still it's early days, and considering the amount of positive feedback I've had since I've been here I'm sure the opportunities will present themselves. I think it will be more of a case of knowing which ones to follow up and which ones to politely decline. Some discernment needed I feel!

one more night to go...

Monday 14th August 2006

4:46 p.m. CET Had a good night last night. Wasn’t too busy but wasn’t too quiet either, plus I got a tip from one of a group of Germans who were sat by the piano at the end of the night, which I thought was a pretty good achievement. The children’s entertainer Jo came down to hear me play Bed Of Roses just before I finished, which went well and she was very appreciative.

Started packing yesterday and carried on earlier this afternoon. My cabin is looking pretty bare. Only one more night to go!

roll on tuesday...

Saturday 12th August 2006

4:30 p.m. CET Last night was pretty good but not as good as the night before. Once again was quieter despite us having roughly the same quota of passengers. One guy was in whose lad was a singer and I let him come up and sing a couple of numbers.

Made a start on packing this afternoon. Have just left the most important things available. Apparently my cabin needs to be ready for inspection by 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning, which will probably be the earliest I’ve been up since the first week I was here!

Have been to the terminal for some lunch this afternoon as I wasn’t in the mood to eat shortly after getting up! Plus the selection in the crew mess tends to be a bit limited and a lot of the food is fatty and reheated.

The other day I bought another two books by Jostein Gaarder, the guy who wrote Sophie’s World. One of them was his second novel, The Solitaire Mystery, which am already a third of the way through. My verdict so far is that its not quite as captivating as Sophie but it’s easier reading and again good food for the intellect (and the imagination!)

Sunday 13th August 2006

1:30 p.m. Last night was ok but again not my best. I think I'm preoccupied with the idea of going home! lol.

Woke up a few times last night as we had a rough sea again. I didn't mind it though.

Only one more round-trip to go now! Yay!!

return to form

Friday 11th August 2006

11:14 a.m. BST Had a great night last night. I felt that I played and sang very well and got good feedback from James and some passengers. There were a couple of groups in last night who had been in a few days ago on the outward journey, so I recognised them and chatted to them. Once again they stayed in all night and were requesting several songs. One of the guys tipped me quite generously which was very nice of him!

As I rounded off my last set last night we went through a squall during which lightning struck the funnel of the ship! All I saw was a very bright flash outside which was followed by a loud crack of thunder immediately afterwards. Apparently it happens quite often during the summer and was nothing to worry about.

Later on before retiring I went out on the deck (which, as you may have gathered by now, I do quite often!) and although there was moonlight above I noticed that there was an active storm-cloud on the horizon. Stood watching it for several minutes. Was quite spectacular watching the clouds lighting up in the distance. Have been wanting to see that for quite some time!

Only two more round-trips to go now. Time really seems to have slowed down in the last few days since I had my break confirmed. Maybe I shouldn’t be clock-watching!

less than a week to go...

...before I have a week off!

Monday 7th August 2006

11:43 a.m. A better couple of evenings, fortunately. Saturday was steady but became so quiet that by the time I finished at 11:30 p.m. and packed up, the entire bar was empty! Although I am fairly certain that this had nothing to do with my playing…

Last night was a lot busier and saw some people who had been on a couple of weeks ago who remembered me, they had requested a song that originally I didn’t know but by the time they came back I had learnt it so I played it for them.

Got a letter from Julian this morning, he is currently working on the Pride of Hull, which is one of the two ships that does the Hull-Rotterdam route. It sounds like he is getting on well.

Think I’m due for another jaunt into town today…

4:50 p.m. Am back from town after a fairly successful shopping trip. Still haven’t managed to get to a dry-cleaner’s though…

Forgot to say earlier that the sea was as calm as a duck-pond last night after a week or so of instability! So much so that there was no swell at all at some points which was quite amazing, never seen that before.

Tuesday 8th August 2006

4:43 p.m. CET Had a good night last night as I played confidently and as a result was well received. Have had several requests over the last couple of nights for stuff that I didn’t know so I’ve got my work cut out for me. Am going to make an effort to get some new material together while I’m off as well, as it can get a bit monotonous playing the same old songs two or three times a week.

Only one week to go now until I have my week’s break. And in two days time I will have been on here for exactly one month!

Wednesday 9th August 2006

10:54 a.m. BST I forgot to say yesterday that the night before last there was a guy sat by the piano who was harmonising to a few songs and he had a good voice so it sounded good.

