Hey everyone! Happy Canada Day! I am in the crew bar and about 300 canadians and non-canadians are celebrating Canada Day! Nothing but Candian Music (Great Big Sea, Tragically Hip, Our Lady Peace, 54:40, etc)... could be the best night on the ship so far hahaha
We sang O Canada, followed by Tragically Hips "Courage" and then ..... Stompin Tom Connors - Good ol' Hockey Game.... imagine 50 phillippeno's staring in absolute puzzlement.... funniest fuckin thing i have ever seen. anyways i am still in the crew bar and I not only am I having a great time, I dont have to be awake until 11am, and I had a very productive "mike you are the GO-TO guy" day, but I am finally back in my "absolute-contentment" stage again.... I have things to work towards, things to fight for, and things to keep me happy in the mean time... passengers are happy with me at a personal level (cause 'work-level' is just me doing my job) and also getting quite a few manager 'pats on the shoulder'...
wow, this entry has a lot of 'quotation marks'
happy canada day everyone!... tomorrow is a seaday and then the next day I am going to do something I have been wanting to do for a few years...
I am walking the site of Ground Zero in New York.
Jenny (photog) went last time, and couldnt stop crying. I expect to do the same. Nevertheless, pics will follow.
Here's to Canada, and the rest of the entire world. Non-Tragically Hip fans and others included.
-M-
Friday, June 30, 2006
Monday, June 26, 2006
My heart was fine until just before midnight...
...and then it stopped...
I will be 27 years old in 10 minutes.
*gulp*
actually, if it wasnt for Rory running in front of me into the crew bar, shutting down the DJ, yelling out a birthday announcement to 100+ people, and getting every single person to sing to me.... my heart may have not started again at all...
last night was the calm night, tonight is the party night (apparantly). Put it this way, I had 2 drinks and spent about 45 minutes having staring contests with Jenny (scottish photog) trying to see who would laugh first. Its very easy to get this girl laughing, so we decided to change it to the first person that would cry... so we would stare at each other and think of sad things and the first to shed a tear would win... ya, we are fun... it ended after 15 minutes by me secretly telling Chris to blow smoke in my face... Jenny still doesnt know how i won hahaha. Cheating at crying contests is allowed on your birthday.
We're heading up tonight to "stalkers" (Sky Walkers Bar on deck 17) and getting 'jiggy' with it (as it were).
Went to Bermuda yesterday, it was so hot and beautiful... Hamilton, Bermuda is now on my list of 20 places to live...
Tomorrow is San Juan ... should be nice, I am going to find a beach and sleep for a few hours... thats all I want.
A final thing before I go: Some of you I might not be able to talk to today, and some of you may not be able to talk to me today, so as long as you sing this as loud as you can, it will be ok.
Happy Birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Michael, Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Many Happy Returns.
-M-
I will be 27 years old in 10 minutes.
*gulp*
actually, if it wasnt for Rory running in front of me into the crew bar, shutting down the DJ, yelling out a birthday announcement to 100+ people, and getting every single person to sing to me.... my heart may have not started again at all...
last night was the calm night, tonight is the party night (apparantly). Put it this way, I had 2 drinks and spent about 45 minutes having staring contests with Jenny (scottish photog) trying to see who would laugh first. Its very easy to get this girl laughing, so we decided to change it to the first person that would cry... so we would stare at each other and think of sad things and the first to shed a tear would win... ya, we are fun... it ended after 15 minutes by me secretly telling Chris to blow smoke in my face... Jenny still doesnt know how i won hahaha. Cheating at crying contests is allowed on your birthday.
We're heading up tonight to "stalkers" (Sky Walkers Bar on deck 17) and getting 'jiggy' with it (as it were).
Went to Bermuda yesterday, it was so hot and beautiful... Hamilton, Bermuda is now on my list of 20 places to live...
Tomorrow is San Juan ... should be nice, I am going to find a beach and sleep for a few hours... thats all I want.
