Festive
05.14.08. No food shortage today for me and my officemates. In fact, I never experienced a more festive day at work than today. We had an early lunch at Mr. Choi, a Chinese restaurant inside Robinson’s Pioneer, a short walking distance away from the office building.
The lunch was courtesy of Mel, the most senior resource left in the team after our lead resigned a month ago. It’s her treat before she officially leaves us for Canada this Saturday for a long term onshore assignment.— something she deserves for working so hard for the SMARTS team. We were already joking on her that she might change a lot once she’s in the Canada office. We will pop her in the vernacular “musta?” and her reply would be “what?”. Worse her reply would be “who r u?” or maybe something totally French.
Pepz, the only female teammate that would be left, who has been there and done that in Canada , gave Mel some tips on how to survive and make her experience there enjoyable despite of. Upon her suggestion, each of us wrote Mel a message at the back of a paper Mr. Choi place mat. My message sounded a lot like a Friendster testimonial. She’s one person I can consider a friend at work and I’ve been used to with her around especially if there are issues within the team that only her can provide the answer or suggestion. But starting next week, there’s going to be a lot of adjustments in our office lives and I don’t want to start enumerating them now. Neither do I want to discuss what the future of my career holds for me now.
*****
Mel will be leaving with Mike from STAR team, a regular smoker on his twenties and a womanizer, some has said but he won’t confirm. The two gave a ‘merienda’ treat for the whole project in the afternoon ordered from Amber’s which is like one of the two options when someone in the office gives a blow out.
Then come night time, we were off to Heaven ‘n Eggs in Glorietta to celebrate a recently accomplished task of the SMARTS and STAR teams. The dinner turned out to be a send-off for Mel ad Mike as well, a continuation of the festivity and a reunion on the side with our former team lead Tyrone who came with his beautiful radiant wife. I’ve always fancied dining in there so when this opportunity came to suggest where to have dinner, I voted for it. Indeed, we made the right choice for it was just too festive, Heaven ‘n Eggs just proved that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and set the record straight that you can have breakfast anytime of the day. I was just too full, my mouth just can’t take another bite of that pancake and I have to skip the dessert. I can’t help but question why I was fed so well this day.
*****
We left the restaurant around 10:30pm, I was feeling sleepy. I was walking to the Ayala Terminal with Tyrone and his wife, when Ty asked if I am still happy at work. He’s probably the only person who can ask me this kind of questions and being my former lead, I know he mean it when he asks. I quickly answered, “Tough question!” and his wife gave a short chuckle. I guess it is a question I’ll ask myself on a daily basis.
