The longest day...

I felt that friday, the 13th of March was one of the longest day in my life...sigh... After the Family Day, I took some time to sleep...hehehe. After Asar, I started my pegedil project. Then, at night I started to bake the cupcakes for the next day Birthday Bash for Aliah and Hadi. 

Hadi was born 5th of March, while Aliah 5th of April. So, it make sense to have it sometime in the middle... save cost and energy...hehehe. We invited both blocks, so it was kinda a big event. We already asked the Acheh students to cook Nasi minyak and Kak Halina to cook soto. My job's to prepare cakes. 

And since I bought so many kinds of cake decorations from Malaysia, it's only fair to use it...hehehe. Anyway, at first I used the ready made frosting from betty crocker. When it's finished, I tried making my own using Najwa's butter cream recipe. It was even better than the ready made frosting, I tell you...hehehe, am so happy with the result.

But baking the cupcakes and decorating them took a lot of time. By 12 am, I only managed to decorate about half of the cupcakes...sigh... my husband tried helping but sadly he only managed to ruin my cupcakes...sob, sob. Anyway, I finally used the piping set that I bought from Najwa, yeay!

And since I was so excited, I tried making the 'turtle' cake that Hadi always wanted. Actually, I bought a couple of cake decorating books when I was in Malaysia. The kids were the ones who kept on looking at the pictures in the books and 'drooled' I supposed...hehehe. Hadi's favourite was of course the 'turtle' cake.

I remembered when  he first looked at the chocolate cake that we bought from Holiday Villa, he was quite dissappointed because it was not the 'turtle' cake...So, I made it for him...hehehe. I finished everything around 3 am...sigh... But I was instantly rewarded with Hadi's happiness when he saw the 'turtle' cake in the morning... hehehe... So, enjoy the pictures...

 

Made with ready made frosting...

Used my own frosting with ready made flowers from cake connection!

The 'turtle' cake!

Does it look similar? hehehe...yes!!!

Family Day 2009: The mystery of the potatoes...

Some people were wondering about the whereabout of the peeled potatoes used during the games. I am about to tell you the truth...jeng, jeng, jeng...hehehe

Early in the morning there weren't enough potatoes, so I gave a bag of potatoes from my house. After the games I carried 'the loot' back home...hehehe.. I had to peel some of the potatoes again, maybe because some were not peeled properly. Just look at the pictures...

Peeling the potatoes, again...

But I used the 'free' peeler, so it was not so bad...hehehe

Finally finished peeling...phew...

All clean and ready...

To be fried...

To make into these small pieces...

What for? Some of you might ask... to be made into pegedil or bergedil for my kids birthday bash, of course...hehehe. Now, the mystery's solved! The potatoes were not thrown away, it was definitely not wasted, it was recycled into pegedil...hehehe... I'm sorry because I don't have any pictures of the pegedil because most of it were eaten before I manage to take pictures...sigh. Just to let you know, it was delicious! Hehehe...

Family Day 2009: The ending...

The family day officially ends about 12.30 pm. The final curtain truly belongs to Wahyu Singgih as the composer and lyric writer of the theme song 'One'. He performed 'live' at the end where everyone sang together. It was like a mini concert...hehehe.

To tell the truth, I really enjoyed myself. All the hard work that the committee put in finally paid off when we saw that it was enjoyed by the others as well. I was tired, sure... but in my opinion we created a mini Malaysian gathering on that day. Truthfully, I felt that I was transported somewhere in Malaysia that day...hehehe. I also had fun meeting and joking with friends...To think that outside the future was uncertain, inside the compound we let our hair down to be with family and friends... So, till next year, adios amigos!!!

Wahyu and his chorus singers... Rock on, Wahyu!!!

Family Day 2009: Games...

I missed out on taking pictures of all the performance simply because I'd forgotten to charge my camera...sob, sob... But my husband managed to charge it during the performance...yeay! I'll just have to write about the dances for the cultural show. First we have a bollywood dance, with small kids (including Aliah). They looked so cute on stage...hehehe

Then, we have a Sudanese dance from Sudan North. It was like poco-poco but more rigorous, with a lot of body movements... hehehe, some men (which will remain anonymous) joined them on stage...hehehe. After that we have the graceful older girls with another malay dance. These girls looked so pretty but most of them were too scared to smile! You could see them counting the steps from afar...hehehe. The last items was a zapin which was colourful. This is the only dance including boys and they looked so adorable.

