Sunday 21 October 2012

Eclipse September and October 2012

I had a great week at home, the weather wasn’t good but it didn’t put me off enjoying some quality time with my family. I had my birthday on the 1st October and to celebrate we went to one of my most favorite country pubs “The Rose & Crown” in Nottage and had a lovely lunch and a few beers, it was made even more fun by the fact my mate Sam Kane rang while we were there and we laughed out loud for a good 30mins reminiscing over our time together the other week. We are also having some building work done on our house, it’s something we have been trying to do for years and it has finally began. We also have a new shed at the bottom of our garden and that’s something I have never had? I spent a whole day with my son Tom, he is about to start a new venture as a mobile Disco Service as part of his newly formed company www.nosdaentertainment.com, which is a production company, based in Cardiff and will offer a range of services to the entertainment industry. We purchased some brand new speakers and also met with another production company M&M Productions based in Cardiff Bay and they have kindly offered Tom some work and also offered me some too! (Watch this space). We also had the Panto Launch where I got together with Chico, Kevin Johns and Gemma James at the Mayors House in Swansea and in full make up and costumes we walked around Swansea Market and went on local buses to promote our panto which is a Qdos production of Cinderella which runs from 14th December 2012 to 13th January 2013 at the beautiful Swansea Grand Theatre, then just a few days after that I have my own show there on the 21st January 2013 as part of a short tour before I fly off again around the world to join cruise ships on their world cruises, starting off with P&O Cruises, Cunard and Celebrity Cruises. It really is a shock to the system having to put make up on and walking in high heels and wearing wigs, but once its on I’m fine and kind of enjoying it, put it’s the going from he to she I find strange, oh well, I am an actor at the end of the day and that is what I’m going to do…act!
My son Sam has had another cold and a cough but is coping so well with it, I love that about kids, they are either ill or not, they just get on with it, not like us grown ups who seem to go on and on about are illnesses. I am learning a lot from my new found friend “Chico” he has this wonderful way with him, a kind of attitude I want for myself, he calls it PMA which stands for “Positive Mental Attitude”, so if you find yourself getting down in the dumps for what ever reason, I now try and think “PMA” and life doesn’t seem so bad, so thank you Chico for giving me that, you can follow Chico and myself on twitter and we are forever saying PMA! I did a show with my band at the Diplomat Hotel Llanelli for a local charity of which I am Patron “Carmarthenshire Youth & Children’s Association” (CYCA). We had a great night and thank you so very much for all who came and supported us, also thank you to Tracy Pike (Association Manager of CYCA) and to my old pal Helen Enser Morgan from Swansea Sound who hosted the evening so brilliantly, Helen is a wonderful talent and always gives 100% of her time what ever she does. I did a lot in my week off including a recording session at Real Radio Studios for Trade Centre Wales with some brand new ads to go on air soon, they are definitely on now as I write this. I enjoy working with Andy Griffiths from Real Radio and Mark Baily who owns Trade Centre Wales, we are a good team and have had some fun along the way too! www.thetradecentrewales.com check them out as they have some fantastic deals there at the moment…cars from £14.42 pence a week…”tell em Trevor sent ew”! Incredible really, I don’t know how they can do it? Well my week off which was full of things to do soon came to an end but not before I managed to get in 5 holes of golf at my course Coed-Y-Mwstwr Golf Club, my wife Marie bought me a Garmin GPS S3 golf watch and as the sun was out I went along to try it out, I couldn’t wait to stand on the first tee and switch it on, it found the course within 30 seconds and as there was a lady three ball waiting to tee off I couldn’t help showing off my new watch to them and they very kindly allowed me to tee off first to try it out, what a brilliant invention, it shows how for it is to the front, middle and back of the green you are playing, I loved it and it made for a lovely little hour, I ended up playing the next few holes with the girls of which one was the Vice Lady Captain Judith, so many thanks girls for letting me play and enjoy my new birthday gift. www.coedymwstwrgolfclub.com I flew from Cardiff Airport later that afternoon and Marie and Sam took me down, once at the check-in desk I knew it was going to be a difficult travel day ahead, my flight to Amsterdam was delayed which meant I was going to miss my next flight in Amsterdam to Madrid. I said my goodbyes to Marie and little Sam and went through to departures, my bag was searched as was I which passed some time and then I made my way to the business lounge where I had a coffee, once I could fathom out how to use the machine. I looked out the window and I could see my wife’s car in the car park so I rang her to say I could see her, we talked for a while and Sam was chatting away in the back, then I watched her slowly drive away out of the airport car park, and watched her drive all the way to the roundabout, it made me feel quite sad, in fact I’ll be honest here, I was