It was a funny February. This time last year, Cardiff was covered in snow, traffic stalled, schools and offices closed and shelves in the stores depleted after panic reactions of Britons to the scary white substance falling from the skies. Almost exactly one year later, a heatwave swept through the UK, temperatures soared almost to the twenties, sun shone brightly and people had picnics in the park as if it was mid-July.
As the weekend was approaching though, Mordor's clouds would once again form on the horizon and eventually fill the sky for what was to be the second named storm of the year - Freya. And so Martin decided to pack up and leave.
Ok, it was not entirely that sort of decision, but the dude sitting on my left for close to 2 years was indeed saying goodbye to Cardiff and moving on to brighter future in Home Office in Croydon. Now if you don't know Croydon, here's a fun fact about Croydon: when you type in "is Croydon" into Google, the autocomplete suggests: "is Croydon safe", "is Croydon rough" and for just "Croydon" the autocomplete goes "Croydon cat killer". Martin will be in good hands.
Anyway, we gathered on Friday evening to ensure he does not leave Cardiff without sufficiently high state of inebriety. But first, we went for a pizza. The original plan was The Stable, but since it was booked out, Ask Italian came as the second choice.
As for the pizza experience, there's not too much to say. Ask Italian is one of those modern chains with shiny interiors, well-thought out menus with fancy design, expensive drinks (>6 GBP for a beer!) and young professional service. It works well, is hassle free, but if you want a unique original pizza prepared and served with love, you'd have to search elsewhere.
Anyway, all of us opted for a pizza, some of us upgrading it to a "Prima" option, which was promoted as being a longer version of the original pie and also baked using a different technique. The result, however, did not really look bigger than the original circle (more like the original base being squashed), and the main difference thus remained the higher price tag.
It did not look particularly impressive either, although overall it was a tasty one with a nice soft crust, and a touch of crispiness - definitely enjoyable dinner. However, with a quite a thin base and relatively underwhelming size, I thought 19 pounds (including one beer) was a bit too much even for Cardiff's city centre.
We then moved to The Stable for beers and ciders. Here we discussed heavy topics such as Target operating models, mainly as a result of Alex's unshakable interest despite warnings from Phil that once that door is open, it cannot be closed, leaving permanent marks in your life. On a similar note, Martin enlightened us with a surprisingly clear and well structured narrative (considering the amount of beer he went through by then) of what shall happen once we go past a tipping point in terms of climate change. Adding that we have actually probably already gone past that point, we decided to finish the ciders and whiskey and off we went to the moon for some green shit.
If you're now thinking the last sentence sounded weird, you may be right. But The Moon is indeed a unique place and they indeed sell a drink called Green Shit, that, to a great success, Ellie and Ben introduced me to weeks ago. Likely the best thing about that drink is being able to go the bar and ask for a "green shit", something you don't get to ask for in your every day life, unless you have a certain perversion. The taste is then of secondary importance, but please be reassured that it tastes better than it sounds. Unfortunately, Moon was a bit empty, without live music and, instead, with quite a loud DJ who seemed to eventually drive everyone out of the place, us including. And so it was time to go.
Times are indeed changing. While e.g. my mom would have the same job throughout her whole life, living in the same city for past decades, I have already changed jobs 3 times since I graduated and moved countries as many times. And the same thing happens all around - people move for work with almost frightening simplicity. Martin is not the only one and few more people have either left Cardiff or are about to in near future. And while this means that wherever you go, you are more likely to find a friendly face, it also means you're losing those friendly faces around you in your everyday life and have to look for new ones. And despite all the Meetups, Facebook groups and social opportunities we have today, the process of getting to know someone and eventually calling them a friend has not become - and I think will never be - quicker.
And so we did not say goodbye to Martin, rather a "see you later". Good luck in Croydon!
Times are changing and people come and go. Maybe next one will be me.
PS:
Dough - 7
Ingredients - 7
Sauce - 8
Atmosphere - 7
Service - 7
Ingredients - 7
Sauce - 8
Atmosphere - 7
Service - 7
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