TL;DR - I AM RETIRING FROM NATIONSTATESEverything I have on my desk at work
An unscrewed deskplate reading "Room 382 - Lydia Jarvis, Senior Management"
Welcome to the Finance Department - 1997 Edition
How Will YOU Manage? 2019 Edition
URGENT: Staff Code of Conduct, 2019/20
Several certificates of accomplishment, including Employee of the Year 2009
A mug - mostly used for coffee - circa 2010
A surprising tattered copy of Cure, by Jo Marchant
One colleague's cartoon, in which I am drinking from a wooden barrel of coffee, circa 2008
A picture of myself with my husband and daughter, circa 2012
A picture of myself standing on my knees at the company's 2005 Christmas Party
Notes about my transfer to London (officially summarised as "Just be fucking exemplary, Lydia - you'll need it...")
As you know, I used to live and work in senior management, somewhere in Cornwall. Following a marathon meeting with my boss this evening, he has agreed that my performance has been somehow wondrous enough for me to be "repatriated" to London on a full-time basis, even if it is on the northern, fancier, and - at least to Mum and Dad - the wronger side of the Thames. I will never know how it took them as little as five months to reach that decision, but it is appreciated anyway.
My upgrade in surroundings - although my husband, devoutly Mancunian as he is, would disagree - comes at the cost of several things. One of them are the friends I've pretended to make in the real world that just so happened to be frequently-deployed conversational buddies; another is any semblance of free time. That is why I am retiring from NationStates - or, at best, taking a hiatus of at least four years or so. (Thank you for your comments in advance, and I hope that
you carry on kicking arse - figuratively if not vexillologically - in the Sporting Realms.)
If I have omitted any traditional elements of a retirement message in this post, that's because I'm scrabbling away as fast as I can elsewhere trying to please the boss... no, not Mr Tin, although it's nice of you to think that!Are you disappointed?
Relift your spirits by thwonking out every last word to my...
ALMOST-KARAOKE SELECTION THINGY (list is incomplete):
Anything by Level 42 - take your pick
Show Me Heaven, by Maria McKee
Parklife, by Blur
More Than Friends, by En Vogue
You Give Me Something, by James Blunt
My Kind of Love, by Emile Sande
(this list is in rough chronological order)
I'm thankful for the community at large for not being annoying - quite the opposite, in fact. Special mention must be granted to The Plough Islands (aka Michine) and Cassadaigua for the extra mile being gone in relation to them; who exactly moved, I am not sure, but the moving is still paying off well. NationStates and Discord remains the closest thing I have to social media; the accounts of Tinhampton and Tinhampton#7402 respectively will be maintained if anybody wishes to get in touch (and solely because somebody
might - no major commitments, please! - although I do have some incomplete and likewise mundane NationStatal non-Sports work that I will somehow be able to tie up in Summer 2020).
Answers to frequently asked questions: Yes, I will be withdrawing, ICly because Julia Atherton's financial illiteracy forced the Tinhamptonian FA into liquidation. Yes, the Cassadaiguans are now in permanent possession of the MacGregor Shield and can do what they wish to it, no matter how heretical. Yes, I did feel that the Discord turned into a timesink for me towards the end of this year anyway, fun as it was, and my removal from it (rightfully for linkspam) brought forward my departure date by about two weeks.
And no, This Book will remain Not in Existence - unless I break my vow... ;P