It’s just about getting dark on Sunday evening as I write this.

The dogs are gently snoring in front of the log-burner in the lounge and I’m in the kitchen multitasking.

I’m making a chicken stock for a soup tomorrow, I’m listening to music, drinking beer and writing this whilst half-looking out of the window at the hills and the sunset.

The frost is still on the ground and the last few years of living here have given me a feel for the slow change of the seasons that I’ve never had before.

With knowledge comes change.

I’m not the same man that I was, although he appears occasionally and I had a night of debauchery with an old friend that I call The Smurf on Thursday.

But it’s the slow changes that really matter.

Cairo is in for a minor op tomorrow and my whole diary will revolve around her, she’ll be terrified when I leave her at the Vet and she’ll be in paroxysms of ecstasy when she wakes up properly at home in my arms.

This is how life is supposed to be, I think.

So, having been asked whether I’m ‘on the bus’ at my annual review in December, it was a real pleasure to hand my notice in on the 2nd Jan.

It was even more fun to respond to an asinine question about whether I’d like to leave earlier with a storm of hard-learned legalese that had people panicking for a few hours.

I’ve broken the news to my team and apart from the dogs, they’re my focus for the next few months, I need to teach them some of the corporate dirty fighting that I’ve had to learn over decades and I’ll help them make their own decisions for the future.

As for me:

I have no plans at all really.

Nothing fixed.

I’ll do a road trip to see as many people as I can after things settle and I’ll bring Cairo with me.

I’m writing a ‘management’ book, but it’s nothing like normal books – I’m concentrating on real life rather than theory.

I’ll do more work on the house and grounds and I will probably do some short term engagements for some extra money

I won’t be a corporate drone and I’m not going to work for people with less morals than a bonobo ape.

The future isn’t set, but it may be fun.