A final thing before I go: Some of you I might not be able to talk to today, and some of you may not be able to talk to me today, so as long as you sing this as loud as you can, it will be ok.
Happy Birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Michael, Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Many Happy Returns.
-M-
Monday, June 19, 2006
A very random look at life on the Crown thus far...
Just before I took the tender boat to Grand Cayman Island today I ran to the photo lab and threw random photos onto a CD in hopes that I would find an internet cafe... and now I have, and now that I finally looked at the photos... I am kinda disappointed haha... these are VERY random photos, and none of them really have any kinda meaning, BUT i will show them to you anyways... Next time I will show you some of our stock shots of the ship, like the Atrium (Holy Beautiful, Batman), and the dining rooms, and my cabin (meh, its aight)... that kinda stuff...
But for now, enjoy some completely random photos:
ok Update: the internet is slow and I have been trying to upload 10 photos for 45 minutes...looks like 2 is all we are gonna get today:
But for now, enjoy some completely random photos:
ok Update: the internet is slow and I have been trying to upload 10 photos for 45 minutes...looks like 2 is all we are gonna get today:
This is a picture of Chris (photog from England) and myself jammin with everyone in the crewbar... Probably Pink Floyd or Tom Petty or something, not my taste in music but easy to play lol
This is a picture of Adam (Aussie Videographer) in a Brookyln subway station at around midnight... no signs of ass-raping.... yet!
Saturday, June 17, 2006
....breathing again....
Ok, woke up at 7am, in Grand Turk. Took gangway photos, went and had nachos with Jenny at "Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville", and then came back to the ship and slept from 1-5:30pm (god i needed that). I listened to my ipod, watched movies, and relaxed all alone in my cabin... and then I started breathing again...
I needed that little explosion last night to remind me that I am human... I think.. although, the gang are beginning to NAME my personalities... we wont get into details lol.
Tomorrow is Ocho Rios, Jamaica (hey man! my first time!)...and I am IPM (DOH!).. at least I can leave the ship to photograph the passengers lol... and then its back to the ship for yet another bout of sleeping/movies/relaxing...(it wont always be like this... its the calm before the storm), and then I have the privelage of being a pirate in the pm....and then after that its Disco Night in the crewbar, so there will be about 700 people in a space the size of a single floor "Gap" store....so I gotta prepare.... laundry time... can't smell like a photog at disco nights... we'll have none of that! There's something with dancing with two women at the same time, and then turning around and faux-grinding with flaming homo-sexuals that just screams out "mama-mia! Crank the ABBA!"...again, not going into detail lol...no dad I am not gay...
Oh one more thing... JON PINETTE.
If the name doesn't ring a bell, it should. Whoever is reading this, if you have ever watched JUST FOR LAUGHS, and seen a REALLY fat white guy that made you laugh your ass off, OR if you have ever heard me say things like "You eat like fee-weeeeryyyyyy" (japanese man saying "you eat like FREE WILLY!").... ya, i figured you would know that one..
well, he is on my ship right now as a guest entertainer, and i only found out when it was too late. he is no longer doing shows and is leaving tomorrow... that made my heart rip just a little... BUT there is a happy ending...sorta... i was up on the open deck (Deck 15) grabbing a burger before Gallery tonight, and guess who was there (not surprisingly)... this man makes a 20 minute skit about eating at buffets and people being afraid of his size and closing business when they see him, and he is eating at a buffet....with me! I am jealous of MYSELF!
