Black Market for Beer

The first difficulty of telling time away from home is that I don’t have a cell phone. I gave up wearing watches after a pickup game of football in 7th grade when my Casio G-Shock watch broke as I was tackling someone. It’s funny that I remember that day so well but I was a little pissed as the watch was advertised as being indestructible; and it sure wasn’t. Back to the present time and place some six hours ahead of you on the East Coast and maybe more for you out in the expanse of our great nation. The second is the 24-hour clock I am continually mixing up 5 and 7 o’clock. Further more since the boat runs between two time zones there is Swedish and Finnish time the later being an hour ahead. So their clocks have 2 hour hands that is neat but it can be confusing when you ask a passenger for the time. If you ask a Swedish guest the time and become late for the stage then things aren’t so good.
I am greatly looking forward to next week when we change boats, as should you. Why do you ask? Well for one I will have much more time to figure out the whole picture-hosting thing. And I will also be able to take some pictures of interesting things. I haven’t really taken many pictures on the boat as there is not much that is interesting to me anymore. It has a very generic feel to it. One of the seamen, Angelo, who is a Dutch sailor showed me around the ships work shops (say that ten times fast) and lower decks. We didn’t have time for the engine room but I am hoping I will see it at some point this week. It is amazing how much work and upkeep it takes to run a ship there is always something breaking and needing to be rebuilt. The workshop was amazing filled with all sorts of hand tools and giant machines like a metal lathe and drill press. It's fun to be part of a crew and see how all the behind the scenes stuff works.
The beginning of the week was slow for tips so I am hoping that more people show up tonight. In the middle of the week they have like a senior citizens cruise. I am guessing that they have an add that runs with some deal that brings them. Two things make it all very interesting the first is seeing elder people dance, they may move slowly but man do they have some moves. The other is a little more sad and that's seeing old people drunk.
Tonight will be a fun night. I am planning to go dancing in the disco, it has become my exercise almost everyday. Last night I was hangin on the dance floor with Mark a Canadian born Jamaican/Finn. he is a singer/dancer in a show that goes on when we play in the pub.
Still having trouble with the dry air on the boat. I can't remember if I have mentioned it to you or not but the cabins are soo dry I woke up this morning feeling like a towel that had been wrung out and then laid on a radiator, very painful.
Yesterday I met some kids that got on board with a mission! A mission for beer. There were four of them Danny, Monica, and two alcoholics (old men). Anyway Danny's father buys a lot of beer from the Viking Line Tax Free shops so he gets complimentary tix. So they bought 38 cases of beer and had their own big folding hand trucks. It was such a sight. Funny kids that don't have a job other than to be beer runners for the ghetto of Stockholm.
More to come.