Half-Way Point!

Half-Way Point!

13^th April 2011

Here we are, still at sea and cruising to Haifa. This is our second sea day. 

The previous night was formal night which didn’t go to plan. Things were slow, we didn’t get as many photos as we needed so we’ll have to make up for the counts elsewhere. 

After the second Ressi Jomar told us there’d be no pizza as the crew members making it are still kicking up a fuss. Of course we kicked up a fuss as it meant most of us hadn’t eaten for round 15 hours. Jomar’s suggestion was that we were all to close our studios at 11.20, download our images and head straight up to Johnny Rockets where he’d be taking care of the bill. 

Later we found out it was Jomar's birthday as a treat he wanted to take the team to Johnny Rockets! Happy Belated Birthday to the Big Boss Man!!

Getting back to today, I’d been in the gallery for most of it, and managed to sell quite a few photo packages. I think it’s around five or six but I’m hoping to upgrade them all to a bigger package (more expensive) at a later date. The GTP where all photos are put onto a CD is causing everyone so much aggravation so I’ve given up pushing it. I’ll upgrade at a later date if there’s a cause for it. Until then, I’m pushing the smaller package which is straight forward and brings next to no hassle.

While in the gallery, Jomar and Luci told me I was switching the evening with Camila. There’d been a major change in the schedule. There was to be a crew table sale. We’d be selling alongside the shoppies. 

We originally had 20 cameras to sell but Luci sold one just before going down to the table sale.  I only had one model to sell and I had no idea which camera it was! Was I worried? Hell yes! Taking five minutes before the sale, I looked over the camera and had a play. I knew enough to push the camera and it was a freaking great compact too! 

With 19 units to sell at a discounted price, I was determined to flog the lot!! Playing around with the camera I was tempted to buy one for myself. The Olympus camera had a 12.5x zoom, numerous “magic” setting such as fish eye, pin hole, punk etc. It was an excellent camera and for $199.95, it was a bit of a steal. If there are any left after the sale…

Soon there was a huge buzz around my table and people were snapping the cameras up with memory cards and cases. They were flying off the table and Luci couldn’t bring down the receipts quick enough. It was mainly the Filipinos that were buying the cameras.

One guy made me laugh! He asked me what was good about the camera, so I told him. The guy then had the audacity to tell me “you’re only saying that because you’re selling the camera. Olympus is shit. Nikon is a good camera”. I told him that yes, although Nikon is a good BRAND of camera, Olympus is excellent and still one of the top selling brand. I also pointed out that the price was good and today would be the only day that crew would be able to buy cameras at a discounted price. He turned around to me, sneered and said “yeah yeah, whatever man. What would you know about cameras?” Erm… hello! Last time I checked I was the one with “PHOTOGRAPHER” on my name badge while yours says “CABIN ATTENDANT”. I had to laugh in the guy’s face… what a retarded comment to make!!

At the end of the night, things started to slow down and we had three cameras left to sell. I spotted a friend from Spa and called her over. She wanted the camera but only had cash. All transactions had to be made on Crew ID Cards. Sod it! Taking the money, I charged for the camera on my sea pass card. 

By the end of the night we only had one camera left, the display camera. The place was dead by 23.30 and Luci was tired and called it a night. So in the space of three and a half hours I’d managed to sell 18 cameras along with numerous memory cards and cases. It’s a shame I couldn’t get rid of the last one but it was still a job well done! 

Upstairs eight cameras had been sold which bought a total of just over $8,000 in. We’d succeeded our camera sales target and it was only day 3 of the cruise.

In the end I decided against buying the camera. As much as I wanted it, my parents bought me a Canon compact camera a year and a half ago for my 23^rd birthday. Plus when I go out, I use my Canon EOS 400D as well as my compact. Although my Canon compact might not be the latest model or have all the mod cons like the ones we are selling, it’s still a good camera and does its job. 

Looking back on it, I’m still 50/50 about buying the camera so it’s a good job I didn’t buy it. Plus, why buy a compact camera when you are saving up for a Canon 5D Mark II?

Towards the end of the night Ritesh informed us all that it was his birthday. He used my sea pass card to buy some after shave. Later on, we divided the amount up between the rest of the team and split the bill. We did the same for Jomar’s late birthday present.

Handing me some money, Ritesh insisted on buying drinks for everyone on back deck. His card was blocked so the money was going on my sea pass card. After paying for a camera, two bottles of aftershave and cigarettes I was $-408!!! Getting the money I was owed, I shoved it all onto my card to get out of the red. Fede brought his Canon 5D to back deck and we all had a laugh, taking photos, having a drink and celebrating Ritesh’s birthday.