Ok, its 3am...I should get to bed... But alas, its 1 hour back tonight so I just gained an hour of sleep haha. I have been given the thumbs up to use the internet anytime I want until they get the wi-fi up in my cabin (which should be when we get to St. Thomas June 28th). Let your emails flow like wine, and I will finally have time for you guys lol. (just remind me that you still know i exist first, its been a while since I talked to some of you)
*cough* Dana/Amber/Graham/Josh *cough*
Songs on heavy rotation on ye olde ipod:
- Yoga Meditation - "Sleeping through the rain" - (30 minutes of rain, and soothing sounds)
- Amos Lee - "Colors" - (from "Just like Heaven"...finally saw that today...corny but good)
- The Watchmen - "Beach Music" - (Danny hasn't done me wrong for 11 years and he isnt going to start now)
- Billie Holiday - "Them There Eyes" - (among the other 20 of hers sitting strongly on my list)
- Jamie Cullum - "All at Sea" - just listen....or check the words here
- Counting Crows - "Millers Angels" - if i write a movie, this will be in it.
- Misc Rock songs sung while jamming on guitars in the crewbar with Rory, Chris, and about 15 Steiners (spa people), 5 dancers (gay and loving it), 5-10 shoppies (cause hey, shoppies are people too), and the occasional Purser or Officer of the Bridge.... 2 acoustic guitars, Chris usually plays lead, Rory or myself will play when we can, or Rory will just hit the back of his guitar like bongo drums... we do everything from 'Hotel California', to Jack Johnson, Green Day, Dave Matthews Band and even Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (with 35 of us headbanging a la 'Waynes World'). I have movies, i will try to link one up to the blog sometime... either those or a 30 second clip of the photogs constantly laughing at me and my typical physical 'schitzo-humor'... honestly, isn't it wrong for that many people to pee at the same time?
-M-
I needed that little explosion last night to remind me that I am human... I think.. although, the gang are beginning to NAME my personalities... we wont get into details lol.
Tomorrow is Ocho Rios, Jamaica (hey man! my first time!)...and I am IPM (DOH!).. at least I can leave the ship to photograph the passengers lol... and then its back to the ship for yet another bout of sleeping/movies/relaxing...(it wont always be like this... its the calm before the storm), and then I have the privelage of being a pirate in the pm....and then after that its Disco Night in the crewbar, so there will be about 700 people in a space the size of a single floor "Gap" store....so I gotta prepare.... laundry time... can't smell like a photog at disco nights... we'll have none of that! There's something with dancing with two women at the same time, and then turning around and faux-grinding with flaming homo-sexuals that just screams out "mama-mia! Crank the ABBA!"...again, not going into detail lol...no dad I am not gay...
Oh one more thing... JON PINETTE.
If the name doesn't ring a bell, it should. Whoever is reading this, if you have ever watched JUST FOR LAUGHS, and seen a REALLY fat white guy that made you laugh your ass off, OR if you have ever heard me say things like "You eat like fee-weeeeryyyyyy" (japanese man saying "you eat like FREE WILLY!").... ya, i figured you would know that one..
well, he is on my ship right now as a guest entertainer, and i only found out when it was too late. he is no longer doing shows and is leaving tomorrow... that made my heart rip just a little... BUT there is a happy ending...sorta... i was up on the open deck (Deck 15) grabbing a burger before Gallery tonight, and guess who was there (not surprisingly)... this man makes a 20 minute skit about eating at buffets and people being afraid of his size and closing business when they see him, and he is eating at a buffet....with me! I am jealous of MYSELF!
Ok, its 3am...I should get to bed... But alas, its 1 hour back tonight so I just gained an hour of sleep haha. I have been given the thumbs up to use the internet anytime I want until they get the wi-fi up in my cabin (which should be when we get to St. Thomas June 28th). Let your emails flow like wine, and I will finally have time for you guys lol. (just remind me that you still know i exist first, its been a while since I talked to some of you)
*cough* Dana/Amber/Graham/Josh *cough*
Songs on heavy rotation on ye olde ipod:
- Yoga Meditation - "Sleeping through the rain" - (30 minutes of rain, and soothing sounds)
- Amos Lee - "Colors" - (from "Just like Heaven"...finally saw that today...corny but good)
- The Watchmen - "Beach Music" - (Danny hasn't done me wrong for 11 years and he isnt going to start now)
- Billie Holiday - "Them There Eyes" - (among the other 20 of hers sitting strongly on my list)
- Jamie Cullum - "All at Sea" - just listen....or check the words here
- Counting Crows - "Millers Angels" - if i write a movie, this will be in it.
