day 54 – at sea

it’s another lovely day at sea… nice and swoopy, too, with large, undulating type of waves instead of the small, choppy sort… though it makes it impossible to walk a straight line down the hall, it is fun, and you are certainly constantly aware that you are at sea (i find entirely smooth sailing a bit boring, especially on a long sea day)… it took me awhile to blog yesterday’s news this morning, and madang was still very much with me in my mind when i woke up and continues to remain prominently in my thoughts…

after doing all my typical, daily sea day stuff, writing, set prep for evening, stopping to chat with folks as you go throughout the day (and when you add it all up, it’s quite a bit of shmooze time just walking from one end of the lido to the other), going outside to feel the weather and hear the water, having some starbux instant coffee since the coffee here is terrible, calling home to chat with the fellas, having lunch, it was time to try and grab a nap before getting ready for work…all attempts, however, at having a nap were thwarted today… the first try was when the plumber showed up to not actually fix my leaking toilet, yet make lots of noise anyway while not actully fixing it for the second time (i’m not sure how just banging on it is really supposed to help…).  the second try was when the captain came on the public address system to let the entire ship know that he regretted to let us know that we would not be able to make our next scheduled port in koror, palau since they had no safe and available tendering facilities at present.  i know many including myself were disappointed to hear this, but then he said we would instead arrive in manila a day early. 

apparently, a small but happy riot ensued in the crew mess, and there was a good deal of jumping up and down throughout the ship… you have no idea what a happy bit of news that is, since about half of our ship’s crew is filipino, and they were already eagerly looking forward to a visit (although way too short because they still have to work) with their families.  i think this was an excellent and compassionate call on our captain’s part, and the crew is pretty ecstatic… i’m sure there will be the odd person who grumbles about this change, but mostly all the guests and other crew seem genuinely happy for our filipino pals.  i am also glad, because originally, bob was set to arrive in manila to join the ship, and so i volunteered for in port manning that day and it was scheduled.  i only recently learned, however, that they are instead embarking him in hong kong (aaaargh!), so now, with arriving in manila a day early, i will be able to get to get off the ship there at least one day instead of missing it entirely.  and hong kong is just two days after manila, so i think i’ll make it, but only just barely… (can’t wait to see you, bob!)

i did volunteer to assist on my ipm day to help board (check in) our visitors (enormous contingency of wives, children, husbands and parents) who wish to come on the ship, and i know that will be a happy day, indeed, for so many folks here.  after the gig tonight i went to the crew mess and found my bar guys and congratulated them on the lucky turn of events and we hung out for a bit.  i asked for the 411 on where to go in manila to get a few souvenirs and a great non ship lunch 9preferably spicy!) ; they said to take the shuttle bus from the dock that goes straight to the very modern and enormous mall of asia.  they said it is a free ride, and safe, with security personnel there, and that i could find good souvenirs as well as some excellent pan-asian cuisine… i think i will go and do just that… i would like to go ashore with my bar guys, but i know they will be quite busy with their friends and family.  hooray for them!  they deserve something extra… you have never met harder working, yet unfailingly polite people in your lives as our filipino and indonesian crew members… completely different work ethic and a sense of pride about being in a guest services profession and doing a good job of it… i adore my bar staff and my cabin steward… they treat me as well, probably better, even, than the guests, and i try and take good care of them in return.  

the crow’s nest was closed for a private party, so we got to have the 7-8 happy hour in the piano bar as well as the usual 9-10 happy hour, so my bar was pretty damn happy tonight!  my 7-8 set had a great turnout, as did my 9-10.  tonight’s theme was “between the devil and the deep blue sea.”  this was a good one since i could do devil songs (‘old devil moon,’ ‘devil went down to georgia,’ etc.), blue songs (‘nothin but the blues,’ ‘blues in the night,’ etc.) and sea songs (‘how deep is the ocean,’ ‘sailing,’ etc.)… lots of possibilities!  we had a good crowd and even though i had no nap, i made it through just fine… i went upstairs to see what kind of soup, etc. they put out and hung out with the sax player for a bit… he has been with our company a long time… forever, apparently! he is 71 years old, and used to play in the resorts in the catskills and stuff, so has played with some interesting folks over time… i can ask him a question and he’ll tell me stories, so we hung out for a bit and had storytime and solved the world’s problems over some late night fare. 

we set our clocks back another hour tonight, so i’ll be up early tomorrow.  i had a note that there is a cabin inspection and a fire drill anyway, so i guess sleeping in would have been out of the question anyway.  maybe a nap tomorrow then… 5 or 6 hours in a 24 hour period just isn’t quite enough, so i hope i can catch up soon… no port of koror means 3 sea days til manila, so i’ll surely find a snooze somewhere… isn’t it funny how when you are a kid, you hate taking naps, but when you have to work 7 nights a week, they become more important than a social life or food or anything else… crazy!  ciao for now… xoxo, di