Am still here...wherever that is!

Distinct lack of posts since my last one. I must apologise but this has been one of the craziest 4 weeks I have ever known.

The ship is up and running now. Had a very shaky first week, especially as we got the passengers who weren´t interested in having a nice time but were looking for things to be wrong/go wrong and make big deals out of nothing!

Now however we have the nice passengers and the weather to go with it - this last week has been absolutely stunning - shame I´ve been woking like a badger and not had much chance to enjoy it!

My average day starts at 9:30 am (background music change) and finishes at 1:30am (taking the band off) so am very tired.(enough to be slurring when I talk and for folks back home to notice when I talk to them!) But Dante has a cunning plan so hopefully We´ll all get a more balanced day now!

The team are getting on well although everyone is feeling the starin at the minute but all seems cool and the crew party the other night was great!

"Tell The World To Go Away" (Disc 5 trk7)

An Appropriate quote form sorting the Kareoke Discs today where me and Vicks probvably got the closest to hysteria we´ve ever been!

Got a meeting in about 10 minutes so this will be a listed update.

Got to ship in Greece fine (Although Munich Airport is like being in some 50´s movie set in the future)

45 minute taxi journey was interesting, slept most of way.

Spent 3 HOURS in the port terminal waiting for all my papers etc to be sorted by the port agent.

Am Sharing a cabin onboard with Vicks. She´s the female Entshost. It was her Birthday the day after I arrived. Cabin is OK, got a port hole which is funky ...ahhh daylight!

Been working every hour I´m awake since I got onboard which seems like an eternity ago, and am now in a permament state of 1/2 consiousness, but still smiling!

On the fist day with passengers 2 memebers of our team...how shall I put this... disembarked for various resons (the first one without telling anyone he was going) and the passengers this week are determined to find every possible thing wrong that they can!

On the other hand the team are great we´re all feeling the tiredness but we´re just keeping going and trying to cheer folks up! Gotta go, credit is going to run out.

Off Again!

Am about to leave for the airport - yes it is 4:15am!

Am joining the 'Destiny' in Athens at about 4pm, nice long day then. This week has been crazy, certainly don't feel like I've had arest, although they say a change is as good as a rest and I've certainly had that!

Been fantastic to catch up with my friends back here but missing the guys on the Spirit like mad! They've had a pretty pants week aswell :S

See you on the other side:)

Back Home

Well here I am. It's 4am and I'm sitting in the back room of my house. Bizarre!

Not half as bizarre as the last 2 weeks activities however. I haven't posted recently because everything started to go a bit pear-shaped as of last Friday afternoon (when I'd usually post) so I've spent the last week doing loads of extra work so that lots of people can cover my job for me!

Basically the new DJ didn't turn up last Friday. I waited on the gangplank for an hour and then had to go because my Mum was arriving, and by the time we set sail that night he still wasn't there and nobody had any clue why. By Monday we knew the office had been in touch and that he just hadn't caught the plane because of "Problems". The mind boggles. We were trying to come with reasons all week, the main one being that he bottled it.

However we were then told that he was to come out on Thursday. That would have given me one day handover period. Not really enough but what can you do. At this point I asked Richard to tell the office that I would stay longer if needed (even the whole week and go straight to "The Destiny" from there) but we heard nothing back. Then we got told that the new DJ wasn't coming until NEXT Friday and I HAD to leave the ship today.

So basically I've spent the whole week writing a help booklet for the Ents Hosts/other technicians/new DJ and trying to make sure that various people know how to do various bits of my job. Not fun, especially when I really wanted to relax a bit my last week AND my Mum was onboard! Still as long as it helps them get through this week and is of help to Chris then I feel I have done my job properly!

So there is no DJ on the ship this week, and even some of the show team are going to have to DJ....hmmmmmmm.

