| Atlantic Crossroads Festival continued |
| I ran errands for Jim and Lillian and dropped Colleen off at her house. She was trying to tie up loose ends before her trip to Stanfest in Halifax on Friday. She was performing on Saturday or Sunday and leaving via the Port aux Basques ferry. Ron was also traveling to Stanfest, but he was singing on Friday and thereby traveling by plane to Halifax. One of these years I�ll make it to Stanfest, I suppose, since it�s so highly recommended by the participants. It was extremely windy today and we wondered whether we�d end up having the boat ride tonight. You should have seen the clouds speeding by the parking lot as people went out for breaks during rehearsal!
Jim and Boomer showed how they feel about the coming smoking ban in bars in Newfoundland. It was the perfect photo with Jim in his Newfoundland Liberation Army T-shirt smoking next to the no smoking sign. Doesn�t he remind you of Che Guevara? As of July first, smokers will be S.O.L. in pretty much all buildings except their own homes. It�ll make us non-smokers very happy but the bar owners are worried about business. It�s no big deal right now to go outside and smoke, but I wonder how the scene will be played out in December. The band backed having played with everyone, the dancers having practiced with the performers and the bows down pat, we left the Arts and Culture Centre at 5 PM and went to Bridie Malloy�s for supper. We ate outside on the windy deck. The food was good but the service slow that evening and we had to scramble to run home, pick up what was needed and get to the boat by 7 PM. I had parked on Water Street near the Celtic Hearth and we met the gang already gathered on the dock. All the Irishmen went, including Val and Moray. Jim and Lillian, Hugh and Kathy, and Darrell�s sister represented the Newfoundland contingent. Jim had also invited the volunteers, which I though was so nice of him! Susan and Dave Susan�s friend, whose name escapes me, and I rounded out the volunteer contingent. Deejay Charters supplied the Shanadithi II, is a Coast Guard approved 42' Cape Island style tour boat, and a personable captain and crew. There may have been other people on board the boat whom I didn�t see because I scrambled right up to the fly bridge and stayed there through the wild ride with Hugh, Kathy and Susan and Dave. We�d get lots more company as the evening continued. I made a boo-boo with my camera earlier when we went home to grab things before supper. I removed the film from the USB thingy before I clicked on remove hardware from the computer. This had the result of making the film card wonky and I didn't have time to fix it. So the trip on the boat was sans camera unfortunately. Just as well, I don't think I could have held on to the camera and the rail and keep my balance on the wildly rolling boat. It was quite the ride and resembled a roller coaster a good portion of the evening. We had the best seats if you wanted the roller coaster version and were eventually joined by all the Irish thrill seekers (some for only a few minutes). Jim wisely stayed down on the first deck but Lillian came up to share the wine that I had picked up in the afternoon. It was delicious! Locally bottled wine called Rodrigues - I had purchased blueberry, cranberry and another kind. The strawberry was sold out and that was the one I really wanted to try. But that's okay because it gives me a good excuse to try it the next time I'm up in Newfoundland. The combination of wine, beer and the rolling seas were the downfall of some of the revelers, but we were fine up on top. II think I must have been a sailor in a former life. I just love the smell of the sea air and the feeling of spray, I have a spiritual connection with Signal Hill, and I am happiest on vacation when I can see the ocean. The captain, for the most part tried his darnedest to keep the rolling of the boat to a minimum, but when whales were sighted, we had to plow right through the waves across the length of the bay. While that delighted us hard-nosed sailing types, it had a distressing effect on others. We got wet several times and I stopped bothering to clean off my glasses after a while. I was dressed in several layers, with my hoodie providing ear protection but the Irishmen were not prepared for a wet evening with wind. Susan had brought eight jackets and sweaters and some of the musicians availed themselves of them. Poor Niall was frozen and Clare didn't look much better. The Newfoundlanders, on the other hand, came prepared for anything, clothing-wise and I happily grouped myself with them tonight. At one point, Ger made the mistake of standing up on the box on the top deck to glance at the whales just as we plowed through a wave. His feet left the surface of the box and 4 of us grabbed at his legs to haul him in. He only did it once. A mama humpback whale and her calf swam around but didn't breach. A group of Minke whales stuck around, too. The caplin hadn�t come it yet and some of the Newfoundlanders seemed surprised to see so many whales. They must have known something we didn't. After