Moving On...

I have worked in the same office for five years. Today, my team and I packed up our stuff, and, on Monday, will be unpacking in another, far more shiny and modern building across town. It's the end of an era.

Sure, there are things I'll miss, like the free parking and not having to share a half sized desk with anyone that happens to beat me into the office, but those were always incidental perks. Not really things that define the character of the place.

The things that I will, genuinely miss about this place are:

1. The windows
I have a window seat at the moment. There's a lot of history on these windows. Mostly because the cost cutting means that they haven't been washed for about three years. I've forgotten what my view was like. It's just a sort of uniform opaque brown.

2. The canteen
I have always enjoyed the cuisine in our staff canteen. The curries that are blander than bland. The exotic range of chinese pasta dishes. The tasteless chillies. Toasting my own bread. Playing the 'find the clean cutlery' or 'guess what's on the menu' games. The surliness off the staff. Did I say 'enjoyed'?

3. The toilets
Ahh... The toilets. They have inspired so many posts. Such classics as All New Levels Of Grimness, How To Use Your Toilet and Urinal and the classic How The Hell...

Apparently, they clean them in the new building. Where's the fun in that?

4. The bogey
I've never blogged about the bogey. Here it is:

To be honest, it's probably not a bogey. It could easily be some sort of scab. It lives at about head height on the wall, in the South stairwell and is about an inch long. It's been there as long as I've been working in this building. It's like an old friend. We considered scraping it off and taking it with us, but decided that it would be gross. Besides, one day, there will be a new generation of tenants in this building who will need a bogey friend.

5. The Environs
There's a good reason that we've changed the name of Bedminster to 'Bedminger' and refer to the local supermaket as the 'Hellmouth'. It's not because the place is a bit grubby and full of pound shops, pawn brokers, bargain booze establishments and betting shops. It's because most of the people you encounter in the street outside are mutants! Like Stig Of The Dump's Granddad, or the Bus Stop Incident. I remember posting about an old man who dropped trou and had a poo on the pavement right in front of me, but for the life of me, I can't find it!

So there you are.

I complained bitterly when I found out that I was being moved to this building, but on balance, I quite like it here, despite the things above.