Saturday, December 19, 2009

pics of stuff and things



Holiday Wishes take two

Holiday Wishes take one

A Melbourne bomb threat, and an airborne bomb threat




Melbourne. Last week. A suspicious package arrives on the dock, which does not have any sort of label and isn't on any of the package manifests. The drug sniffing dogs come and they go ape-wazookies. But not for drugs. For bomb making materials. Four hours later, the passengers can get back on board, the port is open again, and we are underway. I have no idea what the package was, but thankfully it wasn't addressed to me.

The airborne bomb? Norovirus comes to the Sun Princess. On my hall, nonetheless. Needless to say, I stayed as far from the quarantined cabin as I could.

Got my "jab" for the H1N1 virus. Had a sore arm, but nothing more than that.

Can't believe the holidays are here and the year is almost over. I remember last holiday being in New York City, and now, here I am in Fiji. Wow.

So we are in Bay of Islands, New Caledonia. It is absolutely gorgeous. The weather is fabulous, and the scenery is amazing. I tried the local fare, which was some sort of veggies cooked in banana leaves with chicken, or some sort of meat... it was good. Bland, but good. Did Tribute last night and the night before. I was a tragic mess during the finale for the second show last night. Man, there is no escape if you make a mistake in the choreography. I stood there looking around like a lost animal. Totally missed at least three counts of 8. Thank goodness I am out of the way and off to the side. I looked like a freak, no doubt. Ah! Live theatre!

OH! So the big news is that PGT has finally seen some sort of logic and extended our contract up through to dry dock. I had been wondering why they were sending a new group on just before dry dock, which is amazingly stupid, but now we get to stay on board for another six weeks! I get to go to Asia! I will post my ports later. My new arrival date back in the states is April 16th.

Enjoy the pics of New Caledonia and other places I have visited since the last post.

And everyone have a safe and happy holidays! I miss you all!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Art Deco heaven... part one




Okay, check out the guy dressed in sheep's clothing... I have no idea.

Wellington, New Zealand


Sick of being sick!







Ugh. Flu caught me and just about threw me into the propellors! What a horrible week I had. Locked in my cabin, pretty much under quarantine, yet still having to do shows. Wouldn't you know, they never recorded our sick tracks, so there was no way around it. Have they still made the sick tracks? Of course not. That would be taking initiative and thinking ahead. Boy. Hindsight is 20/20.

Not much else to report, though. I didn't get off the ship for five days, so I have nothing new to show you, I don't think. I might post a picture just to pretend to be creative.

Sydney today is very muggy and humid and redundant! Been trying to do some Christmas/Hanukkah shopping, as well as secret santa stuff, but to no avail.

Okay, so here are some pictures of Wellington, where i caught my flu. It was low 40's, very windy, and now I know that I am closer to Antarctica than I originally thought.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!



My cabin! Tacky, I know, but hey, it worked for the kickoff party I had. Most of the decorations are already gone, as I gave them to the cast for their rooms, but I still have the tall tree and a bunch of lights everywhere.

Oh! Something else I learned last night during Piano Man... yellow tape is NOT glo-tape. When the lights go down, the tape disappears. This is when we hit our heads on the overhead lights as we are climbing a ladder to get to our places.

The picture here is of Fjordland. It was absolutely gorgeous. Reminded me of Alaska.

All's Well in Wellington!



Wellington, New Zealand. It is cold and windy here. I thought it was supposed to be the summer here! What's up with the 40-50 degree weather? It has been rainy for the past couple days, which kept me on the ship yesterday in Christchurch, but today I had to get out and see Wellington. I am so glad I did, too, as it is art deco HEAVEN! I love this place! Well, architecturally speaking. I accidentally walked into a coffee factory today, which was interesting. The people just kind of looked at me wondering what I was doing there. I, of course, pretended that was exactly where I was supposed to be, told them what a great job they are doing and to keep up the good work. Then I left.

Okay, so finally, some new pictures of where I have been and what I have been doing. It has taken a while, but enjoy.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Sydney




Is there an "Old" Zealand?




Because the new one is amazingly gorgeous! Why they got rid of the old one is beyond me. Anyway, we have started our regular run of Sydney to New Zealand, and so far, so good. Te seas have been really rough, but we are battening down the hatches, and hunkering down and praying tor landfall. Seriously, it hasn't been that bad. We did cancel our shows first night out, because it was just too dangerous to be dancing on the stage. Nothing too bad, having been through hurricanes at sea before, but you know these new guys... they just don't have the schpootz for the high seas!

Here are some pics of New Zealand and other parts of Sydney I have recently discovered... enjoy!

Went to the Cadbury chocolate factory yesterday. It was amazing! Yummy yummy yummy! Bought way too many chocolates... they have a chocolate bar with a creme brulee filling... thought of you, Amy! More soon!

JMB

Thursday, November 12, 2009

last few pics before the internet card runs out of $$$




Cranes, Peggy!!!

