Just done with the farewell lunch cum 'party' with the Health Services Group, MOH.
we had a nice catered farewell lunch at the lecture room. this farewell lunch was for Kok Ping and I. He's going into private GP after this and I'm going to continue my studies! and surpisingly and coincidentally, we're resigning on the same date, 8th August 08 and starting work(for him) and school(for me) on the 18th August 08 :) I just realised something very interesting and important, 8th August 08 is such an auspicious date ! 8/8/08 !!! hehe.. i wonder whether kok ping chose this date to end work for this reason. well, i didnt though. hmmm, very nice lunch.. i like the cream puff and eclair, very nice!! haha. well, after that was the get-tgt session and our big boss, Prof Chew, presented the farewell gifts to us. lucky they didnt ask me to open the gift. if not, i'ld really have to pretend as if i was felicia chin and pretend to be very surprised with the gift (which was chosen by myself. lol.) and there came the most embarrasing part, had to give a SPEECH. well, i didnt plan what i want to say so i just blarred out a few sentences (always the case for me) and thanked everyone and wished them all the best. i didn't even think before i speak. lucky i still sounded good. though it was very short. hahaaa.. Arthur Chern and Prof Chew started suan-ing each other after that.. so funny.. i thought only Kok Ping gets a card cos i think they gave him 'ang-bao'. well, he's going to be a GP soon.. nothing much they can get for him anyway.. he definitely alr has his own stethoscope. but when i came back to office, i saw a CARD!!!! in the paper bag tgt with the present! HOW NICE!!! i love them! so many well wishes for me written in the card. I'm really quite 'touched' and very very happy. hehe. it's worth so much more than the $239 bag.. hmm.. very happy to read the good wishes and those pleasant comments they had for me :) many of them wished me well for my studies and many told me to cherish the days i would have at school. they're so cool :)))
to be honest, I've never really felt so close personally to many of them before today. i used to not have a really good impression or close r/s with a few of them or nv really spoken to them but i'm glad that there was today :) my farewell is a subject we could start off with. haha.. it was a short session, just slightly more than an hour and everything ended. but i'm really glad that my colleagues cared to organise this for us and made everything pleasant today :) i'll miss them too and would probably drop by once in a while for lunch or like what Prof wrote on the card - 'share my wisdom'. haha. my last day of is on 30th July. I should start to countdown to that very day :)
oh soooo... what have my colleagues got for me? or rather, what have i chosen for myself? well, i went shopping with Jac that day. i really wanted a pair of specs badly. but when we went to paris miki at taka, all the frames were soooo EXPENSIVE. i think the cheapest was $209 (not including the lens -__-'') and i wasn't able to find a pair that suits me :( i look so nerdy n ugly with them. perhaps the shape of the frame didnt really suit me. we also went to kate spade. i saw a realtively small handbag which i like and it was on sale! only cost $160. it was on my 'fall back' list if i couldnt find anything else. we continued shopping and when it was 8, we crossed the road to paragon to look at my baby's masterpiece. his project - the omega event. we saw ling xiang ping.. couldnt rmber her english name. she really has a sharp and point nose (pretty but i think, fake). saw baby at the 2nd level and his boss was there as well so i didnt talk to him for long. Jac and I went back to taka after that to continue with our shopping. haha. i was deciding whether i should get this Calvin Klein bag. it was a nice colour but quite filmsy coz it's nylon. the very thin and fine kind. but it really looks good. but both of us think that it wont hold my laptop so we cont with the search. and.. we stopped by at the House of Anli counter (located at the extreme end, quite ulu). i've noticed that counter before and i'm always impressed by their handmade products. everything is exquisite and one of a kind.. very very pretty. i saw one which i liked quite a lot but it costed a hefty $399.. so expensive! but it's really vvvv cool and definitely one of a kind. it's handmade. but i wouldn't want to top up another $170 to get that bag so i continued to try out other bags and finally i caught this very nice bag. it's made of plastic material, those see through plastic w patent leather trimings and handle and a large patented anchor sewn on the bag. on the inside, it has a detachable pouch with sequins sewn on it. there was a bigger version for that bag, something like a travel bag. it was cool as well but Jac said i looked as if i was on a runaway. the salesman doesn't sound local. he's very tanned and looked like european or turkish and he has an absolutely great sales attitude. he's very very patient with us and his service is excellent!! double bonus and makes me really want to buy something from him. hehe. so when i was trying that bag on, i casually asked if he has any other colours and he said yes. YES!yeahhhh.. haha lucky i asked ! so the one on display was blue with red sequined pouch. n there was red and black in the store. omg, i absolutely love the black one! the sequins were orange-copper in colour and contrast very well with the black patent leather :) triple bonus! hehehe.. the red one comes with red sequins so it's not as contasting as the other 2 are, and the blue and red combi made the anchor bag even more navy (i don't like it too overrated) so i still chose the black :) my fav. i probably would have seen those kind of plastic see-through bag elsewhere without the sequin pouch of coz and at a fraction of the tagged-$239 price but this was really nice :) i think the sequin pouch made it unique even more since it was detachable (could be un-buttoned from the inside of the bag). And, it was imported from US and they only have one colour of each so i'll be the only one in sg seen carrying that bag. hehe. nice :)
i'm really descriptive huh? haha.. such a long passage to describe my farewell gift search. haha.. i shall bring it out soon and show it to my friends! LOL.. must let them know how kind my bosses and colleagues are.. lol. haha. i'm so happy today :) smilies**
how fast time flies. it's been a year at MOH. I really learnt a lot. from being someone so fresh who knows nothing about office politics, admin work and someone so oblivious to the daily news and ministries' existence to someone who've seen not-so-much but substantial and knowing how to use all the photocopiers and fax machines and how to write the various forms of letters and to experience office life and read the newspaper every morning. i guess sometimes we'll only learn when we are given no choice. i only started to realise the importance of keeping myself updated with the news when i was made to read the newspapers every morning and fish out all relevant articles related to my div's work. a very insightful phase of life for me and it'll certainly help me a lot in my life ahead (esp to my CV, something more i could add:) ).
i shall start counting down to my last day and take pics of the office and our private pantry soon and post them all up!! :)
best wishes to my fellow colleagues. with love.
