Finally made it to St Petersburg, Russia and our 1st overnighter here. Found ou that I can get off with my British Seamans book, but have decided to wait until we're here next time to make the most of it! Everyone's heading to a club tonight (that's basically the entire crew!) so I may partake, although I am covering for DJSimon this evening so may not actually get there 'til late - still the bus entrance and first drink are only $10 so would still be worth it I feel! Went on a tour in Stockholm, round the city and to the Vasa museum - A big war ship built in the 1600's that sank 25minutes after leaving the dock!
All is going well at the mo. A few interesting illness and injuries going about (an inflamed sweat gland?!?) and the usual soap opera of social chaos that working on a ship provides. I have turned into a bit of a counsellor this week which has been nice - although I may need one after the next few days!! Should be going on self guided bicycle tour of Visby (Sweden) in a few days with Zoe (and anyone else brave enough to come along) - will attempt to see cultural things and not get lost!
New countries visited in the last few weeks include Finland, Russia and Estonia. I'm sure we end up in Germany at one point - chance to test out my language skills!
1 week 'til the family arrive:))))
Friday, June 30, 2006
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Where's the Whales???
Sorry about the lack of posting but because we change itineraries all the time it's quite tricky to keep on top of things!
Today we crossed the Arctic Circle - how cool is that! Just when you thought it couldn't get any colder...... this also explains why I am typing this at 1am having just finished work rather than heading to the OB or to bed - it's sill flippin light outside - you'd think it was 4 o'clock on a cloudy afternoon - it is quite the weirdest experience!
The last few weeks have been cool, pretty eventful - what with all the D&V in the news the company (in their wisdom) decided to ban us from getting off the ship last Newcastle - but only decided to tell us at 8:30pm the night before - to late to call and change any previous arrangements (it being a sea day we couldn't contact anyone anyway), and the day we start our first 2 week cruise! It was purely to show that we're doing something - but as we were going to be mixing with both sets of passengers anyway there really was no logical point - apart from causing the staff a lot of grief!
The weather has been fantastic - so hot in the Fjords. We were back around Geiranger and Flam a couple of days ago and all the snow is melting so the waterfalls are just amazing! I played football again in Flam - I should go and see if I made the team for tomorrow - go CELEBRATION! - but I doubt it as I was the only the girl! There's a kit and a medic and everything :)
Some stuff going on back home which needs dome thinking about, but I'd already started down that path - it just means some adjustments to various plans - mainly financial!
My mum, her friend and my SISTERS!!! are on soon - yeyeyeyey! I can't wait for them to experience this :)
Today we crossed the Arctic Circle - how cool is that! Just when you thought it couldn't get any colder...... this also explains why I am typing this at 1am having just finished work rather than heading to the OB or to bed - it's sill flippin light outside - you'd think it was 4 o'clock on a cloudy afternoon - it is quite the weirdest experience!
The last few weeks have been cool, pretty eventful - what with all the D&V in the news the company (in their wisdom) decided to ban us from getting off the ship last Newcastle - but only decided to tell us at 8:30pm the night before - to late to call and change any previous arrangements (it being a sea day we couldn't contact anyone anyway), and the day we start our first 2 week cruise! It was purely to show that we're doing something - but as we were going to be mixing with both sets of passengers anyway there really was no logical point - apart from causing the staff a lot of grief!
The weather has been fantastic - so hot in the Fjords. We were back around Geiranger and Flam a couple of days ago and all the snow is melting so the waterfalls are just amazing! I played football again in Flam - I should go and see if I made the team for tomorrow - go CELEBRATION! - but I doubt it as I was the only the girl! There's a kit and a medic and everything :)
Some stuff going on back home which needs dome thinking about, but I'd already started down that path - it just means some adjustments to various plans - mainly financial!
My mum, her friend and my SISTERS!!! are on soon - yeyeyeyey! I can't wait for them to experience this :)
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Fjordland Splediferous!
