Picture from Pictures of England

This year hasn’t been especially easy for me as I haven’t seen my daughter since Christmas and as you can imagine (particularly if you’re a long time reader of my blog and recall how much fun we used to have together) this has had an effect on my general happiness. She moved to Scotland last year and although we talk on the phone most days, and message on Facebook, it hasn’t been easy. Emily is on half term now and has returned to Teesside on a family visit, so I took the journey I haven’t done for a long time up there to see her for the night.

My first port of call was my maternal granddad, who I haven’t seen since my nana’s funeral in February. My guilt at not seeing enough of him soon faded away when he invited me in. he said he understands that I can’t just pop and see him. Apart from the pre-funeral meet up, this was the first time I had seen the house without my nana in it. Memories of childhood came flooding back, all of them happy.

Emily was pleased to see me, which was a weight off my mind. I took her to Saltburn with the intention of going out for a meal. She had decided that she wanted to have an Indian meal and recommended a nice restaurant. Once in Saltburn we had a walk along the pier and caught up with our news, and had a lovely chat about old times. Even though we don’t see a lot of each other it is nice to know that we can fall into this sort of day and enjoy each other’s company. Of course the love between us is still there, but given Emily’s age it was heartwarming that she has such a fond recollection of our past. I am proud of the fact that I gave her a happy childhood full of activity and I wasn’t just an access dad who took her to McDonald’s once a month and that we actually got to know each other. Emily still has the sense of humour she has always had, a sense of humour similar to mine. She has developed a slight Scottish accent but laughed with me at my lighthearted piss taking when I replied with a cartoonish “hoch-aye the noo”. Giving as good as she got, she asked if I had OCD about taking photographs of ghost signs when I spotted a few in Saltburn (you can see them on my Facebook page). I replied that it isn’t just ghost signs but spelling mistakes and other things too, at which point she added my collection of Disney paintings on ice-cream vans and asked if I really thought that the ice-cream sellers were going to kill me. When I challenged her about reading my blog she hit me back with “sometimes, but some are boring”, the girl has a point.

The meal was lovely and what it nicer was how grown up it was, a million miles away from the Wacky Warehouse and the pre-dinner hour in the ball pool. Emily ordered for herself and asked about the strength of various dishes. It was a nice restaurant too and didn’t treat Emily as a child, which she isn’t really. As much as I still think of her as my baby girl, she has grown up into a wonderful young woman and I couldn’t be prouder of her.

===

My daily blog can be delivered straight to your Kindle for 99p a month (link)

Listen to The Sunday Alternative here

All donations received via the PayPal button above will be used to fund creative projects such as podcasts, short films, documentaries, comedy sketches and a whole lot more. You are under no obligation of course, but thanks in advance if you do drop something in the pot.