A Few Farewells

It has been a busy old week, so I'm very glad that its the weekend and we can do a bit of chilling out!

The snow lasted into this week - despite what promised to be a rapid thaw on Friday, but didn't turn out that way. We went to the Anupam for Indian food on Friday and the walk from the car park to the restaurant was interesting. And by interesting I mean that I was being Jayne Torville, but with a little more success in staying upright than on previous days! Well, they say practise makes perfect...! The snow also make our visit to Richard and Justine's on Saturday night quite fun as they live on one of the steeper streets in Malvern, but with Richard and Stephen holding me up I made it from the car to the house without hurtling down the hill at top speed.

Our Chairman retired this week and Stephen and I were invited to his retirement bash on Thursday. This meant a day at Head Office in Hampshire. I arrived just in time for the coffee run which was quite excellent timing on my part I have to say! I parked myself next to my mate - the Chairman's EA - which meant, when the new Chairman (American, charming) popped along to see her, I got introduced to him. This turned out to be mildly amusing as one of my office companions from Malvern was sitting a few feet away and wasn't introduced...and I swear that you could have parked a coffee cup on the bottom lip (except he didn't get a coffee from the coffee run, so didn't have a cup to park!). He cares about such things.... It did mean that he actually spent time talking to me on Friday (something of a novelty!), so he's obviously decided that I may be a useful person to know as I know people...!

The evening reception was a really lovely event and a fitting send off. There were quite a few old faces who had been invited back, so it was lovely to be able to catch up, and to meet many of the people to whom I've only every phoned or emailed. At one point, when I was standing next to our outgoing Chairman who was speaking to Stephen, a lady standing nearby looked up, looked at me and mouthed "Are you Kerry?"...Yes I mouthed back... "I'm Sandie - I just recognised Stephen!". We were eventually able to speak - rather than lipread!

Friday was a flat out day with work, but we did have to sneak away from the desk for a little while to say goodbye to Rachel who was leaving and heading off to a new, rather exciting, job with plenty of opportunity for foreign travel. I have offered to carry her suitcase to Fiji, but wasn't so keen on being bag carrier on the trips that require flak jackets!

I had a mildly amusing moment when someone across the office called me...not knowing I was across the office! I am obviously a big presence!!! "I'm going to come and see you" I said. "Why?" "Because I'm sitting 15 ft away and I can hear you in stereo!". He looked a little discomfited when he he asked how long I had been there and I told him since June!! He wanted to know something about the proxy and about halfway through he looked at me and said "Are you part-American?".... Now, I'm blaming Tim for that one as we'd just spoken on the phone and it must have triggered my "wadder, budder, y'all" conditioning!!