Like a weight off my shoulders

Finally, finally, finally. Finally I have been able to tell the team here in London about my news. What a relief. I think they were a little surprised, and also a little disappointed. Hopefully I explained it's not them, it's me, and I'm just not ready for that sort of commitment. Or something. It is going to be hard to leave them though. They're a good team and I enjoy working with them. Still need to tell the Research team who aren't in London, but that should be done later in the week. Marcelo wants us to do it together to reassure them that nothing sinister is going on. Makes sense.

Oh, and it turns out that Kirsty had already heard my news, about three weeks ago. Someone in Switzerland let it slip when she was there the other week. And it turns out a colleague in Singapore knows too. He's on Facebook, so given the info is reaching the outside world, I decided it would be best to tell him. He's known a few weeks too. The farther away someone is geographically located, the looser their lips get, it seems. No surprise there then.

In terms of jobs in NZ, Joanne's virtually given up of her company getting something sorted, I think. She's told employment agents she's ready to start looking externally. Something potentially good has turned up already. A management accountant role with a company called PGG Wrightson. They seem to supply everything to the agricultural sector in NZ. And I mean, everything. Livestock, wool, seeds, animal nutrition, farm supplies, finance, real estate, insurance, irrigation, training. Ev-ree-thing.

And for me, Paula from Hudson has advised me to contact Telecom myself regarding that role. It seems that they're not ready to pay an agency fee. And also we're chasing leads with Statistics New Zealand. Paula seems hopeful, but the "three research papers/publications relevant to the area to which you are applying" worries me.

My social calendar is getting a bit hectic now as the goodbyes scheduled there begin to pile up. It's Martin for breakfast tomorrow, and then Matt for a drink after work. Busy busy busy. And speaking of scheduled goodbyes the Research team have all agreed to go out to Rodizio Rico on 10th July for a leaving meal thing. An authentic Brazilian churrascaria. Eat all you want meat. Does it get any better?

We've had news on the flat sale, by the way. The receipt for the ground rent (that cost £30 to show we'd paid £75!) has finally been sent to our solicitor. So hopefully that means the buyer's solicitor is ready to exchange. We could complete in two weeks, hopefully. Fingers crossed.

And Joanne's moved on to looking out houses a little out of our price range.