Farewell everyone I have ever interviewed. I became a journalist because of you. It's been an honour to hear your stories and to tell them as faithfully as I could, whatever the pressure of my deadlines or the barking of the newsdesk. There are some of you who have touched me so deeply, I will never forget you. Thank you for your trust and for making my work such a privilege.

Adieu colleagues. What can I say to you? Do you know what I respect about you? That whatever we go through - and we have been through one Hell of a lot - still the stories get written, still the deadlines get met, still the newspapers come out. Sometimes I wonder how we do it. We do it because nobody cares about journalism as much as us. What binds us is our professionalism and our dedication to what we do. By God, I shall miss that camaraderie. Stay in touch.

There are other things which ceased to be part of my working life some time ago, but to which I feel the need to say goodbye. Bye bye inky fingers. Ta ra to the increasing clattering of keyboards as the deadlines draw nearer. Adieu to getting on my knees in the library to pull out files of black and white photographs and rub the red crayon marks from them with the sleeve of my jumper. Farewell to the deafening clamour of newspapers rattling along overhead conveyor belts into lorries blocking Printing House Street, so we could not get out of the building. Farewell to the grubby sensuality of printing.

Bye bye, Fort Dunlop. Ta ra M6, or rather the sight of you snaking your way through the estates of Castle Vale. Farewell standing in the bitter-cold opposite Moor Street Station wondering if the Urban Splash shuttle bus will ever turn up. Goodbye ladies loos, the secrets you have heard and the lipstick applications you have witnessed. You never did get those bog brushes did you?

Au revoir journalism. This is the one which brings a tear to my eye as I type. I leave in the hope it is "ta ra a bit" rather than goodbye for good. We will always tell stories. We will always need story-tellers. Bye bye to the traditional ways of doing it - you were great, you really were. Hello wonderfully connected new world.

Jo has now left the Birmingham Post to become a self-employed writer. Visit her website: www.joind.co.uk