Somehow, a harebrained idea born in the grim depths of last winter has inadvertently become a reality, and today is my last day of working for Greenpeace before I head off to cycle across Africa.
I'll be taking a lot with me from my three years in this madhouse highly effective campaigning organisation - not least a criminal record, a habit of lying to friends and family about my whereabouts (in the run up to direct actions), and an antisocial compulsion to explain the beauty of decentralised energy to every passer by.
But I'll also be taking this lesson: if you set the most absurdly optimistic aim (stopping the building of new coal plants in the UK, say, just when some of the world's biggest companies and the government's most powerful ministers are determined to build it) and pursue it with audacity, passion and insight, you sometimes succeed. And much more often than you might think.
Greenpeace - by which I mean the people who work in this office and other offices around the world; the people who help to win campaigns by supporting them financially; the people who give their time to volunteer on projects, fundraise, take action online or campaign on the streets; and the people who risk their jobs (and freedom) by taking direct action with us - has audacity, passion, insight and determination in spades.
It's been a privilege and a joy to be involved, and I feel horribly guilty to be leaving at a time when scientists say we have less than a hundred months to stop climate change, and when more than ever before we need all hands on deck. I plan to keep supporting Greenpeace in whatever way I can in the years to come.
For now though, farewell to the madhouse, and keep on working miracles.
