Never made Thorpe Park

Occasionally in these notes I have made reference to the fact that I count the number of people who exit from the train carriage I want to board at Twickenham.  It was always around 20. Then it started to go a bit strange over the summer which I put down to train strikes and summer holidays. Today, 20 people got off the train at Twickenham. I liked that, for my last trip, it was a number I expected. 

It’s Monday and I am in the office because, in some ways, this is my last real day working here. I’ve walked past these signs at Staines for a year and seen the seasonal crowds come and go for the Thorpe Park buses. Earlier in the year it looked like the buses scheduled to depart around 9am were predominantly for staff. Then came the school crowds.  Today, much fewer people, but harder to work out who they are. I thought I might use one of the buses and visit the park at some point but I haven’t got round to it. I wonder if that will be the next time I am here (well, after tomorrow). 

We’d moved our weekly meeting to today so that there could be a few drinks after work. There aren’t many people around to come say goodbye but it’s nice that the team - who mainly drive - have decided to head in. Sadly, J couldn’t make it as he had some child care issues. 

Thankfully, we did some work. I think the day would have dragged otherwise. The news from IBC was OK: it seems like there had been a lot of interest. At first I felt uncomfortable contributing to the roadmap planning - given I won’t be there for any of it - but felt that I couldn’t say nothing when I thought they were over focussing on some issues. 

At lunch we had a curry from the place that’s almost next door to the office: I had the lamb biriani which I always think is better than the signature - and cheaper - chicken variety. 

The we headed  to The Swan. A bit chilly to sit outside so we took a space in the back room. Colleagues came to say some nice words. Although everybody else was driving and either not drinking or sticking to half a pint, it was a good couple of hours. I’ll miss this team.