It's the final Countdo - no net yetttttt.

Week 22

Day 1

Today marks the start of what some people call the home stretch. The last 4 weeks.

But it doesn't mark anything for me because I'll actually be right back here again for another 6 months. I'll call my homestretch at the end of that.

Day 2

So apparently there are rumours going around that someone died on the job yesterday night. Not sure who it was but people are telling me that someone just collapsed and died up in the buffet area. Not a guest, but someone who was working. I wonder if it happened in the middle of a crowd and caused a severe amount of freaking out. That's quite a story.

Day 3

I honestly think I'm allergic to the caribbean. Ever since we've been traveling around the caribbean I've been really sneezy. I don't suppose you can be allergic to the world can you? Or even part of the world. But I am. Wouldn't that be great though? Imagine getting invited to another country and flat out refusing.

'Sir, would you be interested in coming to *insert country*?'

'No.'

'Any particular reason?'

'I'm allergic to your country.'

'What?'

You can't really blame me at that point. Hey, I have an actual physical aversion that I cannot be helped. It's not my fault your country makes me sneeze a lot. 

Also, I think sneezing is a vicious cycle. See when you sneeze you're nose is actually trying to rid itself of irritants. But then you sniffle. And snort it all back in. Which causes you to sneeze more. Which causes you to sniffle more. Which then causes you to sneeze even more. And so on and so on. Perhaps there needs to be a better means to eradicate irritants from the nasal cavity. Maybe like a nostril vacuum or something. Press one button and it sucks all the snot from your nasal cavity in one go! That seriously sounds like an infomercial product. Maybe I'm on to something here.

Day 4

We do a production show today that's got us wearing costumes. Now the problem with this is that this show was usually done on the second formal night, until now. This means I have to wear my tux twice. Which I actually find rather annoying. I'd much rather be in my sneakers and t-shirt for the second formal night.

Day 5

Guest entertainer show today is pure rock and roll. I've not had the chance to really play stuff like this. Singers usually pick rather sentimental songs and what not so having a guitarist rocker and his wife play the house tonight is quite a blast.

Day 6

Today we were forced to get up really early to do some extra training for when coast guard comes. I think this whole coast guard malarky is really annoying. And I think because they're coming I won't get to leave the ship in San Juan bright and early like I normally do. 

Day 7

Walked to the beach today in St Thomas. I have yet to visit the beach in St Thomas so today I decided I would. The thing is that St Thomas is a very hilly island. So the walk there is quite the hike. But boy was it worth it. Gorgeous sands. Clear water. Everything you could hope for in a good beach. Definitely worth the hike. I think I'll do that again sometime.

Thoughts from the week?

I think once you've formed an opinion about someone, whatever they do tends to fall within those parameters. This is perhaps why most people will argue that first impressions are everything.

I agree and disagree. I think first impressions do form prejudices for or against someone's character, but only if you ever meet that character under similar circumstances. If you happen to get to know this person over a period of time, first impressions can be woefully wrong.

But that doesn't change the fact that first impressions cause bias. 

That being said, I wonder what first impressions I give off from a professional standpoint to the people I work with. It's a scary thought don't you think?

I've started making a list of movies that I have to see when I get home. That's actually one part of living on the ship that's tough on me. I do enjoy going to the cinema and catching new movies everytime one comes out. But 6 months of not doing that really takes a toll. And every now and then an ad comes up for an up and coming movie and I go 'crap I really want to watch that' but then after a couple of weeks I actually forget about it. Until the DVD sales advert comes on and reminds me again. As such, I have taken to making a list. A movie shopping list. 

Merry Christmas. Next week begins the Holiday cruises. Next week and the week after. I think the mood hasn't really struck me. Being on a ship during the holidays isn't exactly Christmas spirit. I don't know when it happens but every year there's a specific time where it hits me and I start looking forward to Christmas. Not because of all the gifting hoo hah but generally everything that goes on during the season. The Christmas singing in church, the Christmas activities with buddies, the Christmas drinking - oh no wait you didn't read that one - the open houses, the family dinner. Everything. 

This year though, that hasn't hit me yet. I don't have that excitement in me. Yet. Let's hope the 'yet' stays true.

HOME STRETCH HERE I COME.

Week 21

Day 1

New roomie! It's the piano player from Argentina. He's a cleanliness stickler so there might be some problems. As you all know, I am a slob. A self hygiene conscious slob, but a slob nonetheless.

And I GET BOTTOM BUNK NOW! For 5 weeks! I can actually sit up in bed! WOOOHOOOO!!

You see what ship life does to you. It takes away so many simple basic things that one rejoices for the absolutely absurd. And necessary. Never thought you'd see a grown man celebrate being able to sit up in bed now did you?

Oh and something fantastical and amazing happened a day ago which has severe repercussions affecting today and the days ahead. On the ship there is a sanitation and health risk level or whatever called the OPP level. Normally on level 1, everything is fine and dandy. But recently some crew have contracted some gastro whatchamacallit (whoah this word actually exists in spell check) disease and once that number of infected crew got above 1% of the entire crew they move to OPP 2. 

