Dazed

Dazed

22^nd May 2011

It’s the last day of the cruise and we are in Naples, Italy. My schedule wasn’t allowing me any time off the ship which was a bit of a downer. 

Strangely enough, I woke up at 8.30 so grabbing my bag and laptop I ran to the café near the ship. After two sea days I had to get off the ship for a while. Sometimes it feels like you are stuck indoors at home or a hotel with no way of getting out. Plus, I wanted some time for myself.

Running off the ship Stu was dressed up as an Italian pizza chef and looked hilarious. He grabbed me for a photo – no makeup, hair not brushed and looking like I hadn’t slept for a week. Oh well, if it got the image count up a little further…

Today I would have quite happily have gone back to England and Spain to see my friends. Most of the time I’m happy where I am, doing what I’m doing. However I do get the odd days where I miss the real world, driving, green army banter, friends and just doing the everyday things people do.

Obviously the parents weren’t online due to the time difference between Italy and Uruguay. There wasn't much to do so to brighten my day I skimmed through the Daily Mail Online. After reading that tabloid you always think to yourself "Yep. My life isn't so bad after all". I swear the crap the tabloids print is getting worse! I’m getting to the point where I don’t know who half the people are. I guess that’s part of ship life – you have very little idea as to what’s going on in the real world. I had another go at my ImageU competencies. I had three to go but only managed to pass one out of two. The second exam I failed by one question scoring 7 out of 9. It’s a bit of a kick in the teeth when you keep failing by one question! I’ll get there in the end though.

For some reason I’d woken up completely dazed and felt almost jet lagged. I felt like I didn’t know where the hell I was at one point! To make things worse I was on a bit of a downer. Little did I know that things were going to get so much worse. More than I’d ever like to admit.

At 11am it was time to head back to the ship and get ready for my first stint in the gallery – 5 hours and there was no one on the ship. It was the last day so obviously everyone would be enjoying the last port of call before heading home. At one point there were five of us in the gallery with nothing to do, we’d displayed the new images and condensed the old. We were just standing around with nothing to do. We took it in turns for 15 minute breaks. At one point I ran down to David and Fabio’s cabin to watch 15 minutes of the Spanish Grand Prix. Vettel was leading by 2.04 seconds with Hamilton and Button in second and third.

Later, during the evening we all started our second stint in the gallery. All the photographers were there. Everything went pretty smoothly but there wasn’t a mad rush like we’d originally anticipated. Most people had come in to get their photos and frames during the sea days. We were closing at midnight and even at 23.30 people were still coming in asking for reprints!! It was crazy. Trying to tell people that it was a bit late for reprints didn’t always go down to well.

In the end I managed to sell three CDs with prints. The number wasn’t too bad. Stu sold four in one night! My three were during the entire cruise! By the looks of things he’s come out on top and sold the most. It’s strange, I’m competing in something where I do not earn. All the other photogs from P2 up will earn a team commission. Hernan and I as photog1’s don’t earn a cent. I guess I was just being competitive and trying to improve my selling techniques.

Stu and I finished at 23.30 while the others closed the gallery at midnight. I headed up to SOB for a drink and Stu popped in an hour or so later. I spent most of the night speaking to him about different things both personal and professional. Apparently people have been asking him if I’m okay. He’s just told them to give me some space and I’ll be fine. I’m having a bad time with guests comments, rejections and things are getting me down.

Tomorrow is a new day and the start of a new cruise. Things will be better – hopefully.