Day 3

I made it there, safe and sound... sort of.

The first day, I arrived on board the ship at 11:30 a.m. and immediately I was sat down to finish 3 million pages of paperwork... it seemed like 3 million at least. Then I went to my cabin and got to take a nap, which was awesome. Then at 3:30 I had rehearsal with the showband. It went pretty well, all things considered. The people in the band are: Jorge (Mexico) bass & bandleader, Ben (USA) trumpet, Patrick (USA) piano, Marie (Canada) tenor sax, Lisa (Czech Rep.) alto sax, Andrea (USA) trombone and myself on drums, of course.

There's one interesting guy I've met, and his name is Tom Jackson (Australia) Band Master. He's a drummer too. He plays in a pop quartet above the Martini bar. He's a really cool guy and we've had some interesting conversations about drumming. He showed one of the books he's written and he's got some really cool ideas and analogies for drummers and musicians alike... anyway back to my first day experience...

When the show started we played our piece which is a 12 bar blues song to introduce the band. Everyone did a 12 bar solo, including myself. "And on drums, all the way from Reykjavik, Iceland: Ellert Breidfjord!!" It didn't feel bad hearing my name "glorified" like that. Then we played "Santa Esmeralda" and the musical cast came and sang it with us and did some dance move's I daren't even talk about. When the show was done, I went straight to my cabin (which I share with Ben, the trumpet player in the band) and I was out like a light.

Second day started at 9 a.m. with 3 training courses"time & attendance", "Safety training" and "Environmental familiarization". That wasn't finished until 3 p.m. !!!!! Then we had a rehearsal with Claude Eric Brunelle, an amazing singer and just as good a performer. Wonderful singing voice. We played stuff like "fly me to the moon", "copacabana", "sway" and "feeling good" (not the Muse version).

After the second show (main show) Eric invited the band to join him for drinks in the Martini bar, which we did. I had my first martini ever... aaaaaand I didn't like it that much. Way too much alcohol in way to small a container, if you ask me. But being the ever-so-polite, easy-going guy that I am, I finished it, had my beer and some coke *sniff* KIDDING!!!! After that it was extremely late dinner with Jorge, Tom and Ben and then off to bed.

Happy, mom????

Ellert.