HURRICANE IRENE IS STUPID.

CONTINUATION

Attention! The following record is a drastic dramatization of the occurrences on the Celebrity Summit.

Day 6

We leave as scheduled from King's Wharf Bermuda. A hushed tension permeates through the corridors as we travel in the direction of the storm. The deathly winds pass before us but there is a eerie contradiction going through my mind as we sail in the direction of the storm. As the island of Bermuda slowly disappears from view the sense of security begins to fade. The calm waves on the beaches and the soft breezes begin to fade into nothing but memories.

The show goes on like normal, but the boat begins to rock more and more as we head out into the sea that was just ravaged by the hurricane. It can only get worse.

Day 7

I awake to large motions on the boat. The boat is rocking slow, but in large sways from side to side. It becomes difficult to ascend the stairs. It's as though someone is playing with the gravity switch as I tread up and down the stairs. Sometimes I feel like I'm lifted off my feet and sometimes I feel like I'm pressed into the ground by a giant thumb.

The sight of the horizon moving several feet up and down in the windows begins to induce a feeling of sickness among some guests. Hushed whispers are heard around the buffet about vomit bags and seasickness pills. Some show a slight sense of panic as they rush to the comfort of their cabins. The motion gets larger.

As the afternoon comes, we sail directly into a cloud. The rain begins to pound the ship and the horizon disappears behind the mist. Slowly the windows are covered with huge droplets and the sight of the sea and sky is no longer visible. Guests and crew gather around the windows to witness the worrying sight.

As I sit in my cabin, the rocking motion begins to play tricks with my body. The sound of waves crashing against the hull of the ship can be heard like peals of thunder. The doors on the cabinets rattle violently each time a wave hits the ship. I peer at my water bottle, mesmerized by the continued tilting of the liquid in it. 

There is talk that the seas will only get rougher. 

On another note, this whole idea of a longer cruise is beginning to suck more and more. The fact that our programs are built around 7 day cruises means that a haphazard performance is put together for an extra day. That meant more doug cameron. We had to play a whole new show, and we have more for the farewell show which is now happening on Embarkation day which is normally day 1. It means extra work all around and it's not very nice. I'm used to my weekly schedule now.

But then again, it means only six day cruise next week. So there is light at the end of the tunnel. 

I never thought the day would come where my musicianship skills would be required to play 'Uptown Girl'. Tis a dark day in my musical career.

Day 8

The crew slept uneasily over the intense rocking of the boat. The seas remained rough and-

You know what, I can't keep this up. 

Our ship was more than 400 miles from the hurricane. We were barely involved in the entire ordeal. The seas were a little rougher in the wake of the hurricane but that was it. Some gentle rocking. Done and done.

This extra day cruise though is quite a hassle. It meant extra shows and extra material. Extra rehearsal.

These past two days have been long and particularly tiring. Not that playing music for 5 hours is a drag compared to all you office workers (HAHAHAAHA GOT YOU) but slap dash shows are never fun. 

The seas calmed down as we got closer to land. 

And that is my hurricane experience. BORING.

Day 9

Arrived back in bayonne. Nothing destroyed. No shattered windows. No demolished buildings.

The sun is shining in the sky. And the post hurricane weather is the most gorgeous I've had in Jersey so far. Irony.

Hopefully we'll get another one.

Woah did I just say that?

See you in Bermuda folks.

Job hazards - Hurricane DEATH.

Week 6

Day 1

Shopping trip. As you know my earphones died on me sometime last week. I had to head down to the nearest radioshack and purchase my trusted earphone brand. I bought three pairs just in case.

I hate necessary expenses. The more of them I can avoid the more money I can save and the richer I'll be when I get back home.

Day 2

Some stick breakage is beginning to happen. And to start it off I broke my beloved oak sticks. The hardest pair I have and they shattered just as easily under my mighty power. This is why I had to bring that obnoxiously overloaded bag of sticks. I also broke one of the old steve gadd ones I had while practicing. 

I hope my supply is enough to last me till the end of my contract.

On a worser note, My finger met with an accident today. I was putting my cymbals back into my bag today and while doing so one of the cymbals sliced my fingernail pretty badly. It is quite ouchies. Now I have to do the drummer skill of bandaid hand playing. It's always weird gripping a stick when you have a bandaged finger. 

Non playing related injuries are probably worse than playing related ones because you know you could've avoided them. Now I'll probably have this bandaid on for a whole week before that part of my nail grows out and can get cut.

