Pōpokotea

My Dear Princess and Dear Fellow,

I think it was June last year that our beloved Ellie left Project Gromit as project coordinator and took a job as Change Trainer instead.

(Of course, she immediately then REJOINED the team as OUR Change Trainer - such is the magic of Shenée).

But who could EVER replace Ellie?

"Her name is Corrie," explained Shenée. And so Fazzy, Shenée and I marched around to Corrie's desk and abducted her. "Come sit with us!" commanded Shenée. And then we took her for coffee and had her tell us all about herself.

Shenée being Shenée, she immediately gave Corrie a nickname, "Pōpokotea" after one of our beautiful native birds. And that was it. I remember no awkwardness, no period of introduction, Corrie was just a member of our team. We loved her and she loved us and that was that.

I mentioned this to her yesterday. "Everyone was so nice to me!" she beamed. "It was easy to fit in!"

I asked her if she was sad to be leaving.

"Nope!" she announced happily. "I mean it's not like I won't be seeing you all the time anyway," she explained (probably seeing the look on my face). And to be fair to her, the work she has been doing lately sounds shItey.

Briar and I were taking her for waffles at the Kanteen. You may remember this is the thing I've always done with Corrie. She introduced me to sweet waffles with bacon and now I cannot give them up this side of a cardiac episode. 

This being a Friday, it was very quiet in the office, so it was really just the three of us hanging out all day. I spoiled Corrie rotten because Corrie and then the pair of us interviewed Briar.

She is applying for a permanent BA role so I helped her practice by asking questions like, "Tell me about a time when you faced a challenge" and all that sh*t. 

She did not take it REMOTELY seriously and when asked how she approached difficult stakeholders she replied, "With cat memes".

I'd hire her anyway.

At the end of the day we went to level 5 in the building which has a large kitchen area and a fridge. We played Cards Against Humanity and drank. I met Corrie's two mates Summer and Maria and a good time was had. 

Perhaps TOO good a time.

"Eeek!" said Corrie, brandishing an empty bottle of Kraken rum at me. "We drank ALL of it!" and then she showed me a half-empty bottle of coke. 

Yeah. That's a Corrie-pour, all right. I remember it well.

I can't even remember what we talked about. Because rum. But I do know we had a great time and I think I told Summer and Maria that we are now all best friends. Corrie walked me to the station and we waited for Siu to come pick her up.

And - because it is a blur - I'm not sure what happened next. All I know is that the pair of us were clinging to each other like a pair of eejits. I'm pretty sure Corrie was crying and thanking me over and over and I was desperately trying to drunk-explain that no, no, I should be thanking HER. 

What a state to be in. 

I think I told her that I would be proud to have her as a daughter. I'm not sure if I did say that and if I did say it if she heard it and if she did hear it if she remembers it today.

I just know that Siu arrived and I said goodbye to Pōpokotea. My friend, my project manager and my little CST sister. 

I got on the train and decided to write this blip while drunk. I like the idea of trying to give you the moment in the moment. It was a great blip. I think I remember making myself cry with the emotion of it. 

And then realising I had typed the WHOLE EFFING THING in the "tags" section. 

EFFFFFF!!

I tried it again and it didn't come out as good the second time. And then I accidentally hit the "delete" button.

EFFFFFFFF!!!

I am too drunk to do this, I thought to myself and sensibly gave it up. It is probably for the best. Who the eff knows what I wrote last night?

But it was at least heartfelt, whatever it was. 

S.

p.s. I shared this blip with the group... see the extra for their response.