The leaving drinks proper. Enough people weren’t able to make it to the First Friday Social that had inadvertently become leaving drinks for me and Tom, and they all asked if I was doing something on my last day, so it felt a shame not to. Plenty of film photos taken, which mostly turn out well. I get gossip I would never have got otherwise when I was still there, which is always a thrill. It only seems right to treat the group to a round of the HPE house drink, so an unfortunate bartender has to prepare a tray of 18 Baby Guinesses for us. I end up having three of them, having successfully counted the heads but not accounted for the non-drinkers. Oh well. It’s a heavy head that wears the crown. A slightly sad moment as we linger outside after last orders, knowing that parting here is, in its own way, the end of an era. Still, I couldn’t have asked for a better last group of stragglers to be doing it with.