Day 3

Some people despise playing 'cocktail music'. I actually find it quite bearable.

Saw the comedian's show again. Different comedian obviously. Entertainment is always nice

Day 4

The week continues with two daunting pieces of news. 

One is of the impending hurricane. So apparently the captain made the announcement that we're leaving a day early to get there before the storm hits. Kinda bummed that we got shanked out of a Bermuda day. Then again, it's the guests that have it hard. At least I'll be back next week.

The other piece of news is that of the guests entertainer show that I have to play tomorrow. From what I've heard it's probably the most challenging show ever to come to ships. It's very drum challenging.

I've been listening to the music and I can see that clearly. This is probably the first guest entertainer show that I've had to practice beforehand. It is pretty darn hard. Music is pretty high up the scale though. Not some half assed pianist like last time. He's a violinist who's worked with some pretty big names.

We will see how I survive tomorrow.

Day 5

INTENSE SHOW.

Crazy long rehearsal. Had a double rehearsal. 3 or more hours of it. But the show was fun. Quite a number of trips in the show but it didn't destroy the performance. It is actually quite a fun show to play. 

Doug Cameron. Go check him out. He's actually quite a good violin player. Though it has now changed my perception on how awesome jazz strings are. I've always thought a jazz violinist or cellist would be awesome, and they are when the arrangements are built around them as the soloist, but if they're just included into a rhythm section playing standards, the sound doesn't really do that well. 

But the show went great. And apparently we're gonna do his show again next week. And then the week after that. And then the week after that. 

Other piece of interesting news is this new ongoing saga with the hurricane. For those of you who've been informed, the hurricane is actually going to hit new jersey and new york, right where we'll be docking. It's all very exciting.

Our early departure schedule has been changed back again to friday. So we do get the night out, and the third day on the Island. What's going to happen is we're going to leave as arranged but take it slow and get into port on Monday. The storm is going to hit Jersey on Sunday so we hope to move behind it and not get hit. So our cruisers get an extra day cruise. And we might have to put on an extra show for them for that one night. That kinda sucks.

The weather is still unpredictable. Nobody knows what this storm is capable of doing. It might choose to change directions and come attack the ship. In which case I will be thrilled. You see I'm the kind of person that sees the possible awesome anecdote behind every tragedy. It will make for an awesome story if I don't get killed. So if the ship tilts like mad and chairs go flying around, be assured that I will be enjoying myself.

The other possibility is that we would sail into port on Monday to find it completely destroyed and demolished by the storm, just like New Orleans after Katrina. It could be possible. The hurricane might just go up to category 4. Which for a non terminologically inclined person stands for CRAZY FAST WINDS OF DEATH. Or something similar.

That's all I have to say about the hurricane for now. See you on the other side of this ordeal.

Oh and Doug bought us drinks after the show. Happy times.

NOTE

This update comes to you midweek on friday due to the unpredictable nature of the storm. I will only be in port on Monday and may not have time for internet depending on how quickly we choose to depart again. I'm thinking we may not get as many hours off the ship, or any at all. Or the other possibility that the restaurant is destroyed when I get there and the internet may quite possibly be down in that situation. 

Look forward to my next update with the rest of the juicy details.

Chapter two of six. No really.

SECOND MONTH BABY

Week 5

Day 1

Spent most of the day in New York hence no update on Sunday. On the plus side it meant exploring the city and getting of the ship. On the downside it was raining horrendously. Well, heavy for america anyways. On the other plus side the rain was quite refreshing. On the downside I didn't have an umbrella so I got quite soaked. On the other downside because of the rain there was a little delay in the docking and clearance procedure so we got off late. On the plus side it meant I could sleep longer before getting up. On the downside, I didn't. 

Anyway, got to explore the new WTC site. And see the new building in progress. Unfortunately it's barely done so we only got to see a fraction of it's awesomeness. 

Central Park next week?

Day 2

So day two is our first formal gala night and the captain and the senior staff come out and do a toast. We have a new executive chef and guess where he's from?

MALAYSIA.

Yes, it's chef Nizam from Malaysia. The new executive chef on the very same ship that I am on. I guess my exclusivity as the only Malaysian on board a 1000 crew strong ship is gone. The number of Malaysians on board have doubled though.

And does this mean this is my chance to get some Malaysian food on the buffet? Is this the moment where I finally make friends in high places to get what I want? 

