The last few times she has spent time at our house have been difficult; mainly because she never looked up from her iphone, grunted answers to questions, and didn't seem to want to be here. Christmas was alright; she joined in with our traditional Christmas Eve 'pound shop fiver dash', let me read The Night Before Christmas to her, admitted that she wanted to believe in Father Christmas but couldn't any more, and had the occasional proper conversation. She was quiet a lot of the time though, and had to be really pushed to take part.
She moved to Scotland a couple of months ago, and I didn't spot it at the time but she seemed to want to talk to me on the phone. Her telephone style is very hit-and-miss and fluctuates between long, informative conversation, and one word answers. As much as I tried to remember, I can't recall being like this at that age, although I just put it down to exactly that. She was spending a couple of weeks in Teesside during the summer to catch up with friends and maternal family, and was originally going to come down for two weeks, which by process of whittling became a few days. Three full days isn't usually enough to thaw her out of the grunting; one half term last year she came out of it on the last day, so I wasn't sure what to expect. As far as I knew, this might be the last time I ever see her until every trace of teenage hormonal mood-swinging is over. Her maternal grandmother sadly died during this stay in Teesside, which understandably threw a spanner in the works, but there was no way I was going to push things now. In fact, I would have fully understood if she didn't feel like she wanted to come. Her grandmother was a lovely woman, and her death was a big shock. I'm sure if I was still with Emily's mother then I would have been more affected by it, but I was still shocked and fondly remember that she was about the first person to approve of the two of us getting together. Finally, Emily agreed to spending some time with me, which is why I have been so nervous as I genuinely didn't know what to expect.
She was in the village square with one of her friends, and her mother when I arrived to meet her. I reasoned that as she was with her friend then she would try and be cool about it, but happily I was wrong. She gave me a big hug and told me she had missed me.
We went for lunch in Middlesbrough before the journey home, and it was a revelation. We were able to talk, have a laugh and a joke, remember old times and good memories, and all the lost dad-and-daughter time of the last year melted away. Maybe it's the change of school that has changed her outlook, as I was never really keen on her going to school in the North-East to begin with, especially not the school that she was at. Maybe it's because her phone was broken and she had no choice but to talk to me, but whatever it was that caused it, I saw the old Emily. It felt like I had got my daughter back, and the relief was overwhelming. Now I don't feel as if we have long enough.
Shame I wasn't staying over, I could have taken her to the Christmas party taking place. Really.
As soon as I saw the above Santa on a pub porch, Emily said that she "just knew" that I was going to take a picture of it. She rolled her eyes at my suggestion that it looked a bit like The Old General, especially as it looks nothing like. The concept of Christmas In July is something that seems to be quite big in Teesside. I remember seeing the same thing in Middlesbrough a few years ago, and have seen people from Middlesbrough tweeting and Facebooking (how very retro) mentioning it. Maybe they're right, twelve months is a long time to have to wait.
We got home a bit later than planned due to traffic, but she still remained talkative and happy. She certainly didn't seem happy last year, so maybe it is all out of her system.
She even laughed when I took this...
Bum. Hilarious.
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