Quoth the Raven, Nevermore

So yesterday was my last day at my old job. It was hard, and it was sad - I mean, the day itself was great fun, there was no work for me to do so I just hung around and distracted the other guys from their work :-) - but saying goodbye was hard, especially because the two guys there who I consider friends rather than just co-workers (Dilbert moment - almost couldn't resist typing "cow-orkers") are both leaving for London soon. We'll be in contact, but it won't be the same as seeing them every day.

I'm sure that to a lot of people it seems odd, being sad at leaving your job - but I was really happy there, and we had a good group of people, and it's always sad to see something like that break up. I'm sure that my new job will be great, and that it's a good career move, and that I'll make friends there - but it's an ending, and endings are always sad for me. In this case, the ending is followed by a beginning, and I'm sure it'll be good.

When the four of us resigned, the rest got together and gave us farewell cards, and everyone wrote a little message inside - but we didn't get to write messages for each other, and obviously not for the people staying behind (except that I got Dave and Jochem to write in my card afterwards - thanks, guys :-) So, even though I said goodbye to them all yesterday, here's a goodbye message for them. If you guys come across this page and read it, good; if not, well, at least I got to say it. Ah, the catharsis of blogging.

Tomasz, Trevor, Farrel, Amanda - it's been great working with you guys, and I wish each of you individually, and the company as a whole, all the best. I hope the new company does well, and that you're all happy there. If not, give me a shout - I know some good recruitment agencies ;-)

Keith - I'd say you were the best boss I've ever had, except that you're actually the second boss I've ever had, so that wouldn't carry much weight :-) Your management style was awesome, and you got the job done with a minimum of beaurocratic inteference - even if you did make us do design docs and unit tests and post mortems ;-) I hope that whatever you decide to do works out well for you, and that if you end up working for another boss, that he's as good as you were.

Jochem - thanks for being a friend, especially for giving me good advice when I was freaking out a couple of weeks ago, and even more for the even better advice yesterday. Good luck for London - I expect regular updates on how it's going, and what the current state of the job market is :-)

Dave - It's been a hectic year and a half, and thanks for being a friend through it all. It's been fun! Best wishes for London, enjoy the Belgian Grand Prix, and don't forget to send me photos of it :-) I know we'll keep in touch via e-mail and msn, so this isn't really goodbye, but I'm gonna miss seeing you at work every day, and it'll be strange to have no-one complaining about incompetence ;-)

So Dave, Jochem, I'll see you in London, maybe late next year, but keep in touch. The rest of you guys, cheers, and I'm only an e-mail away if you want to keep me updated on the latest tps stats :-) I'll miss you all, but I think I'm going to miss my laptop and the DSL connection the most .... <grin>