When Prince Charming said Good Bye

Today we have lunch at Kelantan’s Delight. It’s a farewell lunch for our popular, charming, helpful Chee Leong. Yup! He decided to abandon us, and fly to Sydney to further his study, leaving us in the pressure cooker.

Chee Leong is considered as one of a newbie in our Division. He joined us in 2009 after the outsourcing. He was selected among many, to manage our department's finance related matter.

I first saw him in 2007 when I attended his presentation on TIC submission. I was impressed by him. Not only by his presentation skill but also by his looks. After that session, I totally forgot about him, until in 2009 when one of the bosses told me that TCL will be joining our department.

I didn’t know that TCL was the same guy that I saw in 2007. When he joined us for the training session in 2009, he sat quietly at the back. Yeah he was gauging us from the back, and plotting how to win us.

Three months later, he strutted to the office with his laptop and sat in the workstation in front of me. Did I give him a big, warm welcome? I don’t think so, but I did remembered saying, “Welcome and you are my life savior.”

For three months after the outsourcing, I suffered. I had three tough months understanding all the financial reports. The moment he came in, I happily dumped it to him, and I had not looked at it again until three days ago, when I was told to assume his role temporary until they find another person to do this. It is giving me nightmare thinking about all those figures.

Well, Chee Leong has managed to win us all. He was so helpful, friendly, charming and gentleman. There were times he waited for us, the ladies, and walked together to the parking.

Hah! We are going to miss our Prince Charming. No more good looking guy sitting in front of me, and one thing for sure when all the numbers don’t make sense to me, I will desperately wish that he is back with us.

CL, as you are making your exit today there will be another person joining us on Monday. Yeah! I think I’m going to have a hard time with this one because he is from England. Do you know what will be the problem? His British slang. No more Manglish in the office!

To Chee Leong, I wish you all the best.

Salam.

Whenever my friend says goodbye.....

Ahhh…One by one, my friend resigned. Some found a job somewhere else and some just quit. Life is stressful here, but life must go on.

Most of these people who left have been with the company for many years. Some were longer than me. What made them leave? Not sure but they must have their own reasons.

Eventhough people leaving, one thing for sure and agreed by many, the company has been good to us. It is one of the best companies to work with. No doubt about it.

One of them who is leaving is my colleague, Chee Leong. He will be leaving by the end of the month. I’m going to miss him. So yesterday the three of us, my department is very small, we went for lunch yesterday. When we sat at the table, I am proud to say that we are multicultural, multiracial and multi-language group. The team is made up of Malay, Chinese and Indian. Muhibbah and 1Malaysia!

We had lunch at Chili Expresso, Sooka Sentral. We sat outside, underneath the canopy, and the weather was very nice. Not too hot and not too cold. It was just nice so that we can enjoy our last week together as a team. As we were about to sit, Chee Leong said, “Ahh …It’s like Paris.”

We had a long lunch, and we talked about everything except work. Every time we talked about work, it will spoil the mood, but we did gossip about what happened in the office.

And today, I attended another farewell lunch, together with other five others, but this time it was for my friend, Barry. We worked together in Jakarta. His last day will be this week, and he is taking a month break before starting at his new company.

Who else is leaving? Not sure but hope no one that I know. Every time they say goodbye, a piece of me die with them. That’s how I feel.

To Barry, all the best and enjoy your break.

Sekian ….Salam.