Time off for good behaviour

Tonight after school we all stayed behind to say farewell to our librarian who is retiring after 25 years. TWENTY FIVE YEARS!!! I started working at the school back in 2001 on the thought that working in a school would be handy while my kids were at school and I needed school holidays off work. Well my youngest is now in his 2nd year at uni so they are well and truly finished with needing me in the summer hols now but I'm still there. What went wrong?! Although we all moan from time to time when you get to just before a holiday you remember what you like about it! I do think that the main reason I stay there now is because I dread the idea of the whole leaving thing. I am happy to join in and wish others good luck for the future, but the thought of standing in the staff room and giving a farewell speech is enough to keep me out of the 'situations vacant' bit of the newspaper.
A few people have asked me about the story about the footballer in my '49 things' post. Well, my nephew got married 9 years ago at Hanbury Manor Hotel. My daughter was bridesmaid and my son was an usher and it was a fabulous day. The whole family were staying there overnight. In the evening, my niece thought it would be fun to decorate the bridal suite as a surprise and we went to reception to ask if we could have the key to the bride and groom's bedroom so we could leave balloons, champagne, confetti etc. They gave us a key and my daughter, niece and I gathered our goodies together and headed upstairs when we were sure that the bride and groom were busy on the dance floor. We opened the bedroom door and thought we could hear voices inside. Impossible. Matt and Angela were definitely downstairs. Maybe they had left the TV on? At that point, the curtains around the four poster bed parted and a rather handsome, young footballer (looking rather surprised) looked out. Reception had given us the wrong key! We beat a hasty retreat. Never have I been more embarrassed! The footballer was Michael Carrick and my son was absolutely thrilled to see him the next morning after breakfast as he had recently played for England and was on the books of Tottenham Hotspur (son's favourite team) and agreed to have his photo taken with him. I'm not sure he would have been so willing if he had realised that the young boy's mother was one of the trio of ladies who interrupted him the night before!