Bloggers note – obviously this is posted way out of sequence, I somehow missed posting it back at the beginning of the month…
Can’t stay for long
Just turn around and I’m gone again
Maybe tomorrow I’ll wanna settle down
Until tomorrow I’ll just keep movin’ on
It’s odd that my family should have such a strong sense of roots, and yet should produce a daughter who…often feels that she doesn’t really have a home. Very odd.
Today is the last day of the 2011 Grand World Voyage. By now they will have once again painted over the great beige logo that graced the bow for the last three months, reducing our flagship to another ship in the fleet again – one that just happens to be running the dreaded holiday season special. After a crazy day of prize redemption, last chance bingo, and the inevitable crew farewell (during which there were at least a few tears shed), those few of us that are staying on board for the holidays are preparing to adjust to an ever-more demanding ( in their own way) clientele, which will be served with less staff.
There’s really no turnaround time, much as it feels like there must be. Lace and I will bring the library as much up to scratch as we can tonight, buff, polish and restock everything, before heading off to our farewell dinner in the onboard specialty restaurant (and our evaluations of course) – and I’ll be able to sleep in a little bit tomorrow morning. But the schedules for tomorrow are already published, with a different set of names along the top – only one of which I know, and as of 11:30am tomorrow, this library is once again solely mine. Until January comes along and I once again gain a partner for the World Cruise contract.
Three quarters of my friends disembark tomorrow. A lot of them come back in January – but a large portion of them, Campbell and Wildish included, will not be returning ship-side for the foreseeable future, possibly not ever. Those ones are always a bit of a wrench. I honestly don’t know I’d have made it through this last three months without Campbell and Wildish. Even the Hotel Manager is changing over for the Christmas cruise. A lot of those that are leaving are looking at me as if I’m mad to be staying on as long as I am – but really…the choice wasn’t all mine. I could have said no it’s true – but to do so would have been to give up an opportunity that was really too good to miss. I wasn’t going to miss this itinerary just because I might get a little bit worn out.
Our lives onboard are liquid, they merely fit the forms that are provided to us.
It’s all about the ticking crocodile isn’t it? Time is chasing after us all