The night I became P.Ramlee.

This past week was a fun week for me and definitely or my friends as well, as we were all working towards making Malaysian Night 2007 a success.

It all started when a committee was formed for the MUMSA Malaysian Night 2007 event that happened on September 8th. Everyone had their tasks to do, and mine was to help Razif with the slide show that Imran requested be made, showing all the events/activities that took place this year. Also, Imran decided that there would be a theme for the night, and the theme is the 60's. Straight away, images of P.Ramlee, and sounds of "Getaran Jiwa" came to mind.

Started working on the slide show with Razif down in Kairanga 5 days before the event. We kind of started at a leisurely pace and not until 4 days before the event that we felt the pressure. At that point, Iylia and Lutfi decided to join in and help. The room felt like a hackers hub, with 4 laptops running. We pulled all nighter after all nighter and took turns to nap at certain points in the wee hours of the morning.

3 days before the event however, Iylia decided to make a video for the committee, and asked Lutfi to direct the video coz he's fab behind the camera. I joined in the creative process, and suddenly the ideas were flowing. We finally decided on a plot, and the next day made it happen.

We filmed half of the plot that day, and proceeded by editing that half the same night till early hours again, also helping Razif with the slideshow. We were a fully functional multimedia team. Now I know how my Kak Yang feels when she has to work on production sets, and we're only an amateur team.

1 day to the event and we had to wake up early next morning to get some stuff with Audrey for decorations, and also get to the costume shop. I admit, I had an idea of what to wear, but thanks to Iylia, Audrey and Eugene for persuading me to go to that place. There were a number of choices of costumes and suits to choose from, but I only had eyes for a white dinner jacket. Sean Ghazi in his video "Ku Impikan Bintang" was inspiration for my outfit, and I must say, I don't look half bad wearing it.

After the costume shop and getting decorations, we decided to shoot the final scene and the rest of the movie. We managed to finish shooting pretty much all the footage we needed and would do the editing that night. We finished at round 5.30 and went straight for dinner because amidst all the preparation for Malaysian Night, we had an indoor soceer mini tournament held by the Singaporean club which was called the SEA cup, which consisted of 2 Malaysian Teams, 2 Singaporean teams, and 1 Indonesian team. At the end of that, Malaysia A came second to Indonesia, and Singapore B came third. It was good 3 hours of footy.

We still had the videos and slide shows to finish so, me and Iylia went back, cleaned up and got coffee, coz it was gonna be a long night. On the day of the event, at 4 PM, we finished all videos and slide shows, the main ones at least. So me and Iylia went back up, showered and got our suits and went to the venue to set up.

Wharerata (pronounced farerata) is the venue. It is a function center on campus. Its really a beautiful place, and as people say when the go in, it sure doesn't look like the rest of Massey. Its an old house, something like the old english houses in the small quaint villages in england. Its a real hotspot for small conferences, meetings, parties, and even weddings, so you get the idea when I say its beautiful. I hope.

After we finished setting up the audio stuff, and the visual stuff, me, Iylia and Eugene went to change. 5 minutes later, we were 60's baby!. Iylia and Eugene were transformed with the afro and the rest of their outfit, while I donned the white suit and became the Cabaret ish loung singer type person? Anyways, we got good feedback for our outfits and that made the night more fun.

At 7 PM, the VIP arrived, Pn.Satinah, our Director of the Malaysian Students Department in New Zealand, and that meant all of us had to be seated. 15 minutes later the event officially starts with Lutfi reciting the doa. Imran was next to give his opening speech which was short and sweet and even got stick from us guys when he mentioned Nana too many times in the speech..haha...all good bro. This was followed by a speech from Pn.Satinah. I have to say, she has a way with words, and knows how to include everyone in her speeches. A very good diplomat indeed.

After her speech, the next item on the agenda was the lucky draw. Cmon lucky number 7 !! because it was my ticket number. As usual, my luck on these kind of things never came through. Shortly after everyone settled down, the first slide show made by the multimedia team is next on the agenda. Me and Razif, who had the most input on the first 3 parts of the slide show, went up front, anxious if everyone would enjoy our hard work.