Ritesh’s birthday wasn’t the only thing we were celebrating. On the 13^th April, Hernan and I joined the Mariner of the Seas in Rhodes. Today is our three month “anniversary”. We’d been working on the ship for three months. We’d finally reached our half way point and that in itself deserved a drink… any excuse hey!? The night rolled on into the small hours of the morning. 

Calling it a night at 3am, some of us had to be up early for tour and others would be on the gangway. It’d be our last visit to Israel so I intended to go trigger-happy on the guests while taking as many photos for myself and family as I possible could.

Whitney (Spa) and Sandra

Sandra, Fede and Whitney

Drinks at Back Deck - David and Sandra

Sandra, Camila, Whitney and Fabio

Luci & Sandra

The Girls - Sanela, Camila, Luci, Sandra and Lou

Back Deck: Sandra, Fede, Whitney and Fabio

Fede, Luci, Jomar, Fabio. Sandra, Camila and Myself

Charlie's Angels?

Charlie’s Angels?

6^th July 2011

Mariner of the Seas has, once again, sailed into "night off" port. Sadly, we are in Istanbul for the last time. Some of us will be coming back at a later date but most won’t. 

Apparently still a chance we might go to Egypt so I was treating this Istanbul as my time. I was determined to make the most of it. Getting out of bed early after formal night is always incredibly difficult but I managed to do my 4 hour stint of work. I did however nod off a few times. 

This morning, we were all up early, some were on gangway and others in the gallery displaying. 

Walking along the Photographer’s corridor, I was stopping at every single cabin making sure everyone was awake. Fede was already up and ready to go. Hernan was still in bed fast asleep with five minutes to go before we started work. Waking him up, I waited around until he was out of bed. Knowing Hernan, if I turned my back while he was still lying in bed, he’d go straight back to sleep. David was semi-conscious. 

Zoran was completely unconscious! Walking into Zoran and now Fabio’s cabin Zoran was still crashed out. Fabio was calling for Zoran to wake up from the top bunk. The stench of vodka and red bull was rife and of course, both were absolutely pie-eyed. Pissed as farts. Fabio rolled over and decided to go back to sleep… sod off! I grabbed the bugger’s leg and tried dragging him out of the top bunk. 

After a bit of squealing, he was finally prepared to climb out of bed and get ready for work. Zoran was stumbling around making random snorting noises. Fede was trying to help him into his camel costume but it proved to be a real challenge as Zoran could just about stand up unaided. Going back into the cabin, I made sure Fabio hadn’t gone back to bed. He hadn’t and was stumbling about getting dressed.

Running back to my cabin after work I had to do the laundry before going out. The aim was to be out of the ship at 13.00. Chucking all the washing in the machine, I went off for something to eat with Fabio, Zoran, Luci and Camila. 

Going back to the washing machine, it hadn’t drained properly so I put it on for a spin. The clothes were still wringing wet. Another spin. Chucking everything into the tumble dryer I headed up for a nap. Returning an hour and a half later some bugger had removed both my lights and darks from the tumble, chucked them into a basket and put their drying in. I was fuming!! Grabbing my stuff, removing the clothes from the tumble, I chucked mine back in. 

Camila, later on went to get the whites from the tumble but the darks were still wringing wet thanks to the washing machine breaking down. Sod it, we were going out and collecting the clothes from the tumble later. We were losing our precious time off!

It was now 17.00… so much for leaving the ship at 13.00! Jumping in a taxi Luci, Camila and I were on our way to the Grand Bazaar. 

While talking to Camila earlier on the decks, I found out she’d never been outside Brazil. Pointing out a few places from the ship, I said we’d go out and about so she could see some of the sights Istanbul has to offer.

Arriving at Grand Bazaar our first task was to find Camila a new pair of shoes. The pair she bought with her weren’t going to last five minutes and were proving to be too uncomfortable and unstable. Camila was in her element at just the sight of Istanbul. She was jumping around in the taxi, taking photos of every other building.

We had a long walk around the Grand Bazaar before finding a shoe shop just outside the market place. 

Next we headed back into the Grand Bazaar for another meander. There was a fair amount of reminiscing. Walking past the Turkish “Aladdin” style outfits Luci and I were laughing about when we were considering buying it for Hernan to use on gangway.  The Turkish hats that we wanted to get for Stu’s Turkish Prince gangway costume. The belly dancer costumes that were hanging from the walls, giving us the idea of including it to the gangway circus. They were reminders of good times, even if they are now tainted, we couldn’t help but smile. 

