the adlards

The packers have been in today. The place looked like a bomb had hit it. Those of you who’ve visited will know that the house is always pristine … Englishmen, homes and castles being what they are … yes, OK, three things we know very little about … anyway, we’ve been spending quite a lot of energy sorting out what stays and what goes and precisely how each of them does their allocated aforementioned. This evidently leaves some detritus, so it was with just a twingle of embarassment that I let the three pukka packers in. Usually I avoid this kind of embarassment by not letting anyone in without a warrant.

They were terrific. In a couple of hours the place looked almost tidy. MGW has been saying since we moved in that we need storage boxes so that everything has a place. I think she might have been onto something there … . Anyway. They’d been working as a team for some time and the lead chap had been doing it for 6 or 7 years. He must have started when he was fourteen.

I have a certain respect for people who enjoy doing similar things for long periods of time. I have come across many people ranging from strategists to packers (now) who do that. I can’t. Tomorrow is my last day (despite Ben’s rather enthusiastic exclamation last Thursday) with my current employer. I will have been there 34 months, which is the longest I have worked anywhere, let alone on one programme. I’ve stayed because the people are fantastic and I’ve been allowed to pursue opportunities to develop the business in ways that I find challenging and rewarding. I’m leaving because I began with a set of objectives and a timeframe in mind, both of which have run their course. I’ll remember my time there fondly.

I don’t know why, but whenever I write that I have to wonder who it is I’ll be fondling when I do my remembering. What kind of a word is “fondly”, anyway?

We said farewell to the Coxes this weekend just past. They came to stay with us from Friday evening and we had a great time – although we were somewhat distracted by pressures of moving. Mark and I and the two “big” girls ran loads of stuff to the charity shop. Mark suggested I ring them first:
“Hello. I’ve got a couple of car-loads of stuff to bring around.”
“Is it car boot stuff?”
“Ummmm. Well, what’s car boot stuff and what isn’t?”
“Harrummpf. [long pause]Car boot stuff is stuff you’ve tried to sell at a car boot sale and it didn’t sell and now you want to drop it on me.”
“Oh. Then no, it’s not car boot stuff. We’re moving next week.”
“OH! You’re moving. Bring it over; we’ll take the bad with the good if you’re moving …”

Josie and Elspeth played beautifully together. It was very difficult to say goodbye. I’m sure we’ll make other friends on our travels but I don’t think we’ll make any better ones.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 26th, 2006 at 11:03 pm by james and is filed under Friends, House, Josie, Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.