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The last full day of the cruise was a sea day as the ship chugged the 150 miles from Martinique to Barbados very slowly. The twins spent the morning by the pool with everyone else, but after their usual hot dog and chips lunch they spent the afternoon at the Reef. The ladies and George abandoned the rest of the party to go and pack. George was quickly back with the rest of the men by the pool, saying he had only a small bag to pack as he had only been on board for a week. The men indulged in a discussion on tipping, deciding how much they would give and to whom.
Jinnie packed her and Paolo’s main cases, leaving out only what was required for that evening and their ‘travelling clothes’. Once in their evening things, she decided she could put today’s clothes in the cases and from there it would be easy to put the last bits and pieces in the cases before bed and put them outside the suite door for the overnight collection. Jinnie thought ‘Well that’s half the packing done, now for the kids’ and walked through the communicating door into the twins’ suite, only to find Izzy with their three-quarter full cases on their respective beds. It took them next to no time to get the packing finished and the clothes laid out for that night and tomorrow.
Izzy and George picked up the twins from the Reef and George took them to the ship’s Emporium, saying as he had not been about at Christmas, he had not been able to get them a present for Santa to deliver, so what did they want from the toys on display. They had a look around and, in the end, they chose cuddly cat glove puppets. Millie’s was white with pink eyes and Willie’s black with green eyes. Izzy said they were adorable and asked if they were going to travel in their suitcases or their backpacks. The twins looked at each other for a second before chorusing “In our backpacks of course.”
After dinner, Jinnie put the twins to bed and put the last of their things in their cases before wheeling them into the corridor for collection. Jinnie was surprised to see how many bags were already in the corridor, with different coloured tags indicating which plane they were to go on. When Jinnie came back into the room, two cuddly cats were waiting to hear the twins reading the next chapter of their bedtime story.
***
It was an early breakfast on the last morning on board, as they were supposed to be out of their cabin by 8 am. However, after being tipped, Barry suggested the family might like to put all their hand luggage and coats into one cabin and collect them after breakfast, which was exactly what they did, piling all the coats and bags on the twins’ sofa bed. They were greeted in the Epicurean for breakfast by the Trans manager, who said as they were in port, would they like breakfast on the terrace under the awning, and the twins yelled “Yes”.
Several small tables were quickly put together and the party were soon tucking in to their last P&O breakfasts of the holiday in the warm air. With the noise of forklifts unloading cages filled with cases in the background, Penny said “You know I have enjoyed this cruise even more than last year. I’m not sure why, perhaps it’s because I was a little apprehensive last year, not knowing quite what to expect. While this year I know what to expect and how to make the most of things.” “I think you’re right,” said her mother, “I have loved spending this time with the family, but I think this year has been really special because of Izzy and George’s engagement.”
Mrs Walsh asked, “Are we booking again for next year?” to which Penny said, “I was just about to ask the same question.” A smiling Jinnie said “Too late, it’s already done. I stopped in at the Future Cruise Desk a few days ago and it’s all done.” Turning to Izzy she said, “And that includes you and George.” “I hope you will let your mother and I pay for our own cruises,” said James. “Now I’m an MP, I have to be very careful about accepting gifts and have to declare them in case it looks like I’m being bribed by big business.”
***
After breakfast, the family collected their hand luggage and jackets and found a spot in the ship’s atrium to while away the time until they were called for their various coaches to the airport. The twins pulled iPads out of their backpacks and sat down to play games. Jinnie was deep in the latest John Grisham novel on her Kindle when her mobile rang. Dragging herself back from the world of American lawyers, she saw Monica’s name on the screen, so scrambled to answer the call. “Good morning, Monica,” said Jinnie. “Morning, Boss,” replied Monica. “I thought I should update you on progress while you’re still in Barbados. When is your flight?” “Not until 17:05,” answered Jinnie, “but they are aiming to have us at the airport three hours before that. I think it is so early because they use the same buses to take the incoming passengers to the ship.”
“OK,” continued Monica, “rather than talk on the phone, why don’t we meet at the airside concession? We can talk properly, and I can show you some of our preliminary numbers. Besides, we have recently added big doughnuts to the range, and the twins will love them. I’ll give the concessions a surprise inspection and be there when you arrive.” “Right-oh,” replied Jinnie, “but just one word of warning, the twins have grown hugely since you saw them in the summer.”
At 09:35, Paolo went off with all the passports to clear Barbados immigration. On his return, he told them that there was a long row of immigration officers who had given each passport a cursory glance, before scanning it, stamping it, and saying “Welcome to Barbados.” As he left the inspection, he had been handed a small slip of paper for each member of the party that said ‘Passport Inspected – Free to go Ashore’.
