This will be my final blog post for this contract. It's so strange to think I leave in four days, and I know when I get home it will likely be quite similar to the end of my first contract. Driving away from the ship you feel the instant relaxation of knowing you have no schedule, no work, no commitments to the ship at all until the end of your vacation. Going from working 6-12 hours a day every day for more than 6 months to nothing at all is such a dramatic change but it is very satisfying.
As I mentioned in my last post, this week and last we have had the lighting designer for Ice Odyssey, Marcia Madeira, on-board to facilitate the replacement of some old lighting fixtures, as well as giving the show some much-needed TLC as after 6 years, the show file had been severely "tampered with" by previous light technicians. Marcia brought along her programmer, Chris as well and it has been great working with both of them. I certainly hope to still be on this ship when we get the next round of new lights (hopefully around September). It would have been better to have them here in the middle of my contract though, compared to now where I am days from leaving. Nearly everyone on ships suffers from "checked-out syndrom". As the end of the contract approaches, you start to become a little more lazy and not interested in making new projects on board. For me, the point where this happens is about the 1 to 1.5 week mark. Luckily since I have had Marcia and Chris here, it has made it easier for me to avoid thinking about going home and concentrate on the the tasks at hand. Since they are using the Studio B lighting rig every day for these two weeks, and everything besides the 14 brand new lights is 11 years old, it is a constant process of fixing lights as they break. I wake up every morning to a new punch list of things that broke the previous night (they program in the evening and into the night usually, since the room is available then).
Today I will be doing my laundry and probably starting to pack. Unfortunately my flight details have yet to arrive which is making me a little antsy, hopefully that will be resolved by the end of the day.
During my vacation I may post once or twice but otherwise I look forward to having new stories to share when I return in May. It should be interesting having Venice, Italy as a home port.
