What a day. Sara's very last day at work - tomorrow she becomes a pensioner - at 50! Never thought I would see the day when my younger wife becomes a pensioner and I am still actively at work. I guess that's the way of things and why we men live generally much shorter lives! Sara spent the morning finishing off a number of tasks and emptying drawers and cupboards. I spent the day with a couple of telephone conferences, checking a paper to go to the HR Director and reading some more medical reports. Sara was given a presentation by the HR girls at around 1.30 p.m. when she received a huge card and two parcels of presents - in one parcel several small joke items which were all relating to ginger ("Ginge" being Sara's nickname at school) and the other parcel containing some rather nice aromatherapy goodies including a book and starter kit. Sara was very stoic and made an excellent little speech. Her laptop was removed almost immediately afterwards and I helped her taker her things to her car and hand in her office/car park pass. It was a bit of a choking moment for me as I realised Sara was no longer an employee and would only return as a visitor - 21 years of service and not even a farewell from any senior manager within HR. I returned to the office to attend to a number of minor items. Having worked from 8 a.m. and had no lunch break I rang my staff in Dorking and told them that I would be leaving early. I drove down to Southampton and got tickets at St. Mary's for the Hearts pre-season friendly next Saturday and the Northampton Carling Cup tie on 11 August. I secured our own seats for both games. As I was driving back down Canute Road I saw Queen Mary 2 berthed in the new Ocean Terminal and drove on down onto the Town Pier. I was privileged to see both Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria set sail - both looked elegant in their Cunard colours although they'll never look as elegant as the three older Queens. Also in dock was Celebrity Cruises' brand new ship, the 122,000 tons Celebrity Equinox awaiting her maiden voyage on 8th August. Apparently, she has a croquet lawn on board! Back home I posted up the photos I had taken on Facebook and Sara and I drank champagne. Tomorrow I need to be in our London office for 9.00 a.m. so I need to catch to 06.57 train from Grateley - this will mean getting up at 5 a.m. so I'll close now so I can get all my clothes and papers ready for the morning. Sara is currently asleep on the sofa in the lounge.
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