Progress at work had been slow, with delays from other areas. This is unfortunately a typical aspect of my job. While it is great to have the time to skive once in a while, this is getting ridiculous. I wonder how much more patience I have in myself.
A nice thing about work today was that on leaving, some folks whom I am not familiar with invited me to have dinner together. They were very warm and friendly, and of course, they were curious about Singapore. It was a good exchange of information, with some steamboat food. It certainly beat my previous idea for dinner (just drink milk in the room) hands down.
It was nice, as these people were very human. Some of them had to leave in the middle of dinner to go home and settle stuff. And no one really minded. It was so free and easy. I guess this is the best kind of dinner affair, without a clear need for hierarchy at the dinner table.
During the course of dinner, I purposedly dropped a familiar name to them. It was one of their (ex-)colleagues. She was a very kind and responsible person whom I had worked with a year back, but had been "out of action" since late last year. The problem with this information was that no one had given me a very clear picture. Even the person closest to me seemed very unwilling to tell me more, and had most recently changed topics when I asked about her. What I had understood was that she was ill, and had to rest at home. In a normal situation, he should have offered me her contact information, so that I can decide whether I want to reach her. But nothing.
The people at the dinner table began discussing excitedly for a while, about someone hurting another person, and was thus held in custody, awaiting trial or something like that. It sounded like a really complicated situation, and I had the feeling that my dear friend could be in trouble for something that she did. There was a bit of a sinking feeling, cos she had been a wonderful person, a responsible supervisor, a doting mother, and a loving wife to a colleague. But as the people at the dinner table mentioned, that was not a glorious thing, and it would be best if I did not know exactly what happened.
But that made me a little apprehensive over the other people whom I had been very close to at this site. Perhaps I am still a foreign visitor that they feel obliged to show off only their best, or at least not to show anything problematic and potentially shameful. Perhaps the level of "friendship" or 关系 is nothing to speak of proudly... Perhaps it is just as well, to avoid feeling too much, feeling too sorry.
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