Last night went fairly well as well, although my voice was a bit croaky. My playing was all right but not my best. Having said that, there were two family groups sat nearby and they very much enjoyed it, so much so that they stayed until the end, and I even had an encore for only the second time.

I think I’m ready for a break now. Good job there’s only three round-trips to go before I have just under a week off.

11:38 a.m. James arranged for us to go up to the bridge for a short while last night. Was really good, and although it was dark, we got a pretty good view across the sea, could see several other ships plus a couple of oil rigs in the distance, and the lights of the Norfolk coast. They have quite a bit of equipment up there as you can probably imagine, and it’s pretty sophisticated. Apparently the majority of the journey is navigated by the ship’s auto-pilot. One of the instruments has a built-in satellite tracking system, which showed the co-ordinates of our position in latitude and longitude. I’m going to look it up on Google Earth later and see where we were!

more news II

Saturday 29th July 2006

4:38 p.m. CET Yet another good night last night. Had a group in for most of the evening who I discovered were mad on Coldplay, when I launched into The Scientist they erupted with cheers and applause!! As a result I ended up playing four out of five of the Coldplay numbers I have in my repertoire, but I had to vary it a bit for the sake of the rest of the people in the room! Ended the evening with a bit of a sing-along with some of the younger members of their group, which was fun and different. Also the guy who had been there the night before came in and requested a few numbers, then fell asleep!

For the first time since I have been on board, almost the entirety of last night’s crossing was in thick fog. Was really weird being outside on deck last night with cloud just rushing right past you. Felt like we were flying not sailing.

I’m almost three weeks into my contract now. Once again time is racing.

Monday 31st July 2006

8:10 p.m. CET The last couple of nights went pretty well although nothing of major interest to report.

Ida came to see me while we were in port in Hull yesterday. The earliest she could arrive was at mid-day so we only got to spend four hours together but it was nice that she could come up. Plus I managed to sort out a day-pass for her this time round so she came on board the ship and I showed her round.

We left Zeebrugge about an hour ago and for the first time since I came aboard we are doing some proper sailing! The wind is force 5-6 tonight so the sea is a bit rough, so the ship’s rocking (or ‘rolling’ as they call it in the trade!) I love it!

Wednesday 2nd August 2006

5:05 p.m. CET The last couple of nights were nothing to write home about. It’s been quiet and I have been feeling slightly demotivated since Ida left on Sunday. But the good news is that it’s less than two weeks before I go home for a week.

Despite the windy weather I walked into Zeebrugge with the guys from the band plus a couple of the casino girls. We went to a bar and had a few drinks (mine still non-alcoholic), and I walked down to the sea again.

Thursday 3rd August 2006

1:37 p.m. Last night was the best night I’ve had in about a week. Was quite busy until around 11 o’clock and managed to get the crowd on my side after playing a barrage of popular numbers! At the end of the night some older guy (who apparently is a regular on North Sea Ferries) came over and asked me if he could sing Moon River so I accepted and it didn’t sound too bad despite him seeming to have had a skin-full!

Today’s main bit of news is that James wants me to do rolling contracts on this boat until the end of the year, in fact until January, when this ship goes into dry-dock. The only exception would be from the middle of September when I would get four-weeks break as there’s another new guy due to be coming on. I’ve agreed to it in principle, but we’ve still to thrash out a few of the finer details. Talking of which, I’m going to speak to Peter at Live Business in a short while so that we can sort out contracts etc.

Apparently the band are on til the end of this month, then True Nature are coming back for a couple of weeks. The Bulgarian bands aren’t going to be on until a bit later in the year.

I just met a blind chap called Ted who is the piano tuner, along with his guide-dog, Ace. He was very good, he managed to virtually dismantle the piano and put it back together again single-handedly. And he sorted out a couple of niggling problems with the piano which was a blessing.

I finished Sophie’s World the other day. Was a good read, great brain food. Would recommend it if you haven’t read it. If you have read it, I had forgotten what a hoot the penultimate chapter is! Incidentally, if anyone has any recommendations for good books (preferably in a similar vein to Sophie) then please do let me know.

Saturday 5th August 2006

12:26 p.m. The last couple of nights have been very testing. We had a mixture of people on, but predominantly a coach-load of twenty-somethings who spent most of both evenings in the piano lounge and were so loud that they almost drowned me out. Still it was good character building I suppose. And also good preparation for when I go on the larger ships as apparently that’s what it’s like all the time!

The good news is that Peter from the agency has arranged for someone to cover for me from 15th til 21st so I am definitely having just under a week off. Only five round-trips away! Will be good to have a break.