Journey mercies

Usual routine when I get into office, open Exchange mailbox (it's user-friendly, I'll give you that but I still prefer Lotus Notes), open up my MSN, check mail, check what's been going on with the world since I fell asleep and get going with my day.

I went through my routine this morning but all of a sudden I get an MSN message from Uncle Chan, Uncle Ching's best friend. They both joined my ex-company the same time and originally for the same role as well! My then manager liked one of them, my then manager's manager liked the other. So they were both hired and eventually worked out the respective roles.

Knowing what kind of hell they would both get into in trying to acclimatise to the company, processes and culture asap and hit the ground running as fast as they can before the tsunami drowned them, I kept telling my then manager to make sure they get as much help as possible.

But, sure enough, they weren't going to get any special and deferential treatment just like that. No, it is the Blue way of the survival of the fittest.

Having thrown into the deep end head first myself, I helped the two uncles as much as I could to make sure they avoided the mistakes I made when I first joined the team. Much respect to the two of them. I learned the reasons of why they were both liked and hired.

One of my favourite memories of Uncle Ching was when we were seated in different cubicles not far from each other, and most people were away at that time, when I suddenly heard some familiar bleeping sounds.

I immediately stood up and asked loudly over the cubicle wall, "Oi! Uncle! How old are you!? You playing Tamagotchi ah!?"

"Aiyo!!! My son's one lah!!! He's not allowed to bring it to school so I have to take care of it and feed it while he's in school!!!"

And Uncle Chan... always slumping over the desk frowning at the laptop like he's going to die. Although looks like a proper old uncle, he still has that lost-puppy-save-me-look and would always give me the I'm-a-happy-boy look when I figure it's faster and easier for me to do the work for him than to explain how to do it.

Well, anyway, as I said, Uncle Chan messaged me talking crap with me. But Uncle Ching must have been talking with him, because he was asking me to go back to work in the company and that I'll always be his mentor. :)

Well. It took him quite a while, but both of the uncles made me feel good. There have been people who have been annoyed with me constantly trying to 'give advice', but it's nice to know that they both appreciated whatever help I've given them.