Re-edited from draft.
I just sold my computer monitor. And here I am sitting in a cyber cafe opposite my place. Not exactly where I expected myself to be at 2 days before I’m supposed to leave Perth for good.
From my desk at Spectra Engineering
Yesterday was my last day working for Spectra. I finalised my projects, handed my works over to my colleagues (sort of) and after work, we had a mini farewell party. Bill suggested that the reason they are celebrating is because I’m leaving. 🙂
Seems like only yesterday that I stepped foot into the company. I was a fresh graduate who only just entered the workforce. Spectra is a very small company as there are only say 20 people working there, about 10 of whom are engineers. There’s a culturally diverse mix of people from Taiwan and Vietnam to South Africa and Switzerland. Yet despite their small workforce, everyone there is extremely good with what they do.
Steve Robinson (in his goofy self) and ‘DJ’ Steve Edwards
The people at Spectra are a colourful bunch. Whilst in the morning they are people hard at work trying to make a living, when they go home, they changed into different character like toys out of the Transformers cartoon. Gary and Hieu would don on their fishing gear and go deep sea fishing. Alan would sing at gigs in various pubs. Steve E (Edwards) become DJ Stephen Tranz0r at The Rise Nightclub. Despite the silly DJ moniker, he’s definitely one of the best trance DJs in Perth, and I believe its only a matter of time before he makes it big locally and internationally. I was known as the healthy one. In a place where people read geeky engineering newsletter and Ralph magazines, I brought copies of Men’s Health magazines to work. There was a period of time when I was crazy about my diet. I would eat plenty canned tuna and smoked salmon, and I lost a lot of weight. In turn, I accidentally inspired many people at work, including my boss, to start eating healthily. 🙂
Chistmas dinner with the bunch on the cruise
Working in Australia is very different to my past experiences working in Malaysia. Malaysian companies usually obey a strict hierarchy system where the boss is always feared and respected and the staff should do whatever the boss requests without question. The working environment in Australia on the other hand is very casual. People wear jeans to work, sometimes even shorts if they wanted to. There’s no such barrier of respect between the staff and the bosses – everyone is a friend of everyone, and you don’t have to treat your superiors like some army officer. People still respect each other, but these are also people that you can sit down at the end of the day, play some darts and have a nice cold beer.
My farewell gift is… a pack of SMOKED SALMON?!
Anyway, the bunch gave me a nice collage of photos as a farewell gift. They also gave me a pack of smoked salmon, which is an obvious rib at me. Later that evening, we retreated to one of our workmates Simone’s place. Nicole joined us and Julie offered to pay for the A$40 taxi ride. When I was about to leave, there were handshakes, there were hugs, and for Julie – there were tears. It sure was damn difficult to leave such a close knit group.
Well, these past few days has been really hectic with all the packing that’s going on. I am overwhelmed not just by all the tasks at hand, but also by the multitude of emotions I felt because I am leaving this place for good. I wished I can just calm down and blog nicely for once – but probably not today. My flight is at 7:50am on Monday, so I shouldn’t really be here in the first place!
Thus, I shall put kennysia.com on hold. I’ll be back by Tuesday.
ahh.. it’s always hard to say goodbye..
hope you will have a wonderful time back here 🙂
That’s the more reasons for me to hate saying goodbyes! Esp with ppl who we r close with….anyways…have a safe flight home…n all the best for what’s coming for u in kch! 🙂
hey dude.. have a nice flight. i remember the time when i had to leave los angeles for good. it was to explain how i felt. i wanted to stay, but i ‘had’ to go home. nvr regretted my decision though. it’s good to be home!
wow.time flies. safe journey, kenny. remember-every goodbye is not a mark of a farewell but a stamp of a new beginning. remember the beautiful people who u’ve met over here,the precious memories that you share and experiences that you’ll never forget and it’ll make up for all the tears that have been shed.
Bon Voyage Kenny… I hear you when you talk about the “multitude of emotions”. It ain’t easy, and for the (very noble) reasons that you’re doing this, I truly admire and commend you. But hey, you are going back home, and that means meeting up with old friends and family, great shopping, eating real food (hehe jokes mate)… I wish you all the best. Cheers Mate.
have a pleasuring flight, buddy. yeap, its all hard to say goodbye to good frens. but de feelin of one day of reuniting again is really overwhelming. which is also a sign that frens arent actually gone forever and will see each other again one day, realizing how small de world is. =)
hehehehe
i hope by the time that you read this, you’d have already reached home safely, sitting comfortably in front of ur comp using not-so-broadband streamyx. if you should feel a need to be cheered up, just pop by your favourites list, and gO tO ThAt wEbSiTe. *gRiNnNn*.
i know it’s helluva shitloada pain leaving all those things. but it’s okay u see. coz now you’ve got ME to get sesat in Kch with. Gotta wait til i’m back though, which won’t be long.
text/call me to let me know you’re Ok, Ok? =)
*Hugs*. You’ll be okay. You know you will.
Hi Kenny,
Wish you all the best.
Cheers,
SK
your website sucks
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