After the cultural show, we have a miming contest. It was okay but not many contestants, only 4 groups and all involved girls. I don't know what happened to the boys in the complex?!! Too scared probably or afraid of losing their 'macho'. By the time the games started, I already have my camera, yeay!

Hadi and Amir...

The girls waiting to be on stage... 

The first session of the games was for kids. We had games for the under sixes, from 7 to 12 and for teenagers. Hadi and Amir went to play 'collecting sweets'. Hadi got 28 and Amir got 2...hehehe, so cute. Aliah got number 2 in 'collecting water with cups' but lost in 'transferring rubber bands with straw. Never mind, at least she got water colours which she always wanted. For the teenagers, boys had to 'eat watermellon' and girls were involved in 'project runaway'. Just enjoy the pictures.

Collecting water in a pail! 

Transferring rubber bands with a straw...

Trying their best to finish the mellon while their family surrounded them...hehehe

They have to finish half a watermellon... but the mellon was really big!

The session was the adult games. The ladies 'peeled potato' while the men played 'dodgeball in jalabiya'. I suggested the potato peeling competition for ladies, using victorinox peeler, mind you... and the peeler was a takeaway gift for contestants. At first the HSE felt that it was not safe and it was scraped from the programme. It was replaced with a 'tying a necktie' competition. But a few days before the games, no one was interested, so the committee decided to have the potato peeling competition after all but we had to use gloves for safety... yeay!

We were so happy that all the tables were full...hehehe, I even managed to persuade the sudanese ladies to join the competition as well. We were so happy to get the peeler that we didn't really care who actually won the competition...hehehe

The men had to use jalabiya to play dodgeball. At first, it was supposed to be in 'kain pelikat' but where to find sarong in Sudan. So we opted for local material...hehehe. It was quite funny I tell you. After that came the family games where they had to use the boxes creatively. This was a family effort. The prizes were the rugs that we bought. I told Kak Halina that if she won, I'll buy the rug off her...hehehe. And you know what, she won and I have a new rug...yeay! 

Posing before the competition...

During the competition!

Men's dodgeball...

Wearing jalabiya definitely restrict their movements...hehehe

Families discussing strategies...

Mazman and family, working together...

Kak Halina and the winning tower...

Family Day 2009: Poco-Poco...

We started about 7.40 am, bright and early with Poco-poco dance (pronounced 'pocho-pocho). It's a type of line dancing, very popular in Malaysia and Indonesia. They also have it in Sudan, but with more rigorous steps. Poco-poco was lead by Mr. Rahim (a sudanese) with Malaysian kids on stage. The rest of us was supposed to follow as a warming up session to the Family Day.

Noni and Saufi were the emcees for the day, welcoming the staff and family...

Mr. Rahim and the kids on stage... they were very good!

Looking a bit apprehensive...hehehe

The men were in front, very sporting!

We have our kids as well to take care of...

The ladies were having fun at the back!

Mingling with the Sudanese staff...

Kak Halina and Jo having fun! Hehehe...

Who says ladies couldn't dance?!!!

 As long as you're happy, labu?!!!

At first, the participants were a bit reluctant and looked a little bit apprehensive, but later they picked up the pace and really had fun. In the beginning, I did the poco-poco, then I had more fun capturing their pictures...hehehe. I took so many pictures until I run out of batteries...sigh... Padan muka, right?!!! So, I missed taking pictures of all the performance...sob, sob...

Family Day 2009: The beginning...

The preparation for the Family Day started sometime in early February. I was roped in because I was also a committee member for Petronita's Sports and Culture. At first I was a bit apprehensive because I'm definitely not a 'committee member' type of person, preferring my own company most of the time...hehehe

It was also my first time ever being inside the Petronas Country Office (PCO). I didn't even know how to open the door, okay?!! Even though I had my husband's security pass with me. It was definitely funny, well really embarrassing, actually...hehehe

Anyway, being me, I couldn't be quiet for long. I jumped right into the meeting with lots of comments and opinions...hehehe. As I said in earlier post, I was supposed to help as part of the events bureau. But since I felt that I could help in the gifts bureau, I did just that! I helped in going to the souks and other shops to buy gifts for the Family Day. 

My favourite was going to Victorinox shop and buying the kitchenware in souk Jumaa'. My worst experience would be buying carpets for the event. At first, we went to a carpet shop near souk Bahri and we got a great bargain there. We bought 5 beautiful rugs there, but unfortunately they didn't have big size rugs. So, we went to the next shop (infront of a cemetary). 

