Ladies who lunch

I met up with Martine today for lunch. M is one of my ex-colleagues from Bexleyheath and despite being good friends we've never socialised outside of work (apart from work socials of course.) So it was kind of strange to meet her at Bluewater and go for some grub. Nice though. We were just going to find a table with our food when we bumped into Patsy who used to be our manager about 3 years ago at Bexleyheath. We hadn't seen her for ages as she got VR a couple of years ago. She had just got her lunch and was also looking for a table so she joined us. How strange and random is that?

We had a good old gossip talking about what we'd been up to including how nice it is to be ladies of leisure! And it was great to chat about our old friends and to hear what they were doing and who had found jobs and who was taking a break etc. etc.

It was good to talk to M as she has similar skills to me and we've worked alongside each other quite a bit doing the same job and more recently I replaced her on the support team when she went off to do ADM work. So we chatted quite a bit about my new job. It's really good to talk to someone who understands exactly how I feel about starting again and all my insecurities and worries. Just hearing her say that she thinks I'll be okay and should be able to find my feet quite quickly really helps with my confidence. I think one of the big things about leaving B and A is that you forget what a fantastic team of people we had there and how easy it was to get help, advice and support at the drop of a hat. I'm sure my new place will be the same but it's just that first few weeks isn't it?

It is my first '1st day' for 14 years so it's natural to be nervous and I think the thing that scares me the most is that it's the first time I've been hired as an experienced worker. Last time I was a graduate trainee with no experience and so the expectation was low. I think it's starting as a 'senior' which is scaring me.

Lunch was lovely today though and it was really nice to see Martine. I must make a point of keeping in touch with my old work-mates as it would be so easy to go our separate ways and never see many of them again.