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Another flight and aside from a meltdown in the departure lounge Phoebe was a happy passenger, charming the people around her with smiles and games (and at the end of the flight holding up her arm to the people behind her as if to acknowledge the success of her antics). She is now able to say her own name (after a fashion) and there’s something a little bit “The Shining†about the way she growls “Fee-Beeâ€. And she does say it over and over again. She is so self-obsessed. She gets that from her mum.
There were delays and the plane was packed and I was very glad that we’d changed our plans at the last minute and not flown to Chicago today. It would have been a ridiculously long day of waiting in an airport. Just taking this one flight was stressful enough. I warned the guy sitting next to us that Phoebe had been in a bit of a bad mood (I think she is probably teething), but luckily he was very happy go lucky about it. We talked a little bit about sports, as he was a fan of soccer and I managed to bluff my way through, though I don’t think I really made him aware of how bad my team York City really are. Luckily he decided to listen to music for most of the flight as I’d pretty much given him everything I knew about all sport.
We flew into La Guardia airport and got an amazing view of the isle of Manhattan at dusk, basking in pink crepuscular light. We’re only here for four nights and have treated ourselves to a posh hotel where there’s a man to take you up in the lift. Do we have to tip him every time we go to and from our room? Where did Top Cat get that coin on the end of a string?
My brother-in-law was heading back to the UK today, so for this last part of the trip it’s just me and my girls and I am looking forward to our stay. My wife and I came here (what? I can’t believe it) seven years ago, so it will be a but different this time with our sexcrement in tow. I can’t believe how much we got done on that last trip, when we only had to worry about getting ourselves dressed and wiping our own arses. But we’re near Central Park and it seems we did almost everything last time, so I am looking forward to chilling out. It was a late night for Phoebe as we weren’t in the room until about 9pm, but she went straight to sleep and we got room service. For one of the first times in the 84 days since I last had a drink I got a twinge of regret that I wasn’t drinking a fancy cocktail with my wife on holiday in New York. There’s only two weeks to go until I hit my arbitrary 100 day target. But now we’re on the more romantic and less Warsawy part of our holiday it seemed a shame not to be able to relax with my wife after a tough day.
I stayed steadfast for now.
