Today, I am generously invited by the library manager to the exclusive library@orchard Christmas celebration. It is also the last day of library@orchard for everything to be cleared out.
9:30am: (Received a telephone call from another friend who was invited to the same celebration). Hey! The celebration starts at 10am. Oh no! I thought it was lunch celebration. I better ciao! Mad hatter rush to wash up and run down to Taka.
10:03am: Yes, I am here, at library@orchard. 3 minutes late. Still trying to catch my breathe. Practically ran all the way to catch the bus, and through the underpass from Lucky Plaza over to Taka. The place is different again. It is now boarded up with white boards, and the original main glass entrance is no longer visible. The last time I was here, it was only plastered with white paper, and all the glass panels were visible.
10:05am: Stepping into the library through the staff entrance, I was expecting to see a very different library. I still remember Jillian’s post on the last day of the book drop and how the books and shelves has been dismantled and transported. The place looks very empty.
10:10am: Taking a walk around the entire place. It feels so tragic. The shelves had been dismantled. The ceiling is partly removed too. The waterfall is no longer running. The desks are no longer around. The computers are gone.
11am: “Who wants to bring this clock back?” “Who’s cup is this?” Pack. pack. pack. “Where is the food?” 
Here is an exclusive peek at the last day of library@orchard.
Thanks for being punctual. And sorry the food was late. Turns out you panicked for nothing. Anyway, it was nice to have you and Angela at the Thank You lunch. Cheers!
Thank you for coming and getting there on time. Yes, sorry the food was late – caterer had too many orders on X’mas eve! BTW they were the few catering companies that agreed to take an order on X’mas eve – the rest were fully booked!
Hope you enjoyed the lunch all the same and you liked the limited ed t-shirt. Also wanted to say a big thank you to you for being one of our citizen bloggers and for all the stories. We really appreciate it and we’ll see you again. Do keep in touch – my email will be the same but my location will change – I’ll be at Cheng San temporarily. Merry X’mas and Best Wishes for the new year.
@Ivan: Thanks for the special invitation. I was running late as usual.
No worries. Specials thanks for including me in the orchard library family. 
@Jasna:
A big thank you for the special invitation. Hugz. Yes, Christmas is always fully booked. My Christmas dinner was later than usual as the restaurants are all fully booked too.
The limited edition t-shirt was a great surprised. I will be keeping it in my treasure trove. Sure. Do keep in touch.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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