A Day In A Tux

Nov 8th 2008.

That's the date we've been working so hard to make a success. For what? The Charity Movie Drive!
Organized by:

The Rotaract Club of Bandar Sunway


&

Interact Club of SMK Seafield.


So what's a move drive? Summing it up, we bought a movie theater box specifically TGV cinema's Box 5, we sold the tickets for a movie, namingly James Bond 007:Quantum of Solace at a higher price. Profits earned were given to charity, in our case, The National Cancer Society of Malaysia.


So this is how my day started. After being awoken several times, by the increasingly annoying alarm from my phone, i decided to stop snoozing and to get up. Looking around hey there's a big face in front of me. Is this a dream??

No.

It's just Choong Hou.


Oh yeah, I went for a sleepover at Shiva's place



Sitting up and looking around, Shiva was gone from his bed. But Pravin, Razlan, Rayvin and obviously for Choong Hou, were still asleep. Well, it wasn't surprising. We were tired out from yesterday with all the rolling about, tolerating Pravin, video gaming, onlining, eating and raping.

So anyway, the movie drive starts at 10:30am. But crew people were to be there at 9. It's 7.30am.... no rush.

***

Heading back home, turns out 1 hour was just enough time to get suited up into a tuxedo and leave for Pyramid. I carpooled with Razlan. So in his car were him and his dad up front, Joanne, John, Pravin and I stuffed in the back. We felt kinda bad for ditching Choong Hou, he was supposed to ride with us too. But he was bringing the mockcheck, and there was noooo way he would be able to fit in the back of Razlan's Merce.

At 10 past 9 the five of us unloaded at the lionhead entrance of Pyramid and went through the side door, since the slides didn't weren't switched on this early in the morning, and headed off to the cinema.

There, phewh! Everybody was looking so spiffy! All the guys in tux. Some with a bowtie, some with just ties. And the girls all in dresses. Got any idea what image we're going for? Wel, if you don't got a firm grip on the obvious, its Bond and the Bond girl.

The event was about to start, so Shaun, the event planner, ordered Wei Mund to assign the ushers to their posts. I got teamed up with JunYi and we were posted on the top of the escalators. So being ushers.. what's best sentence of the day?? "Good Morning, welcome to our movie drive =)."


The event actually started without us, since we were busy greeting those who were just a knack off punctual. In that time, Shaun gave his speech, Jenn and Zen Wei mc'd the intros. And rotarian Dieter gave his speech as well, and some media photography for the mockcheck. Then the clock struck 10:30 so it was time to head into the box and watch the movie!




***

Well the movie wasn't that great. I still like it better when Pierce Brosnan plays with nifty gadgets with Halle Berry.

Rushing out from the cinema, first stop was: The Men's Room!

Oh yeah.

That was the cream of the crop I'm telling you. After stepping out from my cubicle, I found out I was joined by the Rotarians. Even Dieter was there. And a whole lot of the interacts and the Movie drive goers. Then when we went outside, some clown came along and started giving us green balloons. He gave alot to us. So we did alot of this:



And if you were wearing a tux, don't tell me you wouldn't wanna take some pics in it right?

The crew that made it all happen

"Mr. Bond's"

"Bond's Girls"

ZenWei, John, me, a bit of KenYoong, Leonie, Razlan

Tira then me

This time there's Jen and LuQuan

Creep in the middle

Jen again!

Don't know what got into me, here.

Tiramisu and me again.

AJ | XK

***

After that, most of us left for home.
Tuition, piano class, cerfew, tired.
So those who didn't have any of that, well those who were left were John, Pravin, Wei Mund, May Qin, Siew Man, Xhee Kee, Razlan, Ken Yoong, Zen Wei, Rayvin, Li Jian and I. Then the SU interact dudes came over and joined up with us. There was Dheepan, Martin, Andy, and this dude who looks alot like Kok Fei. So the bunch of us went walking around looking for ap lace to grab some lunch!

We walked around practically the whole mall looking for a place to eat and man, did we turn heads. It's not everyday you see teens dressed up in dresses and tuxs walking about a shopping mall.

We found ourselves in the Marakesh after awhile of walking. Then we went into Kenny Rogers and asked for a seating arrangement of 13. They couldn't provide it. So we just left.

So we decided to split up to two groups. Half of us went to Carl's Jr. and the rest went to Fig & Olive. I went to the fig. Well, it took awhile to arrange the tables for six people, so we took a stroll outside at the balcony. It actually had some spectacular sights. A whole full view of sunway lagoon! The only drawback was it was bloody hot!



