"Divorce" negotiations

Posting this on 14th March 2018 just hours before Mrs May is expected to address the Commons on the retribution she will be dishing out to the Russians following the Salisbury nerve gas attack ten days ago.
 
I fear she is looking for a “Falkland Effect”, Brexit saving event that will shoot her up above the likes of Mrs Thatcher and get her into the history books as “The Titanium Therese”. I hope not and still set my hopes on “Titanic Therese”. Her refusal to call on the support of the EU I find deeply disturbing and ever since the day after the attack I have been publicly (on Facebook) shouting for her to do so and in my opinion get the entire EU to withdraw all its teams from the World Cup.
 
The Rest of the World will follow and I suspect would willingly agree for the UK to host a quickly arranged alternative official World Cup in the British Islands – the infrastructure is all there.
 
The EU has even expressed its support and begged to be asked by her, for it. And she stubbornly ignores them in favour of her “allies and friends” around the world and in NATO and in the UN. Everywhere it seems except Brussels.
 
Anyway, todays Blip smacks of the situation shortly before Christmas 2017 as Therese grovelled in Brussels to get an agreement with the EU on the divorce bill and such issues so as to get the negotiations moving on to the trade deal side of it.
 
I had been asked to fly over to the UK HQs of our division to put out my case for a special unique deal and a fair financial divorce settlement. I was after their cake and wanted to eat it all myself.
 
On 23rd November I flew to Heathrow and hired a car. Weird experience driving on the wrong side of the road again and in a car with the steering on the wrong side. I really did have a problem for the first 15 minutes! So back to my one-time office in nearby Uxbridge and an 11:30 meeting with the personnel people. My diary doesn’t note it but I suspect they may have treated me to lunch at the nearby company restaurant, The Swan & Bottle.
 
I stayed over at my former home in Sussex with the children for the weekend. Frosty discussions with my wife but we all survived without going to war. My nerves and probably hers too were shot by the time I flew back to Munich on Monday,
 
The day after, my redundancy term offer letter was written in Uxbridge. It wasn’t until 10th December at 15:00 that I got it handed to me by my still boss David in his office in Munich.
 
The terms had many of David’s hallmarks on it as he battled for me to be treated as a special case. The standard legal redundancy monetary offer was not up for discussion. We were looking at an official termination date of 31st December and I would get my 6 months contractual pay in lieu of notice but would officially leave the payroll and return my company car on 31st March 1991.
 
In addition, an international “outplacement” consulting company with offices and the infrastructure in Munich would be paid for and there were other small issues about outstanding relocation costs to Munich from September that were dealt with fairly.
 
As a direct result of David’s intervention, a further obligation was made after this letter for the company to deposit enough money for 100 hours of classes with the Berlitz Language School in Munich so as to allow me to get my German halfway usable. Worth over 5,000DM (€2,500)   
 
At some point, you have to face reality and see there is a limit to what the people on the other side of the table can offer. I couldn’t complain about the package. Fair is relative but realistic. I would have prefered never to have had to have the “divorce” and I was interested in maintaining a future reasonable relationship that reflected our longstanding special friendship. You never know who you meet again in the next life. I wasn’t leaving the UK, I was simply leaving GMR plc.
 
PS the green “Received” date stamp was put on by me at the office. I can’t fathom out why on the 12th as my diary clearly shows it took place on the 10th. Smacks of me trying to manipulate the facts and fooling any lawyers who may be called in at a future date. I never did nor had any intention of doing that!