It is a rather well known stereotype that entertainment department members are well…entertainers. So for the most part we’re more…watchers when it comes to sporting events. We don’t really play, and if we do – we don’t even come close to winning. Usually we get thrown into team events as a lark, and everyone kind of well…knows that.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my department! But we’re just not…we’re artists, not athletes!
But today was the Indonesia Independence Day celebrations, which is a really big deal on board because so many of the crew members are Indonesian. There’s a formal flag-raising ceremony and several speeches, and then there’s a bunch of games and competitions and such. At the last departmental meeting our supverisor stood at the front of the room and said
Okay guys, I need a team of 6 for the Tug o’war, don’t let me down guys! Be in it to win it.
And a few scattered hands went up, including one dancer, whom no one took seriously because she was a girl (more on that later). The rest of the team was made up of stage crew and musos…including Amras, who even now I’m not sure volunteered or was volunteered (I didn’t volunteer him I swear!). The thing is, our department is small, not weak necessarily but small, that doesn’t necessarily bode well when you’re in a competition that is mostly about brute strength.
Never-the-less we all crowded onto the pier to either compete or cheer (I was cheering, I am of no use whatsoever on a tug-o-war line). The first department we were up against …we won. Even the one dancer who participated shocked all the nay-sayers (but not her fellow dancers, because we know better), but bracing her feet and throwing herself against the line, people forget that dancers are small – and if you go against us in an upper-body strength competition we’ll probably lose – but anything that involves using the muscles in our legs? You’re going down.
And we kept winning.
What the?
Entertainment won? Entertainment never wins! How did we win?!
THOSE ARE MY BOYS!
HA take that!
GLOVES ARE FOR WHIMPS WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ GLOVES!
Somehow, we ended up in the final heat. Now, this meant we were up against one of two departments: the last cut before the finals was between deck and engine. Talk about arch rivals, I have never seen 12 people throw themselves against a rope so hard – at one point the “anchor” of the deck department was literally crawling in the opposite direction with the rope tied around his waist in an attempt to get his team to hold their own! Knowing that we were up against whoever won, we were rooting hard for the deck department, simply because they were a little bit less intimidating.
Engine…Engine is intimidating, I don’t’ think there was a guy on that team under 6 feet or 200lbs.
And naturally we were up against them.
How we made it to the final heat I have no idea, but we lasted all of 5 seconds…perhaps 10. Which was all our Cruise Director asked us for.
Just give me 5 seconds guys, 5 seconds so I can get the pictures!
Of course, all of this took place pier-side, so the passengers were all walking past us to enjoy their day in Haines. This is perhaps the one time that we felt no real guilt at not really acknowledging them directly – which is a good thing, because I’m pretty sure they all thought we were crazy…