- Misc Rock songs sung while jamming on guitars in the crewbar with Rory, Chris, and about 15 Steiners (spa people), 5 dancers (gay and loving it), 5-10 shoppies (cause hey, shoppies are people too), and the occasional Purser or Officer of the Bridge.... 2 acoustic guitars, Chris usually plays lead, Rory or myself will play when we can, or Rory will just hit the back of his guitar like bongo drums... we do everything from 'Hotel California', to Jack Johnson, Green Day, Dave Matthews Band and even Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (with 35 of us headbanging a la 'Waynes World'). I have movies, i will try to link one up to the blog sometime... either those or a 30 second clip of the photogs constantly laughing at me and my typical physical 'schitzo-humor'... honestly, isn't it wrong for that many people to pee at the same time?
-M-
First Cruise, and first bump in the road...
ok... so many things to say, not enough time to say it.
- First port of the first cruise tomorrow, Grand Turk.
- I saw Martha Stewart with my own eyes a few days ago, she is the Godmother of our ship. Its a good thing.
- I am melding with everyone nicely, finally...good friends come in bunches.
- Its 3am, and I have to be awake in 3 hours to shoot gangway. Ugh.
- Going to the Caribbean! yay!
having said that...at this very moment anyways, i havent been this depressed and alone for a very long time. there ya go, i said it. first REAL negative comment on this blog for a while. I cant get into it too much, and i dont really want to. Everything is fine, but the main thing is this: out of nowhere today, i got this uncontrollable feeling of being utterly alone. wah wah, i know, fuck off... i am sure its just temporary, maybe its the 3080 passengers giving off negative energy, who knows. Maybe I have a negative-genie-in-a-bottle, and i rubbed it the wrong way when shooting ressies today....who knows? it rarely happens but it does happen...I miss Grit so much. I have photos taped up above my bed of her and every night just before i go to bed i turn on the ipod, and look up at her... i tell myself that i am here for me........and her.... and no-one else (besides the creditors)...when it all boils down to it, I need to be happy. that can be argued til the cows come home, but thats the answer when all is said and done. I need to be happy, no matter what. She made me happy. She made me feel things that i HAVE felt before (everyone says HAVENT felt before....but i am changing it). I HAVE felt love, I HAVE felt peace, and I HAVE felt like every day should be a Sunday morning in bed with the woman I love.... and now, I really can't picture anyone other than her to be sharing that with. And now, I am here... in the middle of the ocean, with good friends (granted), and a good job (ditto), and i have NOW been to Venice (alone...but fuck it lol).... and I want some fairy to come down, wave the wand, bring my debts down to zero and throw a one way ticket to Germany in my hand, and I am not talking about going to see World Cup.
I think I just twisted the knife. I am halfway across the planet from my real home.
diese Frau ist mein Sonntag Morgen
(this woman is my Sunday Morning)
blah. bedtime.
-M-
- First port of the first cruise tomorrow, Grand Turk.
- I saw Martha Stewart with my own eyes a few days ago, she is the Godmother of our ship. Its a good thing.
- I am melding with everyone nicely, finally...good friends come in bunches.
- Its 3am, and I have to be awake in 3 hours to shoot gangway. Ugh.
