Christmas was crap - worked 12 hours for no financial return and our manager didn't even have the decency to give us a couple of hours off for lunch. She on the other hand took 4 hours off for herself, which was really nice. Not even a special Christmas dinner in the mess for crew - same old shitty food served. So...a Christmas I wont forget but want to put behind me...
New Year's Eve was fun on the other hand. Drank far too much but had an awesome night in Revelations (the nightclub onboard). It is a guest nightclub but it was full off crew. New Year's Day - worked another 12 hours - if you call it that - as I sat behind my desk for most of the day trying to recover from the night before. A very tough day...
My birthday started by finishing working an 18 hour shift (I kid you not) - moving stock around for inventory. No fun. Then birthday drinks in the crew bar. Worked my birthday - first time for everything - and finished with boat drill and a cake in the staff bar - thanks girls.
Have had a week of sickness in there as well - spent a couple of days holed up in my cabin like a vampire with no light. A great way to recuperate...Not!! Oh and did I mention that I had to use one of my days off as a sick day cause the doctor wanted to send me back to work with a bloody temperature...Crazy...
Had heaps of problems onboard with our manager - been doing some crazy tasks - like shifting 1.5 tonnes of clay from Deck 12 to Deck 1 with no safety gear in the middle of the day. Fun stuff!!
Have had another girl go home after only 4 months of her contract and my roommate has been transferred so things always changing. My group of girls that I spend most of my time with has rapidly dwindled since I got here and am thinking of joining the masses and abandoning ship also. I am questioning whether the financial return is worth the sacrifice of being here. The long hours, the never-ending moans and complaints from guests, the free classes I have to teach (which I think devalues what I do), and now not even getting a day off (punishment for not hitting our targets - and I thought not making money was punishment enough but apparently not)...
We go into dry dock in just over 2 weeks time, which means no guests and the boat gets repaired - apparently a lot of shit to fix. Apparently we are required to go to work for training - hopefully not a 12 hour shift as we are only earning $12 a day - so $1 an hour if that is the case...Although that's better than some days - I can sit up there all day for absolutely nothing...I am going to get through dry dock and see what happens - I also get a new fitness to play with next week as Don leaves me at the end of this week...
Am struggling to stay positive at the moment but doing my best to have a laugh with the girls - the few that are left. Looking forward to lunch at Subway today (am off til 3pm) - that's about as good as it gets at the moment...
Miss you all at home and you may be seeing me sooner than we all expected...
Love Alex
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