breaking my heart, I never see this, I am usually just caught up in “airport world” but here I was like a prisoner kept in the airport watching my loved ones drive away to a world which we call home, I know all this seems dramatic and it probably is but I didn’t want to leave and there was nothing I could do about it! I flew to Amsterdam to be told on arrival that I had indeed missed my Madrid flight and was taken off and was to be put up in the Ibis Hotel on the airport grounds and fly the next morning boarding at 6am, after some confusion as to what was to happen to my luggage I made my way to the hotel. I met a guy on the bus to the Ibis from Port Talbot, he is a ship builder and he was staying in the same hotel, so we met and had a couple of beers in the bar, it turns out he and his family have been coming to see my shows for years, a nice guy…cheers Kevin! The bed in my room was ever so comfy and that eased the pain of having to stay over, I woke at 4am was in breakfast for 4.30am on the shuttle bus at 5am the airport at 5.20am and in the business lounge at 6am for a quick coffee before boarding my flight to Madrid at 6.15am we took off on time at 6.50am and as I sat there on the plane I started to worry about my luggage and would be in Madrid, the KLM staff seemed to think it would be tagged all the way to Lanzarote! In Madrid I was met right by the plane door by a representative of the airline and she told me my luggage was not going to Lanzarote and I was to pick it up here and re check in for the next flight…isn’t travel exciting? I got to sunny 32c Lanzarote and so did my luggage thank goodness and to top it all there was no-one there to meet me to take me to the ship, so after 3 phone calls and hanging around I took a taxi to the ship, this time it is the awesome 122,00tonne Celebrity Eclipse. The ship was docked not far from the airport and I was soon onboard and settled into my beautiful stateroom. I’m not on until tomorrow night so its an early night for me, but first I’m off to see brilliant comic Steve Womack in the theatre. Yes, Steve was fab, we have clashed on a couple of lines but nothing major, but he was great and the crowd loved him…ok, its bedtime…goodnight! Ah…what a lovely 9hrs sleep and what another lovely day its 24c out there so I hope I get the chance to sit in it for a while. My show is tonight I and have rehearsal at 6pm so see you later. I have just come back from what I can only describe as probably one of the most if not “the” best production show I have ever seen at sea. We had a 3.30pm show called “Vox Lumiere” that was an experiment to see what the guests onboard thought, I don’t think it was for this demographic but certainly for a younger crowd! It was a live rock concert and a silent movie mixed together with original music, it was cutting edge, avant-garde and so very clever, the LA Times called it “Absolutely Riveting”. I now have 1hr and 15mins before I go to my rehearsal. My shows went the best they have gone on here this season, everything just flowed so easily, every comic knows that feeling and I knew I could do nothing wrong, a great night. The next day we were in Lisbon and Steve Womack and his very lovely lady Cheryl invited me to go ashore with them and have lunch at the famous Bomme Jardin where chicken and chips are served to a very high standard, the chicken tastes like no chicken you have ever tasted, I used to go there years ago with friends from P&O Cruises and we always had a first class meal. I was asked by the cruise director Stewart Turnble if I would do my talk in the afternoon, it’s like a “This Is Your Life” style format but with no guests, its just me talking about my life in showbiz! I was thrilled to see we had a 100% full house over 1350 people turned up at 2pm in the afternoon, I was so humbled to say the least, thank you to everyone for coming. Today is our last day at sea for this cruise and we are just leaving the Bay Of Biscay and the Fred Olsen Balmoral has just passed us, I was on that ship in March this year. I’m back on tonight as part of a Variety Show; I’m sharing the stage with the incredible singing group “Full Tilt” who sound in my opinion better than the Four Seasons. Tomorrow we are back into Southampton where we say goodbye to 3000 guests and welcome another 3000 guests onboard and off we go again to do all over again, I leave the ship in Tenerife and fly home to my family. Southampton was lovely and sunny yesterday and what a great day it turned out to be. Well, when I say a great day, it certainly didn’t start that way, I hadn’t slept at all well the night before, I woke at 4am and started to pack as I was moving cabin later that morning, I was not too happy but that was that and had to accept it. I went back to bed at 5.30pm and slept deeply until 6.30am, it was only an hour but at least it was something. I had to meet with UK Immigration at 6.50am because I joined the ship outside the UK so they wanted to see me and my passport. After that was done I got back to moving cabins, I moved into one cabin only to be told it was the wrong one and had to move all over again, so three cabins later and a new ships card I decided to go into town and that is where my good day began. I spoke to Marie and she was taking Sam to football practice, he loves that so much bless him, so had to wait till later to speak some more with Marie. I had a text from my pal Lyn Lawrence saying she was joining P&O Arcadia and was I in town, so we met and had a coffee, it was so nice to see her, then David from