The horrendous part about this is that all crew food areas and lounge areas are in a total shutdown. The bars are closed, even the library is closed. We are restricted from the guest buffet, I'm guessing no using the guest gym either, and worst of all the staff mess is closed and the crew mess, which has the worser food, is the only thing left open. And there is no self service anymore. Everything gets handed to me by someone - my plate, my utensils, my food, my cup, my drink.

As bad as that sounds, it cannot compare to the fact that there will no longer be anymore coffee available 24/7 because of the whole no touchy feely anything policy in this situation. 

This is going to be a ridiculous week. 

Our previous bandmaster who just left us told us to stock up on dry foods. I think I'm going to take his advice. This is a nightmare.

Day 2

The food in the crew mess has a magical way of making me lose my appetite. I take a nice big plate of food because I'm hungry and half way through I just can't have anymore. Eugh. But that just means I'll be hungry again later.

Today also marked a second pipe failure in a week. There was a huge pipe burst last week and today apparently something else happened and crew cabins are getting their carpets completely drenched. This does not bode well.

I guess it makes sense when you think that this ship in particular is on it's very last legs of life before major overhaul. The dry dock begins january, so if you think about it that way it is the time where everything needs to be fixed. I guess when I get back for my second contract everything should be nice and sparkly. I hope.

Today also marks the first time I've actually run out of towels in my room. Had to ask for it. But you see again what ship life does to you. Simply asking for towels becomes such an annoyance because I'm so used to having them replaced regularly anyway. 

I wonder if eventually I'll lose what it means to be human living on a ship.

Day 3

It seems the emergency health risk nonsense has been lifted. I got my own food at the staff mess today. I hope that this wasn't just a fluke.

Indeed it wasn't a fluke. Thank God that the ordeal is over.

We played some jazz today for the first time in the cafe. It's a very tight setting. Really tight for space but because it isn't just on the way to the dining room the people that were there actually wanted to listen instead of just passing through to their meal. So we got a good response. And I must say the two new members of the orchestra are an absolute joy to play with. Particularly the piano player. He's an older guy from Argentina but man does he know his stuff. Our previous piano player was not a jazz pianist by any means so playing jazz with someone who knows what to do is very refreshing. I think I'm going to enjoy my last 5 weeks on board this ship. Sadly he isn't here to stay for my second contract. Hopefully we'll get someone equally good, or better. As a rhythmist, playing with someone who has great rhythm makes me explore even better rhythm. What a joy it is to play tonight. Some of the best fun I've had in a while.

Day 4

I just discovered a crack in my 20" cymbal today. My heart has completely sunk. That is a rather beautiful cymbal that I paid for. And now it's cracked. And it's not even 6 months! OUCH!

I don't know if it's cracked because of my excessive abuse or because of mishandling by the tech team when they reset the stage every night. I think starting tomorrow I'm going to tear down my own cymbals every night just to be sure. Ugh. This is not a good feeling. I hate it when I crack cymbals. Especially really nice ones.

Day 5

Today was quite a spectacular day.

Mid show during the entertainer I busted a hole clean through my bass drum head. Yeap that's right, I punched a big ass hole right through the toughest head on the kit. This is only the second time this has happened to me, but the very first this has happened during a gig. And the thing is that it wasn't my own gig because if it was I would've just stopped the show mid way and replaced it but it was a guest entertainer show and the songs just keep going. 

So round about half way through I bashed my beater and it lodged itself inside the head. At first I thought it was a simple problem with the pedal - I've had pedals that have gotten stuck before - but then I noticed that it was a much larger problem. Me being the professional that I am found ingenious ways to compensate. Sure it wasn't the same - our sound guy noticed a significant plunge in actual volume from the bass drum - but I made the best of it because as a famous person once said, 'The show must go on'. 

The funny part was that our entertainer noticed the plunge in the bottom end of the rhythm too and he turned around to ask me for more but I couldn't give him any more. I couldn't really tell him what was going on mid song so I just shrugged. 

Like I said, I've never had that happen to me mid show before. It was absolutely spectacular. The broken head is now hanging in my cabin as a symbol of awesomeness.

Day 6

Once again it's that magical sea day. They made us do walkdowns today which is still very demeaning in my point of view. It's like a parade of the monkeys. I'm sure if you're a guest on a cruise ship you've never seen it from that point of view. So let me take this opportunity to enlighten you.

What you see are a bunch of happy smiling crew members who walk around you, some perhaps giving you high fives, waving and clapping and then eventually ending up on stage so that you can say a big thank you to the crew. It's appreciating the crew isn't it?

Well, the crew have to take a bunch of their time from a usually busy day to spend 15 minutes parading themselves in front of you, forcing a smile and forcing a wave like a bunch of show monkeys, getting our picture taken from all angels only to receive a ripple of applause from whoever happened to be sunbathing at the time. Some of us have things to do, and some of us have sleep to catch up on. But we are forced to take a chunk out of the day and waste the time in front of guests who think we're having a blast doing this.

