So, as mentioned on Wednesday the 12th of May I had my last working day as an employee of Attain IT.

My colleagues and I went out for a last drink. I wanted to have the drinks on Tuesday. But for scheduling purposes and because it would otherwise break the farewell drinks tradition we proceeded with Wednesday, accepting the fact that it could only be a single round of drinks. Or maybe two.

I must say, the ritual of farewell drinks has some merit. The first 1-2 days after the drinks (Thursday, Friday) I had no appetite for food or alcohol and was constantly reprimanded by Martina and ridiculed by our friends.
The last weeks before the farewell drinks I only dreamt about work, while after the drinks I only dreamt about not having a headache and about having a happy or even content stomach (opposite of an upset stomach?). Any recollection of the events of the weeks before the farewell drinks was impossible. My brain has virtually been reset to empty. I could now pretend that I can recollect how many Golden Ales – a yummy, but strong beer – I had, but I don’t. I don’t even remember the size of the glasses.

By Saturday I felt that I was legally allowed to operate heavy machinery and by Sunday I was driving our rented Nissan Patrol. The rented model only had a 3 litre engine and in some situations it even made sense to drive in low 4WD gears.
Our previous experiences with rented LandCruiser Troop Carrier 2007 models and their 4.5 litre V8 engines never called for lower gears. Sometimes when a slope was especially steep and especially slippery, we would put the LandCruiser in 1st gear and let it idle up or down on its own, while we were taking pictures of wild flowers on the side of the track. That’s how good the 70 series LandCruiser models are.
But the Nissan Patrol is not a bad car and it did what it was supposed to do and it used less diesel when doing so. It also allowed talking in a normal voice to other passengers in the car when driving 120 on an unsealed heavily corrugated road (e.g. the passengers were able to tell me not drive 120 on unsealed heavily corrugated roads). In the LandCruiser I usually could not hear the frantic screams of my fellow travellers from about 80 km/h on and upwards.

So in short I am now feeling less sorry for former colleague Steve for owning a Nissan Patrol as I did before.

But we still prefer the LandCruiser.