- Going to the Caribbean! yay!
having said that...at this very moment anyways, i havent been this depressed and alone for a very long time. there ya go, i said it. first REAL negative comment on this blog for a while. I cant get into it too much, and i dont really want to. Everything is fine, but the main thing is this: out of nowhere today, i got this uncontrollable feeling of being utterly alone. wah wah, i know, fuck off... i am sure its just temporary, maybe its the 3080 passengers giving off negative energy, who knows. Maybe I have a negative-genie-in-a-bottle, and i rubbed it the wrong way when shooting ressies today....who knows? it rarely happens but it does happen...I miss Grit so much. I have photos taped up above my bed of her and every night just before i go to bed i turn on the ipod, and look up at her... i tell myself that i am here for me........and her.... and no-one else (besides the creditors)...when it all boils down to it, I need to be happy. that can be argued til the cows come home, but thats the answer when all is said and done. I need to be happy, no matter what. She made me happy. She made me feel things that i HAVE felt before (everyone says HAVENT felt before....but i am changing it). I HAVE felt love, I HAVE felt peace, and I HAVE felt like every day should be a Sunday morning in bed with the woman I love.... and now, I really can't picture anyone other than her to be sharing that with. And now, I am here... in the middle of the ocean, with good friends (granted), and a good job (ditto), and i have NOW been to Venice (alone...but fuck it lol).... and I want some fairy to come down, wave the wand, bring my debts down to zero and throw a one way ticket to Germany in my hand, and I am not talking about going to see World Cup.
I think I just twisted the knife. I am halfway across the planet from my real home.
diese Frau ist mein Sonntag Morgen
(this woman is my Sunday Morning)
blah. bedtime.
-M-
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Cruise cam!!
Hey everyone just a quick note, you can see where I am on this website!!
http://www.kroooz-cams.com/Princessindex.html
http://www.kroooz-cams.com/Princessindex.html
Start Spreading the News!!!
Hey everyone!!! Greetings from New York! We've been here for 2 days now and only NOW am I having the chance to Blog lol.
First things first:
LANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND!!! I am so happy to see land! The Atlantic Ocean crossing was an amazing experience, and so beautiful....but Holy God! At times it felt like a prison drifting at sea! The days pretty much consisted of training/gallery shifts/labwork...and the nights consisted of discos/movies under the stars/crew IDOL (A Steiner won it... not surprisingly)/walking around the ship/going to gym... A few things to note: Adam (videographer) was up on the top decks halfway through the journey and saw whales along the ship, and the day before he saw a..flock? of seaturtles along the current we were crossing. I saw....nothing.
2nd thing: New York.
Holy Fucking Shit. Nuff Said. We woke up on the 8th at 5am, threw on our red Princess Cruises 'Photo Staff" jackets (I'm officially cool now by the way), and ran upstairs to stand ON TOP of the bridge (yes...on top of the bridge...if you see pics of the Crown Princess, the bridge is the 'sunglasses' of the crown..you will know what I mean). The weather was Shite. Jenny (Scotland), Jacek (Poland), Adam (Aussie) and I (Canada...Word.) had to form a "Photo-Cuddle-Puddle" in order to survive...
Then we saw her. Torch and book in hand, and an outfit accented with the finest sandals and tiera money can buy. The Statue of Liberty.
(Smaller than in the movies by the way, but twice as beautiful)
The next day and a half was a blur of constant work...there was even a time where all of the photog team were hanging out in Mark's cabin (Head Office trainer guy) and 17 of us drinking and then all of a sudden boss gets a page and at midnight we all have to stumble down to the M-1 (long hallway from one end of ship to another in crew area) and move 30 boxes of product around.... it was a GONG show!!
Then last night Jacek, Adam, Jenny, Dagmara and I had time off so we took the subway (yes the subway...from brooklyn) to manhatten, and what happened next will always stay with me. We went to the Empire State Building and I froze my ass off on the 86th floor looking over New York... But i have now been there. Then after that we walked to Times Square and everyone was like a kid in a candy store... everywhere you could look, you could see broadway shows! Lion King, The Producers, Rent, Phantom, Mama Mia, The Colour Purple, Dirty Rotten Scoundrals, The Wedding Singer (Stephen Lynch as Robbie Hart haha), Chicago (God dammit i gotta go!), and a hot dog stand at every corner!!! We had a beer at the Havanah Central bar and then headed back tothe ship. Today however, Jacek and I had to run and find a pharmacy to get a few personal things (9 days on a ship without many essentials is a bad thing), and we couldnt think of a better place to go than ...where else? Times Square! again! I walked around quite a bit more and even found the Ed Sulivan Theatre (Hi Mr. Letterman!)....
then we took the subway back (so i could work a few hours), and now we are in an internet cafe in Brooklyn, only minutes away from the ship... It is now time to find a convenience store, grab some munchies, and head back to the ship (our feet are KILLING us!!)....
