Shanghai Bob

Last night was my leaving do/going away party in Shoreditch, and today was my last day at work.  I came in just to say goodbye and give back my ID card and blackberry (my badge and gun).  After two years of being on call, I wasn’t sorry to give up the blackberry, but after more than seven years at the company, it was a little sad to ask the guard to open the gate and let me out.

Andy and Mechelle took me to lunch with them at the Walrus and Carpenter.  I ordered steak and ale pie in short pastry and mentioned that when I moved to London, I imagined I would be eating like this all the time.  Andy said don’t stereotype the English.  I said if I were stereotyping, I would have ordered a curry, a lager, and a punch-up.

After lunch I walked back to The Light to pick up my credit card and pay my tab from the night before (I forgot this when we wobbled out to the second venue).

Next I went to the post office and mailed my passport to the US Embassy here in London to get it renewed (that takes some faith!).  I had added some new pages two years ago, but on my trip to Ireland last month, the immigration officer used up the (entire) last clean page.  The website says it will take 15 days, so (fingers crossed) I will have it back before my flight leaves on September 1.

When I got home, I disabled the script that plays music to wake me up in the morning — I still don’t quite believe it, but I won’t need to get up regularly at any certain time for the next year at least.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 10:22 pm and is filed under career, freedom, preliminaries.