My plan to sit in the meeting, appearing to be interested, then handing over The Letter went for a Burton.
Officially this was because I was being reasonable and wanted to give Tweedledum and Tweedledumber the chance to rethink their plans (as they were bound to have built the new teams around me, being the genius that I am). The real reason was that I just couldn’t wait. Hell, I was even in work before 8 and it’s unusual for me to get in before 9 recently.
Tall Andy repeated his view that this was a sad day, Stubby said I shouldn’t leave her (but had no response when I pointed out she’s applying for other jobs and seems to have no qualms about leaving me - I need the Internet Anagram Server to decode the messages from her at times!). Other reactions included “Good for you!”, “I wish I could do that.” and “Oh my god what will we do with out you so when are you off?” by text from the punctuationally challenged Leah. The most common question was “What are you going to do?” and my answer evolved somewhat over the course of the day.
Morning: “I’m not sure. A bit of web design, a bit of photography, stacking shelves at the local supermarket and/or a few hours each week in the local shop.”
Lunchtime: “I’m going to be a professional dabbler.” (I like the idea of having this in my next passport)
Afternoon: “I’m going to become a gigolo. The pay’s not good but the fringe benefits are awesome.” adding - depending on who was asking - either nothing, “You’ll get a discount, of course” or “You’ll get a discount, of course, … nah, you wouldn’t have to pay at all!”
I can’t answer Leah’s second question yet. My letter said I’d leave on a mutually agreed date between April 4th and June 6th and I think that Tall Andy, Mr Hassle and Tweedledumber will be meeting next week to work out when would be most convenient. Whatever’s decided, I hope we have a fine summer for me to enjoy before I have to get seriously into earning some spending money.
In what I’m taking to be a positive omen, a colleague who I’ve known since we were both in Perth came over to see me in the afternoon. She’d mentioned last week that she and her husband are buying a pub/restaurant and will be needing artwork for the walls as the current owners aren’t including the existing fixtures in the sale. I’d mentioned my large selection of photographs - I keep a couple of hundred in my desk and rotate which one’s on display in a frame as the whim takes me - so she came to see them.
She loved Winter Fun, Plenty of Water and Sea Defences - she clearly has excellent taste - and a handful of other East Anglian photos and so has taken my photos home to agree with hubby which ones they’d like on their wall. The excellent news is that they’re big walls and so will be looking for six or so A2 prints - kerching! - and we’ve struck a deal in that I’ll give them a discount off the normal price of prints in return for their displaying “Buy a copy of this photograph and others by a local photographer at www.6by4.net” (so I’d better get that URL ready).