BONJOUR FRENCHLANDCANADA

Once again your weekly update coming to you midcruise from Quebec city.

Day 1

Embarkation day is always a joy. Why? Because I get to do the passenger drill where I have to tell grown ass men to come and sit in the front so that the less abled guests can sit at the back. 

Firstly when you have a crowd of 100% retirees, how do you classify less abled guests? Can't argue when all of them claim that they can't walk up and down stairs that easily.

Secondly, most of these guys don't even want to be there. Some of them have been ejected from the bar, some from their cabin, some from the pool, and told to adjourn to their stations for 15 minutes of announcements that most of them have heard before. 

I had this one guy that I asked to sit in the front seats and he politely replied me 'no'. Can't argue with that now can I?

And if you haven't figured it out by now, I'm being sarcastic about embarkation day being a joy. The only upside to embarkation day is the opening show is always the same every cruise, which means that rehearsals go by in a flash and I can play the show with my eyes closed.

Our bass player celebrated his birthday today. We had quite the party. Thankfully tomorrow is a sea day. Rest up.

Day 2

Sea day sea day how I love/hate thee. On the one hand there's not much to do. On the other hand, there's not much to do. We did have a birthday celebration last night for our bass player so a much needed sleep in was possible. Which is why I love sea days because I have no reason to get up early to get off the ship. 

But there really is nothing to do on board for crew. Watch movies I guess.

Day 3

Had the most amazing day in Boston today. First I went to Chinatown which wasn't as amazing as I thought it would be. But that only makes the rest of my day even more awesome. I actually went into Chinatown to find a cheap haircut. Sadly the haircuts on board the ship aren't free. Everything else is like laundry and dry cleaning but because the haircuts are done by the spa, and the fact that the spa is run by a completely different company - it's not run by celebrity, they have a spa company come on board and set it up on some commission basis or something - and the spa haircuts cost like 20 bucks. I did find a few places but I decided against it because they looked very sketchy. 

I will get a haircut soon. I might find a cheaper place in the other ports we have, but I will resort to the 20 dollar ones on board if I fail to find a cheap barber somewhere.

After exploring the lame chinatown in Boston, I decided to go to the Boston Commons which is the public park in Boston. As I've mentioned before, Boston has a unique vibe to it. So even if it is a tuesday there are people hanging out in the parks in Boston - some of them working people with their lunches. The next time I'm in Boston I am definitely getting to the open market which I discovered today, and getting some delicious Boston street food.

But that wasn't the end of my day. I then went instinctively to HARPOON BREWERY which is a craft brewery in Boston. Apparently they are pretty famous in the states as a craft brewery. I say 'instinctively' because I walked pass the place earlier in the morning and decided against drinking some beer at 11am. But later in the day I showed up at EXACTLY 2pm which was when they were doing the daily tasting sessions.

YES. FREE BEER TASTING. I only had to tip them. I felt happy so I tipped them a fair amount. BUT FREE BEER. CRAFT BEER at that. Not some ordinary beer you get in a bottle, but a specially brewed beer in the state of Massachusetts. I had 12 different sample of beer, served in 4oz glasses which made for more than 3 pints of beer. 12 DIFFERENT KINDS. Almost all of them were delicious. But the fact that they cost nothing made them extra delicious.

I also bought a beer T-Shirt from Harpoon. Only because it had the line - LOVE BEER. LOVE LIFE - on it. I will wear it with pride.

Anyone at home reading this, sorry to say you will never taste the awesomeness of Harpoon. It is so delicious you cannot even imagine. Perks for working on a cruise ship traveling around the world.

I will only do this rarely but here goes....

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ABAHABHABHABHBAHAHAHAAHHGHAHAHAHHAGHAGHAGHAHAHHAAHAAAAAAIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

My life is awesome.

Tonight's show was particularly weird. We had to do an opening number with the comedian, wait for him to get through 40 minutes of material and then play a closer. All in all, including rehearsal, I probably worked 30 minutes today. He could've just used a track and given us the day off. Not complaining, but I am complaining. Sheesh.

Day 4

Portland has got to be my favourite port so far. It's pretty and quaint, but not boring like other places. It's got a bunch of places to go that are just awesome and some fantastic places to see.

First I went to a nice little place called Gritty McDuffs. Had some local drinks and also had some famous Maine LOBSTER ROLLS. Call it a preliminary round before I get my full lobster lunch in Bar Harbour tomorrow. The lobster rolls were awesome. There's just something perfect about fresh juicy lobster meat in a sandwich. Minimal seasoning and minimal amount of mayo so you get the full absolute taste of delicious lobster. And they don't shred it up into small little bits either - it's huge chunks of lobster meat.

