Barking and the Blue Plaque!

It seems almost fitting dear reader, that just before I leave this fair isle for Canadian shores, I should go back and visit the very spot where I was born.

(If you see this man in Vancouver, give him a job: Me in the cheesiest photo I could find, after 1 or maybe 7 glasses of Chateaux Rothschild 92')

Don't bother strapping yourself in for a rollercoaster ride of blog emotion (although I am enjoying a cool glass of stella as I write) because I wasn't on some sort of soul searching mission. I was in fact driving my mum and back to Barking Hospital for the first time in 24 years to visit an old friend of the family, who is feeling none to clever at the moment.

The hospital is a shadow of its former self. However, as I sat looking out of the window across the brown field site and onto a new housing development, Mum turned and said "that's the exact spot where you were born". Being a sentimental old fool, I basked in the suns rays that beamed through the full length window and felt very centered.

Those of you who know Barking will understand what I mean when I tell you that you are more likely to feel cold steel and a rapid depletion of funds, rather then centered in Barking these days. Shame, it used to be a nice place before the war (Civil War of course).

I gave English Heritage a call to find out where my commemorative blue plaque was marking my birth, and they told me to "Get Knotted!" (Charming!)

I finish work in a week. Thank God! I just want to leave now. I feel I'm getting the cold shoulder from the senior management. Ian and I didn't get invited the Thames barge trip, a great corporate jolly. The reason was a classic. Apparently, people would have been so busy talking to us about our Canadian adventure that nobody would want to talk about work related issues. A backhanded compliment if ever I heard one.

I went to my local pub today, the beautiful Edward VII in Stratford, to break the news that I was leaving, and to stop ordering so much lemonade and chalk for the dart board. Tears flowed and with great sincerity, they congratulated me and wished me all the luck in the world. I was quite touched. They have also given me the back room of the pub for my work leaving do! They will even arrange it all out for me. All for no charge! I'm going to miss that pub.

Less than three weeks to go now until we fly. This is for me now. BRING IT ON!