Yet another farewell

Yet again another farewell for another of our work mate. This time, the farewell’s for AT. It’s one of the most fun, noisy, extended farewell we have had for quite a while. Marking the start of the farewell was the usual task of ‘What shall we buy for him?’ ‘What does he like?’ Tons and tons of questions, ideas were churned and tossed out of the window. Finally, with our budget, we went scouting for his gift – a pen. As we excitedly found an ideal gift well within our budget and with plenty to spare, we got news that one of our temp also got him a pen!!! World came crashing down….. once again, we are back to square one with nil ideas and at an absolute lost. We thought perhaps a causal-looking watch would be good for the weekends. However, with our budget, we could only stretch our options so far and naturally the choices weren’t the best. Biting the bullet, we decided to go ahead with buying the pen. We rationalized that it fits him perfectly and that it’s so stylish etc.. Any possible reasons for us to validate our choice.

The divison had the farewell dinner the next evening at Sushi Tei… With a huge group of 17 people, I nearly created hell (what’s new!!) for the restaurant manager. As usual, when you put all 17 of us together, it’s enough to re-create the Kallang Roar. We were just big kids, having many many good laughs, with extremely loud uncontrollable voices…. We were quite the ‘mad customers from hell’…. But we provide entertainment for the waitress!

AT loved both the pens and was caught off-guard with our massive huge and impossible-to-lug home card. He was starting to get emotional cos you could hear the change in his voice.

Today’s AT’s last day at work. BS and I burned group pictures of him in a CD and also printed memorable pictures for him. It was quite fun and of cos, he doesn’t suspect a thing. When we gave him the gifts, he was absolutely stunned. He can’t believe there are more stuff for him. I’m just darn glad we printed the few photos cos it just brought out a huge smile. He was absorbing every beautiful moment. Towards the end of the afternoon, we took heaps of photos. Funny wacky shots… Perfect setting, perfect photos, perfect memories.

For the past 8 months, we have had 8 people leaving us. Out of these 8, 2 were farewells we can’t be bothered to lift a finger cos they aren’t worth our time. The remaining 6, probably AT and LH farewells were the most fun, memorable and noisy. For LH, it was literally a week of countdown before she finally parted us and the company.

 We know AT’s sad to leave us; especially when everyone’s so united and bonded. But… like what we tell him, the world is small, we may just bump into each other anytime soon. With the new job, we are very certain it’s his kind of work and that he’ll be an absolute asset there. And like what I have written in his card, he will always be invited to our every noisy, rowdy gatherings.

Adios AT…… but not for long mate…..