The timetable said that the Jinnie, Paolo, the twins, Izzy and George’s ‘Pink’ label group were to meet in the theatre at 12:45, so of course the twins wanted lunch first, so Izzy and George took them to get hot dogs from the pool outlet and brought the adults back a pile of pizza slices. By 12:30 the twins were itching to be moving, so they kissed goodbye to their grandparents, aunt and uncle, whose ‘Red’ labels had another hour to wait, and entered the theatre where they were invited to take a seat in the front row until their flight was called.
At exactly 12:45 they were asked to follow a guide off the ship, and made their way to the gangway, where they all used their cruise cards to check off the ship. They were then led along the dockside to a queue of buses that took them to the airport. The twins were a bit disappointed that the front seats on their bus had already been taken. They already had their boarding passes, that had been delivered with their return luggage labels and departure instructions to the cabin a couple of days ago. They only had to have their passports checked again and pass through the security check to enter the departure lounge. Jinnie led the party on the enforced walk through the duty-free area, pausing only for Izzy to buy the twins the obligatory giant bars of Toblerone for their backpacks, and into the waiting area. After checking on a departure board that their flight was shown as on time, but no gate number was yet on display, she took them over to the Artisan Sandwiches/Aunty JoJo’s outlet where she spotted Monica behind the counter. Monica saw them approaching and came out to greet them. Jinnie couldn’t help thinking that in her business suit Monica looked every bit the senior management that she was.
After saying hello to everyone and being introduced to George they were led to several empty tables that had ‘Reserved’ signs on them. “Where are your parents?” asked Monica. “Oh, they are on the second Gatwick flight,” replied Jinnie, “they should be along in about an hour.” “Right,” said Monica, “have you had lunch? Do you want anything to eat or drink?” Jinnie answered, “We had a snack lunch and will get dinner on the plane, but I don’t know about the others, but I could do with a proper cup of British tea and the twins would love to try one of your doughnuts.”
Monica said to the twins, “Come on over to the counter and you can choose from the selection.” The twins and Izzy headed off with Monica and were quickly back, each carrying a plate with a big ring doughnut on it. Millie’s had pink icing and hundreds and thousands on it, while Willie’s had chocolate icing and chocolate hundreds and thousands. Izzy was carrying cartons of juice and had a dozen wrapped paper straws and explained, “The twins have a tendency to get their straws soggy, so I picked up spares.” Monica arrived back with a big box labelled ‘Artisan Donuts’ and placed it in the middle of the table, saying, “Sorry about the American spelling, but it’s to attract the American flyers. We noticed that they weren’t attracted to the outlet as much as the Europeans, so we did a survey asking what they wanted, and we didn’t offer.”
Monica continued, saying, “We got a lot of people saying, ‘Donuts and coffee’ and a lot of ‘Pastrami on rye’ and ‘Submarine rolls’, even ‘Peanut butter and jelly’, but what became apparent was that what the Americans call a sandwich can be almost anything from a roll to a toastie and there is an enormous variation across the country. So, we tried a few things and advertised them around the departure lounge. ‘Donuts and coffee’ was a winner, as was ‘Hot salt beef’, ‘Pastrami on rye’ and an American version of our ‘Breakfast roll’, but the Americans tend to like toasted bread, mayonnaise instead of butter, and if they have cheese it is a square of the horrible American cheese and melted under the grill.”
“But it worked,” said Monica, “now the place is packed all day, not just when the flights to Europe take off in the late afternoon and early evening. Because we are in the same time zone as the East Coast, flights to the US go all day and if the product is right, the Americans will buy it. Our sales are up by 100% in the last few weeks since we tried catering for the Yankees.” As she finished talking, one of the counter staff arrived with mugs of black tea, a jug of milk and sachets of sugar. The Yorkshire tea bags were still in the cups brewing and there was even a saucer to dump the used tea bags on.
Jinnie helped herself to a red velvet doughnut with a strawberry cream filling and said, “Gosh this is good, do we make them?” “No,” answered Monica, “we buy them in from a small bakery. We are now taking 75% of their production, the rest is sold to independents on the island. I was wondering if we should think about buying them and trying them in Aunty JoJo’s. It would mean an investment in increasing production and there is no guarantee they will catch on.”
“Here’s what I suggest,” said Jinnie, “I’m sure you are busy with the new project, so let’s unload this one on Jorja. It’s not a huge project, but it will be a good one to cut her teeth on. Get her to cost buying the bakery, opening an Artisan Donuts shop in Bridgetown, somewhere where there is lots of passing trade. Then cost options for getting the doughnuts into an Aunty JoJo’s or two, it will need a chilled display. Oh, we will also have to look at increasing doughnut production and need a few options like doubling, trebling or quadrupling it. Trademark the name immediately in every market we serve and might serve. This could be another Dunkin’ Donuts if we play it right. Make sure we have the rights to make the product worldwide. I want to talk to Brooke about trying this in our UK Artisan Sandwich shops, and I’d like to be sure we are using original recipes and not infringing anyone’s rights.”