the Eclipse joined us, he’s part of the Show Company and a brilliant singer, then my dear old mate Leon De St. Croix who is the Cruise Director from Arcadia came along as well, I have known Leon a very long time, over 15yrs to be precise. We had a good chat and a nice bit of lunch. It was so busy in Southampton as there were 5 ships in, there was us the Celebrity Eclipse, P&O Aurora (where my mate Steve Beswick the Bars Manager is on and couldn’t get off that afternoon) P&O Arcadia, Fred Olsen’s Balmoral and the Celebrity Constellation, it made for a brilliant sail away, 5 big ships sailing out of Southampton I convoy, a wonderful sight I must say. Today we are at sea in some rather big waves, yes its rough out there, I’m on tonight and do hope the guests aren’t going to be too unwell. We also have a new Cruise Director from England Jason Ward who comes here from Disney Cruises, he did a fab job last night I the Welcome Aboard Show. My rehearsal is in 3hrs 25mins so see you later. It has been rough seas all day and I have to say I’m feeling a tad queasy, my rehearsal went well but I felt quite wishy washy if you know what I mean, not with it at all, thank goodness for the professionals there that looked after everything for me. My 8.30pm show went really well and I am so grateful for that as I was feeling sea sick all the way through it, I still sang Nessun Dorma and heaven only knows how I did it. I wasn’t feeling great in-between shows and wasn’t looking forward to the next show at 10.30pm. I got myself to the theatre and told the Manager how I was feeling, she got me a ginger ale and I have to tell you it did the trick. I walked out to a huge cheer, it was louder than usual, when I saw the crowd I couldn’t believe my eyes, there were 4 huge welsh flags and a very big group of people from Wales, it was like working a home crowd, what a night, I even went into the stalls and got them all from Wales to sing a welsh song called “Calon Lan”, it turned out to be one of the best nights I have ever had. Today is another day at sea and its still choppy out there, I slept until 1.30pm, I must have needed it as I was not feeling at all well yesterday, thank you everyone for being a great crowd and especially the massive party from Wales. I met up with family friends from Lampeter for a few drinks at lunchtime and it felt so good to have people from home on here. Tonight is a formal night…do I want to get all dressed up? Do I need another late night? Don’t think so! Tomorrow we are in Ponta Del Garda in the Azores, I hope it’s a nice sunny day as the guests are really hoping for that as it has been quite dull and over cast since Southampton. I have only 4 sleeps left now before I go home! I have been watching “Not Going Out” and “Miranda” and both shows are so brilliantly funny, it’s great to watch TV shows on my computer, it makes me feel closer to home, I must get some more TV programmers like “Top Gear” and some good drama’s, it’s good to just stay in and watch TV, just like at home! Welcome to Ponta Delagada in the Azores, it’s a nice day with a chance of rain so we will see. We arrived at 2.30pm and had the rest of the day there as we sailed at midnight, I went for lunch with two of the boys from the group Full Tilt and went out later for dinner with the Hotel Director. It was so good to speak to my wife Marie and my sons Sam and Tom, my phone hadn’t worked at all whilst we were at sea over the past two days so it was good to catch up. I have finished reading my book “The Power” by Rhonda Byrne and it really has made an impression on me, she also has “The Secret” and “The Magic” out there, I’ve read The Secret and now I’m on The Magic, it makes wonderful life changing reading, why not give it a go? Tonight’s show is Phillip Browne who I met a few weeks ago on Queen Elizabeth, he is a great singer, he was once in Disney’s Lion King, so I am looking forward to seeing him later on. Tomorrow we are in Madeira and I have a show alongside some other acts onboard, it’s a Variety Show. I know have just 2 sleeps before I go home! Ah lovely beautiful Madeira with it’s wonderful landscape of white wash buildings all the little red roofs, it has to be one of my most favorite places to visit in the world, the sun came out and it got up to 26c so we have a lot of happy guests onboard, they were waiting for some sunshine, its all you want on holiday isn’t it! My rehearsal went like a dream and I’m on tonight at 8.30pm and 10.30pm. Home tomorrow, my flight is at 12.40pm from Tenerife and I get into Gatwick at 5pm and my trustworthy car from www.executivecarswales.com will be there to take me home to my family. Both shows went great once again, I really am working well right now. I had a goodbye drink with my friends from Wales and off to bed I went with feelings of excitement of going home. I got to Tenerife South Airport for my flight back to Gatwick and was soon off and away, it has been a great 12 days and now all I have on my mind is Home Sweet Home! Thanks for following me on my blog, you can also follow me on facebook and on twitter @MikeDoyleComedy Big shows coming up, I’m at the Riverfront Theatre Newport 16th November and at the Arts Centre Aberystwyth on the 17th November and soon in panto from the 14th December to the 13th January 2013 at the Swansea Grand Theatre with more of my own shows right after the panto with the Borough Theatre Abergaveny 18th January, Miners Theatre (Stute) Blackwood 19th January and Swansea Grand Theatre 21st January 2013. Hope to see you all there!

