In English it's Brill

Friday 5th December 2008

10:00 a.m. Nothing major to report from Monday, despite it being busy, it was one of those evenings where people seemed mainly interested in just sitting and chatting and having a drink, and probably wouldn’t have batted an eyelid if the piano was playing itself, or if there was a CD on, or even if there were a troupe of morris-dancers in the corner, but even so, it was a good night all the same, mainly because I didn’t have to concentrate as much, I could relax a bit and play more or less what came to mind and not have to stick rigorously to any play-list. As such I played mostly instrumentals.

Tuesday was my last night, and certainly made up for the night before. It got off to a good start when I arrived, there was a couple there who said they were looking forward to hearing me play as they had already heard me a few nights previously. I must have met their expectations fairly well as they stayed throughout the evening and didn’t leave until after I had finished. Towards the end of my second set, Maria from the band (Full Extra) came and sang Autumn Leaves and Killing Me Softly with me, both of which went down very well.



During the day on Tuesday I went down to Brielle along with Maria and another of the band members, Teddy. Quite an interesting place, it is a fortified island set in a thirteen-sided moat, with a large church near the centre (which is visible from the ship and has featured in the distance of some of my panoramic photos from there). We were hoping to go into the church as it is possible to climb the three-hundred-odd steps of the tower and look out, but there was some building work going on so it was closed. It was also the home of an underground supermarket called Jumbo, which I found quite interesting. All that was visible when we arrived was a car-park, with a glass booth in one corner containing a lift that went down to provide access, which I found rather curious! We wandered around a bit, then stopped for coffee at a deserted bar. The whole town seemed deserted actually, apart from a few children on bicycles. I suppose the temperature would partly account for that though. Despite the cold it was nice and sunny though.


[More pictures on my web-space, as usual.]

There is a possibility that I will be returning to the Pride of Hull towards the end of next month, when the ship comes out of dry-dock (coincidentally the same as when I was first on there at the beginning of last year). It’s not definite yet though.

double drill dodging

Monday 1st December 2008

12:20 a.m. Thursday night was very busy and more like a Saturday than a weekday. It wasn’t the best night although later on in the evening there was a group of lads in who were singing along and requesting songs. Friday night wasn’t quite as busy, and I don’t think I played or sang particularly well, but even so there were seemed to be some people who were appreciative. I played a couple of songs that I hadn’t done for a while, namely King of the Road and Blueberry Hill, which went down the best. Last night was busy again, but again didn’t really flow well, although there was one family group in who seemed particularly attentive, one guy who I would assume to be about my own age was chatting to me on and off throughout the evening and requesting songs, and was very complimentary about my playing. Had a few other requests as well, including one for the dreaded Piano Man, which mercifully was the first time in about a week that I had been asked to play it.

Tonight was better in most respects. Firstly the bar was full right up until my last set (even by the time I had finished it was still busy). Secondly the atmosphere was a lot warmer, and the evening seemed to flow a lot better than others of late. And thirdly there was a good range of people in from different backgrounds and age-groups, and most of them were there from start to finish, which helped to make the evening mostly successful. Had a request for Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds which I don’t tend to play very often, and I also played I Want Love, All Of Me, Tiny Dancer and Sunny Side of the Street for the first time in a while.

I recently learned that next Friday they will be having their annual M.C.A. inspection on the ship, which will include a full boat drill (typically they take longer than usual because they are more meticulous), and on Thursday they are having a trial-run. Fortunately though I won’t be subject to any of the proceedings as I disembark on Wednesday – a narrow escape!

Yesterday in Hull there was an amazing sunset, and I got a few photos. As I haven’t included any sunset photos on here for a while, here is one of them.