Farewell

Su Ann is probably the closest friend that I have made in the past 10 years. Over the years we have had many debates on who outperforms who in terms of conservativeness and we are both convinced the other party is the prude between the two of us.

Andre and Val. Friendly faces and genuinely nice people too.

Mark was my 'frienemy' at work. We defended opposite causes and over the years we engaged in countless heated debates, always just short of throwing chairs if not for our mutual respect for each other.

Mark is multi-lingual, apart from his Native English he speaks Polish and French. Outside work we conversations often drift to languages.

Jenny is Chinese and is married to a British husband. Jenny can pull off beautifully the act of approaching a stranger, saying hi and making friends. She acts as the communication hub for many Chinese residents in the sleepy town of Basingstoke.

Sharon is Anglo-Indian, born and raised in London and inherited the best bits of western liberalism and traditional Indian values. Due to her varied background, a penchant for travelling and her bubbly personality, Sharon has many interesting stories and intriguing life experiences to share

The girls - Chai hah, KY, Kian Peng, Agnes, Angie, Lily

I have had many enjoyable night outs (instead of 'dates' to avoid causing offence) with Chai Hah and KY in London. I feel privileged and grateful to be occasionally invited to their girls night out. I was often reminded I was not suave enough hence the girls couldn't be asked to act 'lady-like', despite that albeit slightly loud sometimes nothing close to bitching was ever witnessed :o

Noelle is smart, attractive, articulate and intimidatingly successful career wise (it is her biggest weakness, we concurred). Geeky topics guys enjoy don't drive Noelle away and she always have many to share herself.

Simon who answers to the 'endearing' nickname 'muppet' is a self confessed player. As we work in IT Security, I branded him the 'IT Security male whore' – much to his own delight.

Jenni is British Born Chinese. Her youthful appearance belies the fact that she is a married young mother. I have fond memories of my conversations with Jenni after work (which mainly revolved around her 2 year old daughter Meggi) that raised many eyebrows and drew envy from other male colleagues as Jenni is undoubtedly the cutest girl in our business park.

Hey it's KK. The smartest and most boring man I have known.

Billy is the first real white friend I made in the UK. Billy is fiercely Scottish whereas his English wife Pauline is ever understanding and gentle, I constantly test the limit of our friendship by voicing my uncertainties over Haggis,Kilt, Bagpipe and all things Scottish. Billy has yet to snap (although coming quite close on occassions) till this date.

Ann, Simon and Nick. Talking to any one of them is like talking to a stand up comedian who specialises in deadpan British sarcasm who is in the middle of his sell out act. Never a dull moment.

Richard is a real life nuclear scientist who specialises in 'nuclear safety engineering'. Possibly due to the criticality of his work (of preventing nuclear explosions and thus apocalypse etc.) Richard adopts a strict technical approach to all things in life, even the more abstract things like running and dancing do not escape Richard's technical analysis and chart plotting etc.

Gustavo embodies everthing Brazilian - Wild, spontaneous, extremely generous, blatantly honest. Gustavo can say with conviction the famous latin phase 'My house is your house'. I laughed it off when I heard it but I was touched.

Steven is a very good friend. To him doing a favour for a friend seems to take priority over almost everything else and jumps on it whenever such opportunity arises.

Photo taken in Amsterdam, we were there for the windmills, tulips and canals and nothing else.

Fred is American and a language genius. He is very impressively competent in many major languages of the world, many at native level. I often joke it may be easier to count the languages he doesn't speak.

Fred and his Taiwanese wife Sa holds important roles at work and travel all over the world therefore they have countless interesting stories to share.

Graeme 'Budgie' Smith and Simon Hopley. Budgie and I were convinced we had heard those exact words coming out of Hopley many times over.

I am very grateful they turned up at my leaving do, taking the grand total of turnout to 3.

Seb, Sathish, Jide – We goofed around so much at work that we turned our work place into a playground, filled with sounds of laughter of giggly little girls, except we were all grown men.