Gathering
The other day, one of my ex-colleagues from MINDEF (where I had worked from 1996 to 2009) was in town. He's now living in New York working for a boutique fund and was back here for work and pleasure. I was told of his being in town by another ex-colleague, who was also my ex-uni mate. She was the one who arranged for the last-minute gathering.
Anyway, Eric, Seow Peng and I met at the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel. We had a few drinks and reminisce about the good old days when we all worked in the Defence Policy Office (DPO). We had lots of fun, not least because we felt on the top of the world doing what we thought were the most important work in MINDEF, and possibly in Singapore. We were Defence Policy Officers, and our work was crucial in ensuring Singapore's various harmonious bilateral and multilateral defence relations. Truth be told, while there were hard times, there were also good times. Like when we indulged in hilarious banterings and teasings, from word play to deliberately misconstruing each other's intentions, often with cheeky intent.
I had fun talking to my old comrades-in-arm, and I do miss my time in DPO. But all good things must come to an end, and as the Chinese saying goes, "there is no feast that has no end". I guess what I miss is the fact that these were good moments in my life. And they were when I believed that I could do no wrong, that I had a bright future ahead and I was prepared to risk it all to carve out my destiny. But that's in the past and I'm now restrained by years of experience, or more correctly fear. Fear of my mortality, fear of my limited ability to break out of my parentage, fear of my incapacity to see what I could unwittingly be sowing, and fear of the unknown. Alas, life is such that it's hard to master but one can only hope to do one's best and then hope for the best.
Anyway, Eric, Seow Peng and I met at the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel. We had a few drinks and reminisce about the good old days when we all worked in the Defence Policy Office (DPO). We had lots of fun, not least because we felt on the top of the world doing what we thought were the most important work in MINDEF, and possibly in Singapore. We were Defence Policy Officers, and our work was crucial in ensuring Singapore's various harmonious bilateral and multilateral defence relations. Truth be told, while there were hard times, there were also good times. Like when we indulged in hilarious banterings and teasings, from word play to deliberately misconstruing each other's intentions, often with cheeky intent.
I had fun talking to my old comrades-in-arm, and I do miss my time in DPO. But all good things must come to an end, and as the Chinese saying goes, "there is no feast that has no end". I guess what I miss is the fact that these were good moments in my life. And they were when I believed that I could do no wrong, that I had a bright future ahead and I was prepared to risk it all to carve out my destiny. But that's in the past and I'm now restrained by years of experience, or more correctly fear. Fear of my mortality, fear of my limited ability to break out of my parentage, fear of my incapacity to see what I could unwittingly be sowing, and fear of the unknown. Alas, life is such that it's hard to master but one can only hope to do one's best and then hope for the best.
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