At the end of this week, the project that I have been working on in various capacities for more than severn years will finally come to an end. Most of the people I have been working with will disappear, transferred tp the rival company that it taking over the contract. The offices will be emptied of all furniture, fixtures and fittings and will be closed down forever.
So this is my list of goodbyes.
Goodbye to the staff restaurant with its peculiarly variable food quality. No more pastry that you could pave a road with, no more curry that, regardless of what meat is in it, will otherwise contain mostly tinned tomatoes. Goodbye to the shocking pink sausages (what the heck was in them?) Goodbye to the Sting-inspired, burnt-on-one-side-white-on-the-other toast.
Goodbye to the dreadful paintings (if we could call them that) on the walls of the landings. Don’t Feed the Pixies has remarked on these before and he is on the money: they are soulless and unpleasing to the eyein the extreme. I wish we could burn them in the carpark, but I doubt they'll let us.
Goodbye to the smokers’ spot on the pavement leading into the campus, may your blue smoke never stink up my clothes again.
Goodbye to the 06:30 text message from the Mumbai Massive (Indian Help Desk) telling me that all was or was not well with the systems overnight. Goodbye to the middle of the night calls from said Massive, asking me to check why the call centre is experiencing slow response from the computers.
Goodbye to having four machines on my desk – yes, four! Desk space – at last!
Goodbye to the morning walk and twelve minutes homward one (blogged about some time ago). I’ll be home-based so my commute will not be through leaf-carpeted streets, just real carpet.
Goodbye to the many good friends I’ve made over the years. It’s been a blast!
Bittersweet, yes?
ReplyDeleteWhat was the project that it took seven years.Sorting Berties betting dockets? I think you'll secretly miss that food and all those other things.But still onwards and upwards and there will surely be a mighty session on Friday after work.G'luck!
ReplyDeleteYes indeed - goodbye to all of that, but not to me
ReplyDeleteYou don't get rid of me that easily!
Funny how, when you come to the end of something like this, even the things you did not like or enjoy takes on a special meaning. It is a bit like I felt when my previous boss left.
ReplyDelete@Viewtiful_Justin - Bittersweet indeed! They came and took away all the office plants today. I like plants but didn't realise how many of them we had until they went. Now the place looks so bare.
ReplyDelete@TFE - The project was to part motorists from their hard-earned in the heart of London (Congestion Charging). Bertie's Betting slips might have been a bigger challenge.
@DFTP - That's one of the upsides - I met up with you whilst working on this project and hope to continue our collaboration ...
@Human - Yeah, seven years is a lot of memories. Still, onwards....
Sounds like good riddance. Good luck with the transition.
ReplyDelete@Michael - Thanks. Yesterday, they took away the coatstands. What will be next, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteahh.. sweet change!... hope everything turns out for the best, things usually do in my experience. a home based job has got a be a good-un.. (just not the ones at the hard-ware place)
ReplyDelete