A normal shift on MS Nordnorge is 22 days long and I normally disperse my energy to last "perfectly well" for 22 day but nothing more.
The 21st day at work I was asked by the hotel manager if I could work another four days. I immediately thought "sure" (for some strange reason) and now I´m sitting here just done with my last day. I have to clean my cabin soon and then I will end the day with a visit in Ishavskatedralen for our Midnight Concert excursion.
Working these extra days have been tiring but also good. I´ve gotten to know some great passenger and I´ve enjoyed the beautiful landscape. Today however it became pretty clear that I need to go home and rest soon.
I managed to print the daily program in 700 and some copies. Do you think the two pages came out on the same sheet? No page one came out in some 400 examples and day two in another 300. Luckily the printer ran out of paper before ending the print. Do you think the pages were sorted in a pile of page 1 and then page 2? Oh no, they were in chronological order so I spend 30 minutes sorting them out and printing 20 pages at the time over again.
Ahhh!
Despite the mess there were quite a few other fun events today. In the afternoon the ocean was very calm and suddenly I saw harbour porpoises (a small whale) jump in the water. I ran to the microphone and announced it. Later on I got message from the bridge that they had spottet a minke whale on the port left hand side. I announced it and the following never fails; people of all ages and physical conditions start running like they were 5 years old again. A few minutes after the madness I got another call from the bridge that the whale had now change course and could be seen on the starboard right hand side. I of course started laughing and barely managed to announce because I could hear all the people standing on deck 5 above my head run like crazy to the starboard side.
And since I´m writing about funny announcements there was an episode on Sunday. We´re approaching Vardø and just passing an island called "Horn Island" (Horny island). This island happens to be the Eastern most tip of Norway and I thought it would be nice to tell the passengers about it. My boss was joking about it the whole time and we were both unsure which exact island it was and I ended up calling the bridge while Eskild was making comments in the back ground because of the name "horny". By the time I pressed the button on the microphone we were all giggling and laughing. You can imagine how professional this announcement was. In fact I had to apologize in english a couple of times before trying to compose myself and finish. It was a failure. By the time we made it to the German part I was grunting from laughter and gasping for air so I let go of the button and ordered Eskild to leave the office :D :D After 3 minutes I tried to finish the German bit but everything came out in a high pitch voice and with a few more grunts.
Later that day I talked to a Norwegian lady traveling with the ship. She was sitting in the bar while I tried my best to tell everyone about the horny island. She said that they all started laughing and that the bar was grunting with me.
Now that makes me happy! ;)
In general there´s a lot of laughter on board and even more madness. Here are a few photos proving that statement ;)
