Pointlessly nostalgic.
I find myself regretful that due to a hard drive crash in April of 05 and another in June of 06 I am left with very few photos before those dates. Far too few. Most photos that I do have are of shows and such, little that is real. I stopped carrying hard copies of photos a long time ago, and those I had are disappeared into the depths of things stored with my family. I have misplaced or lost a good many things over the years as a traveling whatchamcalit. Because of that, my nostalgia trips when I'm feeling this way become fairly limited. The song "Where is the Life That Late I Led" becomes for me "Where is the Life I Led Lately."
The photos below may've been posted here before, but maybe not. Just random recent nostalgia. Is that an oxymoron? "Recent nostalgia?"
Just some amazing things and places I have seen, photos I'm glad I took. I did notice at least one thing as I was going through photos going back to April of 05 - I'm a better photographer than I used to be.
Shanghai, the Temple of the Jade Buddha. I'm already to the point where the idea of having been to these places seems a bit far-fetched, as though it didn't happen to me.
Bangkok - Oriental setting. City don't know what the city is getting... other than some probable long-term illness. This picture from my hotel room window at near sunset has nothing on the horrific scent of the local open market I wandered through with Mallorie and Corinne.
Muscat. Feeling a little low, I decided to wander out into the night on my own. What I found there at night was perhaps the most beautiful city, or at least waterfront, I've seen. It's something out of a latter-day 1001 Nights.
My camel. Actually, this was taken from my camel, and I have to admit I photoshopped a German tourist family out of this photo, in the distance, just to the right of the camel's head. Who needs 'em?
There was a photo contest on board, and they told us we could use photoshop. They made no mention of how extensive that use of photoshop could be.
The Great Injury of '06, recovering while staying with Dusty, looking a little like Doctor Who, and going... somewhere. Me in Egypt, which is pretty much the topper for all my travels on the "I've been there" scale.
For a while during my second Voyager contract, the theme parties were amazing. There was one thrown maybe once every two weeks (or more), different departments tried to outdo one another. Then, in my third contract, our HR people changed, the parties became much rarer, and they returned to just being another loud night in the crew bar with some stuff on the walls and free alcohol. That's nice but it doesn't say much when it's all only $1.50 anyway. Here's a shot from the India Party (bleah) with Mal and Corinne from contract three and a shot from The Greatest Party In The History of Everything (that which Jamie and I threw) from contract 2.
Places, people, and things. Yup. Nouns. Nouns are important. Also adverbs, but not as much.
In the last three photos above, I'm with the primary people who helped me through my second and third ship contracts. I hope I returned the favor, because they're all good friends.
Today I found something I had forgotten that I wrote. The file is dated a little over a year ago, Sept 06. Late one night a little over one year ago I blathered into MS Word:
"Yawn.
My bed.
Lovely.
I remember first getting to this ship. As soon as I boarded I was excited to see the cabins and was surprised that they were somewhat bigger than I expected. That says nothing, though, because I expected a closet.
Tonight someone asked Jamie and I why we were still dressed - wearing suits. They were telling us to change into crew bar clothes -clothes that you don't care will reek of pungent, concentrated smoke in your cabin. We said we both felt we needed to stay upstairs tonight, we were feeling a bit suffocated by the crew area. Life below deck is the worst part of ship life, and we should've been more aware the people we were speaking to are not so lucky as us. We have the choice to live in both worlds here, they do not. They have to get special permission to go above decks, it is not part of their routine. They don't get to venture into port most every day at their leisure. They don't have the choice to dine where they choose. At lunch we are wondering if it's to be La Veranda, pool grill, ashore, maybe even crew mess; they get crew mess and... crew mess.
For them, everyday: white rice, salad, dressing, some horrid olives, some awful onion and bell pepper concoction that no one touches. There are the strange main courses, which seem to include all the cuts of meat from whatever they're butchering that aren't deemed six-star enough for the chi-chi guests. They dump it in a warming pan on the line, cover it in some random greasy sauce, it's all yours. To be honest, the Filipinos usually go bonkers over it, or at least they never openly complain. I can't get excited about fish heads and pork neck. I don't actually know if they have actually served something called "pork neck" but when we can't identify the meat they're serving, someone will ask "what's in the mess?" and the response will be "pork neck" in what I'll call to be polite a "shipboard accent." They have also served minnows, for breakfast. Yeah, maybe if I wanted to bait a hook and CATCH my breakfast. Mmm, minnows and pancakes, what a meal! To be fair, food is improving thanks to my second favorite hobbit on the ship, Irish. His name is Aiden Toal, a really nice guy who was recently put in charge of the crew messes. It's funny to me that people call him "Irish" because he's not the only Irish guy around, I guess he's just been chosen to represent them. He is my second favorite hobbit; Jamie earned the honor of first because of his tendency to walk around barefoot in inappropriate areas with his hairy hobbit feet.