The lights dimmed till the room became dark, and the only light source was the light from the projector projecting our slide show. Lutfi's intro video came on, and everyone was impressed, and laughed at the ending "no budget" crack. Then it was part 1 of the slide show. It went great. Everyone laughed at the parts we thought they would laugh and clapped at the parts that we thought they would clap. Good start. Very satisfying.

Dinner was served next. It was good food. Worth the money we paid, most definitely. Most notable item on the buffet spread was the roast beef. So multiple servings of roast beef. Delicious. Everyone mingled around during dinner time, which lasted round 30 minutes.

After dinner, it was time for John the magician, once again performing to save our asses in these kind of events. As usual, he impressed us and the VIP's with his card tricks and illusions. Everyone was happy and impressed, and that means his tricks were successful once again. Lucky draw time once again. This time I actually won. Haha. Even though I already knew what the prize was, it was still a good feeling to actually win these things once in a while.

The next item on the agenda was fun. It was time to pick the Best Dressed Male and Female of the night. Everyone nominated had to do a short catwalk and I was one of the nominees. After all the nominees did their thang on the catwalk, it was down to Pn. Satinah to pick the winners, and she picked Audrey and Lutfi as the winners, who in my opinion deserved it.

Dessert was served shortly after, and after everyone got their piece of cake and coffee or tea, they settled down for the rest of our videos. The second part of the slide show got good response, but maybe we shouldn't have put in the soccer edition in haha...the girls really didn't get into it. Then it was time for the highlight of the multimedia team, the video we took 2 days to shoot and edit. A video called "Through Imran's Eyes". Enjoy....








Cracks me everytime I watch it. To Kak Yang if you're reading, I can understand a bit of how you feel on shoots. The crowd loved it. Even after the event, people were asking for copies of the videos, especially "Through Imran's Eyes" and Razif even got a request from Wen Li to make a video for the badminton club if i'm not mistaken.

Shortly after, the committee members of 2007 got presented with certificates by Pn. Satinah. and after that, the AGM commenced for the search for the new committee members. First position up for grabs was the Presidency, and right off the bat, I raised my hand to nominate Iylia. He accepted, and left the room. Next, Amy raised her hand, and nominated Eugene , who was in the toilet anyways. Then maybe to my surprise, maybe not, someone at the back nominated me. I went along with the process, and went out as well. They called us back in, and asked us to sell ourselves on why we deserve to be president. Iylia's was short and sweet, he said "I will continue what i'm doing all along, and have fun doing it". I was next, and said "I'm actually a first year student so I don't deserve to be president, there are more deserving people than me" which was true. Eugene had some beauty pageant answer, which i don't remember. So, went out again, and when we went back in, presto poof, Iylia is the new president of MUMSA and deservedly so.

It went on with the vice president position which went to Razif, the Secretary which Eugene retains winning unopposed, and the new treasurer is Sheng, which was my nomintation, and who I feel would do a great job. I got nominated for treasurer too, but again gave a depressing "i don't deserve it speech", because honestly, I like money, but not keeping track of it.

So that's pretty much the end. We stayed back for around 40 minutes to clean up and have photo sessions. The night I became , or was called P.Ramlee had ended on a good note. My bro got the presidency as he should, and our hard work with videos got great response. Maybe I should charge for every copy I make.

For Opah

When the date 31st of August is mentioned among Malaysians, we automatically know people are talking about our independence day. This year we are celebrating our 50th year of independence from the British. Despite the various discrepancies throughout the years, I am still proud of this achievement and proud to call myself a Malaysian, a fact that is sadly lacking in our youth these days. Anyway, every year, I celebrate 2 occasions on that date, m country's independence, as well as the birth of my grandmother or Opah as I call her.

