So, I cheered up and things got worse. – a sad little
catchphrase that Graham and I throw at each other far too often these days. Not
that we are in a bad mood or anything,
nothing can cheer one up more than having to pack a household of stuff twice-up
in a couple of months.
Wasn’t it a clever move to leave half of the boxes
unpacked, and the couch and the fridge with the movers in the storage? We are
learning something, after all!
Anyway. Today I was going to write to May Lin Lam, who is
Gammon’s company solicitor.
Of course, it would be much more civilised to speak
face-to-face to her than communicate through various blogs but I’m in no
position to challenge some of the strange ways Hong Kong does its business.
And in spite of her being the company solicitor and the
top person one should be supported by when one raises a question of serious
concern to the company’s well-being, we had never met in person.
The first time I learned of her existence was when at the
company’s induction day, (June the 19th 2013) I was told by Bryant Lee,
a very pleasant fellow, part of the HR personnel/army that Gammon keeps to run
its operations smoothly, named her as the third / and top level of the safety-net
when it comes to company corruption.
As in, when you notice something not quite right, you go
first to your immediate supervisor.
If the solution the supervisor offers is not quite to
your satisfaction, you take your case to Mr Thomas Ho, the CEO, who by all
means is the absolute boss of the company, expect when it comes to tricky
subjects;
So, when you feel he is not quite serving the company’s
best interests (in your own humble opinion) – then you go and see Ms May and
she will make sure that on behalf of the shareholders, things will be
investigated properly and you get your sack if the whole story was just a made -up
one but also due justice if what you were claiming actually was true.
Unfortunately, for still undisclosed reasons, this
company procedure was at least once not properly employed, on the day I was
sacked.
On the 19th of August 2013, and a convenient, two
month’s anniversary of the previously mentioned induction, if you like to keep a
tab of these ‘date’ things.
So, I never met Ms May in person, though poor thing got
pretty busy around all the fuss that my unhappiness with being fired ‘unexplained
and on spot’ had generated afterwards.
Also, dully understanding her full occupation with the
damage control after such a loose cannon got off the rail, I will restrain
myself from the question I was going to ask her today, the one that has been
bothering me for a while and to do with what constitutes a case of ‘Using a document with intent to defraud’ when it comes to my case and some of the
letters her directors have issued close to my dismissal?
Instead, I’ll
tell my readers a little story that I remember very often when things go wrong;
And the best of
it is, that it is totally based on facts:
It may be a bit of a long story – so relax, get a cup of
tea or something else… and listen to the story…
My family of 7 and I lived in a nice house in the woods.
The suburb of Auckland in New Zealand, was indeed called
Woodlands park and we had some serious specimens of trees around our property.
We also had a bit of a weird house. It
was unusual to start with, over 3 levels, long and skinny, then we made it
really kitschy, plastered with mosaics all over the walls, floors, stairs, even
ceilings.
Our bedroom was on the top level, third floor if you
count the garage level. It was not a bedroom in a proper sense, as it was a 30+
square meter of an open room. We had a library in it, the family TV, one
computer station to share, the master bed, and a space to make beautiful
creatures out of legos and play-mobiles. (this was the sunniest spot in the
house to lounge in the afternoons too); This huge room was also surrounded by
the flat roof of the rest of the house and had at least 3 sliding doors opening
onto it. Also, this room was built sometimes in the seventies, all walls wood
panelled and the carpet, beige, deep, wool shag pile.
Occasionally we left the sliding doors open.
Occasionally ducks walked through the room, in one door,
out the other.
One day they did not just walk through, but disturbed by
someone, got panicky and left huge piles of duck-shit all over the beige
carpet.
I got quite upset. No, I panicked and got all matter of
cleaning stuff onto my precious floor-covering.
I scraped, I scrubbed, I washed, I soaked, I applied
unnatural amounts of chemicals to the process, with the hope to get my fabulous
70-ties shag pile back to its pure beige.
I laboured over the spots for hours, naturally just
making it all worse, with the best hope to achieve of lifting the entire
surface a nuance up and blend to what a washed out and highly chemically threated
duck-shit contaminated shag pile carpet would look like.
I was truly sad over the incident as I truly cared about
that place I called home.
But, after I while I gave up. Left the ugly spots dry up
and somewhat merge into the rest of the pristine looking wool. I ignored looking
at traces of dirty little islands of my heaven.
….weeks went by….
And one day, behind the couch I found a dried up disk of
duck-shit.
And, you know what? It lifted neatly off the beige carpet
with no mark to leave.
Whatsoever.
So, here is a life lesson for you:
Sometimes, you just have to leave the shift to dry.
May Lin Lam, Gammon’s company solicitor, I’ll come back
to you.
Later. In time. When things dry a bit, they’re easier to
lift.
If you want to see a softer side of me, here are some
pictures of this weird kitchy-mosaicy house:
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