Ramble On ...

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant collaborated on one of the greatest tunes in living memory (mmm ... if you're asking yourself "Jimmy who?", then that's Led Zeppelin to you :-).

And funnily enough, the lyrics are strangely prophetic.

"Leaves are falling all around, It's time I was on my way.
Thanks to you, I'm much obliged for such a pleasant stay.
But now it's time for me to go. The autumn moon lights my way.
For now I smell the rain, and with it pain, and it's headed my way. "

So I'm leaving TOWER in Canberra. Well, you say, you've done that before. Gone to Old Blighty none the less. Had a fling, and returned to The Land of Oz (yes, yes, heavy on the literary allusion, this post. Stick with it, you'll learn something).

But this time, it's different (Oh yes, you say, isn't it always :-P). OK, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. After 10 years in the thick of things, it really is time to move on. (Aaaahhhh!!!, you say, you're only moving to TOWER in Sydney ... that's taking the easy way out.) Sydney is definitely the destination, but in all seriousness, this time I'm not moving for a job, or a career, or money.

This time I'm moving for me ... and for Lin. We're moving for us, and not for the sake of someone or something else. Clearly, I've had some kind of ephiphany, and have even suggested to my new boss that I take a pay cut, in return for some time to myself. You know what that means ... more posts like this, and fewer posts taking the piss out of the talentless wankers who keep the seats warm :-)

This is the first time I've mentioned my employer by name in a blog post - it'll probably also be the last. Don't get me wrong - there are "One thousand things and One thing" wrong here (yes, more literary references ... there's a quiz at the end); but more importantly, there are people here I'll miss, and people who've made a lasting impact on me, whether or not I'm happy to admit it.

(Page and Plant continued:)
"The time has come to be gone.
And to our health we drank a thousand times,
it's time to Ramble On."

(hmmm ... sounds like Friday night drinks ... but the count is only about 500 :-) ).

An old friend of mine (ex-co-worker, now many steps down the path to who knows where) once said "Usually I spend no more than three years in a place. Any more, and it changes you. Hard to find yourself after that". (Yeah, thanks Madams ... you could have been a little more forceful with the hint.) Probably shouldn't listen to him too much ... bloody Man United supporter :-)

Page and Plant had more to say ...

"I've been this way ten years to the day, Ramble On,"

Almost spot on ... 10 years in the job is only 3 months away. But then they lose it in some kind of drug-fucked Tolkein homily ...

"Mine's a tale that can't be told, my freedom I hold dear.
How years ago in days of old, when magic filled the air.
T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair.
But Gollum, and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her, her, her....yeah"

Ah crap! So I can't live my life as some shallow metaphor immitating a 70's rock classic, itself immitating a tortured literary classic written by an asocial linguist with an intolerance for his fellow human. Oh well, guess I'll just have to go my own way.

Ramble on.