Stopping off at one shop, I wanted to get something to send to Uruguay for the parents. I’ve been slowly filling up an envelope for a while with photos, information on our ports of call, post cards and other bits and pieces. I needed one more souvenir to finish off the package before sending it in Naples which would be the next stop after two seas.

As I said in one of my previous blogs, in both Istanbul and Kusadasi you are hounded to go into the shops. Most of the time the owners say the same thing “Hello, where are you from?” “Excuse me lady. I want to show you something” and so on. Occasionally someone comes up with something original. Walking past one shop, the owner tried getting our attention by shouting out “Hello, excuse me… Charlie’s Angels. Please, I want to show you something”. Charlie’s Angels? The three of us burst out laughing! For the rest of the day we were referring to ourselves as Charlie’s Angels and rolling up laughing. As someone suggested later on, we needed a photo of Charlie’s Angels in Istanbul!

It was getting late and the Grand Bazaar was starting to close. Rather than heading back to the ship for a while, we jumped into a taxi and made the short journey towards the Mariner of the Seas.

Now was the moment we’d all been waiting for. It was the time to use and abuse the internet!! Within close proximity of the port is an café/bar called Nargilem. The place is decked out with sofas and filled with nargilems (hence the name) which are large bong-like smoking pipes with flavoured smoke, something Luci loves.

Just as we were going in we spotted David in our usual spot (you’ll always find us near a plug socket!). Joining him and within a matter of seconds we’d all whipped out our laptops. Luci was the only one who couldn’t get online because apparently there’s a maximum of seven computers allowed to access the internet from the bar. While constantly trying to connect she sat around for two hours editing her photos in Photoshop and smoking a pipe.

I made the most out of the connection speed and started to upload the photos we’d taken from Istanbul and other ports of call. Sometimes, if the internet is slow, it’s almost impossible to upload photos to the blog and/or Facebook. Like I said previously, we were using and abusing the internet to the max. 

I finally managed to get in contact with the parents and had a good chat with them. There are a few things I need to speak to them about but never get the chance to as I’m always with someone. It’s also hard getting in touch with them due to the time differences. At the moment they are five hours behind us and it usually increases to six. When we are in the ports, my Mom and Dad are still tucked up in bed.

Fabio, Zoran and Ritesh popped in to join us. Fabio and Zoran were still mashed. The vodka was in full flow for these two. We didn’t expect anything less. As booze is so expensive in Turkey they’d filled up their blue Royal Caribbean water bottles with vodka. We later found out they’d guzzled two bottles of the stuff in one night… along with 25 red bulls. I’m surprised they didn’t have a heart attack from all that red bull! They left to go out for a walk and take some photos. Ritesh stayed to use the internet. It wasn’t long before Zoran and Fabio were back, armed with 150 photos of themselves being prats and more vodka. How they get away with it, I’ll never know.

Earlier on in the day Fabio had come into Hernan’s cabin. Hernan and I were sitting about talking, wondering what we could all do for the day. Fabio held a piece of paper in his hand and told us both he’s been fired and asked for help packing his suitcase. Fabio told us he’d been caught drunk on the gangway and been breathalysed. We didn’t believe him until Fabio walked into the corridor and started crying. Hernan and I looked at each other somewhat shocked and bemused. As soon as Fabio saw the look on our faces he burst out laughing. The fucker! It wasn’t enough that one of our team mates had recently been fired, that Fabio, who is always as drunk as a sailor (no puns) was joking about the subject. Although we laughed at his idiocy, we knew it wasn’t funny. With Fabio and now Zoran too, it wasn’t long until someone would get the boot for drinking. The photographers were under watch due to our excess drinking so these two were ticking time bombs. When shit hits the fan, it’ll hit the fan for all of us, not just Zoran and Fabio.

While sitting in Nargilem I was asked if I’d heard from Stu and Jeni. I was speaking to Jeni on Facebook and she’s arrived home after doing a bit of travelling through Italy and France. She’s finally met her nephew who was born during her time on the ship. All she’d seen of him previously were photos and snippets from the webcam. As for Stu, we’d heard nothing and by the looks of it, he hadn’t been online. Did the bungee jump cord break?

