Life at sea

Sunday 23rd of March. Work began at 9AM, at 9.30 is facial painting time, so Nonna and I are allowed to paint butterflies, flowers and spiders on children’s cheeks and arms. Lunch break at 11 AM followed by a very necessary nap. Back to work at 2.30 PM, Nonna took over the bingo while I sharpened the colour pencils for the children. Samba school for kids as a mascot, and a bit more posing and hugging once again (still as a mascot), dinner and (soya) ice cream (because it’s Sunday!), photo session (as a mascot) for children with professional photographers, competition time for children, samba carnival for children (once again as a mascot) while dancing and shaking a tambourine,  the word hunt around the boat, amazing race, and a quiz for children over 10. Cleaning up all the mess in all the rooms, locking up for the night.

Tonight we again went with Nonna and looked at the Brazilian samba show. At the show tonight there was an ice-hockey team of 14 year old boys coming back from some training camp from Sweden, and the boys went completely crazy when they saw all the beautiful Brazilian ladies! (They had probably never seen a woman live in so little clothes, except maybe their mother in the sauna…) The Brazilians took all the attention in advantage and it was a really amusing scene.

After the show Nonna and I went to her cabin and hung out for a while. But she was more tired than me, so she went to bed at 2 AM and I went back to the club and continued the party dancing with my new Brazilian friends until 4 AM. Working on a boat is hard work, at least for your health!

Here are a few more pictures I took of the Brazilian dancers

©Cecilia Damström

©Cecilia Damström

Samba Carnival at Sea

Saturday the 22nd of March. Up at 9, pack and clean up before leaving, took a train at 12 PM to Helsinki together with my friend the viola player and choir conducter Marjukka Manner, writing emails for organizing Korvat auki –concerts all train ride, lunch at Uni Café, meeting up with my parents for getting stuff I had forgot and at 3PM on board on the cruising ship for work!

I haven’t been at sea since 2 month, and haven’t been on this ship since August 2013! I am working with my friend Nonna and it’s great to see her again! I have mainly been the furry boat mascot, which is fun; it’s like being a super star! Everyone wants to hug you and take pictures with you (or beat you up), and all you need to do is hug people and pose on pictures and dance and be super cute. (And yes, I’m wearing a costume so you can’t recognize me!). So we work from 3-11.30 PM (with one break for dinner), then we are free until 9 AM.

The boat currently has a six week long Brazil theme going on, so we have Brazilian musicians, dancers and chefs on board. Our Brazilian crewmembers hardly speak any English at all, so I’m communicating with them in Spanish and they reply in Portuguese and it’s fine!

We went with my friend Nonna to look at the dance show of the Brazilians, and it was really great! And they have such positive energy which also contaminates the audience, which is great! After the show we just sat in Nonnas cabin and talked about everything that has happened since we last met, which is a lot! What a great first day at work!

Here are a few pictures I took of the Brazilian dancers

©Cecilia Damström

©Cecilia Damström

Oh dear oh dear…

March 20th. They called from the ship today and asked if I want to come to work from Saturday to Monday, one cruise to Stockholm as a children’s entertainer. I actually really wouldn’t have time at the moment but I spent ALL my money on my Sweden trip, so I had to accept this job offer. But it means I will lose 48 hours of working time for school…

And like if this wasn’t enough, my friend who was supposed to take care of the up-coming Korvat Auki concert next Wednesday, said he is not feeling well at all and can’t cope with the concert, so I took the responsibility for that as well. On top of my workload (which is actually for two people, not one).

So concert arrangement tasks for the next few days will be:

Emailing all composers (six including me) and ask for theis CVs and a short programme note, calling Tampere Biennale and the library Metso for asking what has and hasn’t been agreed on, make a facebook event, check with all musicians that they really can come the concert at the given time, get all the logos (Tampering, Korvat Auki, TAMK) for the program booklet, make a program booklet, make sure I have a stage manager (road man), check there is a page turner for the pianists, book the zoom recorder from our school, arrange someone to take care of the recoring, some one to hand out the flowers, some one to take photos… Well yes, I guess you get the picture, there are a lot of small things to think of, in addition to that I’m going to play my own composition (Piano Delirium) at the concert and should practise piano at some point… Oh yes did I mention that I’m also supposed to be in charge of the next Korvat Auki concert on the 26th of April and then of course I’m organizing my own composition concert on the 14th of May!

Well, I guess a composers gotta do what a composers gotta do. Wish me luck that I’m alive by the end of May!