Oh my word....
I can't believe more people don't visit the Norweigian Fjords. They are (except for possibly the Grand Canyon SUnset & Sunrise) the most awe inspiring thing I have seen. The best way to see them is definitely on a ship - and somebody pays me to be here!!!!
Tony (SM) saw his first ever snow last week and next cruise we're hoping to get on a tour in Geiranger that will mean he can see and (play with!) loads of it! We all stood up on deck with blankets and cameras and watched the huge mountains, waterfalls and greenery go past. It got so cold we looked like huddled blanket creatures but we still stayed there so we didn't miss anything. At one point the wind was so strong (we came to what can only be described as a T-Junction!) that if you jumped up you got blown backwards! They really are spectacular. I took loads of photo's - hopefully will have some up soon when I find land based internet.
This week has been a little more sedate. Today we are in Copenhagen. Got off and went for a wander - had my photo taken with 'the mermaid' - not at all how you expect it to be! Also we've had 2 birthdays in the team this week so we had a fantastic 'Guys and Dolls' themed party (from which I have about 200 photo's - narrowed down to about 80!) for which I had my hair and makeup done by Laura and then was persuaded to wear the Red Dress and Red Shoes that Dom picked out for me on the 'Spirit'. There were people who didn't recognise me, hehe!
There's been quite a bit of illness. All the girls except me and Alana have had colds, Danni and Leo still have bad throats and some of the lads have been in a bad way as well. All are now on the way to recovery but it has meant that we haven't known which shows we are doing until the afternoon of the same day - a little unerving fram a techie point of view! Still keeps us on our toes:)
I can't believe more people don't visit the Norweigian Fjords. They are (except for possibly the Grand Canyon SUnset & Sunrise) the most awe inspiring thing I have seen. The best way to see them is definitely on a ship - and somebody pays me to be here!!!!
Tony (SM) saw his first ever snow last week and next cruise we're hoping to get on a tour in Geiranger that will mean he can see and (play with!) loads of it! We all stood up on deck with blankets and cameras and watched the huge mountains, waterfalls and greenery go past. It got so cold we looked like huddled blanket creatures but we still stayed there so we didn't miss anything. At one point the wind was so strong (we came to what can only be described as a T-Junction!) that if you jumped up you got blown backwards! They really are spectacular. I took loads of photo's - hopefully will have some up soon when I find land based internet.
This week has been a little more sedate. Today we are in Copenhagen. Got off and went for a wander - had my photo taken with 'the mermaid' - not at all how you expect it to be! Also we've had 2 birthdays in the team this week so we had a fantastic 'Guys and Dolls' themed party (from which I have about 200 photo's - narrowed down to about 80!) for which I had my hair and makeup done by Laura and then was persuaded to wear the Red Dress and Red Shoes that Dom picked out for me on the 'Spirit'. There were people who didn't recognise me, hehe!
There's been quite a bit of illness. All the girls except me and Alana have had colds, Danni and Leo still have bad throats and some of the lads have been in a bad way as well. All are now on the way to recovery but it has meant that we haven't known which shows we are doing until the afternoon of the same day - a little unerving fram a techie point of view! Still keeps us on our toes:)
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Daylight reignd forever!
Just a quickie. Now started on the Fjord cruises.
We've just finished the second show for the evening - it's 11:45pm - and it's still LIGHT outside - vvvvvery weird!!! I suppose I'd better get used to it - but it's pretty cool :)
Also - saw my first oil rig today - interesting.......
We've just finished the second show for the evening - it's 11:45pm - and it's still LIGHT outside - vvvvvery weird!!! I suppose I'd better get used to it - but it's pretty cool :)
Also - saw my first oil rig today - interesting.......
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
urrr...there's a blip in the space/time continuum....
From many angles this cruise could quite easily be regarded as the most eventful yet (not that there's much to compare it too!), however there's still an overwhelming sense of well being and chilled-ness about the place.