Oh and also Christophe (new SM) who only arrived 2 weeks ago, is leaving on Sunday and Anthony (sound tech) is coming back from "The Celebration" due to some problems with his visa! So the tech dep. Is going to be rather interesting :)

However I have had a wonderful last few days. I went quad biking in Morocco - How Much FUN!!! Came back looking like some kind of sand monster and with the taste of Morocco (literally!) in my mouth, but what an amazing afternoon. It did mean I missed my last Line Dancing session though, which sucks slightly.

The team bought me a necklace (a turquoise/silver cross) and Lea and Kim made me a card in Kidzone which everyone signed. It's so cool and it's definitely going up on the wall of my next cabin :) I much prefer things that people make, no matter what it looks like!

Journey home was eventful. Got in the taxi early so didn't get to say goodbye to everyone:( On the same flight as my Mum but it was delayed for 2 1/2 hours. The weather was awful. Ian (friend of Sheila's - Mum's mate) came and picked us up from the airport so U traveled home in the back of a mini-van!

But here I am drinking Hot Chocolate with REAL milk and missing the team, I kept looking at the time and working out what everyone would be doing! Right now they'll all be in bed (Lifeboat drill tomorrow) so that is where I shall go. Night.

Quarantine...

...is where I have been for the last day and a half. Boredom has never seemed so bad than when you´re confined to your cabin and noone can come to see you! I´ve basically been sick for the last 2 days and the doctor wasn´t sure if it was a bug or something I ate (I´d go for the latter option!) so I was confined to my cabin. However there´s no-one to cover my duty this evening and I feel much better so I´ve been allowed out - yey!

I saw dolphins this week. Not just the air from their blowholes but actual dolphins playing around to bow of the ship. They love it when the sea is calm (ish!) and the ship makes a wake for them to jump in - soo cool. Nearly everyone else on the team has seen them and I finally saw 5 this week :)))

Amy´s family (about 10 of them!) have been on this week which has been fab. Also the receptionist from my doctors was on, it´s always good to see people from home.

Easter was odd. The weather was stunning but the sea had big swell so most poeple only came out by the afternoon! Lorna, JP and I did a short service in the morning which made it feel slightly more Easter-y and the kids had an Easter Egg hunt which was great fun! Bizarre at the lack of chocolate - never mind, hopefully I´ll have some when I get home :)

Only 2 weeks left now. Finished the handbook for the next guy this morning so can now relax and enjoy my last week of normal duties before next week when I´ll be showing Chris the ropes.

My car failed its M.O.T (what a surprise - it´s NEVER passed on first time :) ) but the work will be done on it for when I get home so all´s good!

Happy Easter!

A bit premature being Good Friday but most of my suday will be spent at sea. However Lorna and I will be doing the service on board which is cool - if a tad nerve-wracking. We´re having an Easter Egg hunt for the kids which should be a riot as there´s about 80 of them on this week! I´m getting up on stage for the Welcome Show tonight for the first time aswell:)

Had a gorgeous week weather wise. We went out for team meal on Wednesday in Agadir and had a lovely time. We did however get rather sunburned and I still have the red arms to prove it! It was fab I had some Moroccan meatball thing followed by a crepe with strawberyy ice-cream and the entertainment included a random singing guy and a tiny tortoise that was found in a bush by the patron ´Madame Mimi´! I´ll put some pics up when I get chance.

Only got 3 weeks left on board, eeek. Trying to organise stuff for my week at home aswell as planning for going on the other ship. I met my Cruise Director this week as he cam on board to see how things work and he seems like a cool guy. He´s a Trekkie and likes Red Dwarf - Fantastic!

"Fine"

This seems to be the phrase of the ship at the moment. If you ask someone how they are, they are going to reply ´"Fine" even though they blatantly have a cold, are tired, in pain or some other way indisposed! That word has never bugged me so much in my life. I guess it´s just irritating because I actually meant it when I said "How are You?" and that reply is sooo annoying!

Sorry....vent over.

I am "Fine" at the mo, except for the muscle pain which has taken up residence in the top of my left leg, making it nearly impossible to walk DOWN stairs. Walking up, no probs - going down, agony (?!). Still after 3 days it´s now got to the level of ´I know it´s there but I can ignore it´ so I shall go on being fine until it actually disappears and then I shall be "Fantastic!". As long as I can get some sleep in between so i don´t fell quite as bleugh and unsociable as I do right now!