I decided to keep moving around portland after that and ended up at one of their many parks. There was a map at the park and from there I directed myself up to the famous Portland Observatory. The sign said it was 'open to public' which I assumed meant you could go into the building like a public museum. Sadly that wasn't the case. It costs 8 bucks to basically have a man walk you up a 4 or 5 story wooden tower to look out the window. Seriously? 8 BUCKS to see a wooden building? To see OUT of a wooden tower in the middle of town? Sorry, not happening.

Had a great show tonight. Played with a lady singer who plays guitar. It's one of those shows where you feel good both shows and the music kicked ass all throughout the show. No hiccups, no mistakes, just great music.

Day 5

Bar Harbour today. I didn't manage to get off the ship the last time we were here and I was adamant I was going to have some proper lobster. The lobster rolls yesterday were a pretty nice intro to what would be an awesome lobster meal today.

But first before I did that I decided to take a long walk to parts of Acadia national park. The park isn't very far, but it is ridiculously large. It's one of the biggest ones in the States apparently. I took a trail that led me to the outskirts of the park. I did manage to go quite far into the park considering I walked the whole way. I actually took an hour long video of me doing the trail which I will most certainly let you guys see when i have the time to put it up on youtube. But it was fun to be out in nature. I'm all about the free exploration and enjoyment of a place - and by free I mean cash free (except for food) - so the park was certainly a good idea. If I had enough time I would've climbed up Dorr Mountain and gotten a view of the place. But sadly I didn't get off the ship early. Maybe next time.

I finished off the trip with a stop at a nice little outdoor place and had my first every whole atlantic lobster. 

OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS WAS IT DELICIOUS. I've never had whole lobster before, what more the famous atlantic lobster. It was just simply poached in water and then served up with some delicious metled butter sauce and lemon. SO FRESH. SO GOOD. 

Have to say, Bar Harbour is an awesome place.

Tonight's show was a chaotic one. Compared with the show last night, tonight's was ridiculously quick and dangerous. When you have that many different songs flowing into each other with all sorts of tempos, something is bound to go wrong. Many of the songs started off at the wrong tempo and we corrected midway. Hopefully the audience was more distracted by the guy's big singing voice so they didn't notice any of that.

Glad he's not doing the mid cruise variety show. 

Day 6.

Returned to Halifax today. After my previous excursion in halifax which you've read about, I've actually pretty much explored the entire place. I decided instead to sit down in starbucks for the afternoon and get some internet. 

Even though the wi-fi was free, after sitting there for 2 hours and more with only a purchase of the smallest cup of coffee they have, I felt rather bad. But my want for internet was greater than my lowly feeling and so I stayed. Eat that starbucks.

Played the variety show tonight which meant another chance to work with the singer/guitar player. She's unbelievably professional. Well, she did work on Broadway so I expect she's got that whole performance experience under her belt. Very organized rehearsal and very in control of the band. Good stuff.

Now for some rants. I got told off by security tonight for practicing until 1:30am. Yes you heard it right - told off by security for PRACTICING. Isn't part of my freaking job to practice? And I was told when I started my damn contract that I would be able to use the theater for practice as long as nothing was going in there. And I did. For the entire Bermuda run I was practicing most nights until 2 or 3 in the morning. And now I get told off for noise? What the hell! This is ridiculous. I'm going to have a word with my band leader to straighten this out. The drums are already set up in the damn theater and I'm not going to move them out and then back again and hook up all the mics and shit just to practice. This is absurd. My instrument is a loud one. Deal with it. Soundproof the damn theater if you have to. Stupid shit.

I AM PISSED OFF. ARHGHGHGH.

Day 7

So after the ordeal yesterday I actually woke up this morning and was in a bad mood for pretty much the entire day. Not a good way to start the day nor spend the day, but the whole 'no practice at night in the theater' thing is not making me happy at all. What makes it worse is that I talked it over with my band leader this morning and it's an injustice that cannot be rectified. It is a huge injustice to me as a musician, but there's nothing that can be done about it. Guest complaint. Done. No arguing. No reasoning. Nothing. 

I really needed a good pick me up movie after that. And what do you know? Conviction came on the movie channel. I actually bought that DVD recently and never took the time to watch it before getting on this boat. But now i have watched it and I'm feeling much more pleasant inside. Thankfully.

Day 8

Quebec day. 

There's only 2 pieces of ridiculously awesome information that you need to hear about.

One, I discovered today in the buffet that they make fresh crisp and delicious popodam. UNLIMITED SUPPLY OF THE STUFF! I am definitely going to have them every single night now. 

Two, that magical day of happiness has finally arrived. 11 weeks working on the ship and finally the day has come. TOmorrow, I have the day off. WHEEEEE! No work tomorrow! And it's compounded by the happiness of the fact that, due to weather conditions, we are staying an extra day in Quebec. FANTASTIC!

Sweet sweet happiness. See you all tomorrow.