For Mrs J, leaving corporate life behind has (so far) been one of the best decisions she has ever made. No regrets there, rest assured!

But of course there are people still from that life that she keeps in touch with. After all, why would you want, or need, to leave the friends you’ve made behind? It would be like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. And after 11 years and countless hours in one place of work, there will be a baby or two splashing around in there.

Mrs J is sure that however much you resented or even hated your place of work, you will not have despised 100% of your colleagues. Nor will you have been miserable 100% of the time.

Come on, are you completely miserable every second of every day? Even during your lunch hour?

Chances are (if you’re really honest) you’re not. Even if you feel like your teeth are being pulled most of the time.

Mrs J will be seeing some of her former colleagues this week. She’s looking forward to it. Some of them may even read this post before they meet up.

Robin? You still with me? I think something’s wrong with my ears…

There’s also an event going on this week that used to be a yearly highlight for Mrs J when she was working. While she doesn’t fancy being back in the job, she does think highly of many of the people that will be there. So in a way she’s sorry she won’t be seeing them this week.

All this leads up to one thought: Holy candlestick Batman! What a difference a year can make.

Just over a year ago Mrs J took this picture during a team building exercise. It was the very first picture she took with her new phone.

Yes. The word is hmmmm. Mrs J remembers that while the course was meh, she did get to have a nice lunch with some good people. She also hopes her photography skills have improved somewhat since.

This one is from the previous version of the event that’s on this week.

Mrs J barely made it to the event some years because of the stress. And there is an enormous amount of blah blah blah being served up. Some presentations that made Mrs J’s ears bleed of boredom. Maybe that’s why they look so crooked now…

Jokes aside, she got to know some really fun people there and it was something that made her grow.

This picture is obviously from Central Park. Mrs J snapped it while attending a course in New York at the very end of last November. It was mayhem in New York because of all the Christmas shoppers.

The course caused all sorts of trouble but Mrs J remembers taking and enjoying this walk.

This year Mrs J is baking cookies and lighting candles instead of jetting around. She is exceedingly pleased to be doing just that. Where will she be in a year? Who knows.

Though she may have gone overboard with the candles.