Oh this is exciting.

Day 3

The weather today was horrible. Actually the weather all this cruise has been horrible. Rain and cloud everywhere. Not to mention the bigger waves that make the boat rock a little more. And the occasional crashing wave that can be heard from the cabin.

I got to meet the new executive chef today. He's Nizam from Rawang. Seems like a nice chap. He's just as excited to see one of his countrymen as I am. We malaysians must stick together.

Perhaps we'll get together and celebrate Merdeka day. That thought actually came to mind because most of crew here have a celebration party in lieu of their country's independence day. The Indians just had theirs a day ago or something and the Jamaicans the week before. I was joking with some friends of mine about throwing a party with just me on August 31st. Well now I can get the exec chef in on it. 

HAHA

Day 4

My second proper Bermuda exploration trip. Went to the Crystal Cave and Fantasy Cave near St George in Bermuda. Quite spectacular. But honestly nothing beats the caves in New Zealand for sheer beauty and extravagance. I did get quite a good bunch of photographs. Man I am loving my new camera. Low light functions are so incredibly useful. Managed to get some pretty epic shots of the caves. 

Day 5

Had the standard boat drill today. Pretend fire was in my fire zone so I had to evacuate my cabin. it does make for quite a good alarm in the morning though,

Had a crew barbeque up on the open crew deck today. 

This does mark quite the occasion though. It is the first soda I've had since I've been on the boat. They were offering free soda during the barbeque. So I swiped a couple of cokes and grabbed an extra one for the fridge in my room. Yes did I forget to mention that? I have a mini fridge in my room. I'm learning to make use of it now. I've been putting my water and lemonade in there to keep it chilled. So now I have a soda can in there with delicious coca cola. 

I can't quite believe that it's been more than a month since I've had soda. Wow.

On the plus side I have been having quite a lot of juice on board. What with the free apple and orange juice in the buffets. VITAMINS YES.

Day 6

Nothing eventful happened today.

Internet in Bermuda that's it.

Day 7

Farewell show was much shorter thanks to the new cruise director on board.

Also, our alto player is leaving us. So we did have quite the send off party for him in the staff bar.

I don't think I've mentioned this but at some point last week my beloved SoniGear Headphones died on me. I did have foresight to bring spares but the spares don't quite fit in my ears as nice as my lovely SoniGear ones. Those are like my absolute favourite isolation headphones for so cheap..

So it looks like a shopping day tomorrow in New York. Thankfully Radioshack does have the ones I need and know that they work properly. I'm going to buy like 3 pairs of them for good measure so that they'll last me the rest of my contract.

Thought's from the week?

Working on a cruise has actually opened my eyes to the whole cruise experience and has made me want to actually go on a cruise as a vacation. Granted going on a cruise on the other side of the world is probably a stupid idea because the very flight to the boat will probably cost you more than the cruise itself, but if I were to take a local cruise that's on par with the class and level of service on the celebrity summit, I think I would have a fantastic time.

My room key got deleted today and so I have to try and fix it sometime tomorrow. It's quite a problem when you have a ridiculously powerful magnet on your name tag and you have to keep that as far away as possible from your magnetic strip room key and crew pass. I just hope that not both of them are destroyed thanks to my blunder that I did not recognize.

I will remember to NEVER do that again. Even by accident.

BELATED UPDATE.

Week 4

Day 1

LAST WEEK of the FIRST MONTH spugs! (I will invent words as I please thank you)

I completed a major quest today. I managed to acquire both a laundry bag and a pack of toothpicks at the store at port. SCORE. I win.

Bad news. Second rate pianist is back as guest entertainer. Oh poo.

Day 2

New bass player. This changes the dynamic of the rhythm section quite a bit. Hopefully for the better.

Day 3

Another one of those boring sea days. Played in the afternoon already. I think I'll go get movies. And also, it's time to get money. Yay. Hoowah.

Went to see the comedy show tonight. Louis Johnson, anyone know him? He was pretty darn funny. Never actually been to a live standup show before. It's not that much different from watching it on DVD to be honest.

Finally managed myself to the Bible study tonight. It's good to know that even on a ship in the middle of the ocean, God is still here and alive and working. Amazing stuff. LIstening to people pray in different languages is always a pleasure to me.

Day 4

Jazz sets with the new bass player was awesome! I think I'm going to enjoy the rest of my contract that much more.

