On Thursday, our team was called to a surprise meeting with the London boss, who had booked it late the night before, clashing with another meeting. He showed up in the company of the local HR person. And when she sat down, she told us it was bad news. Turns out the company is implementing a sheaf of redundancies, and all teams are affected. Ours is losing at least one person - the grapevine, however, says we're all going.
Afterwards, my boss said he'd leave regardless. I completely agree - the company seems to be driving our team in precisely the opposite direction to where he was leading us, and he's been making those noises for a while. And there's a bad culture of bullying in the office, which means that I'm not prepared to stay here without him as a (very effective) buffer. As I told him - haven't made it official yet, I'd prefer to see whether I get redundancy. 1-1 consultations take place next week, when we might get some definite news, from this most secretive of companies.
Well, we've become close to the two-person design team - who are losing the more senior designer. They had their meeting right after ours. So we met with them afterwards, booked one of the meeting rooms, had drinks and snacks - until we were unceremoniously chucked out by the office Stalin, who was working with some people on presentations for the upcoming expo. Nobody felt like going to the meal we'd booked in Tas, which I cancelled.
Yesterday, The London Art Song and Opera group advertised the opera, Andrea Chénier, at St. John's Waterloo. Also the London European Club. Hell, they didn't make it easy though - if you wanted the special offer, you had to ring. And, as I discovered, when you rang, you did not get an answer. No, you had to leave your name and number and they'd get back to you. When I discovered that there was no way to do this "live", I rang them very late last Saturday night - would you believe, they got back to me on Sunday morning! which was when I discovered that the offer included a free drink and programme, and that they - ahem - would post the ticket to me (!). Well, I got the ticket on Thursday.
However, with everything that's happening, my boss came in - on his day off - for drinks with us. After Thursday night's shenanigans, we decided to take ourselves to the pub to give everyone else a chance to leave the office. Nearest was The Draft House - chock-a-block, of course, on a Friday night, but the evening was lovely, sunny and mild, and when a table came free outside, we took ourselves out there. And had a lovely evening, shooting the breeze.
When people started to feel hungry, we made our way back towards the office - passing the Enoteca da Luca pizza van on the way. That seems to have a permanent spot outside our office, and has been here as long as I have - and it's never occurred to me to try it! Well, we all did last night - pizzas are cooked in a real wood fire oven by a quick and friendly guy, and are great value. We brought them back upstairs to the office, and were well fed indeed.
Today, back at last with Chronicles, for the last of his walks - this one sounded interesting, being about Rebellious London. And that was the last new walk on my list.. so many good walks advertised around London, but I've pretty much done them all by now! This was originally advertised on Meetup, but all the Funzing groups on Meetup seem to have closed down now. Thing is, we did stay very late in the office last night - I thought about cancelling the walk, but as this is the last of his walks, and he usually runs it midweek, when I can't make it, I thought I'd better not.
Woke quite a bit later than intended, and had to scramble to get ready! Happily, a very convenient bus leaves from just outside my house, and runs straight to St. Paul's, where the walk begins. Beautiful day for it - has spring finally sprung? So, I just made the bus, and arrived slightly early. Which I think was a noble feat!
I have to say, the sheer number of incidents of unrest is notable. We started, handily enough, at St. Paul's, at the site of a 16th-century revolt against the Flemish:
The interesting story of the Gordon Riots is set outside Newgate Prison, which is no longer there. They were trying to break out their fellow rioters, y'see!
I have to say, this is one of the more picturesque walks, hitting several beautiful locations. For instance, turns out Richard II stood outside the evocative church of St. Bartholomew the Great when dealing with the rebels in the Peasants' Revolt!
And they marched through St. John's Gate on their way there, and were marched back through it later in the day, as prisoners:
Around the corner - I didn't take a picture - was where Oliver Cromwell lived. And nearby, Clerkenwell Prison, which was the scene of a failed attempt by the Fenians to rescue one of their brethren!
Clerkenwell Green was the meeting place for Russian revolutionaries:
Tomorrow, Let's Do This is off to a kaleidoscope exhibition at the Saatchi gallery. And so am I.
On Monday - with nothing on Meetup (are Meetup people getting tired?), I booked with my "cheap ticket club", first time in ages, to a concert by Ekaterina Semenchuk & Semyon Skigin, at Wigmore Hall. However, I've been in contact with an ex-colleague about the doings here, and he wants to meet us - I picked Monday, as he wants to meet my boss as well, who'll be on holiday from Wednesday and for the rest of the week.
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