I met my Cruise Director on "The Destiny" today. His name´s Rob and, get this, he´s American! and watches Star Trek!!!! So now 3 members of my family are working for American bosses - freaky.

Only 4 weeks left before I disembark. Seems odd to think I´ll be leaving, am actually trying not to think about it too much because hopefully it won´t hit home until I´m safely ensconssed on ´Destiny´ and surrounded by a new lot of folks. I am gonna miss these guys though. Even though I move around a lot doing different work and contracts I hope I never get to the point where I´m blasee about saying goodbye and end up not getting to know people just so it´s easier. I think that would be a very lonely way to be.

I got an Easter card off my Mum yeasterday. Bob hand delivered it to me (literally I was lying on my bed reading and he gave it to me!) I read it and then for some inexplicable reason burst into tears! I think it was more the religous side to the card rather than being homesick. I´m not homesick but I really miss going to church and being able to discuss my spiritual well being with my mates. I have tried to be diligent with reading my Bible but as usual have failed miserably. It´s not like I´m slipping or anything, I just feel the need for some fellowship now and then and on here it´s next to impossible. Still me and Lorna are going to watch´"The Passion of Christ" on Friday so that might help, well if it has the same effect on me as last time I´ll be sobbing through most of it but we´ll see!

Lloyd has had to go home for a week for medical reasons. The poor guy just seems to have had one thing after another and it is easier to send him home to sort it out so he´s off today. Any spare Prayers/Thoughts or mojo in his direction would be much appreciated.

I´m now on a mission to see if I can find/create some hot cross buns - any ideas for finding these things in the Canary Islands much appreciated!

Comings and Goings

Lack of a post last week I realised. Which is probably gonna make this one long!

Can I just say that I am sat in the ´Ciber-Scout´Cafe in Santa Cruz and next tome is sitting a guy with the worst BO known to man so I´m attempting to be as quick as possible!

I got my guitar last week. It´s so nice to have an insrument to play and the quality of sound is amazing! My fingers are in a small amount of pain from practising so much but that´ll get less if I play alot :)

On Gran Canaria day this week Me and Dom went shopping. I wanted to get a suit so that I can wear some of the vest tops I´ve got in the evenings (it makes sense to me...OK!). I asked Dom if she´d come with me as I´m hopeless at picking out clothes and her fashion sense is just so flippin´ cool :)

I went for a suit and somehow came back with 2 Outfits (no suit though!), a pair of shoes and a lighter wallet, although I don´t want to scare anyone so I won´t say how much lighter (my mum reads this you know!). The crowning moment for me was the boys reactions, they were so sweet! Even if I can´t walk more than about 5m in the shoes at one go!?

I haven´t worn the other outfit yet. I did wear the top lat night when I went for a meal in ´Sirocco´s´though.

Sirocco´s is the A la Carte restaurant onboard - v.nice :) Ron was on again this week (a regular cruiser who always brings presents for the Ents team and we treat him like royalty! :) )and he took several of us to the restaurant throughout the week. So last night´s meal went something like this:

Escargot with a sizzling butter + Garlic sauce

Cream of Cauliflower Soup

Parma Ham and Mozzerella Salad

Lemon Sorbet in Champagne

Lobster Tail with Garlic butter sauce and Fresh Vegetables

Crepe Suzette

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries and Coffee

Sooo gorgeous - Who knew Snails could be that nice :)

Ron´s back on in 4 weeks - my last week and the week my Mum and her friend are on.

Speaking of last week´s (see what I did there!)Anthony left today. He was the Sound technician. He´s gong home for a bit and then going on the Celebration as Tech, that´s the ship that David (who left last week) is going to be Cruise Director on and Bob (who´s here at the moment as David´s replacement) is going to be Assistant Cruise Director on - confused? It gets better!

