Monday, March 13, 2017

GOODBYE (The Bangkok Edition)

There's a thousand ways to say good bye, and how it is done and said is how we will be remembered.

I want happy goodbyes, no tears nor rancour, only fond memories that will build our monument of friendship and remembrances, a moment that certainly deserves a freshly cooked plate of pad thai, because Cherian was cheery despite being the harbinger of a sad news, and Dieneke cool and hip notwithstanding her not so pleasant task of closing down a Regional Center.     




At least I've got to commemorate the International Women's Day at the Q House and have my bowl of "Five Pork Flavors" along Convent Road before everything that happened there is memorialized, a full day before invading the Patpong Night Market in search of a souvenir ceramic plate. 




I came to Bangkok for a "Closure Party" which is actually intriguing because it connotes celebrating [the party] a demise [the closure] but it actually makes sense as it progressed into toasting the legacy of the last six years and handing over its aftermath in the best faith to those who will steer "One Asia" into the future.

And that I hail with a steamed ruby fish and two big bottles of the The Original Thai Beer.    


It's been mostly happy faces at Mama Dolores and I am envious.

I have experienced the same closure where my supposedly secure tenure was vaporized by a change process, and suffered the humiliation of my application to a newly created post not even being shortlisted. 

There was a lot of anger in that one, and people felt they were unwanted and being thrown out fast without the benefit of an organized turnover. 

There was not even a proper good bye.




At least we [the EJ Campaigners] have our own "Closure Party" and the memory of that plus having a selfie with Bert who led us in my first COP battle in Cancun deserved the dinner and beer I consumed in Bangkok, which on the other hand also certainly deserve two days of biking to burn it out.  

On that note, may I quote Trey Parker when he said "Saying good bye doesn't mean anything. It's the time that we spent together that matters, not how we left it".  



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