So far this itinerary:
The House Tabs failed to go up in Guys and Dolls so we had to restart the show after calling the ETO and openeing about every power box backstage.
We had a major (and I mean MAJOR!!) problem with a power distributor and voltage regulator in the middle of Abigail's party which meant 10 minutes of the show was done without sound (it would be the bit with all the music cues!) and when we did get it working again we still had to cancel the second show for saftey reasons. At one point Tony and I were backed into the corners of the booth afraid to touch anything with one hand on the fire extinguisher!
Last night in the Swing show we had the 'band' silhouettes for the first time. 2 of them fell over as the House Tabs went up so muggins had to go from the back, up on stage and reset them - it was so fiddly that I only did one - shoved a stage weight in fornt of it to stop it happening again!- and then just 'put' the other iin the storage space ('threw' being too strong a word), took a bow - and all the passing comments off the passengers - and headed for the secrity of the booth.
All this has had the interesting result of all the passengers talking to Me and Tony more than they talk to the showteam - even if their questions run along the lines of "Any chance of being blown up tonight..?" after the 10th time, it's just not that funny!! Nice that they're interested though :) I'm not really looking forward to backstage tour tomorrow though :S
There's been a few tears and tantrums on the social scene but nothing that wasn't sorted out by the next morning so all in all things are sailing along nicely....'scuse the pun.
Have had some great times ashore and some even better nights onboard so am pretty cool :)
Have also just finished a VCD to send home for the folks back there to watch and see what I'm up to. Have missed some big personal events being on here and sometimes it really gets me, but at least with the job going ds well I can't get too down :)
So far this itinerary:
The House Tabs failed to go up in Guys and Dolls so we had to restart the show after calling the ETO and openeing about every power box backstage.
We had a major (and I mean MAJOR!!) problem with a power distributor and voltage regulator in the middle of Abigail's party which meant 10 minutes of the show was done without sound (it would be the bit with all the music cues!) and when we did get it working again we still had to cancel the second show for saftey reasons. At one point Tony and I were backed into the corners of the booth afraid to touch anything with one hand on the fire extinguisher!
Last night in the Swing show we had the 'band' silhouettes for the first time. 2 of them fell over as the House Tabs went up so muggins had to go from the back, up on stage and reset them - it was so fiddly that I only did one - shoved a stage weight in fornt of it to stop it happening again!- and then just 'put' the other iin the storage space ('threw' being too strong a word), took a bow - and all the passing comments off the passengers - and headed for the secrity of the booth.
All this has had the interesting result of all the passengers talking to Me and Tony more than they talk to the showteam - even if their questions run along the lines of "Any chance of being blown up tonight..?" after the 10th time, it's just not that funny!! Nice that they're interested though :) I'm not really looking forward to backstage tour tomorrow though :S
There's been a few tears and tantrums on the social scene but nothing that wasn't sorted out by the next morning so all in all things are sailing along nicely....'scuse the pun.
Have had some great times ashore and some even better nights onboard so am pretty cool :)
Have also just finished a VCD to send home for the folks back there to watch and see what I'm up to. Have missed some big personal events being on here and sometimes it really gets me, but at least with the job going ds well I can't get too down :)
Friday, April 28, 2006
Quarantine
No, not me again - the ship!
We´ve had quite a number of DnV cases over the last couple of weeks due to a nasty bug (the name of which escapes me at the mo) which was flying around the UK over winter. The only problem on a ship is that it spreads so bloody fast and it´s voracious (only a small number of germs are needed to spread it - 10 compared to the 80,000 it requires to tranfer flu!) so today they decided to boot EVERYBODY off the ship and disinfect the entire place. Not bad as it gave us an excuse to lie by a pool ot do whatever for 6 hours :)
All is going well, getting a little more tired but hopefully will be sensible this week and get some nap time in during the day! Have just been shifted cabins - am now on the same deck but the other side of the ship - very disorientating!
