Fairwell

I participated in my last NATAS travel fair last weekend and I had not thought much of it being my last fair I'll be attending, possibly for the rest of my life.

However, I was reminded by Shirley's sms in the morning that this is my last fair and it's a little sad. When I got the opportunity to break the news about my leaving to my colleague Mabel, she again reminded me that this will be my last NATAS fair and how sad that would be. The usually cheery mabel told me that she will miss me and said that although many people in the trade industry don't want to stay in the travel trade, the industry is really a friendly environment to be in.

I felt a little sad then and it was true that as I weave through the crowded aisle to get to the agents, it was so easy to find a famliar friendly face who would stop to chat and catch up. Friendly, yes and very much unpretentious. The best part is that most of my friends of the trade did indeed become friends rather than working partners and it was so easy to break some silly jokes and carry on some senseless blabber sometimes.

That much I will miss.

It seems that the career change will throw me into a completely different environment altogether and the magnitude of the change may tantamount to something, say, getting married!

And I realised that it was not just a farewell fair for me...incidentally it was farewell for Jill, Joe, Feiring, Kok Keong and Ruyan as well. I'll be missing the whole gang and the familiarity of the friendly environment...till then, I'm counting down to 22 Oct to a new phase of my life.