The next chapter

Well, it came and went. R day that is. To most that means Retirement, but I say it’s Restart.

Unisys (who ‘supports’ the Institute network), in a grand final symbolic gesture, lost all my personal mail during one of their periodic ‘upgrades’. I merely shrugged fairly confident that I had forwarded to my home address anything of importance.

My last days were nice. The marketing bunch took me to lunch on Thursday at King of Kings yum cha in Chinatown, Fortitude Valley. I hadn’t been before … best of its kind that I’ve encountered. It is said to be very ‘authentic’ and judging by the number of Asians there I suspect this might be so.

I received the customary farewell gift – quite lovely as it turned out (I’ve always been afraid of farewell gifts … so often people get something awful and have to feign delight). But then I was fairly confident of the taste of the people in our marketing unit.

Friday was one long celebration, with moments of panic when I feared I might have to stay well into the night to clear my computer of incriminating evidence.

A big bunch of flowers arrived mid-morning. I was surprised but thought it could be from Colin or any number of local fans. I looked at the card and it took me several readings to comprehend … ‘Beth and Ian’ (yes, THAT Beth!) Everyone was impressed. I was overwhelmed.

Later the Doggetts paper rep arrived with another bunch of flowers and a bottle of Merlot … nobody could remember a paper rep doing such a thing before. Maybe I am a nice person.

A couple of the marketing staff then bought champagne and muffins for a last celebration. Who knows what stupid things I did on the computer after that.

I’ll miss the people. And I’ll miss my lovely dual-processor G4 with its 20″ Cinema display.

But I’ll get over it. There’s so much to look forward to.

In 4 weeks time Colin and I fly out of Brisbane – to Rome, via Bangkok. Some of our more faint-hearted friends will think us crazy in the light of the horror in Spain, but I figure it’s still heaps more dangerous to cross the road in Rome. Besides, I believe it’s of utmost importance to refuse to be intimidated by terrorists.

Despite the danger and uncertainty, I’m really looking forward to this chapter of my life. So far as I’m concerned, all that has gone before has been merely the prelude … the main event is about to begin.

FOOTNOTE: Almost forgot to mention – my passport arrived yesterday