There was even a call from Becks. Although she told me some bad news, it was great hearing from her. Things got a bit emotional before hanging up. I miss Becks like there’s no tomorrow and I really wish we were on the same ship, especially when things are going bad or we’re having a hard time. 

Luci and I got onto the subject of Istanbul when Jeni and Stu were still around. We really missed the pair of them and that’s not just me, but the entire team. Although we had Camila who is a real blast, we missed our previous team mates and nothing could or would take their place. Saying goodbye to people like Stu and Jeni while not knowing if or when you’ll see them again is hard and something I doubt I’ll ever get used to.

Popping back on board at 2am to get the washing out the dryer, I bumped into Regina. She was in a foul mood, crying her eyes out. She’d finished work at 1am and had an argument with David. Apparently David and some of the other photogs were waiting to go out. They’d waited until 1am for Regina but she couldn’t give them an indication as to how long she was going to take before she was ready to hit the town. On that note, David said they were leaving as he’d made the others wait so long and didn’t want to make them wait even longer, especially if they didn’t know how long she was going to take. 

Sitting down and talking to Regina, I tried calming her down a little bit. I could understand why Regina was so upset, that they’d just gone out without her. At the same time, I could see the opposite side of things, they’d waited and decided enough was enough. If they’d been given a rough indication as to how long it’d take Regina to get ready, they’d have either waited or met her somewhere outside. As Regina confessed, she is used to being treated as a "princess". Nothing like this has ever happened to her before.

Going back out, I’d invited Regina to come along. I knew she wouldn’t, she wanted to go out and party. I didn’t have that kind of money and, call me tight fisted, I wasn’t prepared to pay anything between 8-10€ for a beer! Even if I had Lewis Hamilton’s wallet, I’d still find paying those prices offensive!

At about 4am we decided to call it a night and head back to the ship to get some rest. Camila had training at 10am. You’ve got to love the new hire training. It’s always at the most inconvenient time! Luci and I were talking about going out again tomorrow to show Camila around some more. Setting the alarm for 11am, we could get ready while Camila was at training and head straight out. It was a plan… but how well it’d hold up tomorrow when that alarm went off was another matter!

Me & Camila - Heading back to the ship at 4am

Charlie's Angels - Lou, Luci & Camila :-)

Blue Mosque

Blue Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey

Hagia Sofia, Istanbul

Sweetcorn Stand

Istanbul City Centre

Amazing View from the Crew Deck Area

Next day, before starting work, decided to have dinner at Johnny Rockets and watch the Mariner of the Seas sailaway from Istanbul.

Sandra and Fede

David and Me

Sailaway View from Johnny Rockets

David, Lou, Sandra and Fede at Johnny Rockets - Istanbul. Turkey

Sailing Out of Istanbul

Sandra and Fede

Captured at an Odd Moment... Eating Ice Cream or Ass?

Hernan, Shooting Sailaway, Came to Steal our Food!

Aches & Pains

Aches and Pains

21^st May 2011

Okay, I’m finally up to date with my blog entries. Go me!

Today didn’t start off too well. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t good either. Our schedule was changed at the last minute. Our clocks went back an hour as we are heading back to Italy. Paco our AMS said that instead of starting work in the gallery at 08.30 we were going to start at 07.30. Our dreams of an extra hour in bed were soon dashed.  

Hernan rang my cabin at 7.15 telling me to get my arse of out bed. We had to be in the lab at 7.15 to pick up the prints. He was heading down to get started. Me and Luci were to meet him there. Normally it’s me waking Hernan up! 

My back and shoulders were in agony today. Each day it’s getting worse. Normally it’s my lower back that gives me the odd batch of trouble but today it was in between my shoulder blades and up towards my neck. There’s also a pain in my shoulders. I don’t think my shoulder has properly recovered from what I’d previously done in the studio.

Anyway, in the gallery we started displaying the colossal amount of prints and taking it in turns to go for breakfast. Stu wasn’t in the best of moods this morning and snapped at me for having a laugh and joke. Apolgising, Stu commented that today, because of last night, he wasn't in the best of moods. Apparently things aren’t getting better. 

On the upside I managed to sell a couple of portfolios and a frame. Selling the GTPs is pretty much for nothing. I earn nothing, zilch, nada on it. Only photog2s and 3s earn from it.

I was working in the gallery from 07.30 to 13.00. When I got back to the cabin Luci was asleep and straight away I woke her up. She’s getting fed up of me always waking her up. I can’t help it though, I’m trying to be as quiet as a mouse and I still wake her up. In the end I grabbed my laptop and headed up to Back Deck for a couple of hours until she started work. 

