Easy (like Sunday morning)

Sunday 27th July 2008

9:25 a.m. BST Last night went quite well, with a steady number of people about throughout the evening, and a few requests. Later on in the evening there was a girl in with her family who recognised me from this ship last year, when she had been on with a group from her school, and whose friend had played her own composition.

A rare occasion this morning, in that I was up early enough to have a cooked breakfast!

Saturday 26th July 2008

4:23 p.m. CET I’ve decided to re-arrange my blog posts from now on, so that the most recent appears first (in keeping with normal blogging conventions!)

Last night went fairly well, despite it being the second of two ‘mad Friday’s of this contract. I played Baby Grand and A Million Love Songs, which I hadn’t performed for a long time, and also Morning Has Broken for Charlie (one of the stewards who works in the Sky Lounge). Towards the end of my penultimate set, one guy asked me to play You’ve Got A Friend by Carole King, which was the next song I had already lined up to play! During the course of the evening, a few people were passing through en route to or from the open deck, and one couple did some ballroom dancing, which was quite amusing.

I do now seem to be able to get connected to the internet on the ship, albeit as far as the Internet at Sea login page :-/

Friday 25th July 2008

5:32 p.m. BST Had an excellent night last night. There were a few people who had been in the night before, and a good variety of people which helped to make it a success. Played a number of songs which I hadn’t performed for a while, including Always On My Mind (which was a request), Everybody’s Changing by Keane, After The Gold Rush by Neil Young (again a request), and wound up by playing No Surprises by Radiohead.

The weather has been superb today. Went to the Timber Dock at lunch time with the entire entertainment teams from this ship and the York. Met up with the members of Night Queen who are on there at the moment, Lisa (Ent’s Manager), Amy (the Children’s Host who started when I was there), and James Long, the magician who was present at the memorable (if slightly painful) paintballing trip last year.

Thursday 24th July 2008

8:23 p.m. CET Monday night was quiet as expected, and I played mostly instrumentals, and also did some improvisation. Despite the bar not being particularly busy the reception was warm throughout the evening. Tuesday was a similar story.

Last night was a lot busier from the start, and I had many requests as the evening went on, including several from one couple who were sat nearby. By the end there were still several groups and couples who had been in for most of the evening, and they all seemed very appreciative, which makes it worthwhile.

Unfortunately, wireless internet access on the ship is still down, and apparently there was talk of them returning to the system of charging, which would be a shame.

Monday 21st July 2008

5:13 p.m. BST Saturday night was a bit difficult as the majority of the crowd were older Dutch and German people. Last night was better, it was very busy, with some people even stood during my second set, although I think this might have been partly as the piano bar was also serving as an observation deck (as is often the case), owing to the unusual weather conditions; as we left Europoort there was an amazing sunset, with some extraordinary cloud formations and a rainbow at the same time. (The sea was pretty rough last night for the majority of the crossing as well.) It was Sophie’s last night, and towards the end of my set, she came up and I played a couple of requests for her, and she and a couple of the girls from the shop who were already there sang some backing vocals! This was a welcome addition, as the last few numbers seemed to be the best received all night.