Originally published January 2022.
It’s been five years since Neil Turner stepped down from a senior real estate position in the City. He’s been spending time writing fiction, enjoying the Suffolk countryside and the occasional visit back to Central London. The ex-fund manager writes below about how a recent trip to celebrate the retirement of an ex-colleague made him stop and think about how times have changed…
It’s a cold and beautifully clear morning in Suffolk. The platform is quiet. Apart from me there is, literally, one man and a dog waiting. Abellio Greater Anglia’s new rolling stock – the sleek, bright-red and grey bullet-nose of a train – is an incongruity against the backdrop of Woodbridge’s Victorian train station.
As we depart, the view is of the boating harbour and the famous Tide Mill. A crooked stovepipe chimney on a houseboat catches my eye. From it, rises a thin and sinuous thread of grey-blue smoke. The water is out and the wading birds are in; availing themselves of the mud’s endless supply of food. I am hungry, but I’m happy to wait for London and my staple coffee and croissant – my treat when I return to the City these days.
The journey is uneventful and just over an hour after leaving Ipswich, I’m walking along a much busier platform. Even though commuters are only partially back in their offices, the buzz and excitement, the mixture of languages and accents is uplifting at Liverpool Street. The city where I lived and worked for so many years still has the ability to draw me in.
The day rushes past – the collection of meetings that I have packed into it all seem to merge into one. At the end of the afternoon, I’m invited upstairs along with the other guests. We arrive at the top floor of the building and file in to what is called the Long Room for the retirement send-off for an ex-colleague. This is beginning to feel like the good old days. Among friends and colleagues with a glass of wine.