Happy Secretaries' Week!

Due to a mix-up by me, I had arranged for Secretaries' Week lunch to be held today instead of last week. A thousand apologies to my wonderful team in the office!

The day started with some showers of blessings bringing forth much needed rain. By noon-time, the rain had stopped and excited voices of "Let's go, we're late!" could be heard. As prior arrangements had been made for car pooling, everyone grouped together and made their way to lunch.

In my workplace, it is customary for the staff to be given a lunch treat during Secretaries' Week. I would usually include not only the secretaries who work with my boss and me but also some of the non-secretarial staff whom we work closely with and who are of invaluable assistance to us. In the working world, we should never forget that many a time, we get a lot of guidance from staff who may be less qualified than us but who are a lot more experienced and have a wealth of knowledge to share.

When I first started work, I tried to share the cost of the lunch with my boss. However, being the generous person that he is, my offers to bear part of the cost of the lunch are always graciously turned down. As such, the tradition that has evolved is that my boss will pay for the Secretaries' Week lunch while I will pay for the flowers and gifts (usually goodies such as cookies) for the staff as well as make the arrangements for the lunch. This year, 17 staff were invited to lunch with us. I wanted to bake cookies and gift-wrap them but I figured that given the fact that I am using a table-top convection oven, my new oven would go into early retirement by the time I finished baking 17 batches of cookies.

Each year, it is sometimes a challenge to plan the venue for the lunch as I try to bear in mind the taste buds of the staff. For example, I know that some of the staff prefer non-spicy food, some of the staff prefer buffets, some of the staff are flexible whether to have a buffet or not but would prefer oysters and prawns, etc.

This year, I had arranged for an international buffet lunch for 19 persons at the River Garden Coffee House located at River View Hotel. My grateful thanks to Da's sister (GN) for her suggestion as to venue. As one of the invitees was unable to make it for the lunch, the 18 of us were allocated seating arrangements in the form of a long table (comprising many small tables). As UL and AL sat at each end of the table, I could not help grinning as I thought of the king and queen seated at the two ends of a long table with the rest of the dinner guests seated opposite each other between the two hosts.

It was a very casual lunch and laughter could often be heard from one end of the table to the other end. It is not often that we get to have a meal together in such a large group. It is also relaxing not to have to talk about work all the time to each other.

As I am new to pet society in facebook, some of my colleagues were merrily coaching me how to play some of the games in pet society. If you do not have a pet society account yet, do check it out. I have only just learned how to play two of the games in pet society and I can sense that this can be very addictive.

All too soon, lunch came to an end. Two of my colleagues had the River View hotel privilege card, which entitled us to a 15% discount off the cost of the lunch. Wonderful! It was a very enjoyable meal and I am thankful that I am blessed with capable and efficient staff who have team spirit and who are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and brave any storm together. May the camaraderie continue for many more years to come and may the favour of the Lord be upon all of you.

Gosh... I have just realised that the staff took so many photographs of the flowers using my digital camera. So as not to waste their efforts, may I present to you.... beautiful flowers (er... and some food from lunch!).