The summer season officially starts today so this is our last shuffle around the Canaries and our last day in Tenerife - next stop Portugal, some random islands and then the UK! wOOt!
Oh, I´ve added some photo´s to my msn community so if you click on the appropriate button at the top of the ´blogroll´in my sidebar you should be able to find them!
We´ve had quite a number of DnV cases over the last couple of weeks due to a nasty bug (the name of which escapes me at the mo) which was flying around the UK over winter. The only problem on a ship is that it spreads so bloody fast and it´s voracious (only a small number of germs are needed to spread it - 10 compared to the 80,000 it requires to tranfer flu!) so today they decided to boot EVERYBODY off the ship and disinfect the entire place. Not bad as it gave us an excuse to lie by a pool ot do whatever for 6 hours :)
All is going well, getting a little more tired but hopefully will be sensible this week and get some nap time in during the day! Have just been shifted cabins - am now on the same deck but the other side of the ship - very disorientating!
The summer season officially starts today so this is our last shuffle around the Canaries and our last day in Tenerife - next stop Portugal, some random islands and then the UK! wOOt!
Oh, I´ve added some photo´s to my msn community so if you click on the appropriate button at the top of the ´blogroll´in my sidebar you should be able to find them!
Friday, April 21, 2006
1 week in...
First official week has now finished. The Rehersal 2 shot past but this las week has taken its leisurely time and he we are back in Tenerife getting ready to kick butt with the swing show this evening!
The shows went OK last week. The first night was phenomonal but gradually the adrenaline is weating off and folks are getting tired. One of the team (Bryan) got sick so we had to swap 2 shows around which threw everyone for a loop but last night was fantastic.
Still having a brilliant time. Went Quad Biking in Morocco with Zoe, Andy Rudge (guest comedian), Ange (his wife), and 2 PAX. Had a fab time but now have v. sunburned arms and hands which meant a trip to the Dr´s this morning because the backs of my hands are swollen!
Girly night in is being planned for this week in my cabin, leaving all the lads to fend for themselves!!
The shows went OK last week. The first night was phenomonal but gradually the adrenaline is weating off and folks are getting tired. One of the team (Bryan) got sick so we had to swap 2 shows around which threw everyone for a loop but last night was fantastic.
Still having a brilliant time. Went Quad Biking in Morocco with Zoe, Andy Rudge (guest comedian), Ange (his wife), and 2 PAX. Had a fab time but now have v. sunburned arms and hands which meant a trip to the Dr´s this morning because the backs of my hands are swollen!
Girly night in is being planned for this week in my cabin, leaving all the lads to fend for themselves!!
Monday, April 17, 2006
HAPPY EASTER
Just a quick one as am using the CD's computer! Had my first morning off this morning and wouldn't you know my brain wouldn't let me sleep past 9am, eventhough I's been up 'til 4am chatting!
We went live on Friday so this is our first official week as the Entertainment team aboard thee Thomson Celebration.
Everything is going fantastically well - kinda scary - must be something about being British but I've this underlying feeling of unease due to the fact that everything is going smoothly, the team are ALL incredibly talented and soo nice and I'm having a complete blast!!
Easter Sunday was interesting - got a lie in until 9am and then worked solidly through til 6pm (with 30min for a meal!) then 2 evening shows which went well considering I'd never put the lights to them! I've still got 3 shows that I've not run the lights with but the 2 most complicated (because of big dance numbers) are now out of the way. But have now re-introduced chocolate to my system and spent a good deal of time dancing around my cabin to "The Best Worship Songs Ever".
Am still in my nice cabin but the Dance couple and another kids host arrive soon so we shall see how that goes :S
All in all am loving this job, really hard work at the moment but it's all enjoyable :)))))
We went live on Friday so this is our first official week as the Entertainment team aboard thee Thomson Celebration.
