When my younger daughter lived with me she worked as an assistant to a dentist, who came one day to show me cartoons. I like cartoons, but not an endless number of them, at 9 pm, when I had to get up next morning at 5 am to get ready to take the bus to Haifa to join my ship for sailing. I told him that I would gladly watch any numbers of cartoons on my next leave. He agreed to that, but meanwhile showed me just another one till after midnight and I had not yet packed my suitcase. The day of sailing is the worst for a chief steward. I had to type the papers for departure, for what I needed , among other, the hiring papers of the new crew members, which are hard to find, in spite that they should have brought them to my office after boarding. On the crew list I had to type all the particulars of each crew member, who were on the hire page and seaman book, both of whom I had to open for each name. I also had to declare the contents of the bonded, engine and deck store for which I had trouble to find the 2nd engineer, while the chief officer was busy. The captain called me several times, even while I had to check the arriving supplies, which took about three hours. When a new crew member had not arrived I had to go to a phone in the port to inform the company. The director of the ministry of transport liked to show off his importance by calling me to his office for some silly matter and a few more things, till the customs and immigration officers arrived a night, after which I still had enough to do to last till after midnight. The busy officers envied me, because I had nothing to do but sitting in my office. The next morning I had to get up at 6 am to check my crew. Today I am glad that it had been like that, because I enjoy my retirement the more. And please: Should you meet me, dont say cartoon.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 21:32:21 +0000
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