Sitting on back deck is great some times. It’s got huge open panels so it’s like a half-way feel to it. You're covered, but there's so much open space, sea breeze, you feel like you're outside. I can sit there with a can of coca-cola, my music and laptop typing for hours. I love it, it’s my new place to go when I want some down time.

After Stu finished work I popped over to his cabin to pick some of my stuff up. I’m hopping cabins at the moment as Luci is still ill. I really don’t want whatever she’s got. So yesterday I spent my free time at Stu’s and also got ready for formal night there. I spoke to him for a bit and although he’s not in the best of moods, I now know why. 

We took our V.I.C. Cards (gold award cards) that Reuben gave us for selling the most amount of frames (1 each) to the Crew Office. Stu had one from the previous BM too. We both for $10 free at Johnny Rocket and Stu got a $5 calling card. Free food – and Johnny Rockets have the best Oreo ice cream. It’s the best place to go if you want to become seriously, morbidly obese with the less amount of work/energy.

Jeni has asked me if I want to move into her cabin with her. She did share with Natasha. Originally  Luci was talking about moving in to Jeni’s where it’s quieter as the photographer’s corridor can get pretty loud during the evening. I’m not too sure what to say. I love living in the photographer’s corridor (Jeni, Stu and Paco’s cabins are situated in another part of the ship) but I think I need to move out because, as I said, Luci’s getting ratty with me constantly waking her up, getting in late etc. Suggestions are welcome to say the least.

For the entire evening I was working in the gallery. Although it’s not bad there wasn’t much to do except wait for the mad rush to come. In the mean time we had a muck around and a laugh. In between that I was sorting out the photos, filling in the gaps and making as much space as possible. I was doing pretty well until another flood of people came into the gallery from the studio. 

Luci and I had a one hour stint in the studio for the last session. She managed to get 40 images while I could only take 27. Mind you, I did have a good natter with a Welsh couple when my deck was completely deserted.

A small group of us (me, Stu, Jeni, Newman, David and Fede) were planning on going to Johnny Rockets after work for dinner. Our dinner break was scheduled for when the Staff Mess was closed. 

Just before we were going to leave at 23.30 Reuben told us that there was a small meeting in the lab. We all ran down to the lab hoping to get the meeting over and done with before Johnny Rockets closed. Constantly checking our watches our hopes of food were  dashed. Five minutes to midnight… would Johnny Rockets stay open? We rang to check if they were still open, fingers crossed people were still in Johnny Rockets eating. No chance. They were closed.

Jeni came over to Hernan’s cabin later carrying a large opaque bag. Jeni and I were on a mission for food. We headed up to raid the crew and staff mess of any food they may have had. Quickly popping into the slob chest we got some bits and bobs. The sandwiches weren’t out yet. Every night the crew mess have sandwiches at about 1-2am. This food actually comes from the guest café. What doesn’t get eaten is the brought down to the staff area and we can help ourselves. As you can see, we really are at the bottom of the food chain. Getting some cereals from the staff mess we headed back down to crew mess for bread. The rolls were out! Jeni went rushing over for sandwiches and I was hot on her heels to be honest…. Until we got there and saw they were all salmon!! Dried bread and cereals for dinner. What a meal!!

Madonna, Shakira and The Beatles

Madonna, Shakira and The Beatles

24^th April 2011

Today is the start of our 2 day stay in Istanbul, Turkey. So far, it’s been a real laugh. Istanbul looks absolutely fantastic! The city is dotted with impressive, massive mosques. Some are more impressive than others. We have another couple of trips here so hopefully we'll have plenty of time to look around the city. The sea is infested with jelly fish! There are hundreds of the buggers floating around the ship and port. At first I thought it was a foam on the surface but it was a mass gathering of jelly fish! I guess swimming is out of the question…

Once a month we are given US$20 for a team activity. This month we were going out for a team lunch. We found what we thought was a traditional Turkish place for our team lunch. Inside looked amazing: carpeted sofas, authentic looking tables, bowls of fruit and nuts. Each of us tried a Turkish pipe (Nagile). Most of us tried apple but a couple of others tried banana which was horrible. Jeni’s mint and lemon was the best. It’s basically flavoured smoke/tobacco and if you go to Turkey, you have to try a Nagile. 

We had a great laugh, had our photos taken etc. Jeni, Luci and I got a shock when we went into the men’s bathroom (as you do) to find it was just a hole in the floor. There was no way we were squatting over that so we had to cross our legs and wait.

