Salaam everyone.
Kaifa antum?
I hope everyone is in the best of health and always in Allah's protection. Thanks for the comments/messages on the taggies. lol.
Ada indon sasat as well. hee hee :P
Anyways, the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 night in Leeds was last night and I don't even know how to begin describing it.
Although the final few hours before the function began, Zura and I were already at the hall, supposedly for the practice and rehearsal. We ended up having sort of like conference with Malaysian's Minister of Information, Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin, to sort of suai kenal or something. It was good. Little bit of history about Malaysia. One of his people asked me questions about what I studied. And when I mention I'm from Brunei, straight away he got interested to ask about Brunei's political things. Haha. Being a political ignorance that I am, I said it's different in Brunei. We are a monarchy country, hence we do things differently. Enough said.
Then off the the hall to continue finishing up things before the function. Everyone multi-tasked. Including myself. There I was, being assigned to take care of the goody bags, and at the same time, separating things, putting in few more things, checking things, deleting typo in the program, and at the same time, I gotta be on the stage for the practice on how to handle the program during officiating (I was the one handing the thingy for the gong to the Minister), the one standing beside the Minister during souvenir giving, standing beside the Minister and giving him the bowl for the lucky draw, standing beside the Minister as we enter the hall, and did I mention I got involved in the fashion show AND dikir barat as well?? :) Boy oh boy. All the cues to remember and the smile that I have to maintain throughout... it's a blessing!! :D I'm glad I was given the opportunity.
Aaaaanyways, thought I would wanna go home to shower before coming back but that didn't happen. I was busy doing stuff that Kak Ina assigned me, from drawing floor plan of the tables, to making sure that I put on numbers for the tables, among other things. Great thanks to those who helped out without questioning. Really really appreciate the sense of community of "anything I can do to help?" without being too cocky about helping to do extra work. May Allah shower you with His blessings for your generosity.
Time seemed to fly so fast when you're busy with things to settle. Before we know it, we have about 45 minutes before the function started and I was being all "nisa inda pandai pakai make-up". lol. Sweet Abbee taught me a few. Hahahahahhahahha. The funny thing was, when someone asked me, "Ok, what have you got?", I looked at her and said... "erm.. I only have mascara and lipstick". And instead of running the other way, she smiled and said, "Right... you'll be fine". And it wasn't so bad as well...
Funny eh, 25 and am still not a big fan of make-up.I guess I take it from my mum as well, she's not a big spender when it comes to make-up, just general touch-up and lipstick and she's already a beauty. Besides, I guess I'm not at that stage to spend a lot of make-up stuff. Maybe not now. Maybe later. Who knows? But I like to keep it simple. Only because of the night, that they said we need to put make-up so that our faces atu nda nampak pucat. Plus I'd be on the stage more, so... there!
Right. The good part.
Since performers are not supposed to leave the dressing room and the stage, except me since I ushered people as well, so I got to see the first bit of the lion dance. It was brilliant!!
On the the officiating, I was already standing at the left side of the stage holding the thingy for the gong.
The Minister was very friendly as well. I was supposed to be holding a microphone so that the gong sound was heard but the stupid microphone didn't work, so the Minister was like, "so brapa kali nak ketuk?" and I answered, "Datuk ketuk tiga kali tapi kena kuat sangat ok Datuk?!" And he did. lol. It was loud. lol.
There I was again for the souvenir stuff. lol. Sorry for the quality of the pictures.
Next is the "Kurik Kundi" dance...
Then it's Fashion Show. Notice the high heels! Yep, I was very tall. lol.
Then there's Ulik Mayang... very beautiful!!
The indian dance by Nisha...
Chinese traditional music...
'Serumpun dance' originating from Sarawak, also called "Ngajat"...
And last but not least... DIKIR BARAT... ;) Samantha recorded the whole thing so, once I get the hold of it, insya Allah I'll share it here. :)
The audience enjoying the dikir barat...
The Grand finale...
I'm in between these two men. hee hee Abang Kamar.. and someone from Tourism Malaysia..
And... lastly, a picture with the talented Hezri. The singer for our dikir barat. A PhD student, taking Electrical Engineering. Enough said. ;)
True. You have to be there to see all the wonderful colours of Malaysia and the sense of community, regardless of status, gender, race and well, in my case, nationality. We had the best time performing, endless hours (well, not really endless lah), but the times we spent practicing for the past 5 weeks have been worth it. We had fun, we made friends, we extend our network and friendship. Well, in my case la... ;) Coming to Leeds, it has never been a regret for me. In fact, I thank Allah for giving me this opportunity to take part in such a wonderful sense of belongingness. Having to be away from families, all we have is each other. And, the friends I've made along the way, has made my voluntary action a truly worthy effort.
Oh, btw, Mizah (one of the Bruneians here) won the grand prize of return ticket to Malaysia. I WANT I WANT I WANT! Yes, and so are the other few hundreds of Malaysians and Bruneians in Leeds. lol. Lucky her!!
He is prolly on the plane now going back to T after about 2 weeks holiday-ing back home. ;) Ya Allah, Engkau berkatilah perkenalan kami berdua.
~~ Okay, I'm sure that's enough report for last night.
Malaysia... Truly Asia...
<3>
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