Simon Butcher

I can't deny that there are people I won't miss, but there will be people I am going to miss. The finance director is a very cool guy, as was my immediate boss, not to mention the people on my team who I've been working alongside the most lately (the magical hypnotherapist and the vampire, both of whom I hope get the chance to move up as I move on).

The rest of the IT team for the European arm are also amazingly dedicated people, and they deserve more credit from management than they get for the work they put in; You can tell IT is working at its best when it's invisible, but corporate management types often don't quite see it that way. Hang in there guys.

There's a whole host of people through the company, not only here in Brussels but in the UK and across the pond in the states who are great to work with too (you know who you are), and it was fun while it lasted.

Thank you to everyone who was brave enough to turn up this evening for “weird beers” at Moeder Lambic to send me off, and the little present. It was really sweet of you all.

I'm going to have a quiet December, get things wrapped up in January, and head into freelancing around February (with a few things on the side perhaps). This is the third and final big change in my life for 2011, and as they say: change is as good as a holiday. I just hope they are right about that for this one.

Now the hard part starts…

Freedom! Horrible, horrible freedom!