Received this note after Joseph sent out the "standard" farewell note ... those're the good old days!
Good luck my old buddy on your future adventure! Please can you recruit me as the receptionist/ PA of your newly set-up firm ... not getting only minimum wage of course =P
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Hi Guys,
How can you be satisfied without reading something more personal from me? A sentimental yearning for the happiness of our good old memories.
.....It all started with a job interview in Island Shangrila on a Saturday afternoon for me. Jiann - when I rang you at the hotel lobby, I prayed..."please! don't ask me to come up to Room xxxx on xx/F!". Silly me, must have watched too many movies! Jon, nice to meet you, though I knew you were rushing to somewhere else after my interview and I saw you on the Admiralty's MTR platform looking at your watch, sorry to keep you in the lobby lounge (not me, it was Jiann OK)
Dec 2006, my first day with RBS started in Princess Street office, I was late to the office, windy day, tube line was out of service, Vandana finally picked me up around 930 am (considered most of the London guys started office hrs at 8 or even earlier, I think I was very late!). Back home, I only met up with Johnson in AIA building after a 3 weeks' business trip in London. Impressive, an experience colleague with audit and product knowledge and most importantly, with fashion sense! Johnson, do you know you broke the hearts of so many RBS gals when you get married? I don't think your single status ranking was anything less than Richard Li in Central, time flies, now you are a father of 3, still fit, the only difference now is the gals have no more fantasy about marrying you. Derrick, Derrick, my friend...where were you? I recall you only joined us after we all moved into a room facing CKC, we all sat together with a gentleman (btw, what does he do?) with six LCD monitors and with him looking into our monitors like a "teacher and students classroom" setting! Nothing works, technology sxxks, Europa domain was down during Asia AM without support, TM connection took ages, but well, we all survived and I was glad to be part of the team. Shame I lost contact with Takei-san, his fade out story at Marunochi Building was sad but classic. When I have to face death one day, I may be expecting similar pictures like what Takei-san described to me...."Passed away grandma waving her hands from the corner, childhood memories appear again in sequence....." BTW, do you guys believe a word he says? Anyway, glad that he recovered and hope he will (if he hasn't) retire and enjoy his life in Thailand with elephants bringing him coconuts in his palace.
I believe together we have been to almost every APAC countries with RBS presence since 07. SG's OGS, Fullerton, Tokyo's Marunouchi, Shanghai, Sydney, Diamond cut at Lawry's, UK offsite (Derrick and I actually had our Tux tailor made at Mong Kok, few hundreds HKD were all we need to spend, my wife wasn't too happy with you Derrick as you picked the same colour, same bow tie, same outfit as me.....that's female....who cares right! Then seeing Jocelyn the first time on the Mezz floor of Princess Street during another London trip, "who was she? A senior auditor..."who is she now? a Audit Partner...wow!" Seriously Joc, you got to eat more these days. Brighton's offsite, here comes Jiann, you again, you kept Takei-san in the London office for a report, he supposed to leave early and have dinner with us, oh well, don't know how he managed to cut off the conversation with you and arrived the dinner place before Myra finished xx kg of lobster with noodles on the plate. Myra, you done a good job during your secondment to London. Coming back to APAC, Sydney's fire incident during office hours, Jiann teased Takei-san again for taking the elevator and gone disappear after landing the ground (come on Jiann....can you leave him alone?). Jon, freezing Beijing and nearby Grand Hyatt, a lady approached me first in Mandarin, after me ignoring her, she quickly translated the "question" into English and asked you what she just asked me in Mandarin seconds ago, kind of embarrassing right? then we never have the courage to try the deep fried scorpions from the food street, who knows, they might be able to keep us warm. Then, HK style BBQ at Shek O, Sai Kung offsite, Top of Four Seasons/pool side team meeting, taking visitors out for dinner and who broke the plate with the gold hammer?(any broken glasses in the chicken? Waiter's response: Of course not (bcos he didn't want to replace us with another dish!). Sorry Morgan if you missed all the fun and only arrived Hong Kong just head of the ABN merger, anyway I'm still glad to see that you like BBQ pork bun so much and settled well in HK (oops I meant HK island only as you never cross the harbour!!). Our stories just go on and on....
So, what have we done apart from travelling and eating? We issued xx audit reports, landed xx major issues, xx significant issues, xx important issues, closed all issues before issuing the final reports, moved office 5 times a year, managed to secure 6/7 our desks in the prime land Central, keeping all regulators around the region satisfied....... Impressive numbers, and we do carry on with such positive momentum until now even some of you have left GIA, fine fine Joc, I know we shouldn't be satisfied with these and must keep scoring! Not sure if you recall all these memories, may not mean too much to you, but to me, they are! It has been a wonderful precious experience being in the team, working and meeting you all. Not to mention, the trust, the camaraderie, rapport and friendship that we have forged are definitely not easy to replicate elsewhere. Long and boring email, apology, do allow me to take this opportunity to thanks for all your support and guidance, each of you have made my years in RBS a memorable and meaningful one. Leaving a place that I worked for close to 6 yrs is not easy, I admit that it is with heavy hearts that I bid you farewell but I'm sure our paths will cross again for sure. Let's have a 10 yrs reunion in 2016, promise? Keep in touch ok.
My personal email is xxx@yyy.com.hk and mobile +852 zzzz zzzz.
Goodbye.
Joseph
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