I am feeling surprisingly okay today, except that my cough has gotten a little worse. Somehow, I survived the hammering that is the traditional "if you're leaving the company, you've got to get sloshed" farewell that is given to every departing colleague... okay, not every, just the ones who are liked and who are willing to take up the challenge. Yesterday wasn't my last day at work - I still have a few more weeks to go - but I realised that with Chinese New Year coming up, I wouldn't be able to get most of my colleagues out for farewell drinks if I waited till my last week at work.

I was fairly confident that I would be able to put up a good show, in spite of my slight allergy to alcohol (as with 1/2 of all Asians), and asked a friend to check in on me at 10.30 pm. Unfortunately, it's been so long that I'd been drinking with my colleagues in a proper bar - one that serves all kinds of drinks - that when my friend, the heaviest drinker in Singapore and quite possibly the whole of Asia, asked me what I wanted, I responded, "order me whatever." Big mistake. He got me a Waterfall. I drank 1/2 of it, managing to find another friend to help me drink half of it (the bartender even held my fringe back to stop it from catching on fire), but still, it took its toll on me and I ended up drinking plain water for the next 1.5 hours while coughing like heck. Of course, I'm not known as the heaviest drinking female from my year at university for nothing, and I was soon back, drinking John Smith Bitter (which is horrible tasting by the way) and vodka tonic, while still managing to walk straight.

By the end of the night, I'd been drinking for close to six hours, and managed - with a little assistance - to get back home, change, wash my face and fall asleep for my first uninterrupted, good sleep since I got back from vacation.

I was rather touched by the number of people who turned up, and that some of my senior managers turned up and stayed for some time too. I'll really miss my colleagues and while I know I'm moving on to something with better opportunities and potential - and most likely, a better boss - I don't think I could have started out with any other company where the people I worked with (not necessarily the people I worked under) were so fantastic and fun.