Saturday 6 October 2012

Queen Elizabeth Sept 2012

Once again it was just over 24hrs at home, it was hard this time as I felt like a visitor in my own home, I couldn’t relax, I felt so stressed. The car came at 7.45am to take me to Heathrow for my flight to Rhodes via Athens, we got to the airport and it was plain sailing getting through security and I was soon having my breakfast in the little pub at Terminal 1, soon we were off and flying to Athens on Aegean Airlines, I have never flown with them before and let me tell you, they are fab, best service I have had for ages, as good as BA and Virgin. We landed on time in Athens and I had nearly 4hrs to wait for my next flight to Rhodes, so Priority Pass came in handy once again, the lounge I used was the same lounge I used a few weeks ago when I had Marie and Sam with me, a very nice room with good food and drink with comfy chairs. Soon I was on the Rhodes flight and once again Aegean were great, we got to Rhodes within the hour and I was soon in a taxi on my way to my hotel for the night, it was a basic hotel but clean and friendly so happy days! After a good nights sleep I woke feeling tired with blocked nose, I’ve had these sinus problems for weeks now, no idea what’s up? My car came to take me to the Queen Elizabeth, which looked splendid in the sunshine with blue skies surrounding her; she is a beautiful ship and every inch a Cunarder of today! My stateroom is lovely and lunch was fab, I then sat in the sun for 3 hours, I rang Marie a few times and she told me the weather at home had turned nasty, so I made the most of it and enjoyed the sun whilst drinking a big bottle of water, I felt so much better after drinking it, I must have been dehydrated because I didn’t need the loo after drinking it, so come on now Mr Doyle, drink plenty of water this trip! My show isn’t for two nights time so at least I can rest. Yesterday we were in one of the most beautiful places on earth, Santorini in Greece, what a place, I have been there about 4 times before but never got of the ship due to one thing or another, but I was so pleased I got off this time, what a place. Once the tender boat docked alongside I made my way to the cable car and made the terrifying journey up the mountain, it was so steep. The other mode of transport was to go up on a donkey, which I declined, I felt so sorry for them as it’s a long way up that mountain. Once up there I was just blown away with the awesome views that were on display, the Queen Elizabeth was down in the bay and she looked so small from up there! I sat in a beautiful cafĂ© over looking the bay and had a couple of beers chatting to two lovely people from the Forest of Dean and just felt so lucky to be there in Santorini, take a look at these pics…what a place! Today we are in Katacolon, another beautiful place and another sunny day with a high od around 28c, the weather at home has been awful so lets make the most of it. More pics for you of this lovely place Katacolon. My show is tonight in the Royal Court Theatre at 8.30pm and 10.30pm and my rehearsal is at 4.45pm so I am looking forward to that, all I want now is the sound to be good! Yyyyeeeessssss!!!!! It’s a great soundman his name is John and he used to work at the BBC in London as head of sound and I have worked with him before and he’s a good man with a good pair of ears, so now I feel more up for it so to speak. The band are fab under the direction of Tim Faulkner who is leaving life at sea so I don’t know when we’ll see Tim again, I hope our paths cross again, he’s a great MD and a fab sax player. 1hr and 20mins to go for my first show, I want to do very well tonight and go for it, I have a great crowd ahead of me with a great mix of nationalities, but an English speaking audience, which is obviously important to me and to them I guess! Tomorrow we are in Corfu, I was only there a few weeks ago on another Cunard ship the RMS Queen Victoria, the ports of call this voyage are just fantastic, and the weather!
Oh Yes…2 great shows, I could not have done any better, thank you QE, what a great night, let me tell you if I do well I will tell you and equally if I die on my arse I will also tell you and that’s a promise! I met up with old friends Grahame and Julie and John and Judith and we had a few after the show and had a good laugh! Today we are in Dubrovnik Croatia, a beautiful place which I have been to many times, I got myself off the ship and went to the old city and found my usual Irish Bar “Pats Bar” where they pour a lovely pint of Guinness and real chips, I know it’s a bit basic, then so am I. Tonight, Phill Browne and I are part of the “Strictly” Dancing competition and it’s a formal night, so it’s a suited and booted kind of night for us! Tomorrow we are in Venice and we are over night there and I am working as well, so lets hope our guests choose to stay onboard and see my show rather than go and see Venice…no pressure then! Stay onboard they did and I had the best night ever…thanks all who came to see me in the theatre, and I hope I see you again in the future on land or at sea.