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…