Day 5

Second rate pianist's show again ladies and gentlemen. Thankfully it's the exact same show as the last time he was on. This means I knew exactly how the show was supposed to go and it went on without any hitches. No need to miss lunch for it. Yay!

Day 6

So apparently there's crew bingo on this night and also a crew raffle. You basically pay 10 bucks for a bingo card with chance to win some crew credit, or get some raffle tickets for a chance to win some nifty stuff like an ipad2 or a samsung tab or an itouch. And they don't let us in the casino. Seems interestingly hypocritical to me. But then again, gambling is only gambling if you choose to call it that. For instance - stock market.

Anyway, you will always feel a sense of injustice whenever someone wins something for free. Or at least close to it. Someone won an ipad2 for 5 dollars. But then again 200 other people lost 5 dollars. So is the dangerous temptation of gambling because you always think 'what if that person was me'. In which case it almost never is. I'd rather spend the money on some delicious calamari in Bermuda. Cheers folks.

The bigger peeve I have though is that crew bingo happens in the theatre which means no practice tonight. I was really looking forward to getting some shedding done since it's 'hour back' night - the night that we get an extra hour on the clock because it rolls back. Which means more time to practice. Sadly, crew bingo has taken away that chance.

Went up on the highest deck possible tonight. Still exploring new places on the ship. Extremely breezy. I had to remove my signature hat in fear of it blowing off.

Day 7

This time around the jam session was relatively fun. The party band couldn't show so we just ended up playing a bunch of funk tunes.

NOTE - this update comes to you from The Island. I was in New York all day and didn't have time to upload. Hear more about it in Next week's post.

Thoughts from the week?

Well it turns out that the late night supper buffet isn't really a buffet at all. The pasta station is open only till 11pm and the only station open until 2am is the pizza station. So to all my friends back in Malaysia that knew me for not choosing to eat pizza when I was back home, if any of you were offended by the fact that I refused to go out with any of you for pizza, if any of you were annoyed at the fact that I would never agree to pizza as a communal meal, now you know that my actions were not unfounded. My only choice for supper is pizza. And I've been having quite a bit of it. 

To be fair it is good pizza. But still it's pizza and I might just get sick of it soon. I guess the no pizza for 6 months really did pay off.

Episode 3 - Revenge of the nobody.

Week 3

Day 1 

I'm forgetting if I'm making Sunday day 1 or Monday. I think I did Sunday, but it would make more sense to do Monday since technically it's the first 'day'. First night is on Sunday. First show is on Sunday night. So that would make it day 1. I'm confusing myself.

Opening show without any fuss really. Already blogged about New York. Will go explore it more in the weeks to come while I'm still porting in Bayonne, which I will be for some time until we hit the more carribean run. It's going to be 5 weeks or so more of Bermuda and then up to New England. That should be fun. 2 week cruises. Epic.

 I don't think I mentioned this before but my duty as a crewman on board the ship has me do the demo for putting on your lifejacket. Yes you know the whole shindig they do on planes that don't have screens? That's me on the stage of the theatre every first day of the cruise in front of a couple of hundred guests. 

Day 2

So yes Monday will be day 2 then. I'm starting to figure out what to do with my spare time on the ship. I've been taking long coffee breaks up in the cafe on deck 10. Sitting outside is usually not an option because the outside area is usually full especially Martin, our solo performer, is playing. I'd like to sit out there and have coffee someday. Or maybe a beer.

Since the time I've been on until a couple of weeks from now there will be people leaving the team each week. My first week ended with the alto player leaving. Then after that the party band changed. And this weekend we lose our bass player and production manager. Then after that the cruise director changes. And then the acapella group, then the cast. On the upside, we're having dinner in one of the restaurants tomorrow night as a sendoff thingy for the bass player. So whoopee.

Day 3

Another simple day at sea. No biggie. Except I did get to check out two new things on the ship. One was dinner at the Cosmopolitan restaurant on board. Now I see why the buffet is usually not full at all. All the fantastic fine dining you can eat for absolutely free!

Well, a 5 dollar tip.

But you can order as many appetizers as you want, as many soups, as many salads, as many desserts. Ridiculously good food. I had a cod fritter with tomato coulis and slaw, a lobster bisque with cream, a fantastic and perfectly cooked sirloin steak with superb herb and butter sauce, a delicious creme brulee and some kiwi sherbert. ALL FOR 5 BUCKS. EPIC MEAL TIME.