“I think I’ve noted all that,” said Monica. “Would you mind if I get Jorja to talk to you directly if she has any questions?” “Not in the slightest,” replied Jinnie. “Please do, I’d be delighted to talk to her, give her my mobile number. Now, I’m sure you didn’t want to talk about donuts, how’s the catering business going?” Monica smiled broadly and said, “Very well, in fact much better than I anticipated. We have got the initial team set up and Nigel was great, we linked into the computer network and are well into putting the bid together. Strangely, I am beginning to think we could win this one with a decent profit margin. The more we investigated things, the more I find that the competition have been ripping off the cricket board and the customers. We can bring down prices substantially, guarantee quality and a better set of menus. In fact, it has just struck me we could try including an Artisan Donut outlet. I’ll see if we can make and sell hot donuts, even if it’s just ones tossed in sugar.”
“Good idea,” said Jinnie. “Now, when does the Kensington Oval tender have to be in?” “1st of March,” replied Monica. “So we have loads of time. The cricket board want to be in a position to be able to place a new five-year contract well before the domestic season starting in May. Trevor and I have been around the stadium and the outlets and kitchens are all part of the stadium. We would just need new signage and match day staff. I talked to the stadium manager, and he tells me that, failing a last-minute bid, we and the incumbents are the only people interested, and the incumbents have no idea they have competition. He is on our side as he thinks the current contract is a rip-off. Basically, I’m pretty happy with our progress on the bid. Now, a couple of new points. I had a very productive meeting with Belinda while she was here with her family for the holidays, and she gave me a lot of tendering tips. She also brought her daughter, Miranda, along with her and we had a long talk about an events business. I have come to the conclusion that we should launch an events business here. It should be separate to the catering business and Miranda should be involved. She has the experience and Continental can do the food from their DKL outlets.”
“I’m impressed,” said Jinnie. “I have started sketching out how I think we could run an events business on Barbados,” said Monica. “My plan isn’t ready yet, but I talked with both Trevor and Patricia and they have been encouraging. In fact, Patricia has been taking a keen interest. She says that making money with Aunty JoJo’s had become too easy and these new projects are exciting.”
Jinnie liked the idea of Patricia being more involved again. She knew business on the island as well as anyone and said so to Monica. She replied, “Yes, she knows lots of people and she learns things. I don’t know if I should mention this, as it is still in the very early stages, but she tells me the Bay View Hospital is expanding and are adding an onsite restaurant for staff, patients and visitors. They currently have a kitchen that deals with patients’ meals, but I hear they are going to appoint someone to run the new scheme. I have an appointment with the hospital superintendent on Monday and I will be pushing for a chance to bid for the catering contract without it going to tender.”
“Do you think that it is possible?” asked Jinnie. “Definitely,” replied Monica. “Patricia says they don’t really want to bother with a public tender. They are not a huge business and worry that it would be expensive. In the past they have always awarded contracts directly to companies on the island and, as I said, Patricia knows people at the top.” “Don’t get involved with anything that’s not quite right,” warned Jinnie. “I have no intention of that,” answered Monica, “but I fully intend to use Patricia’s old pals’ network.”
***
The flight back to Gatwick and the drive around the motorway had gone smoothly. As Paolo drove the Lexus onto the drive just after 9 am, Jinnie was certain she saw the sitting room curtains twitch and guessed Larry had done his usual trick of knowing they were on the way home and would be behind the front door to greet them. As she unlocked the front door, the twins stood behind her moaning about how cold it was. But they knew she had to go in first to turn off the alarm. Brushing past Larry and the pile of mail behind the front door, Jinnie punched the code number into the alarm pad and the buzzing stopped. Jinnie said hello to Larry, who was obviously happy to see everyone, before asking the twins to pick up the post and sort it out before going back out into the cold to help Paolo with the luggage. As she walked to the Lexus, George drove his Kia Sportage through the gates and onto the drive. Izzy and George climbed out, and George lifted her case out of the car, kissed her goodbye, waved to everyone else and drove off.
The kids had sorted the post into four piles: Mummy, Daddy, Izzy and no one in particular. Jinnie went to make coffee and went to the fridge for milk before remembering that no one had been home to stock it for their return. Izzy said, “Why not pop next door and borrow a pint from Sir Nigel? I will pop to Tesco later and get the essentials and do a big shop tomorrow.” “Good idea,” replied Jinnie. Turning to the twins she continued, “Who is coming with me to see Uncle Nigel?”
