The day we have been waiting for. " Retirement"

For a very long time many conversations in our house have started with the words " When I retire we will.... or After I retire we could......."

Well It's only gone and happened.     At Midnight on the 30th of November 2011I became officially unemployable.     Unemployed.

To mark the occasion I decided to have a small celebration with just close friends and family.     

My Arse.

This plan started to escalate out of control and within no time the aim was to have a retirement do to beat all other retirement do's . The venue was important, we needed to get a location that nobody had had before and had the WOW factor.

There was only one place in London that could possibly meet these requirements

The Tower of London      Yes the real one by the Thames,           No I'm not joking.

As luck would have it being in the Police does have it's advantages in that you not only get a fantastic Public Service Pension ( thank you ) but you do get to meet loads of great people and this included several Yeomen  also known as Beefeaters.  Strings got pulled and calls made and within no time a great friend called Ken had the Tower of London Social Club booked and even kindly  offered to lay on a mini tour of the tower  and a private viewing of the "Ceremony of the Keys"




Behind the scenes Pat and the girls started doing secret things and ordering the food. I sent out the invites and managed to get hold of loads of people who I hadn't seen for years as well as the usual crowd from Training, a Bethnal Green and Romford.

The night was brilliant.    All the guest were told to arrive at the gate at 7.30pm for Ken's tour.

I couldn't believe it when I went to the gate , they had only gone and turned up. Anything for a free drink and a sandwich.

My friend and former boss, John Bennet, clearly turned up with the wrong speech.   I still haven't got a clue who he was talking about but who ever it was sounded like a great bloke.    Many thanks John.




Pat looked fantastic and ran around all night being the perfect hostess.

Stephanie and Chris gave a few words claiming  that I was a great Dad. ( probably after money ).
Chris did suggest that my greatest achievement was in fact himself.

Rachael, bless her, managed to locate every embarrassing photograph I have ever had taken and get them blown up so that everyone could have a laugh at my expense.  ( My day will come girl  )

Everyone was so kind and I will miss all of them ( whose names I am already struggling to remember )

Special thanks to the the Barkingside Witches ( you know who you are ) for running around behind the scenes and making it a great night.

The Tower of London has hundreds of years of history behind and now it can add " Neil's retirement do" to its list of events.

The end of an Era.... Phase three begins