So there you go. If you're ever on a ship leave a comment saying that they should stop crew walkdowns because that's a bigger sign of appreciation from a guest by letting the crew not waste their time instead of a pitiful round of clapping.

This PSA was brought to you by reality.

Day 7

As part of the refurbishing of the ship they are installing new mattresses for all crew cabins. Well, I say 'they' but in reality we had to lug our own damn mattresses from our cabin out to where the stash was, lug the new one back like a clumsy ogre and then proceed to injure ourselves trying to put in a mattress that is clearly too big for the space allotted. I'm very willing to be stuck with my old one rather than do all that unnecessary labour. 

Also, the new mattresses are a lot thicker than the old ones. Now when you're at home with a ceiling that's at least a couple of feet above your head this is all nice and good but when you're in a bunk bed that has almost no headroom (top bunk no sit up remember?) a taller mattress isn't exactly a better one. Thankfully I'm on the bottom bunk now. Even so, if I sit upright my hair will brush against the top bunk. I can only imagine how much less space my roomie has now.

Torture. Disguised as a blessing. I never knew cruises were so evil.

Thoughts from the week?

I haven't been in much deep thought. I've been slightly bitter this week I suppose. Not in a really deep and depressing, but just slightly bitter that some good things have come to an end. 

But don't all good things come to an end? But that's only true because the best things haven't really started yet. Go chew on that thought for a while. 

See you next week.

Burn after reading. No seriously.

Day 1

It looked like rain today so I departed from Starbucks a little early. And then I learned that there was better internet at Subway.

I said this in twitter before and I'll say it again. The grass (internet) is always greener (faster) on the other side (of the mall).

Day 2

Two words. Sea day.

Day 3

Once again I've proven the theory that the internet is always better on the other side of the mall. I just hung out in the terminal in Barbados today. I was lucky enough to find a spot with free power and free internet. Slow, but free and I could sit there all day without being bothered.

See the one thing awesome about doing the ENTIRE caribbean run, meaning when I get back on the ship after my vacation I'll still be here, is that I feel no urgency to explore every island. Unlike the North American run I did before this, that was only 3 times at each spot. I'm going to be on these islands for the next 4 months or more.

No hurry. Everything's going to stay the same. The beaches aren't going away.

Day 4

Finally got to see St Lucia in the middle of a hectic day. It's again one of those fantastic non touristy pretentious places like Bridgetown. It's a town where life just happens.

People at local pubs watching cricket and football, tables outside clacking with the sound of a good game of dominoes (I don't know how the game works but it's not the game you know where you stack em and then push em down. That's just stupid), local vendors selling fruits and junk, small stores selling some local food (which I have to get at some point because I walked through a street with food stalls on both sides and my goodness did it smell amazing) and generally non tourists just bustling about. Life happens. And I like that because it gives me a chance to feel like I'm a part of the culture, not surrounded by stores trying to sell me duty free items.

I wish we had more time here but this is the one port that we play afternoon sets, morning rehearsals and night shows. Sad.

Day 5

The island we're visiting today is Antigua.

Well, the island everybody is visiting. I decided to stay on the ship today. Not because I had no time to get off, nor because I was bored of Antigua.

Sheer laziness.

I decided to sleep in. And then spend the afternoon playing video games on my computer before going to rehearsal.

It was a good day.

Day 6

Today was yet another fantastic day. Rehearsal was late in the afternoon, almost when the ship starts to leave the island. Which meant I got the same amount of time off the ship as a guest. Sure I don't spend it off the ship the entire time but knowing that I just had the time was enough to make it a good day.

Internet, mojitos, delicious shrimp. All in one day. 

Day 7

Tomorrow 3 members of the band are leaving. 

The upshot is I get a roomie. And I get the bottom bunk now. Which means I can sit up in bed. Oh that's right, I haven't yet shown you the space I live in. Don't worry, you'll see it eventually. But man the top bunk is so low I can't even sit up in bed. The problem is with two people in the room there isn't anywhere else to sit up. So I half sit. But now I get the bottom bunk which means sit uppableness is going to happen.

Also today is the first time I've ever ever had a guest buy us drinks. There were some guests who were hanging out with us at the martini bar after the show and they decided to be wonderful people and buy us all drinks. Absolutely fantastic.

I only dreamed it would happen, but it actually did. How cool is that? Anyway, see you in San Juan tomorrow, and I'll meet my new roomie.

There's also a chance I might not have a roomie. But let's not get our hopes up.

Day 8

Just saw the Christmas trees going up as I left the boat this morning. Pictures are in order I believe. Let the yuletide begin.

Thoughts from the week?

 These past 5 weeks have been pretty darn awesome. We had a stand in Bandmaster with us who is both a gentleman and an extremely professional boss. Not to say that our last one was horrible, but he was new to the gig of bandmaster so sometimes he did run around like a headless chicken. But these past 5 weeks have been a breath of fresh air, working with someone who knows the whole deal and knows how to get stuff done properly. I do hope I see that guy again someday and work with him at some point.

It's a short post this week, but I guess it's been rather uneventful. Maybe the new band members will shake things up a little.