summing up

Saturday 7th February 2009

5:08 p.m. This contract hasn’t been too bad, all things considered. Apart from the weekends it’s been fairly quiet, which has meant that some nights I haven’t sung, which is lighter work and has been good to give my voice a rest.

The soloist who is on board for a few weeks is a chap called Howard who I get on very well with, he was with The Platters for a few years, living and working in Las Vegas, and touring with them. We went into town this afternoon to do some shopping and for a bite to eat.

Talking of food, it is generally pretty good on this ship. Much nicer than on the Dutch ships, and just as good if not better than the York. And unlike the Rotterdam the entertainment team are allowed to eat in the restaurant, so there is always plenty of choice available.

Despite the time of year the sailing conditions have been fine, with only a couple of rough crossings, and fortunately I seem to be a bit more resilient than I used to be.

Getting back to the main focus of my work, the nights have generally been good, when there have actually been a decent number of people there! Last Friday night was amazing, possibly the best I have ever had on the ships. Saturday night was pretty good too. On Friday I ended up playing solidly for an hour and a half at the end, then Saturday night it was more like two and a half hours. I was getting so many requests that I had to announce that I was stopping taking them, which I don’t remember doing before. There were a couple and a group on for a round-trip that I befriended, who were all from Lincoln, and were singing along to most of the songs, and they were even stood around the piano for a few of them.

Tuesday night was pleasant as although it wasn’t particularly busy, the people that were there were mostly sat nearby and were listening intently, the reception was good and they made several requests. There was a camera crew on-board filming a promotional video for P&O Ferries, and they arrived just at the right moment, as I was playing a special request for one group who were in. There is a good chance that some of the picture footage will be used on the web, so I will put the link to it when it appears.

Last night there was a large group of young people in for most of the night who had been in the previous evening, and I played several songs for them, including one they had asked for the night before and I learned for them especially, namely Hero by Enrique Iglesias. Also during my last set there was a group of young Israeli people who were stood around the piano and suggesting songs.

I’ve only got one more round-trip to go of this contract.

back again, plainly speaking

I'm back on the Pride of Hull again, and in fact have been there for just over a week now, having done four round-trips already. The reason why I haven't blogged until now is because there hasn't been much to report; January and February are typically the least busy months of the year in terms of passenger numbers, and the last week has been no exception! Things did pick up slightly over the weekend, but still nothing like it was during the summer or autumn last year.

Last night there was a group of young people in on their return trip (I had met them before a few nights previously when they were on there way out), and although the bar wasn't busy they helped make it worthwhile, and probably the best on the ship so far this contract.

I'm not really sure how much longer I am going to be working on these ships, and whether I will continue with this blog or start a new one or what. The truth is, this blog has been a bit one-sided, and I have held back from reporting the full extent of my experience of life on-board P&O Ferries. But nevertheless it has been a good learning curve, and I'm not about to launch into some lengthy diatribe, but suffice it to say that from now on I will be attempting to provide a bit more of a rounded view of my sea-bound ventures, after all, this is my blog, I am human, and I am entitled to express my feelings and opinions. I'm not sure how wide my readership is, but hopefully it will continue to prove to be of some interest...

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.

name that tune

Wednesday 26th November 2008

4:42 p.m. Sadly, as is often the case in this country these days, the snow didn’t last long, it had almost completely melted away by Sunday evening.

Sunday night started off fairly quiet but got busier as the evening progressed, and my last set was probably the best. Monday night was fairly quiet all evening, but having said that I still had a good response from the audience. I played several requests, including one by Abba, and Everything I Do for one of the bar stewards. At the start of my last set there were two Scottish women sat by me who requested some Christmas songs, so I did brief renditions of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer followed by White Christmas, which they seemed to relish! They then suggested I could do a round of ‘Name That Tune’, so I pitted them against two young lads who were also sat nearby, playing snatchets of various popular tunes plus some more obscure ones. Owen came up mid-way through, and when he saw that I was doing a kind of music quiz he ran and got a bottle of wine to present to the winner. It was the first to ten and the women won 7-3, so I presented them with the prize. The quiz proved to be a good diversion and it was nice to do something different.