circling around so everyone could get a good view of the whales, we headed over to Quidi Vidi harbour. I have never been there by sea but I remembered the harbour entrance was pretty narrow. On the way over, past the Narrows, it began to storm up. We took a quick glimpse at the quaint outport village of Quidi Vidi in the heart of St. John's. There is a brewery there that makes a decent beer, I am told. When a lightning bolt hit the water not too far from the boat, we decided it was time to head back. By that time, everyone on the fly bridge had crowded into the lower deck under the little awning. Inside, Mark Greville had begun a singing session. He was great for doing that. He would have made a superb doo-wop street corner singer! We left the Shanadithi II a soaked happy group and split up to get some last minute entertaining in before tomorrow, the big Gala day. Dave Panting was playing again at Erin's and I got to talk to Vic on the Ham radio, since I had finally figured out how to enter the frequencies in memory. I was a soaked but happy camper. Thanks, Jim and Lillian, for the boat ride! Thursday, June 30th The day dawned for me at 9:30 when Vic called me on the ham radio. There was a lot to do today. We thought the programs were going to be done yesterday, but it�s going to be today. I had to run out to the office supply store and get a long stapler to accommodate the programs. There are 500 of them to be stapled today, before 7 PM. I already know what I'll be doing! I have to pick up Ron at his house at 1:30 and bring him over to the Arts & Culture Centre. Jim and Lillian have worked really hard at advertising this Gala and also the festival. Lillian had these HUGE posters made for each one of the venues that were an attraction themselves. Jim did a series of radio ads. There have been two interviews since I�ve been here � one with Jeff Gilhooly on CBC radio and one with ? for the Express newspaper. That one came out yesterday and it was great! I wonder how much more we have to do to spread the word? So many people seem surprised when you tell them about it! (Get permission to use) I had to pick up Ron at 1:30 and was supposed to get a box of things from Erin�s Pub and then come back to pick up Jim and Lillian. When I got to Ron�s, he was ready. As I doubled-parked in front of Erin�s, I noticed there was a sign on the door that said, �Be back in 5 minutes.� I was ready to go get Jim and Lillian and come back but Ron requested that I drop him off at the Post Office and pick him up at the Rose and Thistle. I figured I�d drop him off and run back to Erin�s. That should take 5 minutes. When I got to Erin�s once more, John was there and had to help me out with the box. It was so heavy! Fire trucks blocked the street between me and the Rose and Thistle. I had no choice but to wait till we were directed elsewhere, all the time looking at my watch and worrying about getting Jim and Lillian to the Centre on time for rehearsal. At 1:45, I pull up to the Rose & Thistle and Ron tells me he is waiting for his manager to call him back with info about his performance at Stanfest the next evening. So I hightailed it out of there and sped to Jim�s house. Too late! There was a sign on the door telling me they had left for the Centre. Back to the R & T, where Ron was ready to go and I wound my way up to the Centre. I had to track down the 500 sets of the Gala program that had been delivered by messenger to the wrong place at the Centre. Because of this, I now know the bowels of the Arts and Culture Centre pretty well. You just never know where a door is going to lead! I brought them down from the 2nd floor administrative offices and enlisted the help of all the performers to fold the already collated sets in half when they weren�t on stage. It was hard because they all wanted to stop and read them! There was only one stapler, so that job was mine. It was busy backstage, as you can imagine and I really didn�t get to pay attention to much of what was going on in the limelight. And I also made a quick supermarket run for the party after the Gala. I wanted a sneak peek at the program too, as I had written some of it. When we got back from the supermarket, everyone was a little punchy. Darrell was a panic as the day got longer, getting everyone to laugh when it got tense. He�d sort of taken Clare under his wing and I think his family ended up practically adopting her! Darrell wasn�t so nervous this time around as he was in March and had written even more stuff since then. He seemed much more comfortable up there on stage but I missed the witty repartee I know he is capable of. Maybe when he gets more performance time under his belt. His songs are worth hearing, now to get them out there. When it was his time to do the run-through, he got up to the mic and began to sing. When someone said something about it (I think it was the wrong song), he sang, �That was Darrell�s sound check and I�m done!� (Or something to that effect) But that enabled the group to get out on time at 5 PM and gather their thoughts together before their big performance tonight. |