Farewell!

I walked into the office today to be confronted by a picture of my (very drunken) ugly mug, pulling one of my more attractive faces.  The larger than life poster, which had been put up in my honour for my last day at Bra Towers, gives a great view up both of my nostrils, (seriously, people shouldn’t be allowed to carry cameras when I’ve been drinking!) and the caption on the poster reads “Don’t ever change, we love you just the way you are xx”.

This pretty much affirms my Bridget Jones status once and for all, but I was overcome with a warm fuzzy feeling that I think…and I’m about as emotionally retarded as you can get, so there’s always the possibility I’m wrong…but I think it was probably a feeling of belonging.

Lots of people love what they do, or love the people they work with, but for me – well I started here as a nineteen year old, and I’ve actually grown up in this place.  Some of the people I started with on my first day are still here and have watched me grow from a stubborn teenager into…well a stubborn thirty year old (sorry guys, the stubborn bit is genetic I think).  They’ve celebrated each step forward with me, picked me up every time I’ve stumbled (granted many of them have laughed and pointed at me before picking me up…!) and helped me through all of the hard times, of which there have been many.

You spend on average, eight hours a day sleeping, two hours a day commuting, and eight hours a day working, leaving just six to be spent with family and friends, and that’s if you’re lucky.  Over the years I’ve spent more time with my work friends than I have with my husband or boyfriend (by the way for the record I didn’t have a husband and a boyfriend at the same time…just in case you were wondering).  Your colleagues can often become your friends, and here it’s just been made even easier, as they’re such a wonderful bunch of lads and lasses.

It’s going to be strange not turning up at the office every morning…not that I’ll miss the commute, but it’s a routine I’ve had for nearly 11 years…but more than anything I’ll miss my Bra Towers family, and know that wherever I go next, I’ll never get to work with a more wonderful, genuine, friendly, supportive and bloody gorgeous bunch of people.

Thank you everyone – for making my time here so special, and for putting up with my singing, and my sarcasm, and my verbal abuse towards our systems.  I’m going to miss you all heaps xxx