Of What Would Have Been

Today, 24 June 2012, would have been the official day of 20 years working at the Embassy of Peru. However, I retired on 29 February 2012, just short of about 100 days to this milestone.

To celebrate quietly, I spent the day browsing through all the photos related to this period of my life. This brought back so very happy memories. Here is the first official photo taken at the Hilton Hotel in 1992. I was 33 years old then.

Left to right: Ambassador Jorge Bayona, Datin Maria, Mrs Perez de Cuellar
Mrs Elena Bayona, Ambassador Javier Perez de Cuellar,

Mrs Daisy Ramos-Tee, me and Mr Pablo Albarracin.

This has to be my favourite, wearing a Peruvian costume. 

This is one of me on a casual Friday. The weekend starts

early for us as we work only until 1 pm on Fridays.

I had wanted to remain until this date just to be able to say that I completed 20 years but somehow I didn't give in to the temptation. When I left, the Embassy was without an ambassador and it seemed the perfect time for me to leave without feeling that I had abandoned my post.

Plus I didn't want to allow this to influence me about the date for me to retire. I would have had to remain until the end of June and then it would have just been that, another date on my life's calendar. It's no big deal really. Somehow it made more sense for me to choose the extra day of this leap year to end my career!

My office just prior to leaving the Embassy.

My work space with 19-inch flat screen monitor, colour printer

and everything else, within easy reach.

I don't miss these dictionaries and reference books!

I do miss the view from my window.

In any case, upon hindsight, I did make a good decision to leave earlier. My replacement had some time to settle down before the new ambassador arrived and I began my retirement much earlier than intended.

Ground-floor level where people can sit around.

I am now living in another country. It's just down south from where I was but it's like being in a totally different world. There are no more deadlines; nor accounts to balance; nothing to order, no staff to supervise or daily duties to worry about.

Unconsciously, I had been thinking of this day and now that it's here, it's time to really close the door on this chapter.