I'm out of here....................

On the 21 February I handed in my resignation with an end date of 21 March, expecting I would be walked that day. This didn't happen. However a week later on 28 February I was given my marching orders. Fairly poor game plan to give me no notice given the commitment to my various positions over the 7 years I had been with the organization. However, saying this, this is the reason I was leaving. My decision was justified by the behavior.

This worked to my advantage because I was to start in China on the 20 March! Now the fun begins. I have a list a mile long of things I have to do before my departure. These include maintenance on my home, contact real estate agents to rent my home, packing and storing my belongings, canceling the utilities, arrange for my rates and body corp bills to be sent to the agents on all my properties, advertise my car to sell it, organize my cat, book flights, get a visa, update my will and POA, check my income protection policies and life insurance, consider whether I want an international drivers license, develop photos, get prescriptions filled, putting my gym membership on hold, trying to get an appointment with the endocrinologist, renewing my Drivers license, buy a mobile with international roaming capabilities, buy phone credit, go and collect winnings from the Melbourne Cup, suspend my Health Fund, arrange travel insurance, cancel car insurance, cancel RACQ, add signatories to my accounts, cancel home and contents insurance, sort out my Margin Lending Account, see the accountant, arrange removalists, cancel my dentist appointment for January 2009, organise mail redirection, get the carpets cleaned, organise shares, etc.

Yes I was overwhelmed by what I had to do. But I worked through the list and everything fell into place.

I had a departure date of the 17 March flying Qantas from Brisbane to Sydney, Sydney to Beijing, stay overnight in Beijing and then the next day fly from Beijing to Jinan. The school will send the driver to pick me up in Jinan for my adventure.

I had just 17 days to do everything.

On the 15 March I will have dinner with family and friends at Tomato Brothers to say farewell for 10 months. I will miss them of course, but will send emails, letters and speak to them on the phone.