today i went for my haircut. and after the haircut, i got a call from gerald. well, guan to be exact. have gotten so used to calling him guan, it is a little weird to call him gerald. anyway, i got a call from him asking if i would be free for lunch... of cos, of cos. it was certainly my pleasure.
guan was someone i met in late-1996. at that time, i was attached to my hq unit for an exercise in australia. and it was the first time such an exercise was conducted by my hq. naturally, i was rather excited to head for the exercise. but being an attached personnel, i was almost all the time alone. and it was during this period that i noticed this very smart and cute looking chap. he would hang around at the field canteen with his buddy. and that was all i knew about him. and being alone there, seeing him and his buddy at the canteen was one of the very few mundane highlights for me. anyway, being a person who do not mix my personal life with my work, i decided not to go further to befriend or talk to him. added to that, at that point in my life, i had just come out and was still trying very hard to manage my infatuation with my first crush. anyway, it was by chance (and fate perhaps?) that we ended up being placed in the same grouping for the r&r that followed. his buddy was placed in another group that departed later and he ended up being alone too. during one of the stops, we were given some time to self-explore some tourist attraction by the beach. as i was alone, i decided to take a walk. coincidentally, he did the same. we ended up meeting face to face and we smiled and self-introduced. it was just like that. that was how we got to know one another.
we spoke at length during the 2-3 days of r&r. but it did not occur to us to exchange our contacts. perhaps, he was conscious of the fact that i was more `senior' than him in the organisation. whatever the case, in the 2-3 days of interaction, status did not matter. it was just 2 friends. but once we reached back singapore, we parted ways. i went on to attend a 1-yr course in safti and eventually got posted there as an instructor. it was then that i recieved a christmas card from him. he simply signed off with his name and nothing else and i had to go into the email address list to look for him - unit by unit, list by list. it was not easy considering the many units available in the organisation. but given the unique surname, it was not difficult to identify him. nonetheless, i sent an email to him asking if he was indeed the same person i spoke to during the r&r. that was how we re-connected. we decided to meet up and he dropped by safti one saturday after work. we ended up having lunch at changi airport. it was a long drive from safti but it was not by choice. rather, we got caught up with catching up on each other's life while i drove without even realizing that we had reached changi airport. and after lunch, we continued chatting at my place till evening before i sent him back to safti that evening as he had left his motorbike there. it was some 3 yrs later before we met again. and again, we spend a long time talking. heh... but that is guan - a person whom i felt was very easy to get along with. and whenever we meet up, we'd talk and talk...
and no, he is not gay. oh, how i wish he was sometimes... ha ha! it's been more than 10 yrs. 13 yrs to be exact. and in this last 13 yrs, he had certainly gone through quite a bit in life. and whenever i could, i would give him my moral support and well wishes silently. he has all along been go-getter since i know him. decisive and highly opiniated. and i admired him for his courage to charge ahead and explore new things after leaving service. on my part, i came out to him in 2005 after being called up and interrogated by my security department. it seemed the natural thing to do at that time. i didn't feel awkward. on his part, he was ok with it. and his visit and support during the period was most reassuring. it was the presence of friends like him that saw me through that difficult period. and for that, i was most grateful. although our interactions where few and interspersed with long periods of non-contact, it was nonetheless easy to catch up whenever we meet.
and this afternoon's lunch was no exception.
:-)
guan was someone i met in late-1996. at that time, i was attached to my hq unit for an exercise in australia. and it was the first time such an exercise was conducted by my hq. naturally, i was rather excited to head for the exercise. but being an attached personnel, i was almost all the time alone. and it was during this period that i noticed this very smart and cute looking chap. he would hang around at the field canteen with his buddy. and that was all i knew about him. and being alone there, seeing him and his buddy at the canteen was one of the very few mundane highlights for me. anyway, being a person who do not mix my personal life with my work, i decided not to go further to befriend or talk to him. added to that, at that point in my life, i had just come out and was still trying very hard to manage my infatuation with my first crush. anyway, it was by chance (and fate perhaps?) that we ended up being placed in the same grouping for the r&r that followed. his buddy was placed in another group that departed later and he ended up being alone too. during one of the stops, we were given some time to self-explore some tourist attraction by the beach. as i was alone, i decided to take a walk. coincidentally, he did the same. we ended up meeting face to face and we smiled and self-introduced. it was just like that. that was how we got to know one another.
we spoke at length during the 2-3 days of r&r. but it did not occur to us to exchange our contacts. perhaps, he was conscious of the fact that i was more `senior' than him in the organisation. whatever the case, in the 2-3 days of interaction, status did not matter. it was just 2 friends. but once we reached back singapore, we parted ways. i went on to attend a 1-yr course in safti and eventually got posted there as an instructor. it was then that i recieved a christmas card from him. he simply signed off with his name and nothing else and i had to go into the email address list to look for him - unit by unit, list by list. it was not easy considering the many units available in the organisation. but given the unique surname, it was not difficult to identify him. nonetheless, i sent an email to him asking if he was indeed the same person i spoke to during the r&r. that was how we re-connected. we decided to meet up and he dropped by safti one saturday after work. we ended up having lunch at changi airport. it was a long drive from safti but it was not by choice. rather, we got caught up with catching up on each other's life while i drove without even realizing that we had reached changi airport. and after lunch, we continued chatting at my place till evening before i sent him back to safti that evening as he had left his motorbike there. it was some 3 yrs later before we met again. and again, we spend a long time talking. heh... but that is guan - a person whom i felt was very easy to get along with. and whenever we meet up, we'd talk and talk...
and no, he is not gay. oh, how i wish he was sometimes... ha ha! it's been more than 10 yrs. 13 yrs to be exact. and in this last 13 yrs, he had certainly gone through quite a bit in life. and whenever i could, i would give him my moral support and well wishes silently. he has all along been go-getter since i know him. decisive and highly opiniated. and i admired him for his courage to charge ahead and explore new things after leaving service. on my part, i came out to him in 2005 after being called up and interrogated by my security department. it seemed the natural thing to do at that time. i didn't feel awkward. on his part, he was ok with it. and his visit and support during the period was most reassuring. it was the presence of friends like him that saw me through that difficult period. and for that, i was most grateful. although our interactions where few and interspersed with long periods of non-contact, it was nonetheless easy to catch up whenever we meet.
and this afternoon's lunch was no exception.
:-)
6 comments:
welll....one needs soulmate and bedmates.
;)
well said :-)
Opps
Guan is my name too!
Nice, guess you must be hokkien or Teochew?
Teochew. I'm proud of it and at this era, I don't have a Christian name and does not need one.
That's nice :-)
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