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Monday 19th February 2007

5:01 p.m. CET A much better evening in general yesterday, the bar was busy but not packed, the sound system was working a treat, and the audience were a lot more receptive than the night before. Played Walking In Memphis for the first time this contract (and this year) which went down well. Later on in the evening a couple returned who had been sat near me earlier on. The lady said that she could listen to me all night which was a very nice compliment. Shortly afterwards a large hen party swaggered in so I played a few requests for them, rounding off with Super Trouper by Abba to which they were singing along and doing actions.

A cold and foggy day here in Zeebrugge today, but that didn’t stop Dale, Sapphire and I from going out for a walk down to the sea-front earlier. When we came back I did a bit of practice and learned a couple more numbers.

I forgot to say yesterday that I had got up at 8:30 a.m. so I decided to seize the rare opportunity to catch breakfast! I expect that will be one of the very few occasions (perhaps the only one) during this whole contract…!

Found out yesterday that on Sunday morning after dropping off the previous night’s passengers the ship will be sailing to dry-dock in Rotterdam for a few hours for some planned maintenance, and because of this we will be sailing from there that night back to Hull without any passengers! Should be interesting, will be odd having an empty ship (bar the officers and crew of course), but will be nice to have an evening’s break.

Tuesday 20th February 2007

10:00 a.m. GMT Another excellent night last night, again busy with a good atmosphere in the bar and a warm reception. Played Barbara Streisand’s Evergreen (which was also covered by Will Young a few years ago) for the first time which went down well, as well as premiering my rendition of When Tomorrow Never Comes by Ronan Keating, which had been requested by one young couple the night before. The older couple were back as well, they spent most of the evening sat next to the piano and stayed until the end. Afterwards I got chatting to them and it turned out that they also live in Nottingham.

There was more excitement to come as at around midnight a helicopter had to be scrambled to the ship to rescue an ill passenger.