Mr P45

One good thing about touring New Zealand will be the chance to lose some weight that I must have put on over the past week as I can't remember eating out with such frequency in my entire life.

It started with lunch in Molly's Yard last Monday with dinner at Legends on Wednesday, Beatrice Kennedy's on Thursday and my leaving lunch at Zen on Friday.

A last day in work is, as you will probably know, an unusual juxtaposition between work and non-work. That is to say being in work but not actually doing anything. Many of you may be grinning and asking yourself what the difference is between this and my usual time spent sitting at my desk working hard or, indeed, hardly working but jealousy will get you nowhere!

As is standard in our leaving scenarios, morning break is reserved for gift-giving and saying farewell to those who you wont be seeing through beer goggles later in the day and I was not let down by those who came to say goodbye nor by the generosity of the presents including the new official Ireland rugby shirt and a couple of books on New Zealand [besides a great set of gifts from Fiona including chocolate, wine and a crossword puzzle which I will dub "The Afternoon Fun Kit"]. The best present, however, was the leaving card which will provide many more warm and pleasant memories than anything else and which I will be taking with me as a memento of the near three years I spent with some fantastic people and indeed, great friends.

After a fantastic lunch of sushi, maki rolls and sushimi besides other delicious dishes, it was off to the Cloth Ear for cocktails and merriment. Post-lunch tiredness gave way to early evening alcoholic stimuli and a fair bit of crack/craic [in-joke]. I had no idea how drunk I was until I was offered a lift home from Sinead's husband Tony and Marguerite and I were blithering away in the back seat making little to no sense, at least to sober ears.

I had a fantastic last day in work and I will certainly miss a lot of people and I can only hope they decide to come and visit.