day 30 – at sea

was up at 9:30 with the scheduled fire drill (loud alarm clock!) and went to get a cup of coffee and do my daily writing… i see my writing teacher, one of my guest pals from the piano bar, amanda, and a few other folks… i always pass by the guy playing chess – i call him killer - had a game with him one day, and as we chatted about alaska, he asked If i’d heard of an artist named merko (merco?) and i was like, holy cow!  we got my folks a merko musk ox painting, i think, many years ago…. isn’t that where it’s from?  small world out here… judy came and found me and dropped some good players and things for me to check out on me… we agreed to have dinner tomorrow on her last night since she will be off in auckland the following day... miss her already!  she is a lot of fun!

played a little early tonite for the captain’s cocktail party… private party each week for a segment of our full 100 day guests with champagne toast and dinner at the pinnacle... nice!  got to see part of the first mainstage show which was a combination of our strings, our showband and our ship cast and crew in a big production number extravaganza… nice that they can put the players together for a bigger sound like that… the guests really enjoyed it.

tonite’s piano bar theme was “a moveable feast” featuring songs about moving (like shake it up baby) and food (like frim fram sauce)… because as much as they feed you on a ship, it’s important to move so you don’t pack it on!  haven’t weighed in lately – i will do it in auckland when the ship is docked and still, but i think i’m still doing fairly well – basically trying to make good choices, walking every day and drinking a lot of fluids… still can’t seem to get a normal routine as far as sleep; that’s ok, i think i’ll always be a little bit insomniac, but i get a lot done that way… it catches up every so often and i’ll crash for a longer time… it is nice to be rocked to sleep with the motion of the ocean!  the sleep i get is pretty deep, so maybe i just need less of it here…

mystery beverages re-bottled in unsealed reused containers... better than on the ground i guess!

i realized i neglected to include yeterday’s port song from tonga, so here it is…

port song for nuku alofa, tonga 

(to the tune of “i’ve got the world on a string”)

was gonna go out with pals patricia and loretta,

but loretta had a tour booked

and the cab driver’s prices patricia didn’t love

so she caught the free bus, i haggled with a cabbie,

talked her down a few some dollars

we rolled the windows down, and off to the coast we drove

life is a wonderful thing, we both agreed as we began to sing

to bob Marley on the radio, the cabbie’s name was ella don’t you know

i got some pearls on a string, i saw myself some blowholes,

and saw a mama pig and piglets

saw sacred giant bats like pteradactyls in the trees above

got dropped off at the market, i listened to the music,

damn, i forgot my melodica again

what a world where you can play music, with folks from all nations

i checked the marketplace out, the handicrafts and fruit stands,

the beverages, they creeped me out some

refilling old used bottles with mysterious libations

eggs are wonderful things, as long as they’re refrigerated i think

i’d be a silly so and so if i ate from those foodstands you know

guess i’ll have lunch on the ship, but i loved my tonga morning,

ella was friendly and i saw cool stuff

what a world what a life, this traveling i love