Last night was exceptionally quiet; up until the end of my first set I had forgotten why, but one of the barmen reminded me that it was the special darts-themed mini-cruise, featuring Eric Bristow and Keith Deller. In terms of passenger numbers the ship wasn’t especially busy, but I think most of the socialising public were watching as there were no more than ten people in the Sky Lounge at one time during the evening! They were in the show-lounge playing doubles with volunteering punters, which was quite entertaining.


[One of the mixed doubles darts games in full-swing, with Eric Bristow to the far right, and Keith Deller in the middle having a team talk with his amateur throwing partner!]

Only one more week to go of this contract.

11:55 p.m. Tonight was a lot busier than last night, despite it being the second night of the darts. I think the majority of the people in the bar were from the continent, so they probably had little interest in the proceedings downstairs. Again my last set was probably the best, there was a friendly group of Germans sat at one of the tables beside me, and they made several requests including one for My Way, which seemed to go down particularly well, as did Ebony & Ivory which someone else requested, despite not having performed it for a while.

snow

Friday 21st November 2008

11:59 p.m. I have only had root-canal once, and I can say that it was less painful and more rewarding than this evening.

Sunday 23th November 2008

9:13 a.m. Had a lot better night last night. The bar was just as busy as the night before, but the atmosphere was generally warmer, there were several groups in who were pretty lively and making requests, and one of them was sat right beside me throughout the evening.

The sea has been pretty rough again the last couple of nights, particularly Friday. In a way it is quite fortunate that the piano isn’t on wheels as it might have rolled away! (This might sound like fantasy, but when I was working on the York, a woman there told me about her days when she was working on a cruise ship in the south Pacific, when it was hit by a freak storm, and the grand piano in the cocktail lounge was on wheels and wasn’t tethered, and in severe pitching it rolled across most of the width of the bar, straight through a plate-glass window onto the outside deck!!!)

I was up early enough to have a cooked breakfast this morning, on my way to the crew mess I glanced outsid and noticed that it had indeed been snowing, there seems to be a couple of inches covering at the moment, and judging from how dark and heavy the clouds were looking, there may well be more to come… I was talking to one of the Filipino croupiers the other day, and she was telling me that she was hoping that it would snow as she has never seen it before. (I did think about knocking for her earlier, but I don’t think she would have been asleep for long so I decided against it.)

time with the twin (ship)

Monday 17th November 2008

10:02 a.m. I am on the Pride of Hull for a 2½ week stretch. I’ve just done my first round-trip, and both nights went fairly well. Saturday was busy as usual, and there were several couples and groups who were in for most of the evening, and some of them made requests. Last night was a similar story.

Owen Vaughn is now the resident entertainment manager on this ship, replacing Karen, both of whom I worked with recently on the Rotterdam at one stage or another. Also, the resident band are now Full Extra, who were on the Rotterdam with me last summer, having just come on in place of Top Secret, who were a performing as a duo on the York and the Bruges back in the day, but are now a four-piece ‘band’.

Tuesday 18th November 2008

4:22 p.m. Last night was painfully quiet, almost as much as when I was on this ship before, in February of last year – at some points during the evening you could have heard a pin drop in between songs! I didn’t sing at all as I was feeling unwell.

Friday 21st November 2008

10:07 a.m. Tuesday night was pretty much the same as the night before. Wednesday night it was slightly busier but not much, even so I did sing a few songs which went down well but the majority of the evening I was playing instrumentals. Last night was busier still, and more like the kind of evening I am accustomed to, with the bar relatively busy throughout the evening, and as such was a bit more fulfiling and enjoyable. There was quite a mixture of people in, young and old, British and European, and there were a few groups and couples who stayed until the end. I played various numbers, including Greensleeves which had been requested and I can’t remember performing before, and it went down well. I finished up by playing a partly experimental fusion of Misty and Gymnopédie. I had some nice comments from people afterwards.

Last night was the first night this week when the sea was notably rough, with a wind force of around force 8-9. Thankfully though it didn’t seem to affect me at all. It is nice and sunny in Hull this morning, although typically cold for this time of year. Apparently there is snow forecast for this area tomorrow, I wonder whether there will still be a small covering by the time we dock on Sunday.

Tonight is the only Friday night sailing from Hull of this contract, and I’m hoping that my voice will be up to it, as I have still to shake off this lingering cold. I have been plying myself with copious amounts of fruit juice and vitamin substitutes, as well as the usual medicines, so hopefully this will accelerate the process!