het onderzoeken door fiets

Sunday 12th August 2007

11:16 a.m. BST Friday night started well, but the passenger numbers began to dwindle about half-way through the evening and it was rather quiet by my last set, which is fairly unusual for a Friday night (especially as we were sailing out from Hull). I rounded off by playing Unchained Melody and spontaneously three couples appeared and took to the dance floor. Last night was similar in terms of the number of people about, and I did played some instrumental pieces during my second set which I don’t very often do.

Yesterday evening (after a day of lovely weather) there was another beautiful sunset but unfortunately I couldn’t take any photos of it as I was playing at the time.

Monday 13th August 2007

11:03 p.m. BST Last night was much better than the two previous nights. The evening in general flowed well, the audience was quite appreciative throughout and there were a few people who stayed until the end. One of them was a young German lad who had been in on Thursday night (who had stayed throughout the evening then as well!) and he made a few requests, some of which I knew and played. I didn’t get many requests apart from that but things went well all the same. I rounded off the evening by playing The Scientist by Coldplay, which I hadn’t played for a while.

Today I had been intending to go to Rotterdam (which would have meant having to get up very early to catch the coach!), but I had forgotten that there was boat drill this morning. Instead, since it was a nice day I cycled down to Oostvorne and back with Michelle (the children’s host) this afternoon. I didn’t manage to take many photos, but I did get a few, including these ones of a typical Dutch house (we passed many similar constructions on the way), and a stretch of water called Brielse Meer. More pictures on my web-space.



Oostvorne itself was not like I had imagined it to be, I was thinking along the lines of a quaint rural old village with lots of run-down buildings, but as it turns out it was actually a fairly modern looking small town (in fact, a lot of the architecture didn’t look to be more than about forty years old), with a busy main street with plenty of shops. It only took about 45 minutes to get there by bike so I might go back there some time to get some more photos.

It seems that the vigorous exercise paid off, as I had an even better night tonight, I felt that I played and sang very well (though I say so myself!) and the audience were very appreciative as a result. I decided to start off my 9 o’clock set by playing instrumentals, as I often do, to warm myself and the crowd up. During my break I had been drinking a cup of tea, and I put the empty cup on the side of the piano when I had finished. One guy must have thought I had put it there to collect change as he dropped some money into it as he was on his way out!

I played a more diverse range of songs tonight than I usually do, including some old rhythm and blues (by Billy Taylor), and some classical, namely the theme tune from the film The Piano, which had been requested by one young lad. I don’t get many requests from the younger generation so that made a nice change. The mixture of material seemed to go down very well and keep the audience attentive.

I managed to solve the mystery of the disappearing passengers on Friday and Saturday night. There wasn’t much of a mystery involved actually – I think a lot of people had been drawn down to the show-bar by the live shows that Gareth put on with the band both nights (they did a Blues Brothers theme on Friday, and a ‘Back to School’ theme on Saturday).

For some unknown reason I have allowed myself to be coerced into going paintballing tomorrow with the rest of the entertainments team (the whole lot in fact, even the croupiers). I have never been before so it should be interesting, hoping I won’t get too bruised, stained, or injured…

Tuesday 14th August 2007

4:07 p.m. BST Well I'm back in one piece, with a few minor bruises, but it had been raining so I was soaked from the waist down when we had finished. There were only six of us in the end but it was still good fun, and I would probably go again.

Footnote: 'het onderzoeken door fiets' means 'exploring by bicycle'.