spot the passenger

Tuesday 30th January 2007

4:28 p.m. CET Last night was very quiet, by the time I went back up to do my 11 o’clock set there were only three people in the bar so I decided to round things off and went downstairs to the show-bar where things were equally as slow-going. A nice breather though considering the previous four nights had been busy.

In my last entry I forgot to mention that on Sunday evening after I had finished, two people came over to take photos of me at the piano. Also last night Dave took a few shots of me for the Entertainment board in reception, I am going to see if I can get hold of a copy so I can use it for my own publicity purposes (and include it on here).

Wednesday 31st January 2007

12:48 p.m. GMT Another quiet night last night, although not quite as quiet as Monday night. I did still finish early however.

I'm over half-way through this contract now. Only 4 more round-trips to go before I return to Nottingham for my next break.

acquaintances old and new

Friday 26th January 2007

11:40 a.m. CET Had a very good night last night, was fairly steady up until about 11:30 p.m. when a few young lads came in, followed by several more, who despite being quite boisterous, were very enthusiastic and requested several songs. A few more groups came in a bit later on, and by the end of the evening I had three encores and everyone was singing along.

I was going to take a trip into Rotterdam with Gareth (Ent’s manager) and Tim (the sound technician) today, but we decided to call it off at the last minute, due to lack of funds, and also that we would have had to get up at about 7:30am! Probably a good thing as well since the weather today seems to be less than pleasant.

Sunday 28th January 2007

1:18 p.m. CET Friday night was a steady affair, with a good number and mixture of people in the bar and several requests. Premiered my interpretations of Nat King Cole’s popular ballad These Foolish Things and Moondance by Van Morrison, both of which were well received. Rounded off my penultimate set by playing Angels which had several people singing along and three couples dancing (including one couple who I had met the night before).

Yesterday afternoon I went over to the Pride of Bruges with Gareth and met Kieron, the Ent’s manager who I will be working with on my next assignment, and Dale and Sapphire from Top Secret (who were on the PoY last summer). Had a look around the ship and it is pretty much the same as the York with a few slight differences in the layout. Has the added benefit of a personal laundry service which will certainly be a luxury! We went into town for a few hours, was good to catch up.

Last night was another busy night, again with a good number of people in the bar including a few who stayed until the end. Didn’t really have any requests but the material that I did play seemed to go down well. Towards the end of the evening I performed A Million Love Songs by Take That for the first time which went well. Rounded off by playing a reprise of Wind Beneath My Wings to which there were a few couples dancing. I even turned on the disco lights on the dance-floor!

Apparently we have the busiest night so far tonight with the most number of passengers on board since I started a week ago.

Monday 29th January 2007

11:37 a.m. GMT Last night was busy but it didn’t seem as busy as the night before. Wasn’t quite the same atmosphere either. Still it was a good night with several more requests, and I played a couple of songs that I hadn’t performed for a while, including my own version of A Little Respect by Erasure, Sting’s Englishman In New York, and also played Man On The Moon by REM for the first time.

Last night while I was wondering through the show-bar during my break, one of the officers came over to me and said that he had had a number of compliments from passengers about me which was encouraging.

Gareth (who has been covering Ent’s manager duty for the last 4 trips, the same guy who was on with me on the York late last year) gets off today, making way for the return of resident Ent’s manager Dave.

Only a week and a half to go until my next break, when I will have just over a week at home, before joining the Pride of Bruges for 5½ weeks. It will be a bit of a shame to leave the Pride of Hull as I feel like I am starting to settle in and I seem to have made a positive impression here. However there’s a good chance that I will be doing more contracts aboard this ship this year.

an audience at last!

Thursday 25th January 2007

1:29 p.m. Tuesday night was so quiet that I didn't sing at all, and instead of turning the CD off after my penultimate break, I ended up jamming along to it! At about 11:30 p.m. I decided that there wasn't any point carrying on and called it a night.

Last night was a different story however. It started quietly but picked up significantly and I had what can only be described as a relatively normal kind of night, the first since I have been on here. I even got a round of applause after a few of the numbers, which was another first since debuting on the Pride of Hull. The set times are slightly different: officially I am still doing 5 x 45 minute sets but I am starting at 8 o'clock. This is partly because the ship doesn't usually set sail until approximately 9 p.m. I doubt I will be working until 12:45 a.m. every night for the next couple of weeks though, due to the fairly low passenger figures.

The weather hasn't been too bad, with only some slight sea movement during the last couple of nights. We had two safety drills as well, one yesterday morning and one this morning; fortunately neither of which were too time-consuming.

I have uploaded the photos that I have taken since Sunday to my web-space, follow the link on the menu on the right at the top of this page, or click here to view them. There are a few taken from the piano bar when docked in Hull, and a few taken from the deck when in Europort (Rotterdam). Unfortunately I haven't been able to take any photos of the piano bar yet, largely due to problems involving low-lighting. Hopefully I will be able to resolve this soon - watch this space!

New adventures

Tuesday 23rd January 2007

12:16 p.m. GMT I've just completed my first round-trip aboard the Pride of Hull, one of the two larger ships which operate the Hull-Rotterdam route. The ship seems a lot larger than the Pride of York; finding my way around is proving to be something of a challenge. However, I have managed to find my way to the most important places: my cabin, the piano lounge, and the crew mess.

My first two nights on-board have been very quiet indeed, but to be expected really given that January and February are the quietest months of the year in terms of demand for sea crossings. The layout of the so-called 'Sky Lounge' is very different to that of the Moonlight Lounge (the venue on the smaller ships), a lot more like a cocktail bar that you would expect to find on a small cruise ship, and a lot more modern-looking! I am planning to take some photos within the next couple of days.

It's a cold morning here in Hull, and we even had a thin blanket of snow on arrival in the dock.