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.