Puteh binti Abdul Rahman, my Opah will be celebrating her birthday this 31st of August, and being abroad, this is actually the first time I won't be joining her on her birthday. So, I thought to myself, what would be something special that I could do for my Opah, with me being away, and on a tight student budget? Well, an opportunity presented itself 2 weeks ago when one of the committee members of MUMSA sent a mass text to everyone, asking for volunteers. They were looking for 3 guys and 3 girls that were willing to participate in a performance, a dance to be exact for the Unity in Diversity Week held by Massey in 2 weeks time. I was reluctant to join at first, but then it came to me, how special would this be if I dedicated this to Opah. Anyone who knows me personally would know, how unlikely it would be for mr to do these kinds of public performances. So, I volunteered, and the fact that Iylia joined as well cemented the decision. 2 fools on stage would be better than 1 fool on stage I thought.

The day came for our first practice, and after 15 minutes learning the first step of the whole routine, I started having doubts about my dancing career. That relatively simple first move took me a whole practice to get right, added to that people telling me that my body was too stiff.....of course lah stiff...i'm too macho you know.

Few more practices came after that, and I have to tell you, when you get the moves right, a feeling of accomplishment comes over you, and that leads to the whole performance being fun. Each practice, the choreographers add new moves, which seemed impossible to me at first but, as the saying goes, "practice makes perfect".

On the 22nd, we had our full dress rehearsal, and the last practice before the real rehearsal at the venue, which is at the Globe Theater. So all of us dressed, and I have to say, we don't look half bad. Me in "Hang Tuah" red, Iylia in "Hang Lekiu" blue, and Hadi in "Hang Jebat" Yellow all of us with matching "tanjak". The girls looked the part as well, with gold "sanggul" on thier heads, we definitely looked the part. We went through the routine with full costume on, and everything went well. Nothing dropped, and everything was flowing when all the moves were in motion. Feeling satisfied, we waited till the next day for the rehearsal at the Globe Theater.

We were one of the first groups to arrive and that meant we could rehearse early and go back early. The stage was just the right size, and coincided with how we practiced before. Although there were only maybe less than 20 people in the crowd that night at rehearsal, my familiar feeling of nervousness in front of public places came about as usual. Our song came on and we proceeded with the routine. Everything went well I guess, with a couple of mistakes from each of us, all down to nervousness again I suppose. Clare the coordinator asked if we wanted another run, and we said yes. Second run went better, with me being able to give some facial expression, something i did not do in the first run. Second went better, and all of were satisfied but also decided to go back to Massey to have another practice.

The day of the performance came. All of us reached the theater at round 6.30 and again we were the early ones there. We chilled out in the dressing room, they had those mirrors with the light bulbs all round like you see in the movies. At around 7, the coordinator informed us that we were the 12th group to perform. We all moaned, the tension was killing us, and having to sit backstage and wait would be absolute murder for our nerves. So we chilled backstage, watching performance after performance start and end. We only got fully dressed 3 performances before us. We recapped our routine once again in the crammed space of the dressing room. It was getting closer to showtime.

It was now 2 performances before ours and the coordinators signaled us to get into formation at our entry point. Butterflies fluttering in the tummy like it was going to explode. The last performance before us was about to finish. Everyone restless all muttering under their breath all manner of praises to god, praying that nothing too massive gets screwed up. And at last, the last performance before us was over, and the stage was dark once again, the crowd hushed, anticipating the next performance. It was showtime.

"Diciptakan seorang insan...." Siti Nurhaliza's voice came on. That was our song, that was our cue to enter. And we did. The crowd applauded, the loudest coming from the Malaysian's who came to support the team, as well as friends of our dancers. I think a visual representation is needed at this point....





So that was the nights performance. Feedback from the crowd was good, and also the coordinators loved it, maybe they tell all the performers that night the same thing, but it was good to hear nonetheless. We did have one thing that the other performers didn't get that night. The Omani Students Association, who had an opening event for thier Indoor Soccer Tournament the next day, invited us to perform and pay for our services. So we must have done something right that night.

That night was definitely a night to remember, because its probably going to be a long time before I do that again, and also, I achieved my goal to do something special for my Opah this year.