I hope that is enough info to fill everyone in on for now... I had pictures to show, but today when i first checked internet, there was no usb connection on the pc, and now I didnt even bring the fuckin thing and of course there is a usb port... ack!
See y'all in the next cartoon!
-M-
First things first:
LANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND!!! I am so happy to see land! The Atlantic Ocean crossing was an amazing experience, and so beautiful....but Holy God! At times it felt like a prison drifting at sea! The days pretty much consisted of training/gallery shifts/labwork...and the nights consisted of discos/movies under the stars/crew IDOL (A Steiner won it... not surprisingly)/walking around the ship/going to gym... A few things to note: Adam (videographer) was up on the top decks halfway through the journey and saw whales along the ship, and the day before he saw a..flock? of seaturtles along the current we were crossing. I saw....nothing.
2nd thing: New York.
Holy Fucking Shit. Nuff Said. We woke up on the 8th at 5am, threw on our red Princess Cruises 'Photo Staff" jackets (I'm officially cool now by the way), and ran upstairs to stand ON TOP of the bridge (yes...on top of the bridge...if you see pics of the Crown Princess, the bridge is the 'sunglasses' of the crown..you will know what I mean). The weather was Shite. Jenny (Scotland), Jacek (Poland), Adam (Aussie) and I (Canada...Word.) had to form a "Photo-Cuddle-Puddle" in order to survive...
Then we saw her. Torch and book in hand, and an outfit accented with the finest sandals and tiera money can buy. The Statue of Liberty.
(Smaller than in the movies by the way, but twice as beautiful)
The next day and a half was a blur of constant work...there was even a time where all of the photog team were hanging out in Mark's cabin (Head Office trainer guy) and 17 of us drinking and then all of a sudden boss gets a page and at midnight we all have to stumble down to the M-1 (long hallway from one end of ship to another in crew area) and move 30 boxes of product around.... it was a GONG show!!
Then last night Jacek, Adam, Jenny, Dagmara and I had time off so we took the subway (yes the subway...from brooklyn) to manhatten, and what happened next will always stay with me. We went to the Empire State Building and I froze my ass off on the 86th floor looking over New York... But i have now been there. Then after that we walked to Times Square and everyone was like a kid in a candy store... everywhere you could look, you could see broadway shows! Lion King, The Producers, Rent, Phantom, Mama Mia, The Colour Purple, Dirty Rotten Scoundrals, The Wedding Singer (Stephen Lynch as Robbie Hart haha), Chicago (God dammit i gotta go!), and a hot dog stand at every corner!!! We had a beer at the Havanah Central bar and then headed back tothe ship. Today however, Jacek and I had to run and find a pharmacy to get a few personal things (9 days on a ship without many essentials is a bad thing), and we couldnt think of a better place to go than ...where else? Times Square! again! I walked around quite a bit more and even found the Ed Sulivan Theatre (Hi Mr. Letterman!)....
then we took the subway back (so i could work a few hours), and now we are in an internet cafe in Brooklyn, only minutes away from the ship... It is now time to find a convenience store, grab some munchies, and head back to the ship (our feet are KILLING us!!)....
I hope that is enough info to fill everyone in on for now... I had pictures to show, but today when i first checked internet, there was no usb connection on the pc, and now I didnt even bring the fuckin thing and of course there is a usb port... ack!
See y'all in the next cartoon!
-M-
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