I’ve now got about eight weeks left to go before I leave my job, I wondered if I was going to regret it by this point and maybe change my mind.

That’s a NO.

I wrote in this post about my vague plans for the future and they’re still vague, but things are starting to look interesting.

https://smallthunderdog.blog/2025/01/12/the-road-ahead/

I spent most of Thursday going through some real-world activities with my team, including public speaking training where I had to be the first presenter- just to make it all fair.

And..

They gave me thirty minutes to research, write and present on a subject of their choice.

Quantum Physics..

It was fine.

Then they had their turns and that was fine too.

I took them for a nice lunch upstairs at the Waterstones on Piccadilly, almost a perfect location, a huge bookstore with a restaurant and bar.

Then I took them through some more advanced commercial training around VERY difficult conversations.

We’ll be doing more before I leave and by the time we finish, nobody will be able to fuck with them.

On the same day, I got a formal invite to the book launch in Covent Garden next week of an old friend and we chatted.

I mentioned that I was writing a slightly bizarre management guide and I’ll now be chatting to her publisher at some point in the evening.

I then had dinner another evening of mild debauchery with The Smurf and when she left to go home, I had a nightcap in the bar of the Army and Navy Club.

Then it got interesting.

I was asked where I’d served – I never did but I did almost join the intelligence corps.

One of the people I was talking to had passed training for the paras but was injured before he could join the regiment.

We talked of various things and it turned out that we’d both been involved with the film Kajaki -( if you know my real name, you’ll see it in the credits towards the end ).

And we were both in awe of the genuine bravery of the unit’s medic. I’ve never heard anything like it.

After a while, he told me that he was trying to organise a concert at Wembley this year for WW2 veterans along the lines of Live Aid.

And I was sceptical, obviously.

Then he showed me his contacts list and some messages from quite a few people.

Including the managers of a couple of major rock bands.

He’s connected at almost every level and works for a hedge fund that has so much money that it’s almost incomprehensible.

I like him and believe him.

So we’ve swapped numbers and had a quick chat over the weekend and I’ve offered to help any way I can.

The idea of a concert for veterans is awesome.

I’m not passing this chance up.

So the future is still vague.

I’m still leaving, but life is there for the taking and I plan to have fun.