End of an era

Thursday was my last day with the Royal Bank of Scotland.

I have been contracting at the bank since January 2001 and was initially only supposed to be there for a few weeks. I happened to be in the right place at the right time as the bank was embarking upon a series of acquisitions that, like my contract, just kept rolling on.

I had a joint leaving do with Jonathan Broster, a colleague and friend who worked on some of the same projects as I did. He's off on a career break to learn how swear, and possibly cook, like Gordon Ramsay, with the long-term aim of working as a chef. Good luck, JB - may you never need to work in HR again!

The do itself was a good one and the first of many tequila shots were salted and lemoned before 6pm. This was followed by too many sambucas to count and we had some early casualties.

A former member of our team, Raymund, had made a surprise visit up from London for the party and the crowd moved on to his brother's pub in Edinburgh. I don't know when the last man left, but the party raged well past closing time as everyone's favourite - the lock-in - was in effect. I left about 3am and went back to my mate David's house, as not only had he helped to arrange my excellent leaving gifts, he had also very kindly put me up for the night. Cheers Dave!