Melbourne and Hobart





This was originally going to be titled "How to feel fat, ugly and old in one flash" but I am in a much better mood now. The steps were going to be as follows:

1. Be sober
2. Go out with young people who are not
3. When you go out, and they lose you in the crowd, leave depressed.

This happened last night during our overnight in Hobart. Nice town. Nice bar, but I was left in the dust as soon as we got to the nightclub. Not fun. So I left and went back to the ship. Oh, sober living is fabulous, isn't it? I am so glad I chose it. (NOT!)

Anyhow, we are heading back to Sydney now. We have done the trans-whatever you call it of the entire continent of Australia. I loved it.

We did our Save The Last Dance show tonight. Got standing ovations. Finally. The hard work is paying off. We'll see when the ratings come in. Hopefully they will be at least a 90. If they aren't I will pull someone's hair out, since I don't have much left, it seems.

Next cruise is shorter, and I will finally get a chance to see New Zealand! I hear it is gorgeous, and I will be sure to let you know.

Enjoy the pics of Hobart... they have awesome scallops, by the way. Just in case you were wondering.

One of the coolest things I have noticed about the Tasmanian cities, and those on the Western part of Australia, is the mixture or different types of architecture, very often all next to each other. There is a very eclectic mix of art deco, with modern, mixed with turn of the century... awesome stuff. My love is definitely the art deco, as you will start to see from most of the pics.

Albany, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Hobart


Monday, November 2, 2009

just pics



So the flies...




You know how you see on TV those pictures of people in the outback or in Africa, and there are flies crawling around their faces? That is the flies of Australia. Those little buggers fly all over you and land in your nose, ears, and on your lips, of all places. They are just the slightest bit smaller than the house fly, but man, they are FORWARD! And you can't get rid of them! That was not fun. The flies. And the ants here are HUGE!!!

Icky flies.

Cool koalas. Cool Kangaroos and kookaburras. Cool black swans and peacocks.

The dinosaur graveyard was the ultimate!

The Koala Tea of Mercy is not Strained



So no, I didn't have any Koala Tea. I did hold one, though and feed it eucalyptus leaves. You know, eats chutes and leaves. It's true. Had an absolutely amazing day in Fremantle and Perth and areas beyond today. Started out a bit on the cool side, but it warmed up. Last night, we (Me, Ben, Ross, Lisa) decided to go to Armadale to see the Koalas since we missed out on them last time. I wasn't going to go, as it cost a bit of money that i really can't afford, but then I started thinking about how I am only here once, and would I regret it, and so I decided to go and do it. It was amazing. Took the train from Fremantle to Perth, which is gorgeous. Perth, not the train. And then from Perth to Armadale, which is out in east nowhereland. Kind of a haul out there. Once we got there, there were no cabs to be found to take us to the Koala sanctuary. So we waited, and found a taxi stand. There were five of us (Bill ended up joining us. He is our guitarist in the show band.). But of course, the taxi can only take four. So, guess who was the odd man out? Yeppers. Bill was kind enough to stay behind as well. So, we only had to wait about ten minutes, which wasn't bad. Got to the Koala sanctuary. What an interesting place.

It looked like it was a children's theme park under construction, or destruction. There was an unfinished railroad with tracks that kind of went nowhere, and crumpled up dinosaurs off to the side. I don't know what the dinosaurs had to do with Koalas, but they were interesting. The place cost 15 AUD to get in, and then additional if you wanted to hold the koalas. Of course, I fell for it and paid out the nose to do it. It was worth it. Have I mentioned that it was worth it yet?

Pics are coming...

We also saw kangaroos... yes, that is my hand feeding them. And a kookaburra, owls, and other little crawly and hopping animals that enjoy the comfort of humans. Got attacked by an ostrich through a chain link fence, and then got eaten by a dinosaur of some type.

Have I mentioned the flies yet?

Thursday, October 29, 2009

i'm tired of waiting to upload photos.




so here is the last batch for now... I hope they come through okay. This is Brisbane, land of the cranes that didn't get published before...

The top pic is Cable Beach in Broome.

Ants. and an Uncle.



So these things in the trees are ant houses. They look like the tent worms in NC, only they are teeming with these bright green-butted ants. I was watching on TV, and they said that if you squeeze these ant houses, you get a green liquid from them, which you can drink and it tastes like lemonade. I didn't try it. But i thought, "Hey, if I get stranded in the outback, I know what I can drink!" If I could just get past the ant heads and legs in my lemonade.

more pics, I hope.


The internet connection is so spazzy. It takes forever to upload photos, and even then, when I go to publish them, they don't come through. Go figure. Technology.

pics...hopefully.



This is part of Port Douglas. We ate lunch at a place called Soul-n-Pepper. I had amazing fish spring rolls.










An original piece of artwork I saw in a store. Gorgeous.