Differences are a Bitch

Differences are a Bitch!

10^th June 2011

Another formal night has reared its ugly head. At first I was set to shoot Titanic but that was changed to Luci’s usual studio on Centrum 3. Apparently it’s a hard studio to shoot so obviously I was a bit anxious.

In the morning I was on display with Luci which went relatively well. I sold a camera, the last one we have in stock. Since I’ve been working on Mariner of the Seas we have never had a delivery of cameras. Now we just look stupid telling people we don't have any cameras left in stock but hopefully we'll get a delivery the next cruise! It’s no help to the guests or our commissions. Chances of getting more stock next cruise is slim to none too.

I was left to set up the Centrum 3 studio by myself. I’d never done it before. In the past I’d watched how Lee and Luci set up so I had a rough idea how to do it but it was getting the details right.

Set up was done within an hour and 15 minutes. Jeni, David, Hernan and I ran up to the Staff Mess for cereals before formal night began. Fede joined us a little later. Sitting up in the mess with the guys, stuffing our faces with endless boxes of cereals turned out to be a great laugh! Hernan had made up this story about Fede being the lab bitch (which of course he is) and that he had previously met Ritesh on a ship called Princess of the Seas during a gay cruise. It was so unbelievably ludicrous that you had to laugh. Soon the main objective was to not spray each other with milk or choke! Hernan nearly just that, at his own joke – now that’s karma for you!

Formal night went okay, there were a few hiccups here and there. One problem I had with my studio was getting people to walk around me rather than into the cable that connected my camera to the pentab. I even put the “Caution” sign over the cable hoping people would walk around me in the opposite direction. Did it work? Did it hell! 

On one occasion I literally had to grab a guy by the shirt sleeve and pull him back. He literally walked straight into the cable, pulling it along with him. Strangest thing was, he had no idea he was tugging along a cable while he walked. Needless to say, he didn’t look too impressed when I grabbed him. It was either that or the cord pulled tight and he tripped over! The cable gave my camera strap around my neck a good tug too. I can live with that! If the strap hadn’t been around my neck the camera would have flown out of my hands, crashing to the ground. I’d be left settling the bill too. Luckily I’d tightened the pentab clamp tight enough so that it wasn’t affected by the tug. In short I was a lucky bugger.

Going down to the lab afterward, Fede wasn’t too pleased with some of my exposures. On a couple of occasions, when shooting by the window I hadn’t upped my shutter speed from 1/60 to 1/200. Therefore the image to the guys in the lab is burnt, but in this case, fixable.

Tonight was Hernan’s fake birthday. When joining the ship we had to write our date of birth on our medical forms. Hernan’s is the 6^th October which to us is written as 6/10/11 – day, month, year. As the ship runs on an American basis they put the month first: month, day, year. So his birthday is now the 10^th June… and a happy birthday message was even announced in the crew area. 

To celebrate we all headed up to back deck for a few drinks after work. Stu started back on his Smirnoff Ice “strawpeados” or “Stupeados”. He bought two rounds of Stupeados for us. By burning a small hole in the straw and sticking the tip of it back down, you create a suction pump. Holding the straw in place and your mouth over the (bottle) top, tilt the bottle, even just a little and the contents rushes out. Stu being a freaking giant can usually Stupeado a bottle of Smirnoff Ice in 2-4 gulps. Everyone else takes around 10!! 

After a couple more drinks we called it a night. It was 3.30am and some of the photog team had to be up at 7am for gangway in Istanbul.

Popping into Stu’s to say goodnight we got talking about a few things. One thing has always been apparent with me and Stu, we get on really well and have quite a few similarities but at the same time, we are very different!

We both like similar music – excluding Stu’s love for Glee and films but personality wise, it’s like chalk and cheese. He finds my sense of humour sometimes insulting even though I obviously don’t mean it to be. If I’m sarcastic I don’t mean to rude or offensive… but that’s the way he tends to take it. One thing I’ve learnt… don’t give sarcasm to South Africans, unless your intentions are to offend, in which case, fire away! Getting back to the point, a chat turned into a heated discussion which turned out into an argument.

I won’t go into details about the argument but it wasn’t single sided. The booze had got the better of me and I said a few things which shouldn’t have come out. It’s not an excuse though. Being tired and ratty added fuel to the fire and tempers were flying. It wasn’t a slanging match but I was having severe troubles keeping my tongue clenched in between my teeth. No sarcasm. Stu, by the looks of it was having the same problem, only minus the sarcasm. In the end we were both pissed off with a few things and Stu called it a day. Pissed off and feeling rough I retreated to my cabin.

Although I guess I owe Stu an apology I’m reluctant to give one. Mainly because it’s not going to change anything that was said (on anyone's part). He needs to understand not everyone is like him. Not everyone is going to see things from his point of view or agree with what he says, does or finds acceptable or unacceptable.

I guess in the end, you win some, you lose some.