We were so lucky because they agreed to sell the big rug for sdg 100. The ladies and I decided to buy at least 5 rugs and we were about to pay when the owner (an egyptian man) rushed to the shop and said that we would have to pay sdg 130 for each rug. We were startled to say the least! We just decided to just let it go and walked out of the shop. The worst thing was that man siad that if we go, 1000 will come. To that I replied, "Insyaallah'. Well, if he's lucky he'll get 1000 customers but all must come from the grace of Allah!

It totally ruin my day, I tell you. It seemed that the egyptian man also owned the previous shop that we went to, as well as the one near sappco in Amarat. No wonder he was furious because his workers gave us a huge discount! Hehehe, serve him right! Anyway, I would give his shops a miss for at least a few months, at least!

As the day got nearer, I started panicking! Being in Sudan, there were a few problems, here and there. At first, we couldn't do a proper rehearsal on Wednesday as the hall was being used. After being directed first to the greens, then to the room next to the cafe, we finally got a little bit of space in the hall to do our rehearsal, which finished quite late, nearly maghrib!

On Thursday, we had a proper rehearsal on the stage. Though the stage looked terrible with old carpets and the promised 500 balloons did not materialise! Anyway, at night I went to cut the clothe for one of the games the next day. Almost everything's ready. I only worried about the lack of boxes for the family game! Some were already with Faatih and some were still in my house! I smsed Faatih saying that I'll let the door to my storeroom open for him to get the boxes whenever he's free. 

The sudanese staff finished decorating the stage at nearly midnight. Good job, guys! The promised tents which was supposed to be erected on Wednesday finally arrived around 12 am, can you believe it?!! But by then, I was already trying to force myself to sleep, to get ready for the events early in the morning the next day...

Family Day 2009: Early morning jitters!

I woke up very early on friday, just before 6 am. Around 6, I heard somebody outside. It was Faatih, picking up all the boxes, finally! Anyway, it seemed that the erected tents (there were 3 altogether) fell apart around 5 am. Can you imagine? It was erected around midnight and collapsed even before the event started! Well, they must have done a very poor job last night, well, what do you expect? They must be tired and probably couldn't see very well in the middle of the night! One good thing is that it's better to collapse then rather than during the event itself. A small blessing at least!

I went to Block B with a sleepy Aliah in tow. She's already dressed for her bollywood dance but I didn't put make-up on her. Around 6.45, Saufi and Army came. Everything was allright except for potatoes and the boxes. I asked Aliah to get some more potatoes from our house, so it would be enough for the potato peeling competition. But the major problem was the lack of boxes. Finally En. Kader stepped in offering his help. He called subalipak people to send more boxes by 8.30 am... Yeay! Finally my problem's over! Now, I can enjoy the day without worrying...hehehe

The PCO staff did a good job in decorating the stage. It looked simple and sweet. The event's catchphrase was 'All for 1 and 1 for all'. A little bit corny, I know. But it also captured the number 11 which was the number of years Petronas's in Sudan. Thumbs up to Noni and Army and their team for coming up with the catchphrase as well as a new song created and performed by Wahyu Singgih (live as well as in the music video)!

The stage...simple but meaningful...

The gifts table, laden with gifts and waiting for its owners... 

Did I mention that the stuff for the hampers came from my very own storeroom! hehehe, what do you expect? If we buy it here in Sudan, it'll cost an arm and a leg, especially food stuff. I didn't give it free, I sold them to PCO. 

Materials for games...

Some of the Sudanese already arriving. Behind them a row of polysterene containers filled with breakfast for everyone!

While waiting for the event to start, I peeked into the 'make-up' room where those involved in the performance were busy getting ready. Several madames volunteered to help with the make-up for the performers. I was a little bit shocked looking at Aliah because she looked like a performer in the chinese opera...hehehe. Anyway, thank you to Kak Faridah, Lynn, Winnie, Najwa and Lisna for helping the performers.

Lisna putting lipstick on Najwa's daughter, Nabila.

Winnie's eyeing her handiwork...hehehe

Lynn's patiently braiding Aliah's hair... Thanks Lynn!

Kak Faridah's putting on eye-liner on Mira.

The girls all made-up... So cheerful...

The poco-poco dancers getting ready to act...

Then, it's time for the show to begin...