A couple of hours later we got the bill which was stated in Turkish Liras. Jomar, the BM, asked for the amount in US Dollars… US$500 in total!!!!!!! Gobsmacked wasn’t the word! We asked them to check again and tried to count up what we’d had. In the end we really couldn’t argue and Jomar had to pay up – obviously, he wasn't a happy bunny. It’ll teach us not to check the prices before going in somewhere or even asking how much something is beforehand. After being financially raped by Turks most of the team headed back to the ship.

Mariner of the Seas Photog Team

Rich, Lee & Luci

Hernan

Jeni & Rich

Mariner of the Seas Photog Team

David

Luci and I jumped in a taxi and headed to the Grand Bazaar to have a poke around the market. It’s absolutely amazing, a completely different way of life. Every two minutes you are getting stopped “Excuse me lady” “Where are you from?” To be fair, most of the people left me alone, they weren’t really interested in the little blonde scruffy girl. They were more interested in the hot Brazilian. The men were trying everything to get our attention, especially Luci’s. The best names were Madonna, Shakira and Angelina (Jolie) – they are as similar as chalk and cheese! 

Neither of us had a lot of money which was a good thing or else we’d have bought half the market! The only thing I got was an Istanbul magnet so I can start putting photos on our cabin wall. The market holders sold pretty much the same things but if you're a first timer, go, as it's something compeltely different from the norm: bags, clothes, woven boots, leather jackets, magnets, hand crafted wallets and purses, nagiles, Turkish sweets, tea and so on. There were stands selling small cucumbers which were peeled and salted - they didn't look particuarly appertizing but were selling like hot cakes. We are coming back again soon so maybe next time I’ll get a few post cards for people back home. If only I could find a post office!

As Lee and Rich are signing off soon and we are staying overnight we headed out for their leaving do. Well, the first leaving do. No doubt we’ll have another one the night before they sign off. Originally we were going to Windjammer (on the ship) but we were told we couldn’t as it was only open for higher ranks so we ended up heading to Johnny Rockets “Everybody say hellooooooooo”. Every so often they’ll put this one particular song on and all the waiters working there will all dance together. It’s all very American cheese but hilarious. Stu was dragged up to dance. We were crying with laughter! I think Fede has a video of it, if not I’ll try to get some photos.

We had a few drinks up in S.O.B. before getting off the ship. While in S.O.B. Lee took over the music and was playing non stop Beatles. No matter where the guys are from, they ALL knew the lyrics and were singing along together. The best was “Yellow Submarine". Everyone changed the lyrics to “we all live in the Mariner of the Seas”. 

Hernan was doing some of his humping cowboy like dancing and pole dancing on a pool cue. We were in stitches. Stu’s attempt at getting us all to do strawpedos or Stupedos failed. He can neck a bottle of Smirnoff ice in 3 mouthful. 

We jumped into a taxi and headed into Istanbul. It was a Sunday so the place we were looking for, Babylon, was closed. While walking aimlessly we found a small shot bar so we popped in for a quick shot… The Turkish equivalent of Apple Sourz warmed us up nicely! It was freezing outside! 

We walked back to a club we’d previously walked past – it was a bit of a last resort. We ordered our drinks and after 3 attempts found out how much the bill would be: 10 euros each drink!! A beer was 8 euros but we just split the bill evenly. The drinks were too expensive so we finished up, took some photos and left. Walking around Taksim Square, the place to go in Istanbul apparently, we found another club. Going inside the drinks were just as expensive. 

Rather than spend an arm and a leg on booze we headed back to the ship where the drinks are only a dollar or two. We carried on having a drink and laugh on back deck until about 3am. I’d managed to lock myself out of my cabin! Hernan and I had to be up at 7am for life raft training while the rest of the team weren’t working until the evening.

David, the new guy’s great, his laugh is so addictive. He’s fitting in well and he’s finally got his luggage!! Overall, we have a great team, it’s gonna be a shame seeing Lee and Rich go. I think I could even miss Rich stabbing me in the ribs and tickling me. Oh, and we can’t forget the head nuggies! 

Getting up for training is going to be  a royal bitch tomorrow!!!!!!!!!

Istanbul from Deck 12 - David, Fede & Me

Before Johnny Rockets

It's Good To Talk!

Lou, Fede & Hernan

Johnny Rockets: Me & David

Stu & Lee

Fede, Hernan, David & Myself

Argentinians... Different from the Rest!

Lou Lou :-)