BERSATU 07 : Day 4

Started the day off later than usual, simply because I am not participating in the day's event, athletics. Still, had to wake up early to take Razif to the medical center again, for another checkup. If you read day 2, he got injured after being tackled by PETUNIA. So, me, Razif, and Iylia were off to the medical center while the others were at the rec center for athletics. We were actually late because of Iylia, and Razif had to reschedule the appointment to 40 minutes later. When we got back to the car, got a phone call from Imran, asking for help. He wanted us to get his football boots from the backapackers, because his running spikes aren't working on the grass track (another organiser doo doo,...grass athletics track? hari sukan skolah rendah ker aper?). So hustled back to the backpackers, got the boots, hustled to the medical center to drop off Razif and Iyllia so that Razif didn't miss another appointment, and to the rec center to send the boots to Imran.

When I got to the rec center, two athletics events were over and we lost both of them. I firmly believe that if we had the proper track, we would have done better. Anyways, 20 minutes later, Razif texted me, and said they were done at the medical center. Went to pick them up, and as soon as Razif got into the car, he said "Haram jadah nyer doctor, pegi second time just nak bagi surat suruh x-ray, bukan nak x-ray kan. Aku bayar 40 dollar untuk tuh jer?". Well, it's to be expected I guess.

Made for the athletics field, in time for the 4 X 200 event. It was probably our weakest line up, but our runners were up for it, and that was what we wanted, the fighting spirit. We actually did not come last in the event, which was good enough for us. The important thing no one gave up, and finished the race.

Next event was the 4 X 400 race. Runners were Imran, Amy, Jace, and Safwan as anchor. We started off great with Imran leaving the opposition behind. and when he got to the turning where MUMSA and of course Nana were sitting, he blew flying kisses and spread his arms out a'la Beckham celebrating a goal....then he turned around to see the opposition closing in, but he still smoked them, and was first to pass off the baton to Amy. Amy, who saw that what a big lead Imran made, probably was over excited, and didn't pace herself. She sprinted from the start, and by the second turning, was down to jogging pace. That dropped us back to 3rd from bottom. By the time the baton was passed to Jace, we were second from bottom. She maintained the position, but when the baton was in Safwan's hands, the leaders were too far ahead. We finished 3rd from bottom, but in front of PETUNIA.

The last event of the day came, and it was the 4 X 100 race. Runners were Jace, Is, Laili, and Imran as anchor. Jace started off the race, and was looking good despite running against mostly men on the first leg. When the baton was passed to Is, he made great ground, and took us to 3rd or fourth, This could be the first medal for MUMSA. Then it was confirmed, it was not our year. When Laili got the baton, started sprinting, but then tripped and fell, and with that trip also went our chance for a medal this year. But kudos to her, she got up, kept running, passed the baton to Imran, who finished the race off dead last. No luck at all.

So that was that for the events. Gathered our stuff and headed home and rested for the closing dinner that night.

Continued BERSATU 07 : Closing Dinner

BERSATU 07 : Day 3

The third day I was purely a spectator. Events for today were the continuation of Badminton, Volleyball, and the stress free bowling later that night.


Badminton was first, and we cheered the players on. We got a couple of wins, but were not enough to progress to the next level.

For some reason, I have no pictures of the team playing volleyball. We started off well with a win against UMNO. Then made a good effort with eventual finalist UMSA. Lost against PETUNIA, which still had the tension from the football incident, and lost against Otago in the last match. It was a good effort tho, despite our team not having a single spiker, which made the difference. We stayed until the final of volleyball, which Otago ended up winning, in an exciting match that went to sudden death.

Went back to the backpackers, relaxed and went walking around town with the Subang Saint's, Iylia, Ezim and Safwan taking pictures along the way.

At 7.30 PM, got ready for bowling. Convoyed to the bowling alley, and relaxed and watch the bowling team bowl a couple of frames. We didn't too bad, but never expected anything much from bowling. All the contingents were having fun and that is what it is all supposed to be about really.

After bowling all of MUMSA went to a 24 hour place called Denny's, a diner type restaurant for supper. We took pictures at the waiting room while waiting for our table to be ready. Good fun, and good way to end a day, having a meal as a family.

Got back to the backpackers at around 2 AM. Everyone got to bed, to rest up for the last event, Athletics.

Continued BERSATU 07 : Day 4 & Closing