Tochi's Hut

Last week, I had the rare honour of being invited to a dinner celebration for a colleague who serviced our company for 25 years.  I've worked closely with this colleague, and he is like a mentor to me.   The company has already showered him with various corporate awards and a very nice bonus.  This dinner was just icing on the cake - an opportunity for him to thank his closest friends from these past years.

Venue was Diamond Banquet Hall at First Markham Place.  A very popular place for weddings, though I haven't been there myself.   The food was a traditional 10-12 course Chinese banquet - cold platters, mix of seafood, steamed fish, chicken, rice, noodles, and dessert.   Food was quite delicious overall, though I was expecting something a little bit better.

It was a little awkward being the youngest in the group, especially since I have not even lived for a quarter century.  The rest of the table was mainly comprised of folks with gray hair already (or hair at all).  Hearing them talk about stories of their past experiences is quite interesting.  Obviously, many of them have lived through quite a transition in the company and industry.  Things were totally different back when they started.  Also interesting is the insight they bring forth in current affairs.  I was impressed by how well informed everyone was about the affairs that plague the world today.  For example, some of them have lived with the dollar being so high back in the early 70's.  They had some  strong opinions about whether the strong dollar is a good thing or not.

The thing that really hit home was the praise that everyone had for this colleague.  So dependable, so responsible, so visionary.  He would also be the one who comes to save the day.  I want to emphasize, ALL of the praise was totally well-deserved.   I would even venture to say that the praise were an understatement to how important this colleague's work and contributions were to the company.  Of course, we were careful to also congratulate his wife, since behind every man is a great woman.  :-)

Which got me thinking....  if 25 years down the road, I was to have such a celebration with colleagues I've worked with in the past, would I be able to get such recognition and praise?

To finish off, the colleague sent out the group photos from the dinner with the following statement. "It's a very memorable night to share good food and good memory with colleagues. Attached are the photos and one day we can show them to our grand children the wonderful colleagues we worked with."  I'm definitely looking forward to that day!  XD