There are so many things I should document while the ideas are fresh, things normal people don't know about. I should write like this more often. Slop chest! At slop chest, about once a week for two one-hour segments, they open up a little desk deep into the provisions area by the beverage storage. This is your chance to stock up on soda, water, alcohol, chocolate, or cigarettes VERY cheaply. I remember getting off the ship for the first time and being appalled that I had to pay more that $11 for a big bottle of Jack Daniel's. THAT cheap. When drinks in the crew bar are only $1.50 (or free when your friends are bartenders upstairs)... that leads to problems for many. In our position, though, you often get given a lot of alcohol, even if you're not a huge drinker. You can only "legally" have one bottle per person in your cabin, plus a case of beer. I have no beer, but we have probably seven bottles in here. We don't drink it that much, and we've only bought probably three of them. Passengers give them to us, other crew who are leaving give them to us, hell, the staff captain gave me a case of beer a few weeks ago. Jamie drank most of it. We wind up having so much around, hidden in the closets in case of inspection, because we don't drink it all as fast as we get it. We can't!
What else should I remember here? Boat drill. Twice a week on average, once with guests on embark day and once without for crew drill. It's always at the worst time, but we're all trained and "certified" in our specific duties. You kind of have to take it seriously or you'll be stuck in drills and trainings during days you'd rather be in port. The drill begins, pax are guided to their muster stations, and people like me help explain to them what goes on. Some of you who know me think this could be a dangerous (for the passengers) idea, but I actually, perhaps stupidly, take a little pride in doing my job well at drills. It's one of the only ways in which we really work with the rest of the non-entertainment crew and this is our only real opportunity to show them we aren't all lazy sacks of alcohol-soaked flesh. I'll say this vis a vis boat drill: There is a life jacket demonstration during the pax drill. A monkey could pick up a life jacket and put it on correctly on the first attempt. We have a lot of very, very wealthy people on this line, and I'll echo a sentiment I've heard before: I never want to get so rich that I lose the ability to do simple things like put on a life jacket. A few times I have seen guests so befuddled by this elementary piece of foam and fabric it's as though you've just handed a caveman a cellphone.
The rest of the crew. Yes, some people hate us. For no reason. It's a prejudice based on the fact that many entertainers before us have been some combination of lazy, stupid, drunk, promiscuous, and generally treated other crew with condescending snottery. Many don't, but... well, stereotypes exist because people behave stereotypically. This cast is much more liked than most,generally. In fact, I hear many people say it's the best they've worked with on a colleague level. We do have some good people. Everyone who works on board, bar none, has an emergency duty, and it's the best time to get to know some of the rest of the crew other than the cancer room... er, smokeshack... er, crew bar. The crew bar is proof that a half-assed corporate attempt at offering a "non-smoking incentive" means nothing when they also subsidize the cigarettes so they're almost cheaper than eating Snickers. Actually, if you weigh the cost of a carton of cigarettes at slop chest vs. a Snickers at slopchest, Snickers loses. It's cheaper to smoke than to enjoy a satisfying Snickers. I don't smoke, disgusting habit, no worries, aside from a very occasional celebratory Cuban cigar.
Recently I was asked by someone at home what the crew was like, and if we did anything for the fourth of July. This was my second 4th in a row in Russia. There aren't that many Americans on the crew. 16 to 20 right now, and that's a lot. More Canadians than Americans. . Mostly Filipino... then Indian... After that, in no particular order: French, Hungarian, Swedish, Romanian, Portuguese, whatever you want we've probably got it. I heard there was an Egyptian guy once but he made a lot of our more edgy guests uncomfortable so he hasn't returned. It's a real melting pot, but not nearly so much as you'd probably think. That's another whole train of thought unto itself. Alas, tiredness is finally beating restless in the battle in my brain. I am contemplating the world cruise, it's just been presented a possibility. I see advantages an disadvantages. I shouldn't have done this contract again. Russia was better a year ago, they're trying too hard to Westernize now. One year, so much difference."
...then one more year later, and so much more. I wish I'd kept that up. Tiredness is finally beating restless here, too.
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