grand finale

Sunday 17th September 2006

1:12 p.m. CET Last night went very well except for a very rowdy group of Germans who were sat behind me for most of the evening. Still I soldiered on undeterred and all the songs that I played went down very well. There were two older couples sat next to the piano from Northern Ireland who were listening intently throughout the evening which was very encouraging.

My last full day of this contract today. I am more than ready to go home tomorrow, not having had an evening off in four weeks.

I purchased some confectionery from the shop in Zeebrugge the day before yesterday. The bizarre naming conventions that exist in Belgium do not just stop at shops and bars, it seems that they extend to foods as well, specifically their crisps (whose design is vaguely reminiscent of a certain UK brand) dubiously entitled ‘Lays’.



I also recommend a particular delicious and inexpensive brand of indigenous chocolate, Jacques.



11:09 p.m. BST I have recently finished my last night onboard the ship for five weeks, and despite a bit of a shaky start it went really well. Again there was a good mixture of mainly German and English, young and old people in the bar, and again there were a few groups and couples who were there from early on and stayed until the end. There was a young guy in one group that was on the ship soon after I started back in July, and we remembered each other.

I had many requests, including several songs that I haven’t played for a while, including Fields of Gold by Sting (during which I have to admit to becoming a little choked up!), Holding Back The Years by Simply Red, which had an almost bossa-nova feel about it, and a triumphant rendition of Nightswimming by REM to conclude the evening’s proceedings. People were very complimentary, and were almost queuing up to thank me afterwards. Usually I am hypercritical of myself, but this evening I was listening a bit more intently to my playing and singing (believe me this is rare) and I now think I’m not that bad.

Not wanting to sound too big headed, but the fleet director from P&O (who is in charge of all four of the North Sea ferries) was in a meeting recently with their Training Director who was on-board today, and apparently “The pianist from the Pride of York” had a lot of positive things said about him…

heat-stroke

Friday 15th September 2006

2:45 a.m. CET Had a good night tonight, there was yet another group of German students in who helped to lift the atmosphere of the room, despite a bit of a lacklustre outset!

Saturday 16th September 2006

1:07 a.m. BST Walked to the shop in Zeebrugge this afternoon, unfortunately I hadn’t anticipated how hot it was going to be and I felt rather ill as a result. I took it easy this evening and actually ended up having a very good night, probably the best I’ve had for a couple of weeks. Again there was a good mixture of younger and older people in the bar, including a group of lads from the RAF who sat next to the piano for most of the night, and shouted out loads of requests, including No Surprises by Radiohead, which I managed to play from memory. There was also a large group of older people sat behind me, who were very keen on Simon & Garfunkel so I played a few of their numbers and they went down well. Again had requests for a few songs that I didn’t know so I made a note of them.

The relief Ent’s manager Dave gets off tomorrow after having done three trips. James returns tomorrow and I will be doing one trip with him before my welcome return to Nottingham on Monday, and a (though I say so myself) well-deserved 5-week break.

books, boats and bass notes

Wednesday 13th September 2006

1:14 p.m. It was so quiet last night that by the time 11 o’clock came around there were only two people in the bar, which worked out well as I managed to skip my last set and descend upon the show-bar to listen to the sounds of the new resident band, 4 and More, who I discovered are very good, they are a five-piece band and they all play live.

Further to my talk yesterday about cruise ships, I noticed that there was a small one moored up next to us in the harbour in Hull yesterday. I say small because it was about the same size as our boat.



Also I was looking back through the pictures that I took shortly after I first started working on here, and noticed that another cruise ship called The Regatta is visible in the first picture that I took (from our mooring at the Zeebrugge terminal) to the right of the photo, behind the cranes and containers.

One thing I forgot to mention in my entry yesterday was that on Monday evening shortly after I took the photos of that sunset, there was a small schooner sailing nearby the ship. It must have had an engine as it was going too fast to be relying simply on the wind. Plus I don’t remember seeing anyone rowing! I didn’t have my camera with me at the time so I took a photo of it using my mobile phone which isn’t brilliant quality but you get the idea.



I finished reading The Solitaire Mystery yesterday night. Although I enjoyed it, it wasn’t as captivating as Sophie’s World.

Thursday 14th September 2006

12:22 p.m. Had a good night last night, it was fairly busy all evening and good mixture of people which is what I prefer. Included in that were another group of German students, who were listening intently and gave me several requests. One of them left me a small tip as well which was very nice!

band changeover, and a nice sunset

Monday 11th September 2006

5:16 p.m. CET Last night was quite busy up until about half-way through the evening when I made the mistake of letting one of the passengers come up and sing a number and the bar soon cleared after that. Usually it wouldn’t have been a problem but I think this particular person was lacking a bit of experience. Still it was a valuable lesson and I will certainly be a bit more discerning in future in terms of who I allow to take over the microphone.

Tuesday 12th September 2006

12:02 p.m. BST The resident band who have been on for the last two weeks, True Nature, left this morning, and made way for Bulgarian band 4 and More who actually got on yesterday in Zeebrugge, having driven for 2½ days all the way from their homeland to get onto the ship!

There was a beautiful sunset yesterday evening, and I just had time to take a few shots before my second instrumental set.



Last night was another extremely quiet one, and as such was pretty uneventful. Having said that, during my second break I was stood on deck and noticed that we came within a mile or so of a cruise ship. Didn’t manage to find out which one it was though. There are about three cruisers which stop off in Zeebrugge from time to time, and one of them is massive. Quite interesting to see one in close range, that’s something I’ve never been able to do before.

