Welcome to CANANADANADA

MID CRUISE UPDATE! 

I know you couldn't wait 2 weeks so I found a spot in Quebec City and here we go!

Week 9

Day 1

Woke up today with the sound of the captain announcing that we would be maintaining 2 minutes of silence in remembrance of all the people who lost their lives in the 9/11 incident. No disrespect and anything, but if you had left me alone I would've maintained two hours of silence.

Starting the brand new Canada run. And already I can tell this is going to be fantastic. There are absolutely NO children on board this ship. Very elderly crowd. 300 hundred elite members. Those are the people who come on celebrity ships time and time again.

The plus side is that only a small handful of them ever venture to the buffet. With the exception of my grandad, I'm guessing most elderly people can't eat that much. So they spend their time in the restaurants. Which means no queues for the buffet. Fantastic.

The weather is a beautiful thing. Cool delicious breeze. I spent the night out on the open deck listening to music.

Day 2

It is a sad day for drummers today. With the installation of the new cast and the new shows comes a whole bunch of people from the production company. And they redid soundchecks and stuff. 

Sadly, I was told to muffle my snare. My gorgeously tuned snare that rang as true as any drum could ever ring - they made me kill it. Riddled with tape, tuned away from it's delicious overtones - It is now a horrible drum. It's once gorgeous tone is replaced by a lifeless thud for the sake of corny music. It's bright Birch tones can no longer be heard. It's lovingly crafted body, with true value and quality, now sounds like a drum that was simply cobbled together by some ham fisted stone age caveman. 

Drumming people, mourn for the loss of this once majestic snare drum. And pray that it may be one day released from it's prison and allowed to ring true once more.

(Note, I'm not being overly dramatic. I really do hate it when people kill overtones. I live for delicious overtones and every time a non drummer tells me to kill it, I get rather pissed off. We're no longer in the eighties people. Time to move on and bring them drums to life.)

Day 3

Got off in Boston today. My my what a gorgeous city! I have to say I am loving the vibe in Boston. Well, the part that I was in anyway. Downtown/central boston? Whichever you call it. 

But yes it was absolutely delightful to be in Boston. I like the fact that the city is not ginormous and that you can actually get places on your feet. It was pretty fantastic. It's got a very cool vibe. Very high society as my colleague would describe it. 

The thing I liked a lot about it was the fact that people actually went outside to have lunch. Lot's of people have food on the go, but they're not eating on the move. There are mini parks all around and people just sit outdoors and relax. Very nice vibe. 

So I walked into downtown boston, which wasn't far from where the ship was. I visited a place called the Union Oyster Station which was like the oldest restaurant in town - it was like 185 years old or something. I had some New England Clam Chowder. It's particularly awesome when you're eating a dish from where it's actually from. I mean, come on, the name of the place is in the food. You can't get better than that. If you've never had real clam chowder, man is this a super treat. I've always liked clam chowder but I've never had real clam chowder. This thing is filled with beautiful large chunks of fresh clams. It's especially awesome when you can tell how fresh the clam is. It was probably caught fresh that very morning on that coast. I also had a fantastic plate of seafood. Delicious fried oysters, scallops, calamari. All on one plate. Must admit I really overshot myself there, but I wasn't expecting such a humongous plate of seafood. It was very well worth it though.

I wanted to go explore a little more or hit the legendary Harpoon Brewery or Samuel Adams brewery in town but then a stomach ache hit me. Darn it. Well, I'll be back in two weeks I guess.

Last Doug Cameron show today. It was a nice 4 week run. I'm actually gonna look forward to the next time he's on. Had drinks with him after the show. 

Day 4

Arrived this morning in Portland. Portland is really pretty. It's got a very nice small town vibe about it. It's not a particularly busy city. Not especially huge and city like. Certainly a harbour town if there ever was one. A couple of us got off the ship and found a craft brewery called Sebago brewing Co. Man they make some delicious beer. I had the sampler with 5 different beers and they were almost all absolutely brilliant. 

Then we walked around the place a little bit. It is quite the lovely port. Very pretty scenery.

Had another guest entertainer on today. Was a singer. It is quite an easy show. All he did was sing popular songs. To be honest if I was sitting in the crowd, I would've fallen asleep. I was almost sleeping already playing the show. Can't imagine what it would be like watching it. The plus side is that it was a total no brainer night. Easy peasy.

