Goodbye Strode's

Today was my last day at work with all my colleagues. It was a very weird day. It started off with my team and I trying to sort out the new rota for September (which took three hours) and then ended with a wonderful staff party/BBQ/hog roast. As we do every year we sat through the speeches and people being presented with gifts, but this year was different because I was one of the people who was being spoken about and presented with a gift. I admit it. I blubbed. Thankfully not as much as I could of but I did get very emotional. I've been associated with Strode's for 9 out of the 15 years that I've lived in the UK and I've been taught by and worked with 100's of people there. Saying goodbye was really hard. It's like saying goodbye to family. Drinks in the pub afterwards and tearful (slightly intoxicated) hugs and now I'm at home sitting amongst my boxes and debris of my life. I'm still not sure it's all sunk in. I feel like I'd like to have a good cry. 

If you're reading this Strodians, thank you. Thank you a million times over. I'll miss you. And don't think that just because I'll be half way round the world you can get rid of me. As we all know, once you've worked there, you never really escape :) 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 3

  Not a huge amount to report from the last two days. We’ve been pottering about the house getting things sorted. Lots of old crockery in the kitchen to be removed and boxed up. Lots of cleaning to be done as well. My old nemesis, the ants, have found us, so a good clean of the kitchen and living room floors is due today, then we can lay down some traps and hopefully that will deal with most of them.  The house is really lovely and big, but the last tenants didn’t treat the paint work very well. We’re going to speak to the landlady today to find out if we can get some paint and touch up the areas that need it. A good quarantine activity, and might provide us with some exercise as well. There are some areas we won’t be able to do like the staircase as the walls are too high without a ladder, we will do the places we can and get someone in to finish when quarantine is done.  Our shipment will arrive on the 16th August, so as soon as quarantine is done we can organize to have it brought u
Read more

And we're off!

So today is the day. Packing up the flat and our lives was incredibly difficult not just because of the sheer amount of stuff it turns out that I have but because it really did finally dawn on me that I’m leaving. I’ve been a moody cow the last few days and James and my family are saints for putting up with me. I’m exhausted and I’m not really sure I'm prepared for this. I kinda have to be now. We are surprisingly flying via Bangkok which was a shock to both of us. We were both convinced we were flying through Shanghai. Ah well. An experience if nothing else. My hand luggage is over weight apparently. If they weigh it at the gate I'm kinda screwed but if not then woot. At this point I'll just pay.  Leaving home was really hard but it was lovely to have the entire family there to send us off and my best friend. Both James and I are really tired now and anxious to be off. We just want to be there now. I'm looking forward to putting my head down in the hotel and
Read more

Hot, hot, hot!

Image
We finally arrived in Taipei last night at 9.30pm. The flight with EVA was a rather quite good. James had me fearing the worst (Asia's answer to Ryan Air was said more than once). But I think we were both pleasantly surprised. There was good legroom, the seats were wider than normal and had lumbar support. The food (as long as you stuck to the asian dishes) was good and the entertainment was satisfactory. The flight was pretty uneventful and included a stop in Bangkok. This surprised us both as we were convinced that we were flying via Shaghai. We followed everyone else and had a smooth transfer though security and back onto the same plane we're just left. The walk was appreciated though and the chance to change/wash up ect in a bathroom bigger than a closet.  Coming through immigration in Taipei was really quite quick and much less eventful than I had thought it might be. The lovely man at immigration said I was more beautiful in person than in my passport photo. Score one
Read more