A lovely day today. As usual, woke at 7 a.m. and brought tea upstairs for Sara and me to drink whilst I read another chapter of The Lost Symbol. The book is now reaching its climax and I would really like to find an hour to finish it off but this retirement lark seems to leave me with little time to do so! I hoisted the Stars and Stripes today to mark Abraham Lincoln's birthday in 1809. Mary and Molly were taken to school by Karen B and Sara babysat for Karen until about 10.30 a.m. I spent a good bit of the morning sorting out a problem with one of our direct debits with Barclays eventually, via telephone buttons and talking to an Indian in Bombay (or Mumbai or whatever it is now called) named "Harold" who, eventually, passed me on to a very nice lady in England! That sorted I sent a Thought for the Day by email to some of my erstwhile legal colleagues in Dorking on the topic of "stop complaining and act positively". It struck a chord with a couple of them who said the Thought came at precisely the right time. Sara has a small job as a waitress at the Lord Nelson Pub and Brasserie in the village. It was her first day so Richard and I decided to go along as "not quite so mystery shoppers" and check out the food and the staff! We took Tom with us and looked a bit like the Last of the Summer Wine trio (Tom at 13 being the odd one out). I have to say the food and service were excellent although we didn't leave a tip as to do so would have meant Sara receiving her own money back via the joint account. That didn't seem very sensible. Of course, had she been wearing that little waitress's number as in the picture things might have been different! Richard left us and Tom and I played darts in the bar for a little while. After picking Mary up from school, she and I walked back home whilst Sara and Tom drove back. Sarah McC looked after the children this evening whilst Sara and I went to Hox's Indian Restaurant in Salisbury to join some of my erstwhile colleagues in the Technical Claims Team (TCT) who had very kindly decided to take us out for a retirement dinner. This was such an amazingly kind gesture from such a wonderful bunch of people. Those present were Mandy A; Phillip ("The Skate") D; Nige (Ooh Betty!) H; Ali C (no relation to Ali G); Rosemary C; Andy ("Tiger Woods") P; Beth (not Beef) Wellington; My Sara ("The Waitress"); and last, but by no means least The Hon. Mrs. The Lady Gault - my erstwhile colleague but now also my real (as opposed to virtual) friend! We had a fantastic time with anecdotes about work and retirement - most at my expense - life in general and football in particular (Scummers v Skates). My autograph book did the rounds and the comments reflected nearly 20 years of great times. I think we must dine together more often - we had such fun. My only disappointment of the evening was that my very very good friend and erstwhile colleague, Hilary L, was too ill to attend. She has been very much a part of my life during my dealings with the TCT with adventures in Ireland and the North East. Hopefully she will be well enough to be at my retirement do at the Jade next week. The Lady Gault was on great form this evening. She has always been one of my favourite clients. We took her back to her home in Salisbury and saw her flagpole in the garden (inspired by our own). They always said that you needed to be a little mad to work for The Company. Tonight I think we proved that this is true but I would never have wanted it any other way. Thanks guys. You really did make my 20 years interesting and fun!
Friday, February 12, 2010
Sara's New Job/Dinner with Old Colleagues
A lovely day today. As usual, woke at 7 a.m. and brought tea upstairs for Sara and me to drink whilst I read another chapter of The Lost Symbol. The book is now reaching its climax and I would really like to find an hour to finish it off but this retirement lark seems to leave me with little time to do so! I hoisted the Stars and Stripes today to mark Abraham Lincoln's birthday in 1809. Mary and Molly were taken to school by Karen B and Sara babysat for Karen until about 10.30 a.m. I spent a good bit of the morning sorting out a problem with one of our direct debits with Barclays eventually, via telephone buttons and talking to an Indian in Bombay (or Mumbai or whatever it is now called) named "Harold" who, eventually, passed me on to a very nice lady in England! That sorted I sent a Thought for the Day by email to some of my erstwhile legal colleagues in Dorking on the topic of "stop complaining and act positively". It struck a chord with a couple of them who said the Thought came at precisely the right time. Sara has a small job as a waitress at the Lord Nelson Pub and Brasserie in the village. It was her first day so Richard and I decided to go along as "not quite so mystery shoppers" and check out the food and the staff! We took Tom with us and looked a bit like the Last of the Summer Wine trio (Tom at 13 being the odd one out). I have to say the food and service were excellent although we didn't leave a tip as to do so would have meant Sara receiving her own money back via the joint account. That didn't seem very sensible. Of course, had she been wearing that little waitress's number as in the picture things might have been different! Richard left us and Tom and I played darts in the bar for a little while. After picking Mary up from school, she and I walked back home whilst Sara and Tom drove back. Sarah McC looked after the children this evening whilst Sara and I went to Hox's Indian Restaurant in Salisbury to join some of my erstwhile colleagues in the Technical Claims Team (TCT) who had very kindly decided to take us out for a retirement dinner. This was such an amazingly kind gesture from such a wonderful bunch of people. Those present were Mandy A; Phillip ("The Skate") D; Nige (Ooh Betty!) H; Ali C (no relation to Ali G); Rosemary C; Andy ("Tiger Woods") P; Beth (not Beef) Wellington; My Sara ("The Waitress"); and last, but by no means least The Hon. Mrs. The Lady Gault - my erstwhile colleague but now also my real (as opposed to virtual) friend! We had a fantastic time with anecdotes about work and retirement - most at my expense - life in general and football in particular (Scummers v Skates). My autograph book did the rounds and the comments reflected nearly 20 years of great times. I think we must dine together more often - we had such fun. My only disappointment of the evening was that my very very good friend and erstwhile colleague, Hilary L, was too ill to attend. She has been very much a part of my life during my dealings with the TCT with adventures in Ireland and the North East. Hopefully she will be well enough to be at my retirement do at the Jade next week. The Lady Gault was on great form this evening. She has always been one of my favourite clients. We took her back to her home in Salisbury and saw her flagpole in the garden (inspired by our own). They always said that you needed to be a little mad to work for The Company. Tonight I think we proved that this is true but I would never have wanted it any other way. Thanks guys. You really did make my 20 years interesting and fun!
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