toodle pip

Farewell Sydney, hello UK!

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Yesterday was my last day at work.. Man oh Man.. the emotions are really kicking in. I managed not to cry the whole day which was amazing. It wasn't that I didn't feel like it.. but that I wanted to keep myself together and make a decent speech!

My work friends all chipped in and bought me a beautiful Swarovski bracelet. Everytime I look at it I will think of them.


It all happened so fast. I packed in a rush, then we had the presentation, then I had to hand over my passes and that was it.. I had Left The Building. We went to the Chelsea for drinks, it was really special having all these colleagues around me who were really friends more than colleagues, and Pear came up too later which was great. I'm so glad she was there, and also to accompany me home on the long train ride (well.. long wait for connecting train at Central)..otherwise it would've been a hard journey to make myself.

I hope to stay with as many of them as possible. I'm still coping with the idea that I don't work there anymore! It's a strange feeling to disconnect yourself from things that have always been there, eg. your job, your car, possessions, home.. I never expected to feel this way when I planned to go away a couple of months ago.

Today I'm off to Melbourne and Nagambie for the Dragonboat National Championships. I think it'll be a good break away with and being amongst friends. I'm really looking forward to the racing too. It'll be the first time I race dragonboat with the PD's and I'm ready to WIN!!!

Monday, April 03, 2006

Saying goodbye

It just occurred to me that I spent Friday night with mostly guys (my uni friends), and Sunday night with a whole bunch of girls (my high school friends).. well duhh... I DID go to an all girls' HS, then somehow transitioned into Engineering at uni, thrown amongst a heap of boys on my first day and wondering what I'd gotten myself into.

Anyway.. so on Friday night caught up with Chris, Mike, Conrad and Yoon.. and Chris brought along his gf Joyce. They are such a cute couple (keke).. We had drinks briefly at the Equilibrium Bar after which we left as Chris got tired of standing, so Yoon suggested the Golden Palace in Chinatown because there are always seats there, plus he missed his CYL pals of course after not seeing them for 24hrs. Afterwards we dined at Wagamama.. which I have to say was quite disappointing (if I'm still hungry after a meal that's saying something!!).. then karaoke at Karaoke World! Chris wowed (and woo'ed??) Joyce with his vocals, we finally got Conrad to sing something.. and Mike entertained us most of the time with his master of weird rap songs, very impressive!

On Sat night Donny, Clem and I dined at Haberfield (of course I bumped into the Maks).. then gorged on huge ice creams at Passionflower in the city - I felt like a uni student again.

Last night my high school pals and I went to Karaoke World (again!).. then we gorged on a 3 course meal at the Menzies Hotel. We stepped into the restaurant area and I felt like I'd gone back in time..the place was so 1920's old style, with leather armchairs.. dim lighting.. tropical plants..wooden arches and panels.. Elaine told us about her training for the Oxfam Trailwalker - I am mighty impressed that she is doing it, AND training so hard for it (it's not till August). I gave her the 'wear stockings' tip that I remember Kait talking about once. (If you're wondering what that is, basically if u wear stockings under your socks you will minimise/delay the onset of blisters). 100km of rugged walking.. Elaine estimates it'll take her team around 30hrs to do it. That is way harder than paddling the Hawkesbury, hence I must give it a go sometime!!

I drove Kinuyo home, we stayed in the car afterwards and chatted for around 2hrs (or something like that!) I'm really grateful that I'm still so close to my HS pals.. and I hope it stays that way! :)