We trained hard… but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
Petronius Arbiter, 210 B.C.*
Who is watching over me? Who decides what happens to me next? The discussion of God, destiny or fate is for another time, but right now I would really like to know which celestial Grand Master is moving me from square to square. Sometimes I don't even see the move coming, the first I know of it is when a mighty pawn comes along and knocks me sideways clean off the board. Other times I am quite happily sitting in place, happy that I am exactly where I should be. Then out of the blue appears a looming Bishop, and I just know that I have no choice but to pick myself up and shuffle off to a new, empty, cold hard space in order to keep playing the game. This is one of those times. 7 months after finding my dream square, safely surrounded, I look up to see the shadow of a great lumbering rook. So off we must slide. Not straight away - the game is still in progress, with several moves still to be made by others first, but I can see the way the game is developing. With the strong likelihood that my analogy has become hopelessly convoluted, I should probably just say - It appears I will shortly be changing jobs.
