So Long, Farewell, Aufwiedersehen, Goodbye...

"I have been manning a sexual health stall today, my manager has just done her Condom Distribution Training, so we had a plastic willy to demonstrate on if necessary"
"A plastic Willy? Aren't banana's more accessible?"
The room went Silent, people looked at Helena, Helena went red....
"Oh God! NO! I didn't mean like that!!!"

This week has been quite tough, I've had to say goodbye to a really good friend, who has been such an inspiration in my life. There were inevitable tears, and she knows she will be missed. Without her I am not sure how I would have coped during the really tough times, she has also done wonders for my career, keeping me on the right path, and it is really our loss, and their gain, so far as her new job is concerned. Damn right she deserves it though, out of everyone I know she deserves it the most.
But it still means she will be missed, by lots of people, not just me, because it is not just my life she has touched, but probably literally hundreds of people's in one way or another. And she has been my inspiration at work, and role model a lot too, which, when she reads this, will make her laugh out loud, knowing what we got up to in the office: playing cards. Yes, she sent me down a one way street to 'working hard' on the pc in the office through card games!
In all seriousness though, at times, when things have been particularly difficult she has always been there, non-judgemental and fully supportive without a doubt. And what I wrote in her card still stands 'sometimes I think without you I would have gone mad, but realistically, we probably went mad together'; that describes our friendship and working relationship. More than just my manager and role model; she has become a close and very good friend first and foremost; and I will miss our mad moments, such as wheely chair races across the car park, but I know there will be many more to come when she visits, or I got down to crash at hers! This is by no means the end of the Parker-Evans duo of madness.

A sombre post I know, but I want to end with: treasure your friends, you just don't know when you might need them next.

Impossible to explain

Life is a Prison, By Puff.

Life is a prison,
Oh God let me out.
No one to listen,
To hear when you shout.

Climb the walls of insanity,
Ride the waves of despair.
If you fall it don't matter,
There's no one to care.

Used to wish for a window,
To see birds, trees and sky,
But you're better without one
-Stops you aiming too high.

Watching freedom is painful,
For those locked away.
Seeing joy, love and happiness,
Another price that you pay.

Strong is good, weak is bad.
Be it false, be it true.
Your mind makes the choice,
And enforces it too.

Cell walls built by society,
With rules to adhere.
If you breach the acceptable,
You had better beware.

Hide the pain, carry on,
Routine is the key.
Don't let on that you're not,
What you're pretending to be.

Lock it all up inside you,
How badly that bodes.
Look out for that one day,
When it all just explodes.

Leaving naught but a shell,
Base functionality too.
But killing all else,
That was uniquely you.

So how do you grow,
With a timebomb inside?
Or how to defuse it,
Without destroying its ride?

You can't.