Who's The Daddy: After Hurricane Debby the blue skies are calling
Daughter #2 is all at sea, literally, after finally arriving last weekend on a ship the size of a small town that cruises between the US and the Caribbean.
I say finally, because she was due to fly out to the US to begin her six-month contract working at the ship’s kids’ club a week earlier, but Hurricane Debby put paid to that with her biblical weather that meant Daughter #2’s ship couldn’t dock when planned in Orlando and instead sailed on to New York where she’d meet it almost a week later.
The thing is, Daughter #2 only found this out about half an hour after she’d checked in, dropped off two massive suitcases and gone through security at Manchester Airport. Orlando ticket cancelled on her and a new one to New York booked on her behalf.
It took around three hours to get her cases back, then she caught a train to a station near Daughter #1’s flat in Manchester, me and the boss went to pick her up in a mercy dash and we’d have a repeat of our emotional goodbyes six days later. Quite the day, all told.
To be honest, it was nice having her around for a few days. And as well as a chill-out time between her graduation late last month and flying off to a new continent for six months, she enjoyed being handed breakfast, lunch and dinner cooked by someone else for once.
Take two passed off without serious incident and after a few hours tracking flightradar24.com she landed at JFK, got through immigration, was interviewed by a charming, armed woman officer and then sent on her way to her hotel.
The next day she was on the boat, doing an actual shift, before crashing out in her shared cabin until it all started again the next morning.
WhatsApp, Instagram and voice notes are me and the Boss’ new best friends. Social media bores me to tears but when it’s the best and cheapest way to communicate with your youngest child half a world away, it’s a godsend.
We look forward to WhatsApp messages on the family group chat, Instagram posts and minute-long voice notes sent by Daughter #2 like Christmas, although having said that, we all got Covid three out of the last four Christmases so perhaps that was a bad example.
Anyway, Daughter #2, unsurprisingly for a crew member on a cruise ship, is very busy. At the time of writing she is doing lifeboat training, which involves jumping in and out of a pool for hours while wearing a life vest - ironically, this was her idea of a perfect holiday when she was five and probably still is now that she’s 22.
The ship is currently making its way south to the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean and the pictures Daughter #2 has sent of the bright blue skies are enough to make you raid your piggy bank and book a cabin on her boat.
Actually, that sounds like a pretty good idea.
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