Felino, Anthony´s replacement is going to the Destiny in 3 weeks, I´m leaving in 4 weeks and Dante is now also moving to the Destiny (presumably before me or at the same time) so the Spirit´s tech team is going to be rather interesting for the next 2 months :) think the person replacing me on here is Simon. So I´ve asked one of the show team (Kim) to learn all the costume changes for ´Hobson´s Choice´ so that he doesn´t have to do them if he doesn´t want to.

I´ve managed to programme that b****y lighting Desk in HS - Hurrah, hang out the flags!!! it only took me 4 weeks but I finally sussed out the chromadome chases etc and now the ´R´n´B´Cabaret has it´s own states :)))))

I´m sorry....what?!

That may possibly be you response after reading this - it was certainly mine when the situation arose 3 days ago.

I am not staying on the Spirit until June 17th.

I am now leaving on the second week of April, going home for a holiday (ha!) for a week and then being flown to ´The Destiny´ to work for the summer sailing round the Med.

Crazy how things can change in a week huh?

The Destiny looks like this:

It is bigger than the Spirit but only has the same amount of passengers. It is the new addition to the Thomson fleet and I will basically doing the same job I do now aboard there only with more Stage Management duties and I´ll be sharing the DJing and Tech stuff with someone else.

It was such a tough decision to make but I was really flattered to be offered it and it sounds like it´ll suit me down to the ground.

The down sides are that I´m going to have to leave this team, who I get on with really well, and start getting to know a whole new set all over. I know I do this all the time when I move jobs and contracts at home but for some reason this time it´s different. Still I might get to see them, as the Destiny follow´s the Spirit´s path around the the Med, so hopefully I´ll get to say hello!
Also I only get one week at home to sort my whole life out until November which is going to be a bit of a tall order (as it is probably going to involve moving all my stuff from Leeds back to Birmingham!!). Also I won´t get to do the Big Event in Birmingham and I won´t see my family and friends much :(

Still I would have been a fool if I´d have said no and I spent 2 days agonising over it so now I feel that I have made the right decision by Sense if not by Sensibility!

Fizzy Cravings

In the team meeting yesterday Richard (Cruise Director)informed us that we are half way through our Canary Islands tour - another 8 weeks of this and then we´re off to the Med. He then went through all the ports we will be visiting there and it sounds amazing! Barcelona, Rome, Ibiza, Villefranche and all sorts of other places (most of which I haven´t heard of!) but we get more time to explore when we´re there so it should be cool :)

I´ve had a fun morning with the guys from the ´Freedom Band´ in a music shop. I´ve reserved an electro acoustic nylon stringed guitar, and it´s pretty sweet. It has a thinner body which makes it easier (and sooo much more comfortable) for me to play and it has a great sound. I can´t buy it ´til I get paid next but I can´t wait!

Not that I´ve had a lot of time this week. We had LOADS of kids on (of all ages!) so kids zone needed help with some extra activities inc. Family Bingo and a Junior Talent Show. So much work for 20 minutes - the kids had a blast though so it was all worth it :)

I sang on Karaoke last night. I was the first time anyone on here has heard me sing and I was really nervous! Fortunately there was only the 2 guys doing Karaoke who were in there from the team so it wasn´t too bad. I sang ´Don´t Know Why´ by Norah Jones and I think it went pretty well ;) I think the glass of red wine that David (Ass. Cruis Dir.) bought for me probably helped, although I was still shaking!!

We have appraisals this week, eeek!?!

I´ve given up fizzy drinks for Lent. When I was a kid we were only allowed fizzy drinks on a weekend (in fact I think that still applies at home - mum?) so this should not be a problem. However having worked in bars and having been on this ship for the last 2 months where the drink flows freely (well...almost!) I think I might have gone a little carbonated crazy. Right now I would love nothing more than a long cold glass of coke! I feel like I´m turning into an orange juice I´ve drunk so much of the stuff - I can´t find orange squash anywhere....*sniff*

Anyhoo, must head back and clean some mics, check they´re working, and see if the lighting board is going to co-operate with the manual :)