When Lance told me about his new job I didn’t know whether to be happy for him or sad that I would never see him again. He is going to sail around the world and will not be back in Australia for at least eighteen months. So ok, I will see him again but not for ages! He has wanted to crew on a yacht forever so of course I was extremely happy for him. Luckily they didn’t set off for a couple of months but he would be pretty busy between now and then working on the boat. He has to get to grips with the boatcatch system, which will be his sole responsibility, so he will be spending lots of time at the docklands. Apparently when you get a job as crew you could be fired at any minute so he has to be available at all times to tend to the boat and impress his captain. He invited me along to the boat to have a look at it but I couldn’t bring myself to meet the beauty that was taking him away from me. I thought we would have one last weekend together before he got too busy so I had planned a little surprise for him. At the last minute he called and said he had to get to boat yard because they needed him for an outboard motor repair in Melbourne. I couldn’t do anything about it. His job came first. I cancelled the restaurant and managed to sell the theater tickets last minute. He would feel guilty if I told him what I had planned so I never did. Now he is somewhere near Brazil having the time of his life, he sends me the occasional email and always signs it off, your loyal seaman.