Day 5

Arrived in Bar Harbour today. We were tendering which means that we drop anchor out in the ocean and take smaller boats from the boat to the shore. 

But we had an early rehearsal that day. Rehearsing the brand new production show called iHollywood. To be honest it was a piece of cake. But we had to do it anyway. Before rehearsal though I went up on the open deck and boy is it getting cold as we head further up north.

I intended to get some delicious lobster and blueberry pie in Bar Harbour. From what I've heard it is THE place to get atlantic lobster. But after rehearsal for the production show we had another rehearsal that afternoon. And the fact that tender boats take some time, I decided to not get off. So I missed Bar Harbour. Will be back in two weeks and I WILL GET MY LOBSTER.

The show tonight was a comedian. Sadly he uses the band so we didn't get the night off. It would've been nice. It's been show after show in the theatre so far. Will be nice to get out in one of the lounges and play something else.

Boy was that the sloppiest show ever. See when a comedian does musical comedy, it works only if the band knows his material really well, or if he just does it himself. Instead what you have is a super slap dash show. And it's not even musical comedy. It's just songs in the middle of the comedy show. It wasn't very good to be honest. The audience loved it - I guess they've never seen the musical genius of Bill Bailey or Rich Hall. But for the band it was a messy chaotic show. Either plan out your music comedy stuff or just don't do it. Stick to telling jokes sir.

And the man is quite the character. Not sure I take very well to his personality. He did buy us drinks at the end of the show, but I don't think he's the kind of guy that I would casually hang out with. 

Day 6

And so we cross the Canadian border! Arrived in Halifax Nova Scotia today. Bright and early. We got off and started exploring the town. The weather is starting to really get cold. It was cloudy at first, but then the sun came up and it was perfect.

First we went to the Public Gardens. Some movie was filming there or something. Some of my colleagues were intrigued, but me coming from Hollywood, I immediately got pissed. Thankfully they didn't shut the park down because of it. The park was gorgeous. It was refreshing to be in there.

Then we walked up to a place called the Citadel which is like some old war fort on top of a hill. It is actually a ridiculously gorgeous location with so much history. And the ariel view of the fort is a star on top a hill. Quite the thing.

The best part is that we unwittingly entered from the back entrance with no clue and didn't realise that tickets were required. Yep we were exploring the museum and the compound for free without even knowing it. We only realised it when we made our exit - through the entrance. Oops.

After that exploration we stopped by the local brewery. Yet another craft brewery. It wasn't as delicious as Sebago. It was called RockBottom brewery. Certainly not as good as our Portland delight. Not sure I'll be back there anytime soon. There was another place nearer to the ship and I'll probably check that out some other time.

Must say Halifax is yet another cool little place. I think Port towns are probably some of the prettiest in the world. They have a totally different vibe to them. Halifax was kind of chill and relax and very quaint. Yes quaint is the perfect word to use for these port towns. Small and cosy and quaint with it's small happy local places and food stores and souvenir shops. 

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Had a double artist show tonight. Goodbye show for both the singer Claude Eric and Doug Cameron. And once again we went out for drinks. Man I haven't bought a drink all week and yet I've been having some tasty beers in the martini bar. Yay for being in the band with very kind guest entertainers.

Tomorrow is second rate pianist again though. No drinks there.

Day 7

Sea day. Getting to Quebec tomorrow. But a whole sea day today.

Had another iHollywood rehearsal. I think it's starting to annoy me that we have to do so many of these when the band is nailing it. If the cast ain't got their stuff together, get them to rehearse. We don't need to. It's not hard. Geez. Well then again it was a sea day with not much to do. 

Had second rate pianist rehearsal. He strung together an even longer show. Which meant more second rate piano songs to play. Not very fun to be honest. 

And man is it getting cold. Walking out on the open deck to the buffet was really cold. I guess Quebec city is gonna be cold. Northbound we go!

Day 8

Man a slow slow move into Quebec today. Didn't manage to get off in the afternoon. By the time they let us off it was time to rehearse with guitarist Ric Steel.

Man that man is such an inspiration. A true and true performer and a man who fell in love wit h the stage. Such a joy to be working with him. And such an easy show to play haha.

At the end of it he got us off the stage and out by the entrance with him to greet guests. Not something we normally do, but the attention is quite pleasant I can tell you that.

Did go explore a little of quebec at night but not much to see. Let's see a little more tomorrow, assuming there isn't some stupid rehearsal in the morning.

Thoughts from the week will come from Bayonne. Cheers.