Right in the Face!

Right in the Face!

16^th October 2011

Formal night has reared its ugly head again but compared to normal, I very, very nearly hit my target. It seems strange, after hearing from people on other ships, everyone always hits their targets. Here, it was the norm to not only miss your target, but to not even get close to it.

First thing in the morning I was supposed to be on table sale although, that didn’t go to plan. Paco hadn’t prepared the paperwork or products for the table sale saying he’d left it to Leandro to unpack, count and repack. The repacking hadn’t been done. I was told to wait for Leandro and he’d do it. Leandro finally turned up for work 1.5 hours late. He’d slept in. If only I had a crystal ball so I could have stayed in bed an extra hour.

Virtually no one was around on Deck 11. The ship was bobbing up and down, the sea incredibly rough. Watching out the enormous windows, all you could see was sea, then sky, sea, sky as we see-sawed over the waves. Sanela was feeling so green she couldn’t afford to move too far away from the bathrooms. Every so often she’d dart to the bathroom to throw her guts up. Boy! She looked as rough as hell! Not even the anti-sickness tablets were working for her.

Up on the Windjammer table sale I managed to sell two camera cases and 1 set of AA batteries. Whoopy! Sandra popped over to see me as the Decks had been closed off due to the gale force winds. Some people were up on the upper decks and very nearly walking on the spot due to the sheer force of the wind. From the inside, it was quite amusing to watch. Better them than me, that’s for sure.

During our break before formal night, Sandra and I lay in bed watching TV. There wasn’t anything particularly interesting on other than David Attenborough’s nature programmes. A very bored David slumped into the cabin and sat himself on Sandra’s homemade sofa-chair to watch TV. 

Never in our lives did we think David Attenborough’s nature programmes could be turned into a comedy show… well, we were wrong! Very wrong! With David, it became just that, as he gave his own commentary. He found the most random things side splitting and his laugh automatically started Sandra and I off. 

The best part came when a chameleon whipped its tongue out and caught a praying mantis smack bang in the face. This had David nearly in tears, copying what had just happened, smacking himself in the face with his own hand and making over exaggerated sucking noises. “How could he have not seen that!?” “What do you think the praying mantis was thinking?” “How about ‘oh shit’?” and again we’d all be rolling around. 

These jokes just went on throughout the night and our laughing didn’t get any less. Even if we weren’t within ear shot, the motions of putting your hand against your face was enough to start the other person off.

By the end of the night, I had cramp in my sides from laughing too much, 320 images from ship (only 30 off my 350 image target) and 210 for Ressi (40 off my 250 image target). Overall, it was the best I’d ever done in my studio and by the end of the night, I was completely shattered. It’d been a royal laugh though, that’s for sure.

Camilo on Stairs