Mr Titchmarsh

Today was the big day: the retirement do for my boss in Crewe, Margaret. also the leaving day for my other (Manchester) boss Jane. Must be something I said...

Anyway, the day started with a lot of last minute running around, then Jane and the rest of the team from Manchester came down to Crewe for a final meeting, which was a bit sad but lightened by the amount of cake etc consumed. Jane's off to pastures new, in the form of Liverpool, where I hope she'll accomplish great things.

Then we transferred to Margaret's do. My colleagues had gone to town doing the room up with bunting, balloons etc, plus flowers and tablecloths overall giving it a 50s village hall feel. Margaret's been with us for 29 years, so it's a long association, and we managed to get her a load of suitable presents from the collection we had for her. Some colleagues from Manchester and others who've already retired came too, so although it wasn't supposed to be a big do, the room was pretty full.

Margaret is a bit of a fan of Alan Titchmarsh, and as we couldn't quite afford to get him in we repurposed a scarecrow we happened to have lying about in a cupboard (s/he's already won prizes at Betley show, and changed sex a couple of times...). Hence the blip. I forgot to ask Margaret if I could use a photo of her, so I've had to stick to this. Most of us spent the afternoon seeing him out of the corner of our eyes and thinking someone real was sitting there :-)

The aforementioned video went down a storm: a version of Abba's Waterloo, with modified words to transform it into Library Loo!

Definitely worth the effort put in by everyone: singers, dancers and the heroic colleagues who held the fort while the rest of us made fools of ourselves. I'd post a link to it, but I'd probably get shot by the other participants!

The footage itself was shot by a certain Helwild of this parish, while the audio was done using GarageBand and the video edited with iMovie. Margaret has a permanent record in the form of a CD and DVD box set! Anyway, it had the desired effect, ie everyone rolling about laughing. And hopefully it'll remind Margaret of the wonderful (if a tad bonkers) people she worked with at Crewe.