Cruising The Seven Seas: Ultimate Ice Skater

Ultimate Ice Skater

2^nd July 2011

During the table sale up on Deck 5 I managed to sell a Canon 300HS, case and two memory cards. Not great but not bad.

While shooting LSP, Zoran came over to tell me that he’d spoken to Ritesh. We were due to have another equipment inventory after work. This time we were going to have to take everything out of each studio bag. Zoran told him everyone wanted to go to the all crew ice skating event (which most of us knew nothing about). Ritesh agreed to postpone the inventory until tomorrow. After work, once we'd packed as quickly as possible and changed, we all charged to Studio B to hit the ice!

By 00.15 most of us were on the ice. I’ve skated before when I was younger and rollerbladed a few times before so I didn’t think there’d be much of a problem. Getting onto the ice, I realized it’d be a bit harder than I previously imagined! There were grooves everywhere from the skate blades making it hard to glide along. Everyone was slipping and sliding everywhere!

Fede was armed with his camera and so was Ritesh.

Grabbing my hand, Hernan skated around the rink with me a couple of times. Zoran took over. I was more nervous of Zoran as he’d previously been trying to knock David and Hernan over. I was sure he'd go as fast as possible, dragging me along with him, before letting go of my hand! It's something Zoran would do! Boys will be boys!!

David was trying to help Sandra stay up on her feet. Camila took to it like a duck on water and whizzed off! Going back to Hernan we did two more laps before I went wobbly and tried to head for the side of the rink. Hernan accidently got in the way making me slip around even more. You gotta love him… he tried holding me up but failed miserably! I went flying over, landing heavily onto my back - Home Alone style! Poor Hernan came crashing down too but had a softer landing... by landing on top of me!

The other photogs on the ice quickly crowded around to see if we were okay. Hernan and I were in fits of laughter. Helping us up, someone pointed to my elbow. Everyone was asking how my head was – it took an almighty smack! Good job we all had helmets on or else there might have been a problem. My head was fine believe it or not… there’s not much damage to do there! My elbow was throbbing like a bitch!! Having a quick look, I saw it was already grazing and cut all over the place. No matter how much it hurt, I was still laughing, I couldn't stop… until I saw the size of my elbow!

Originally I was going to carry on skating but decided against it. I don’t think my bum or elbow could take another fall… and I was bound to go over again. Feeling a little dizzy I headed over to the ice. Whitney from Spa was rolling up laughing but started to get worried when I was going pale. At one point I honestly thought I was going to faint - the pain was that bad. Luckily enough I didn’t! One thing is for sure… I am now the ultimate ice skater. No one took such an almighty tumble although there were some smashes that could rival it!

Going back to the cabin Luci and Camila were talking in Portuguese. Rather than switching languages, Luci said they had to speak in Portuguese to me so I’d learn. I can now string a couple of sentences together such as “shut your mouth”, you know, the useful stuff! I understood most of what was being said. My vocabulary is getting better but my pronouncation isn’t! The few things I can say are with a Spanish accent. I shouldn’t complain though… speaking another language with whatever accent is an advantage. By the end of my contract which is just over 3 months away, I intend on having a Brazilian flag on my name badge. My Spanish flag is looking a little lonely!

The others all headed over to back deck for the all crew party. Camila and I went up to the staff mess for cereals. Spotting Eve and Hernan outside on the deck we went out to speak to them for a while. Sitting outside on the deck of a night is lovely. It's cool, sometimes chilly, yet so tranquil. The amount of stars twinkling in the sky is unbelievable - never before have I seen so many stars.

It was about 2.30am by the time I got to bed. I was due up at 7.30 for gangway. I was shooting Zoran who was dressing up as the knight. Originally I was supposed to shoot David as the Knight which got changed to the centurion as we don’t have two knight costumes. Fede saw the schedule and said he was shooting David. When I argued that I was shooting David he pointed out that he is P3 while I’m only P2 before cracking up laughing. The bugger!! Fine, I’ll shoot Zoran and we’ll get a freaking awesome count. It’s going to be a bit strange shooting a costume in Rhodes, I’ve never done it before. Plus, Stu is always the one in costume for Rhodes. Let’s see how tomorrow pans out.

I’ll see if I can get some of the photos from Fede and post them on here and Facebook as soon as possible.