Counting Chickens
19th October 2011
This is our last trip to Haifa and Camilo and I are on tour. This is also Camilo’s first tour – he’s been chucked in the deep end! Holy Land tours are an all-day event, lasting 10-12 hours. Luckily enough, after the tour, you get the rest of the evening off.
In the Savoy Theatre I spoke to Monica, the Explorations! manager as neither of our names were on the tour escort list. Apparently she hadn’t received a reply from Reuben, meaning that neither of us were supposed to be going on tour. Crap! A couple of tour escorts hadn’t turned up and there were a few empty spaces. Luckily enough we were squeezed in.
I was hoping to have Camilo on a bus close to mine so I could show him the type of photographs we needed to get. To this, Monica replied “all you have to do is take a photo…” if only it was that easy!! This is like saying, all she has to do is get people onto a bus.
Both of us however were on the Nazareth and Galilee tour. Someone came over and introduced himself to me. James, a singer from the Production Cast was also the tour escort on my bus. Originally from Alabama, James is very religious and in his element about going on this Holy Land tour. He also said he didn’t mind herding the crowd around, making sure no one got lost, while I charged around the place getting people pictures. What a star! Camilo wasn’t that lucky as his tour guide gave him the sign and demanded “stay at the back of the crowd at all times”.
Being on tour with James was great fun. He knew a lot about the history of the places and had a huge personality. The guests loved him from the off. The way he got on the bus and gave a quick speech, introducing us and what we’d be doing today, was incredible. There were a few smiles when James said he’d be the one “counting chickens" today. A few other guests looked confused at the prospect of being called chickens! I’m always a bit nervous about having to introduce myself as the photographer to a bus load of people. Sometimes, the response isn’t that great. More paparazzi!
The guests on our buss were really great and a good portion of them wanted their photos taken. Others didn’t because “we have our own camera”. Okay… not much you can say to that other than, good luck trying to get pictures of yourself and a decent amount of the background in!
A lot of other members of crew were on tour, el Mexicano from Boleros (singer), Kervin from Security, the Tailor and quite a few people from Guest Relations. I took the chance to take a couple of souvenir photos of el Mexicano, Kervin and the Tailor.
One couple from our group were even good enough to take photos of James and I outside various sites with our camera. Brilliant! We go on these tours so often yet, it's not often we get can our photo taken as a reminder.
By the time we got back to the ship it was 18.00 and the queue to board was massive. Sanela and I were waiting in the queue for a good 30 minutes. My poor bladder was about to give way and the chill in the air was picking up!
D was dancing around in the camel costume with Leandro shooting him. Hardly any guests wanted to get out of the queue to have their photo taken so D just jumped right into the middle of it all. It was good fun watching D prance around, he was having a laugh and the guests picked up on that fact. Most didn’t want their pictures taken though as they had another excuse of “I’m too tired”. This one though, I can understand, but it didn’t stop Sanela and I getting our photo taken to try and spur on the others.
Once I finally got back on board, I ran back to the cabin to find Sandra sitting on the sofa-chair, Whitney on the floor, and Zoran lying on the floor with his head on Whitney’s lap. There was literally no space to move in our cabin. What the hell was Whitney doing!? She laughed. Whitney was finally sorting out Zoran’s mono-brow and plucking out the excess hair! Zoran’s eyebrows had been driving Whitney loopy for months and she was finally getting her wicked way with the tweezers and Zoran.
Going up to the office, it wasn’t long until I was sent back down to the crew area for not being dressed appropriately!! After an 11 hour tour, all I wanted to do was quickly download my pictures and head back to my cabin. No. I had to wait until 20.00 to go to the lab and download them there. In total I got 94 guest pictures which wasn’t bad considering what we’ve got in the past.
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