Monday September 9th, Zeebrugge, Belgium
I woke up at 1 today expecting to go off the ship, until I spoke with Erica and she said it was a bus and train ride to get anywhere, so I decided to do laundry instead! I was able to go upstairs to eat again, all alone, I ate very thin crust pizza which was actually pretty decent!
I went to put my laundry into the dryer, and someone had done it for me. Which was nice, but a little weird! Not like when Mum and Dad used to do it…
Ivan, Javier and I went upstairs to Formentera to have a coffee. We sat and spoke, mainly laughed. Ivan’s English is perfect, he spent years in Boston so I can speak normally with him. Javier was trying to join in, at one point he said “Ivan is exceptional!” Never a dull moment with these foreigners trying to speak English. It amazes me.
I went down to get my laundry out of the dryer, and someone had done that for me too. It’s not because they want to be nice, it’s because they want to use the damn dryer so they take my stuff out to put theirs in. All of my things were wrapped in my hoodie and it still weirded me out to know someone had touched MY socks and stuff! What if they decided to steal all my right socks?? I would not be a happy camper! Don’t go there people! Hang on a sec, are there right and left socks?!
Staff are starting to get to know me now. Even those I don’t know. Someone today passed me and said, “Hey Texas!” I have never seen him in my life. Or maybe I have, it’s just they all look exactly the same.
I can also now tell when people are speaking Portuguese vs. Spanish. It was a very exciting realization for me!
I am starting to get really bored of my own clothes, because I didn’t bring very much with me, so I decided to wear my uniform today. Since we don’t wear it much anyway. I might as well get some use out of it.
It is raining and cold,
I went and met the new Safety Officer. The other one goes home on the 13th so the new one is in “training” learning everything I suppose. He was very nice.
We had rehearsal as we always do before our shows. In between shows I went through Manu’s makeup. She had a weird brush that was made of rubber. She applied a tiny dab of eye shadow on me, it made no difference, then she put gold glitter under my eyebrows. We had a very funny time, she was saying she was a professional. So everything she did she said, “I am professional!”
I didn’t have Carnival Duty, but I went anyway. There were a ton of people there, some of their costumes were crazy. A baby was dressed as a strawberry, she was the cutest thing I have ever seen.
Manu was told she didn’t need to do carnival because of her ankle. So she and I went to eat. There was a Zumba class going on in the crew bar, everyone was just sitting around watching the 5 girls do Zumba, led by one animator. It was amusing! I didn’t join in, it’s funny that the dancers don’t want to join in those things!
I have run out of money on my crew card. Poooopie.
The other day our sink stopped draining. I tried to clean it out but there was too much gunk stuck in it I couldn’t get much out. Black unidentifiable sludge kept floating up from the plug hole when I turned on the water. It made me nauseous. Finally, after two days the guy came and repaired it. He left a huge mess all over the floor, all the black gunk that was blocking the drain. He didn’t even bother to try to clean it up, he used one measly piece of toilet paper. Manuella and I had that pleasure!
Tuesday September 10th Amsterdam, Netherlands
I woke up this morning to the Bomb search announcement. It was…very annoying. We had to go to the theater and search for the ‘bomb’. We didn’t find it, turns out it was in our cabin corridor. Then we had to go to our muster stations. I had the hardest time trying to get to my cabin and then to my muster station. Everywhere was blocked off because of the ‘bomb’.
I used the Internet in the port for a little and when I returned I went to sit outside to eat, it was lovely. I really prefer being able to eat outside instead of in the cafeteria. No bugs!
I took a very long nap because there was nothing else to do. I woke up around 630pm to go to the crew purser to put money on my card, but it wasn’t open. I don’t understand these people. They have office hours for a reason right? But they are never there. I still haven’t gotten my pullover from the uniform guy because every time I go during ‘office hours’ he’s not there.
I found out from Manu that one of the singers from upstairs disembarked today. We found out she was pregnant, one day she is there, the next day she is gone, sent home! Crazy insane huh?
The cleaning lady seems to hang out in our corridor a lot only she doesn’t seem to be doing any cleaning. Every time I pass her, which is about 10 times a day, she says, “Hola Mami.” She is black and speaks very good English, unlike me!
I was so bored this evening because we didn’t have a show, I couldn’t be bothered to dress up to go upstairs. So I looked through old pictures on my computer and listened to music. Then I made me some ramen, which came in a huge packet but cooked down to absolutely nothing! I met Roman in our corridor and he said, “if you want some fish, follow me!” I wanted some fish, so I followed him. He said he’s now part of the mafia for food, so someone hooks him up with food and he either pays them or…I don’t know what. But I got some free shrimp and mussels out of it, so I am not complaining!
I went to crew bar to watch Capello perform (he’s the magician). It was his first time doing close up magic on board, he did it in English so that I could understand him. It was fantastic because he did some crazy cool tricks. Everyone was speechless.
We hung out for a bit.
We didn’t leave the port until 1:15am. We were supposed to leave at 6pm, but the weather was frightful and they literally couldn’t move the ship away from the dock because of the wind. We kept going up to deck 7 forward to check and see if we were moving yet and what the weather was like. It felt like we were in the middle of a hurricane. The wind was very loud and the rain was blowing sideways.
At about 2am Javier, Manu and I went up to deck 6 to check the status of the ship and the weather, because onboard was terribly rocky. We heard a very loud sound and realized it was a helicopter hovering right over us, with his lights on. I was able to film it! It was very loud and we followed it up to deck 7 forward just to keep watching. They kept joking that it was aliens coming to take us away. I felt as though I was in one of those very loud war movies!
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
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