Bye bye Caxton

Tomorrow is my last day of working in Caxton House - my department transferred the lease a while ago but we had squatters rights while a new building was refurbished for us to move into. Tomorrow is our last day in the building. Government Departments change their names on an increasingly frequent basis but tend to stay in the same accommodation - I've been in Caxton under the guise of five departments of state. But no more after tomorrow.

Since so many people have worked in the building for many years we held a leaving party yesterday. I didn't go to it since I was engrossed in post-tender clarifications meetings for a supplier for a new computer system, but it made me think.

I realised that I first set foot in that building nearly 25 years ago. 25 years, gosh. I'd started working for ACAS shortly after arriving in London and, at that time, ACAS looked to Caxton as it's HQ so it housed it's finance section and I was sent there to pick up a giro for my first week's pay. It was the first time I'd set foot in a big office building, people bustling all around me who knew where they were going and there was poor little me, wondering where the cashier's office was... There's no cashier any more and hasn't been for a long time. The world has moved on so much.

I started going into Caxton a couple of times a week from 1990 and then was based in it for the first time in 1996. I've moved in and out of the building a few times since then, but this current move out of the building is a bit more permanent. I wouldn't be surprised if I turn up at the building for meetings or whatever, but I won't be able to just walk in, I'll have to report to reception and fill in a form for security. It won't be my building any more.

I've spent most of the afternoon packing stuff into crates ready for the move over the weekend. It's surprising what you find in drawers that raise a memory or a chuckle and then the thought, 'why did I keep this?'. Loads of stuff has been binned (the cleaners will hate us) and more will be binned tomorrow. I've got a couple of meetings tomorrow but, other than that, I'll be packing. Our computer system goes down at 2pm, we're chucked out at 5pm and I have a meeting in another building at 3.15pm so that gives me a timetable.

Tomorrow will probably be a strange day with a mix of memories. It's only a building.