I know that some of your will have been following the progress of The Guru as a theatrical megastar on the other blog but today we have other fish to fry. It is Friday after all.
Mrs B and I have recently retuned from a pilgrimage to the Mediterranean, first class of course.
Our vessel of choice, a cruise ship - the Celebrity Eclipse. There were actually no celebrities to be seen anywhere on the ship but there were lots of stars and they are the reason the cruise was so enjoyable.
Speaking to the HR manager onboard, I discovered that there were 73 nationalities represented in the crew. From the UK to South Africa, the USA to Indonesia and Macedonia to Mauritius.
I didn't spend a lot of time with officers and mangers though, I enjoyed talking to and interacting with waiters and stewards and I was reminded of the sacrifices these men and women make as they went out of their way to make our holiday enjoyable and memorable.
The working conditions for cruise ship crews have been well documented, but hearing first hand about how a man will leave his village in Bali to spend 9 months at sea, was eye opening. Yes, they can send home their wages to support the family they have left behind, but that family includes two young daughters who he is missing growing up.
One of the waiters spoke about how he promised his family to return home to Bali when the fruit ripened on the trees and started to fall - he was due to fly back the day after we docked. Indeed he should have flown earlier, but an OPEC conference meant the airport was closed.
This warm funny man, Made, with a huge smile and a talent to entertain, even invited us all to visit with him.
Our steward, Marijan, from Macedonia - with an excellent grasp of English and obviously an intelligent well read man who enjoyed talking to me about 'Of Mice and Men', which he saw I was reading.
Aleksandr, also from Macedonia, our wine waiter (he earned his tip). Clever and articulate, honest and decent and with the potential to go so much further in life than being abused by snobby, Daily Mail reading idiots who occupied tables near ours.
I have to say there was a lot of moaning and whinging about poor food and service but in fact the food and the service was excellent - some people are just never satisfied. But Made and his madcap helper Deepuksing (from Mauritius) just kept smiling and serving.
I have to mention a young man called Ryan too, a waiter whose smile lit up the room. He was from China where I suspect he wasn't born with the name Ryan, but here he was, making a place and a name for himself in the world.
There was Ketut, another warm friendly soul from Bali, who really did all he could to make sure we were spoiled rotten.
It was Aleksandr who asked us one evening how it felt to be waited on, to be the centre of so much attention and I replied that for two weeks I would manage! A little flippant, as you might expect, but again, this made me think.
After two weeks I could return to normal life, making my own cup of tea, managing with yoghurt and fruit not bacon and egg every day for breakfast. No more bow ties for dinner, just a lap tray and The Great British Bake Off on tv.
Normal life - for Aleksandr, for Made, for Ryan - for all of them: more smiles, more service, more abuse from ignorant, xenophobic middle class snobs.
They have my respect and admiration and the next time I hear someone talking about immigrants from eastern Europe coming to take jobs in Mansfield, I will think about Marijan...who took a job no one from Mansfield would ever dream of taking on. Cleaning toilets and making beds so that Mrs B and I could be spoiled for two weeks.
In 'Of Mice and Men', John Steinbeck wrote -
"Guys like us got nothing to look ahead to”.
That quote is not aimed at the stewards and waiters on the Celebrity Eclipse but at those passengers who looked right through them as if they were not there, or who thought it OK to abuse them as they were there to serve.
The men I met do have something to look ahead to - even if it's only ripened fruit on a tree in Bali.
Thank you to all of those men and women who made my two weeks in the sun so happy.
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