Sunday, March 2, 2008

14th MCJ ADD – Over and done



The dinner and dance organized by MCJ for the Malaysian community in Jakarta held on March 01, 2008 is now over and done with. I must say that the response from the Malaysian and Indonesian companies, members and friends were great.

Despite the generosity of these people, it is sad to see that there were some 30 odd % of the sits empty and that’s obscenely wasteful. And, why is this so? Why sponsor and not make their presence felt? Or is it because of the so called ‘give face’ factor for the club or committee member who approaches them? I really do not have the answer to these questions and I guess it’s not worthy to find out either. For me, I tend to look at the core values of MCJ and the sincerity of what I can contribute as a member, the little that I can, in making Malaysian feel at home in a foreign land instead of bitching about it.

I must give full credit to Raja Elona for her passion and energy that went into orchestrating the entire play. It was certainly a very pleasant experience for me to have collaborated with her on this project. (well, I played a very small but stressful role and have to rope in my Indonesian colleagues and my office resources to help me out)

Now back to the dinner, it kick-off behind schedule, as usual lah, people turning up late, duh! Come-on people! The Chinese dinner prepared by the hotel was nothing much to shout about, meaning, I would rather fly to KL for dinner at home prepared by my lovely wife :) As a result, there were quite a number of people going for midnight snacks after the dinner.

The lion-dance act was a little too long for my liking while the Wushu performance was just so-so, but it was alright. The Second Born Band started off a little boring and not funny at all in their opening comedy act (I could not help myself but to text Raja Elona about it) but they managed to pull their act together towards the second half and at the end of their performance. I was very impressed by the vocal control demonstrated by the almost bald singer. The MC, both JC (American) and Lily Mooncake (Indonesian) did what they had to do best and they were cool, complementing each other on stage.

After the last lucky draw prizes for the air tickets were announced, the ballroom was almost deserted, typical of any other event of this nature. However, there were about 40 to 50 close knitted buddies and friends including Dato and Datin who stayed on to party to the music of the mega 80’s. Thanks to Bram of Trans Production who happily compiled the music and re-mixes the songs, burned in a CD for MCJ especially for this purpose. I must say that the dancing, laughing and the photo sessions is the real deal of the ADD as I opted to stay back this time, unlike the previous ADD, to have a feel of the aftermath.

Overall, it was an enjoyable evening.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow!! So efficient posting... Like the way you wrote it...

ADD is always one of the best time for us all to enjoy after being stressed for the months and days before the event chasing sponsors and money... However, 100% sokong that it cannot happen without Elona!

The close friends left behind during the latest part are always ever so crazy and fun-loving ones... Glad to be one of them!!!

second born band said...

An honour to entertain you guys at Grand Melia hotel on 14th MCJ ADD.
An we're sorry if there's an unsatisfied perform that we made.We'll do the best in the next(if possible of course).
Once again thank you so much for your attention to our band, perhaps we'll meet again sometime.
Our regard to all MCJ members.
(2ndbornband.blogspot.com)