Everything is going fantastically well - kinda scary - must be something about being British but I've this underlying feeling of unease due to the fact that everything is going smoothly, the team are ALL incredibly talented and soo nice and I'm having a complete blast!!
Easter Sunday was interesting - got a lie in until 9am and then worked solidly through til 6pm (with 30min for a meal!) then 2 evening shows which went well considering I'd never put the lights to them! I've still got 3 shows that I've not run the lights with but the 2 most complicated (because of big dance numbers) are now out of the way. But have now re-introduced chocolate to my system and spent a good deal of time dancing around my cabin to "The Best Worship Songs Ever".
Am still in my nice cabin but the Dance couple and another kids host arrive soon so we shall see how that goes :S
All in all am loving this job, really hard work at the moment but it's all enjoyable :)))))
Saturday, April 08, 2006
All going to plan...
Well a week has been by - how crazy is that. All the days have sort of meged into one, along with most of the shows!
It´s going well, the new team are great, getting a bit stressed, harassed and tired ´cos of the management being on at the mo. But hopefully once that is over things will settle down to normal!
The shows look great - only one really tricky one from my point of view but should be OK after a few runs through. This ship is lovely. Same kind of atmosphere as the Spirit but with imporved equipment and even better food! (My favourite at the mo being Croissants and Pineapple for breakfast,mmmm!)
Still have my own cabin but think I am being turfed out at the end of the week :(
Gotta go and have a meeting wth the production person who got on today, so will catch up soon - hopefully with some photo´s!
It´s going well, the new team are great, getting a bit stressed, harassed and tired ´cos of the management being on at the mo. But hopefully once that is over things will settle down to normal!
The shows look great - only one really tricky one from my point of view but should be OK after a few runs through. This ship is lovely. Same kind of atmosphere as the Spirit but with imporved equipment and even better food! (My favourite at the mo being Croissants and Pineapple for breakfast,mmmm!)
Still have my own cabin but think I am being turfed out at the end of the week :(
Gotta go and have a meeting wth the production person who got on today, so will catch up soon - hopefully with some photo´s!
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Feel´s like home
Yup, definitely a strange feeling this one! The ship is the same layout as the Spirit with some minor differences but is better furbished (especially Liberties/High Spirits) but does feel like going back to somewhere you feel comfortable!
My plane was delayed an hour but apart from that the journey went wonderfully, God really came through on this one - not a problem anywhere!
I was alloated cabin B14 (crew area) but today they decided me and Anthony (SM) were to switch so have just finished repacking and moving my stuff. I will probably have to move again in a couple of weeks so am not going to get too carried away just yet!
Work wise we went through one of the plays today and sorted out the set and the lights etc. The LX desk is a STRAND 520i - but most importantly it´s a STRAND - a make I know and love. I was trained on STRAND´s (in between other things) so at least if something goes wrong I´ll know what to do!! :) My SM is Anthony (Sound Tech on Spirit) and for the next month and a half our DJ is Christophe - the crazy little frenchman "hoh he hoh he hoh"
All in all it´s going well so far, but who knows whats going to happen tomorrow!
My plane was delayed an hour but apart from that the journey went wonderfully, God really came through on this one - not a problem anywhere!
I was alloated cabin B14 (crew area) but today they decided me and Anthony (SM) were to switch so have just finished repacking and moving my stuff. I will probably have to move again in a couple of weeks so am not going to get too carried away just yet!
Work wise we went through one of the plays today and sorted out the set and the lights etc. The LX desk is a STRAND 520i - but most importantly it´s a STRAND - a make I know and love. I was trained on STRAND´s (in between other things) so at least if something goes wrong I´ll know what to do!! :) My SM is Anthony (Sound Tech on Spirit) and for the next month and a half our DJ is Christophe - the crazy little frenchman "hoh he hoh he hoh"
All in all it´s going well so far, but who knows whats going to happen tomorrow!
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