His colleagues gave him a lovely farewell lunch and even included a cake with a bus on it. So incredibly thoughtful of them.
He wrote the most amazing email to all staff at his office and I think its well worth preserving:
"Last day for me today and can I say what an awesome ride is has been?!!
First, thank you to all who wrote on my card and donated to my crazy lifestyle change and thanks to Nick for the lovely speech he gave at the farewell yesterday!! I really appreciate the thoughtful comments.
It’s not often that you get to take a chance like this and we thought the time was now or never for us to do this with the kids at a time when we hope they will get the most out of it. I think Nick said it best in his speech when he said that our kids will be talking about this trip to their grandkids. I hope that it instils the travel bug in them so that they get out and see the world as Sacha and I already have. I know Senior Management will dislike me saying this, but this life is too short!! You need to grab these opportunities when they come your way, you need to step out of your comfort zone, grab your chance for an experience and really enjoy the living daylights out of them!
This trip came about mainly from the death of a very dear friend's 5 year old daughter from a brain tumour. We looked at our lives on the anniversary of her death and felt that we weren’t appreciating what we had … our health and the health of our beautiful children. We looked at our lives and decided a major change was needed, and here I am now. Sometimes we need a major event to trigger a life change.
8 years with any company is a long time these days and I had this grand plan about telling you all about how much I have seen, learned and done with this company. The list very quickly grew so long that I thought it would bore the socks off you so I dumped that idea. Suffice to say that my life at Skybridge has never had a dull moment and there was always a challenge to sink my teeth into.
I will make it simple. Thank you everyone for being the people you are and doing the amazing things you do. I have never met a more friendly, hard-working and approachable bunch of people in my working life as I have at Skybridge. Without you this company would not be the same.
You have all made my journey with the company a most enjoyable one."
Isn't it wonderful?! He sent it to me and I read it outside the pub where we were finishing up after my work Christmas party. I confess to tearing up. He has such a way with words.
So here we are. Our first Monday not working. Poor Duncan has come down with "Teacher-finally-on-holidays-Syndrome" and has been knocked flat with a horrible cold and has spent the day blowing his nose every 2 minutes and feeling miserable. I spent HOURS on the phone making change of address calls and cancelling the utilities before running into work (for the absolute last time) as I wasn't happy with the way I had left the Junior Art Studio for my replacement. We have 8 days to Christmas and therefore 12 days until we leave. ARGH!!!!! There is still soooooo much to do! We will get there though.
