May 14

May 14 –

Kusadasi Turkey.  Well… Today was interesting… I thought I was losing my voice a couple of days ago, so I shut it down, but… today I woke up with “junk” on my throat and struggling to make sound with my voice.  We have a show tonight and I’m not certain I’ll be able to do it.  I let our manager know immediately and his response was (and is for everything) “it (or you) will be fine”.  Well, I told him to start thinking about the show if I wasn’t able.  He again reiterated, “you’ll be fine”.  After the technical rehearsal, I went ashore for lunch with a few folks and by the time I sat down, I had NO voice – NOTHING, NADA, ZAERO, NIL, ZILCH.  I immediately walked back to the ship to tell our manager that I could not do the show.  BOOOOOOOO, I felt horrible doing this.  By the way, I never felt sick, just a runny nose and drainage.  As you singers know, drainage is NOT good for the voice.  And in this case, it is keeping me from doing my job.  ALTHOUGH… My job is more as a cruise staff person rather than a performer.  This is not a complaint, I like most of it, but it can be draining and this is why I think I got “sick”.  The doctor on board confirmed that I am NOT sick – no fever, lungs clear, everything else checks out good as well, just some major congestion – YUCK.

To elaborate.  Some days start at 7:30am and end at midnight or later and then could start again as early as 7:30am again.  We NEVER work solidly though the day, but you can’t really get solid rest either.  I haven’t had enough time to adjust to this life again, so by the time I leave I’m sure I’ll be ready J

Okay, back to Turkey.  After I came back to the ship and told the manager, I went out in search for some bargains as I heard there were many to be had.  I headed out and met a couple of passengers that asked me if I was feeling better – how did they know?  Who knows, but it was nice of them to ask.  Okay, on to shopping.  I was in the market for a watch.  This port has “fake” genuine items.  Meaning they sell Gucci, Ray ban and other name brand items, EXCEPT, they are fake.  So, I wanted Rolex or something similar.  There is a market that they call a bazar and it is BRUTAL.  You truly cannot walk 5 steps without being harassed.  Think flea market setting – which I like, but this place.  Well…  let me finish the story…

I was 3 steps in and all I heard was “mister mister”, “cheap prices”, “I give you good deal”, etc.  I found a watch stand and the “salesman” immediately started trying to sell me sunglasses – which I did need and found a pair I liked and he wanted 30 Euro for.  Um… NO… I offered 10 and we settled on 15.  Then he offered me a free glass of tee (which was wonderful) and took me into his leather store.  There were some fantastic jackets and I like leather, BUT... as I told them; I was NOT in the market for a jacket.  WOW… I wanted out, but I wasn’t done with my tea.  The jacket I liked had a price of 950 Euro and they offered it to me for 450.  Well, I don’t carry that much cash, nor was I going to buy anything.  By the way 450 Euro is about $675 and, umm, uhh… NOOOOO thank you.  I told him that was needed to meet my friends and had to go.  He proceeded to ask for a credit card – told him I didn’t have one.  Then, he offered to GIVE me the jacket and I could come back to pay him later.  WHAT???  Oh my goodness.  As tempting as it was, I was not going to take a bite of that apple.  Nope.  I say no and goodbye and thank you for the tea.

Turkey is the “worst” port so far.  I’m sure there are good things about it and I think I am going to try to go to Ephesus on the next cruise.  I need to find out what exactly what that is, but I hear it is a “too see”.  We are there on Tuesday (I think).

Oh yeah, I was NOT in the show tonight and I feel embarrassed that I could do what I was hired to do – oh wait.  Reference back to what my real job is – “cruise staff”.  Again, not against doing it and I kind of like most of it, but I was really hired to be a singer and I feel bad that I can’t fulfill that obligation.  L  There is only 1 other male singer in the cast and he sang all the songs I was supposed to except “Yesterday” which Mia sang beautifully.

I went to bed at 11pm and woke up at 9am – YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!