A Filipino version of La Bamba

Lobke and the wait staff singing La Bamba. It was painful.

Last night was the Orion crew show. Which was sort of like an early American Idol tryout. Without any talent. It’s hard to say what was more painful, watching the male housekeeping crew put on coconut bras and line dance or listening to the ship’s bosun (short for boatswain; the deck crew foreman) sing not just one but two Tom Jones numbers (who knew Filipinos were so crazy for Tom Jones?).

Actually, no. Listening to bad Tom Jones (is there good Tom Jones?) was not the low-point of the evening. That would have to be when my pal Lobke Verburg, the tall, stately South African maitre d’, came out holding a Corona and wearing a sombrero to join several of the wait staff in singing La Bamba.

Ay-yi-yi.