The end of another phase…

So I had my last day today at QinetiQ, the employer of my first full time job. From businessweek posts, I’m surprised at how many people seem to be so anxiously, yet understandably, wanting to leave work. On the other hand, I’ve had such a great 2 and half years at the organisation that I felt strangely sad when I got into work today- started to realise how nice the people at work are and how much I’m going to miss them. Walking through those big gates for the last time as the weather was turning thundery- it felt a bit of subdued at first as I went about my checklist throughout the morning. Sent out my final e-mail with my contact details to all the UK lot. Turned up at the pub for farewell lunch to see some key colleagues, by this point the weather had cleared a bit and was still pretty hot and muggy- we headed to the beer garden of course.
Then the leaving ceremony, one of the senior managers gave a impromptu speech that made me laugh, it just so happened that he was my first landlord when I arrived in the area for the job, so I could relate to his anecdotes of my beginnings- all innocent just out of uni. Then my short and sharp speech- I explained how much fun I had had and made the key point of how I was going to miss the laid back culture and extremely nice people within the organisation- and of course, had to mention my clear motivation for the MBA. Then came the fun part, the presents:
· I got some Amazon certificates to set me on some more books- Although I’m now debating whether I should really buy some novel to read on the beach in Tanzania over the summer rather than another management book, after all I’ll have two years to be read up on that stuff.
· An inflatable globe (was asked not to try and stick pins in it…)
· Then I got something really usefull- American English/ English American glossary. Yes, to ease the culture change in subtle differences in language, this book is a definite must. Is mince meat really known as "hamburger meat" in the US!!? You make hamburgers from mince meat, but I find it hard to believe that Americans refer to mince universally as "hamburger meat"! Someone correct me here please... Catapult- Slingshot is another one- to me these are two different things, Bart Simpson uses a catapult, David slays Goliath with a slingshot- barely interchangeable. Sorry I digress...

So after the presents and a few more pints I was set. Handed in my IBM ThinkPad laptop (I have to say at this point, having been through Dell and IBM laptops, I will certainly be sticking to IBM, they are just so much more robust). After clearing my desk, that was that- the end of another phase in my life, now student days are back! But first, packing this weekend, the occasional pint, then 7 weeks home sweet home in Tanzania, the second part of my complex move to California. Flying out on Wednesday. It’s all happening so quickly. EXCITING TIMES TO COME!!