And as if the day didn't go well enough a couple of us hit the martini bar for a drink. The bartender is excellent. The dirty martini was perfect. And man those olives are so fresh and delicious.

Life is good.

Day 4

Okay so life was good last night, but I just had the most epicly perfect day in the entire world. Started off with our weekly boat drill, which was fairly dull.

But then I got off the ship and spent the whole day pretty much relaxing in Bermuda. I went to Hamilton which is a fantastic little city. Well, they call it a city, but it really is a town. It's probably the size of ss15 back home. Seriously. But they have some funky looking buildings there and they all sell touristy stuff. Jewelry, liquor. More jewelry. More liquor. 

There were some parks around Hamilton that I didn't check out but I will next time. That was because I spent my afternoon at the BEACH.

OH MY HOOPER SMACKS IS IT GORGEOUS.

The beach in Bermuda is on a different scale of beautiful. The sea is so clear and so beautiful. The water stretches out into 3 shades, it has that light brown colour as it mixes with the shore sand, then turns into this light blue and then into a dark shade of blue as it gets deeper. The weather was perfect. Except for the fact that it had this weird spurt of rain the moment I got to the beach. I thought my day was spoiled. I kid you not, the moment I set foot on the beach from the bus stop it started to rain. But it only rained for literally 20 seconds and then it was sun and wind again. Perfect weather.

The sand is so fine and so clean that I can only think of two ways to describe it. Firstly it's so fine and clean that when the water comes in and mixes with it, it actually looks like miso soup. You know how the particles settle and are so fine that they make this milky cloudy mix. Then it settles back down again. The sand is so fine that if a strong wind blows you can actually see some of it lift off the ground in the gust.

Then I reached out and played with some of the wet sand and it's so fine and smooth that the only thing I could think of to describe it was 'ice cream'. Yes it feels like ice cream. 

It was such a joy to sit and walk along the beach. Bermuda baby. If ever I were to have a honeymoon, this would be one of my top places to be. Or if I ever get rich enough I'll buy a house here. It's that beautiful.

But the day was not done. After getting back at 7ish, I took a shower and headed up to the buffet where I was delighted to have a delicious meal while watching the sunset on the horizon. I literally sat there and watched the sun dip behind the sea. It was such a beautiful moment. No picture or movie can capture that scene. I tried, but you have to see it to really know what it's like. Watching that perfect circle slowly sink behind the waves. So nice.

And then I get to end the night playing some jazz.

LIFE IS GOOD.

Day 5

The one fantastic thing about guest entertainers is that eventually they come on again and I get to play the same show. It makes the rehearsal way easier and the show way simpler the second time around.

The other fantastic thing is that since we spend 3 nights in Bermuda we can actually get off the ship tonight and go into the dockyard at night and enjoy some time off because the ship doesn't leave until tomorrow. We can get off anytime tonight and get back on anytime later. Lovely way to relax after a show. 

Day 6

The boat was rocking quite a fair bit today. It's a very weird sensation playing drums while the boat is rocking. Because my own body is rocking to the music but something is rocking on a completely different rhythm to the music. Very strange sensation.

Day 7 

So ends another week. Fantastic farewell show. Nice and short and sweet. And so begins another week tomorrow where we do it again! Whee.

Thoughts from the week?

If ever there was a weapon a gentleman should have it would be a flashy tie. My bright sparkly orange one has been getting loads of attention.

Also, now that I've gotten used to the groove of things of where I can go and what I can do on board the ship, it has become apparent that my life on this boat is more and more like the people who are on vacation on this boat rather than the people who work here. I've been able to enjoy pretty much everything on this ship - the food, the entertainment (when it isn't played be me obviously), the hours off the ship in Bermuda. Man, if I actually sit back and relax, I am on a pretty darn long cruise.

But on the other hand, it's pretty easy to get lost from the world here. It's hard to remain in contact with the rest of the world back home or anywhere else. We're so disconnected from reality on this ship.

And it's not a particularly good way of living to be honest. You might think it privileged, but honestly it's scary. There's no need to clean up anything. A man comes and cleans your sheets every single day. Someone changes your towels every other day. People cook your food, people clean your dishes. People take care of my laundry. People fix my toilet if it's broken. It will be weird returning to reality after 6 months. 

And one last thought. It's already the end of my third week. 6 months will be quick I tell you. Then I'll be home. And somewhat richer than I was before. Cheers.