Five minutes later the twins were back carrying big parcels in Christmas paper, Jinnie had a plastic Tesco bag with milk, eggs, bacon, bread, Hobnobs, butter, cheese, tomatoes and what Willie called some ‘yummy’ looking sausages. Sir Nigel was also carrying a bag with more presents in it. Millie said, “Look Daddy, Santa left presents for us with Uncle Nigel, they were too big to get down the chimney.” Paolo replied, “While you were out I went into the living room and there are a load more presents under the tree. Why don’t you go and sort them out into piles for everyone while Mummy finishes making the coffee and your hot chocolate. We’ll all join you when it’s ready.”
There were six piles on the floor when the adults joined the children, and the biggest piles were in front of the twins. The smallest were for Izzy and Uncle Nigel, who was genuinely surprised that there was anything for him. Jinnie could see that the twins were itching to open their presents, so she suggested that they all take it in turn to open parcels, with the twins going first. There was one parcel labelled for both of them, so they decided to open it first. The twins ripped the paper off the box and found a Lego set to make a Tuxedo Cat. Willie said, “That was what we asked Father Christmas for. Will you help us with it later, please Daddy.” “I think George is coming over later and staying to dinner, so perhaps he might be better,” answered Paolo.
“Who’s George?” asked Sir Nigel. “He’s Izzy’s fiancé,” replied Willie. “He proposed on the cruise,” added Millie. “I don’t think I know him,” said Nigel. “Yes you do,” continued Millie, “he’s that nice policeman at the barrier.” “But they are all nice,” continued Sir Nigel. “But he is extra nice,” said Millie, which made everyone laugh. Jinnie said, “I have an idea. We are going to have a Trattoria Trevi delivery tonight, so why don’t you join us, and you can meet him. I’m sure you will recognise him, anyway you will get to know him soon because he is moving in with Izzy as soon as we can get a gun safe installed and the garden alarmed like yours.” The twins jumped up and down saying, “Please come, please come,” until the ex-PM said, “Yes.”
The parcel opening continued with the twins getting more Lego, a Hogwarts Castle and the Houses of Parliament (from Uncle Nigel), new matching anoraks, selection boxes, chocolate reindeer, books and their least favourite presents – clothes. Jinnie had a new Rolex ladies’ watch from Paolo and a beautiful silver bracelet from Sir Nigel. Sir Nigel was delighted with new slippers from the twins, an original Aran cardigan from Paolo and Jinnie, and a new trilby from Izzy. The last present to be opened was by Izzy and was a gold necklace with an infinity heart, from George. She immediately burst into tears and said, “It is just beautiful and I’m going to wear it on my wedding day.”
***
Just before dinner was due to arrive, Izzy caught Paolo and Jinnie in the dining room laying the table while George and Sir Nigel were helping with the Lego cat. She said to Paolo, “I have been thinking, and would you mind awfully if I asked you to not give me away but to be the Head Usher. I think my dead grandfather would love me to be given away by Sir Nigel.” “Not in the slightest,” replied Paolo, “in fact I have been waiting for you to suggest it ever since Jinnie told me about your childhood. I would love to be Head Usher, that way I don’t have to make a speech and I’m sure Sir Nigel will be much better at it than me.”
Over the twins’ selection of roast chicken, Izzy told Sir Nigel how her grandfather had idolised him and asked if he would give her away. He replied, “After that story, I can hardly say no. I’m absolutely delighted to say yes.” “Thank you so much,” said Izzy. “I suppose I better tell you that we are trying to sort out things as we want to marry in June or July. Then I should be able to go with Jinnie and the children to Barbados in the summer. Jinnie is going to be my substitute mum as she and my dad are dead. Jinnie is going to be Maid of Honour, the twins Bridesmaid and Page Boy, and Paolo Head Usher. I can’t tell you anything more, except Jinnie has offered to pay for the wedding and Belinda’s daughters, Miranda and Melissa, are coming over tomorrow to talk about things like church, reception and dress.”
“Well, let me guess,” said Nigel. “You would like to marry in the same church as Jinnie, the wedding reception will be in the Trattoria Trevi, and Melissa will design you the most beautiful dress.” “Well, that’s what I’d like,” said Izzy, “but I don’t know if it can be arranged.” “I bet Jinnie will make it work,” replied Nigel. “You know that only leaves one thing. Have you thought about a honeymoon?” “Not really,” said George. “That’s usually the groom’s surprise. So, I suppose I better start saving up as it’s going to have to be something pretty special.” “As I’m sort of stand-in dad, the least I can do is pay for the honeymoon and I also have an idea, come and chat to me later when we can talk alone,” said Nigel. “Thank you, Sir,” said George, “but are you sure? I hardly know you.” “But I know Izzy,” replied Nigel, “and she is special, so if you want to, think of this as my wedding gift to her.”
In Chapter 10 – Wedding Planning
© WorthingGooner 2025
