la natation

Saturday 2nd June 2007

5:50 p.m. CET Yesterday evening was remarkably quiet considering it was an outward journey from Hull on a Friday, which tends to be the busiest of the week. The show-lounge wasn’t really a hive of activity either. Although it wasn’t the most fulfilling of evenings, I decided that I wanted to play some material which I hadn’t done for a while, to name a few, The First Time (Ever) I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack, A Little Respect (by Erasure, my own piano interpretation), and Everything She Does Is Magic by the Police, which went down well. I also played Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix (loosely based on the Sting version), which went quite well although most people had left by then.

It turns out that the swimming pool at the Seafarer’s Centre on this (the Dutch) side is only free to use at weekends, so I cycled down there again today. I was pleased to find that the pool and the garden it backed onto were both almost deserted, apart from the band leader who also goes there on weekends. It was lovely weather, warm with a breeze which was rustling through the tall trees lining the hotel garden. After doing some swimming I sat for a while soaking up the sun and enjoying the calm atmosphere.

Sunday 3rd June 2007

12:53 p.m. BST Despite being a Saturday, last night too seemed a bit quieter than usual for a weekend, although I still had a good night and a warm receptive audience which was the first since Monday. Had many requests, including some for artists that I don’t get asked for very often, such as The Beach Boys and Pat Boon! Since being on this ship the requests I have had have generally been more diverse than previously. Plenty to get my teeth in to for my next bout of musical research!