Only three more trips to go now until I have my break. I’ve been on here for two months now, with only six nights off in the middle. Looking forward to being able to spend some quality time at home, and being able to sleep in a proper bed!

cool nights, hot days

Saturday 9th September 2006

4:26 p.m. Thursday night went well, despite it being fairly quiet. There was a young couple on their way back to the UK who had been on about a week ago. They sat on one of the tables next to the piano for most of the evening and requested several songs, which was good.

Last night was a lot busier and for the first time in quite a while a large proportion of the audience were of a younger generation – namely a large group of German students – which helped to make the evening successful and enjoyable. They stayed right until the end when they all left and the bar was empty. Played a few songs last night which I haven’t played much while I have been on here, such as Mammia Mia by Abba, Everything She Does Is Magic by The Police, and Turn Back Time by Aqua. In total I played 29 songs throughout my three vocal sets which I think is a record. That’s an average of nearly ten songs per set!

Had a more than ample lie-in this morning, but still managed to walk to the town and back this afternoon. The weather was superb, warm but not unpleasant, with a sea breeze, perfect really. Came across a small bar on the sea-front called ‘Bras’, and a curious statue and sculpture on the beach.



Walked in the dunes a bit, before turning back, stopping off in ‘The Old Barrel’ Irish Bar (which has mostly American paraphernalia in it) for an Iced Tea. Noticed that the name of one of the main streets leading up to the sea front was ‘Harwichstraat’ (Harwich Street).



Despite it being a Saturday it should be another fairly quiet one tonight, we are at about half-capacity again, as the holiday season is fast drawing to a close.

Only four trips to go after this one, until I have my next break.

Sunday 10th September 2006

11:30 a.m. Last night went fairly well but was very quiet by the time my final set came round so I just played instrumentals.

Another nice day today, am probably going to town in a while with some of the people from the band, need to do some shopping and might go for a quick drink after.

a long, awaited update!

Tuesday 5th September 2006

1:12 p.m. I think I have come to realise one of the potential pitfalls of blogging which is if you go for too long without updating your blog you forget some of the stuff you wanted to say! All I can do is summarise the events of the last week, or as much of them as I can remember!

Last Tuesday night was really good, felt that I was back on form, the evening flowed well, and when I had finished a lady told me that her and her husband have been going on the North Sea boats for years, and usually they retire by 10 o’clock but they stayed up just so that they could listen to me play, which was nice.

Wednesday evening started off very quiet, so I did mostly instrumental numbers. Did more vocal numbers as the bar steadily got busier, and they went down well despite the number of obscure requests. A couple were celebrating their wedding anniversary and asked me to play Wonderful Tonight, to which they did a slow dance, which was a first!

Thursday was a bit of a disaster, the evening did not flow at all well, there wasn’t much of an atmosphere in the bar, and I ended up playing whatever came to mind. James and Jo came to listen later on in the evening and I played some honky-tonk, which ironically seemed to be the most popular with the audience!!

Friday night saw another return to form, the bar was busy and there was a good atmosphere, which was encouraging. There were two couples who stayed from beginning to end, and requested several songs, which always a clear good sign. Also to my surprise, there was the same guy with the son who sang before (on 22nd July) and I let him sing Your Song again. At the end the man from one of the couples asked me where I usually play, which was very flattering! Also he mentioned that he had recently been on the Pride of Hull (one of the Rotterdam boats) and met Julian.

Saturday night was again a bit of a non-starter, however half-way through the evening a guy came in who was a blues singer and he got up and I accompanied him singing a few numbers, including Mustang Sally and Route 66, which went down well.

Sunday night was fairly unremarkable, it wasn’t the best night I’ve had, but it wasn’t by any means the worst either. Not much audience participation.

Last night was probably the quietest night I can remember so far since working here (probably owing in part to the school holidays coming to an end). I played almost all instrumental numbers for the first set, and it had been so quiet that I decided to postpone my first break and carry on until things picked up a bit. It ended up getting quite busy for a while, and had a few requests. However when I came back for my last set at 11 it was almost empty again.

Wednesday 6th September 2006

2:10 a.m. BST Tonight was a bit testing as the bar was full of unreceptive Germans. However, there were a few people listening and had several requests from a small number of people during my last set.

The Managing Director of Live Business (the agency I am working for) was on the boat tonight, he came to hear me play and gave me some very positive feedback, relating to my selection of songs, my playing, and the audience participation. I felt this was particularly positive as I must have made an impression for him to comment face-to-face rather than feed back via James.

I spoke to Peter yesterday, and confirmed that my next contract will start on 22nd October for five weeks.

I walked all the way along the beach to Blankenberge with Alex and Lisa from the band, this afternoon. Among the discoveries I made there were a bed-selling establishment known as ‘de Slaapshop’, the interestingly-titled arcade ‘Club 77’, and a news-agents, advertising its bizarre wares in the window, including a kids’ comic called “It’s fun to learn English”, and CD by leading Belgian dance act “Hooverphone”.



We caught the tram back to Zeebrugge.



After alighting from the tram I discovered the St. George’s Day war memorial and the church.



I’ve taken some more photos recently which I have uploaded to my web-space. I’ve decided to start annotating my blog a bit, as it struck me that the text-only format was a bit indigestible!

watch this space! (sorry)

Monday 4th September 2006

3:09 p.m. Goodness! Almost a week without an update. My apologies!

Too much has happened in the last week for me to mention now, but I am in the process of concocting a longer blog to summarise the events of the last week, which I will be adding very soon. I’ve been so busy I’ve not had the time to do any serious blogging. Sorry! Stay tuned…