Anyway, I was busy all day. They found a temporary replacement for me at the 11th hour - i.e. last thing yesterday afternoon - so I had one day to teach him everything he needed to know about my job. I didn't realise how much there was to know about my job until I had to train somebody else to do it.

Anyway, that kept me pretty anti-social for most of the day.

They bought us all Red Rooster for lunch though. It arrived just after I had finished eating my tuna sandwich. Apparently I was told beforehand about this lunch, but I don't remember. So ... I had two lunches.

Hugo the Coffee Man arrived shortly afterwards and gave me free coffee. I'm going to miss that guy.

Back to work. Work work work. Train train train.

By 3PM I was all supervised-out. You can only spend so long watching somebody else doing the job you already found boring for three years, before your eyes start to roll back into your head, or you lose control of things like breathing with your mouth shut. Ever seen Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? Johnny Depp's confused drug-fucked frowns as he tried to make sense of the world?

I'm pretty sure that's how I looked as I tried to concentrate on watching the new guy.

At half past three the cake came out. I was stuffed full from my two lunches and large coffee, but to turn down the cake would have been bad form. Besides, humans have a separate stomach for desserts, kind of like sugary bovines. As we tucked in to our cheesecake, I was given a little gift bag. There were chocolates in it, and a card, and my pay (I got a lovely, healthy, strapping bonus), and a gold bracelet. I bordered on misty-eyed, especially when I noticed my colleague getting misty-eyed, but I was determined to fight it back. I don't really like crying in front of other people these days (I even get annoyed with myself when I cry in front of Daniel) so I blinked it back and focused on how nice it all was. I will miss the people I worked with. It's easy to say that within a day of leaving. It's also easy to say, "I'll email them regularly".

It's my genuine, good-hearted intention but who am I kidding? I barely email the people I went to school with.

I knew I wouldn't get out of work on time, but I didn't really mind.

I didn't get to say goodbye to Kurt (I may have mentioned the 70-something Austrian bloke who has a soft spot for me) and I felt bad about this. Since I resigned two and a half weeks ago I have been so busy that I have only spoken to him three times. I meant to go and say goodbye today but by the time I realised what the time was, it was about half an hour after he had gone home, and I felt bad because I knew he would probably be a bit hurt and disappointed. I left an aluminium insert for him (that is his job, polishing things and straightening things and bending things, often things that I have cut on the routing machine), with a string around it instead of a ribbon because ribbon is in somewhat short supply in a manufacturing company. I emptied my hole punch over it like confetti and wrote a brief note for him. I think he will like that. I hope he does.

Also I told the others that if they weren't sure what to do with the remaining sliver of cheeecake, to give it to him.

I know; I'm all heart.

I left work having hugged and kissed everyone in the office, fighting off a light mist in my eyes but feeling good. I am glad I felt nostalgic as I left. I am glad I didn't burn any bridges. I am glad that I don't feel as though I wasted my life there, because it is behind me now as a fond memory. Had I stayed it would be around me and in front of me like a stifling grey blanket. A good example of why some things are best left behind even if it makes you a little sad to do so at the time.

I now have the rest of this week off, so what with the bonus and all I am thinking it's time to buy Marzipan some new boots.