Last night, my former co-apprentices and I celebrated our absorption into the firm we are currently working for over a glass of red wine and Castillan cuisine. Originally, we wanted to try out the M Café at the Ayala Museum, but there was function so we had to dine elsewhere. My officemates were the picky sort, so after snubbing off almost the entire registry of restaurants lined up along the 2nd and 3rd floor of GB3, we ended up eating at Casa Armas, the restaurant beside Di Mark’s. (See last Friday’s entry.)

The food was okay, but I liked Twist of Mingoy’s much better. (Note: pricey food doesn’t necessarily translate into yummy food.) Hmm. Don’t they have same owner?

Well, anyway, yesterday was super fun! It was the first time I really got to bond with my office “batchmates”. For one thing, we were finally talking about things I can relate to….like the people and issues from work. Normally, every lunch time, my friends would talk about people from school…their school. Although I know some of the people they are usually talking about (some were my batchmates from HS), of course I still couldn’t really relate.

It was liberating to finally talk about things from work, things we couldn’t really blurt out in the office. In a way, I was enlightened because I didn’t really realize that my friends felt the same way I do about some of the issues at work, or some of the people in the office. I suppose there were things in the firm that I just didn’t know or chose to ignore, since what I felt about things could just be my own biased opinion. And of course, I’d like to believe the best in people, so even though there are things that I don’t exactly find to be nice, well, that’s… that. It was a revelation to be hearing some of your own thoughts from other people. And of course, some of the things you never really thought about.

Also, I discovered a lot about the issues from work. It was bothering to learn that a lot of our junior staff are leaving the office for another firm. One firm, take note. Just when we already got settled with them in the office. Just when we already became their contemporaries. And leaving for one firm?! Of course, there are issues regarding this mass diaspora much larger than our present concerns, but then again I’m just talking from a grass root point of view.

Christian proposed a toast to our entry into GF. Well. It might as well be a toast to the start of good times, happy times, bumpy roads, biases against certain people/gender in the firm, overtime work, unsatisfactory performance, wrath of bosses and colleagues, slow pace at work, and all other possible work-related issues.

It’s good to have friends in this highly competitive field I got myself into.

Cheers.



#1 BULL HEADED. Just a shot of one of the animals hung on the wall.




#2 FEMME. A shot of Lorraine and moi. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.




#3 HOMME. A shot of Marvin N. and Christian. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.




#4 GROUP PIC. The four of us at Casa Armas.