1 month 28 days

11 of 28

5:25pm local times

Middle of the south pacific ocean

So its been over a month since I last wrote about things. And life has moved on from being all over the place to having something that resembles a set routine. We still find out at 11pm what we’re doing the next day but I have always preferred that way, so there’s no complaining about the next day during the one you’re currently on.

I was made gallery manager not long after my last post, which is always a good thing for experience and my appraisal etc but it is a lot more responsibility compared to the Pearl. It also means, because I’m in charge, that A) my personal sales have dropped a lot as I spend a tonne of time running around re-stocking and sorting out problems etc, and B) i’m having spats with colleagues because I’m relaying messages from our manager to them. I’m enjoying the responsibility though, and i’m happy I’m still gallery manager even though Mike and Bojan are level 3 and 4. I’m not sure why i’ve been kept but i’m not complaining.

I also can’t believe i’m almost half way through my contract? 2 weeks and i’ll be half way there. I was thinking of extending to be honest, because I need the money at the end of the day, but also I realised if I’m careful with my commissions I can save enough that I don’t need to stay another month. So thinking about after the contracts over, I dont really know where to go or what to do? I was thinking Asia but I kind of want to spend 6 months or more on that one, and I thought about inter-railing Europe but it’s so expensive for what it is. So I thinking if I decide in the next couple of months…. I could also stay in Australia and get local leave and do the Great Ocean Road or whatever, I’ve been invited to Adelaide by a couple of the guests too… I don’t know what to do next… Though it is on the cards that Reggie, Mel, me and Mels boyfriend Craig travel from the cape of South America up to Alaska… So we’ll see.

Also, very exciting news, James and Leonie are pregnant :D! So i’m going to be an Aunty :D! Though this adds complications with work… and is partly why I was thinking of extending… So I go home on the 1st April, and the baby is meant to be born 24th June, which is almost 3 months of holiday before coming back to ship… Which I don’t know if I can get off this time. But also, I could not come back to ship and work for LEC over summer again, save up money and go travel a little afterwards… But that would be throwing ship out the window. I guess it depends if I get promoted, where I get put, when and who is management/on the team at the time.

Decisions. None of which can be made until the end of the contract comes around and I know where/when/who for the next one too.

This contract feels so different to the last. There’s not the same excitement to be here as there was last time, and the team is completely different. But it’s completely different in the way it’s a job, its work, it’s about the money not about the ports. I haven’t left the ship in like two weeks. I’m just trying to get my job done so I can get to the end of my contract and see whats going on the other end of it.

Only 3 months to go.