The end of an era

Today, Virgin Digital announced it will be closing down in about a month's time, following the MBO at Virgin Retail and the accompanying rebrand to the defiantly non-digital 'Zavvi'.

This hasn't surprised me (or anyone else) in the slightest, but I can't help feeling a little bit crestfallen about the whole thing. An ex-colleague (and good friend) of mine once described working for the company we then worked for as like being in an abusive relationship. Sounds like a joke, but he'd noticed that the behaviour patterns are exactly the same: you hate it, you're constantly beaten down by it, you become a shadow of your former self, but you keep telling yourself that things will get better. When you come to leave, they say 'don't go, hang around, things will change', and when you finally pluck up the courage to go, you realise how abused you really were.

But still, when you hear about the hard times they've fallen on after you've left, the old feelings come flooding back and that tiny little ache makes itself felt inside. Call me unnecessarily poetic, but I (and those around me) poured a lot of ourselves into that business and, although we're all going on to bigger and better things, it is a real shame that it didn't achieve what we hoped it would.

I'm thinking specifically of the 14 hour days, the working on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, the bank holidays, the 3am calls from LA, the constant, bitter battle with Virgin Retail's board and the frighteningly bad coffee from the machine on the 1st floor. No one can say we didn't give it everything we had.

So, shame it didn't work out, but some things are beyond our control.

Final week

Six weeks have flown by in a whirl of new people, places, numbers, processes and clothes. I'm not totally sure I'd really looked this far into the future when I started (even seeing the end of the first week was a struggle), so everything's seeming like it's all becoming very real all of a sudden. I suppose this is the reality of consulting; we'll deliver the multi-million pound business model to the client at the end of next week (Thursday morning, to be precise) and then I'll be onto something else, another client, another site, another project.

Provided our proposal's taken up, the development elves will take our place, filling the client's offices with computers, wires and gadgetry whilst they build the shiny new commerce platform we've been sketching out in Visio. While all this happens, I'll be somewhere else dreaming up big dreams for another client.

I know this sounds like a dead cert for Pseud's Corner, but the thought struck me whilst walking along the river yesterday and the sunset was colouring a damp Embankment that sort of nicotine yellow and Ryan Adams' new album was playing (specifically 'Two') and for a few minutes everything seemed silent and calm - in these sort of moments things seem to fall into sharp relief, and I noticed the somewhat nebulous quality of my role. Still, pays the bills and keeps me out of trouble I suppose. And I do enjoy it, very much.

So, the reason I was wandering thataways was that I was en route to meet my old boss in a bar in the Oxo Tower, who spectacularly failed to turn up (not that I was that surprised as he'd been somewhat cryptic about whether he would or not). Not to worry, enjoyed the sunset overlooking the Thames with a couple of Peronis and chuckled at the typically splenetic Evening Standard until the Kiwi arrived. Dinner at a so-so pizza place on Gabriel's Wharf, quick look round the newly refurbed Royal Festival Hall (considering membership, decided to probably not), then a final pint in a horrid pub on Villiers St as the lovely Gordon's was rammed and then home.

So, today I'm doing a bit of work, nothing strenuous, then off to drop in briefly on a birthday party and tomorrow's lunch in Sarf London with the family who so kindly put me up for the first few months of me living in London. Writing this has also reminded me that I really should be looking around for something else to work on post-next week. I'm not sure how this works but something tells me I'd better find out pretty quickly...