On farewells

I must say going to the airports 4 times in a month to send dear friends off is a record for me. Bernard, Dominique, Winston and a friend studying overseas who will be leaving in a few days. To me, such sending-offs are always bittersweet affairs; on the one hand, it's always sad to see them go and yet on the other, it's an affirmation of the bond and friendship between yourself and the person you're sending off.

I think I've told Bernard and Dominique that I sometimes wished I didn't choose to do my project with them... there's a world of difference between sending a Singaporean friend off whom you know you will see in half a year's time and between sending off a friend you don't know when you'll see again. Yeah, I know that there's this thing called technology which facilitates ease of communication between people around the world, but still. It's different, and to me, a poor substitute. If anything, I feel that technology has contributed to the impersonalisation of relationships but that's another post for another time.

I wonder how Bernard is doing. I think he's gone back to Leeds from Germany where he spent the past couple of weeks, and if I'm not wrong, he should be embarking on an internship with some company in England doing transport planning.



Oh well, on a happier note, there is the arrival of Shamraz and Chinthaka to look forward to. I don't know how it happened, but I somehow did my projects with all the non-Singaporean people in the group.

Oh, and Chinthaka will only be arriving in Singapore on the 3rd of August, instead of the 22nd of July as initially planned. He's busy doing stuff in Sri Lanka.