The worker got the tables ready by the time we got back in. Suddenly Pravin had to go back cause he was tired too, so he went back with John and May Qin. So we ordered and just borak borak inside. Xhee Kee ordered this burger, which she DIDN'T finish and threw away the olives. Then we donated some money to a deaf and mute person and she gave us this butterfly keychain carved from wood. Sometime during then, Li Jian ditched us and went somewhere with his other friends. Then Siew man pulak ditched us, to follow Je Yue and Keith. After we were done eating, we went to rendevous with the rest and Carl's jr. and whaddya know, Siew Man was there. Turns out the ditcher got Ditched.

Anyway, after we were done there, since like tak tau nak buat apa, and going home didn't seem too appealing.. we just roamed about. Till the idea to go play some archery came up. So off to the top floor it was. At the archery 8 of us played.


Heh, and here's something fun to do if you ever go there.


See that arrow dangling from number 7? I shot the camera. Look at the monitor, my camera is turned up too high because of that. The abang pekerja came over and marah me because I did that. And I said "Sorry bang, first time main, tak brape tererr lagi."

Yeah I could've escaped with that excuse once, but..


I couldn't resist. So I shot it again.

Later, we just hung about. Loitering around the mall. Coming across to Lala Avenue, we visited a little favourite, the Halloween shop! Well, if you saw us with the hat's and accessories, you'd think we looked like kids who got lost on their way to IU day and ended up celebrating halloween!



The coolest item on display in my opinion, was this Green Flamed Lighter. Looked really cool.



That's Razlan giving a demonstration

There were also stuff like this electric orb that led the currents to our hand wif u touched it, but you wouldn't feel no surge. So anyway we split up abit from then. Wei Mund, Junyi, and Rayvin went to the tech centre to buy some headphones while the rest of us went to those arcade dancing machines. Siew Man and Xhee Kee apparently needed to head home too then.

But well, turns out Xhee Kee's sister wanted to go to the gym or something? So they came back. Dheepan and Martin had a round of dancing on the machine, then it was my turn~



It's SiewMan versus Me.


Then we went to Yogur Berry, because Xhee Kee and SiewMan were craving desserts. Along the way, some of noticed there was a little chemistry between one of the Seafield Interacters and one of the SU interacters. I won't say who here =) but those who were there knew who.

So we all pretty much just crashed at Yogur Berry. And I mean literally crashed. The girls just plopped themeselves on the sofa bench to massage their stiletto tortured feet. Us guys could use some cushion underneath or butts too.

It was my first time there, I didn't order anything though, but the smoothies tasted quite refreshing. And I baru found out that Yogur Berry has free toys for customers to play with! So we picked up this UNO stack-o con to play with. And get this, since everybody local touched it, there were loads of phone numbers scribbled all over them!


So what did we do? Martin picked up his cellphone and started dialling one of them.

We ended up pranking most of the people on the cubes. Then we tried pranking Pravin!

We got bored after awhile and started to tell "Your momma" jokes. Then I told one that made Dheepan literally ROFL.

"Your momma's so fat, when she was floating in the ocean, a whale tried to hump her."



Well the day got a little late after that, so Jun Yi called her dad and we went home at about 6:30pm.

So that's the whole day in a tux. Toodles!

-Azhar Ashraf

Halloween

Alright so it's the 31st of October. Yippee much? Not really. Well of course a nice little break from exams because of Dheepavali is fun and all, but the prospect of sitting for one final week of exam right after that totally spoils it all. But oh well, forget the future, what's to do at present?

Well the morning, I spent basking in my room with my so called freshly repaired air conditioner. It works from time to time, sometimes cold, most times, it just expells hot air that smells like urine. Looks like I need to call the technician back.

Anyway, since it's halloween, so after sembahyang jumaat Tubbs, John and I went to Sunway Pyramid to get some lunch, and Halloween shopping on the side.

So after a tiresome walk all the way to Summit's bus stop from home, we took a rapid KL to pyramid and gout ourselves snack plates from KFC.



*But before that, we took a pit stop at Padang Bukit for a little break. Well rather, more of a little tryout. Having just watched High School Musical III the previous night (Yeah, I'm not a fan, just watched it for the sake of it) with John Razlan and Lesley, Tubbs and I were eager to try out this thing we saw on it:



First Attempt



Failed Attempt



Tired out and time to call it quits


Then we went upstairs to Lala Avenue, wait, I mean Asian Avenue to check out this costume shop Razlan was telling us about.


So there were some pretty neat stuff in there. I wanted to go trick or treating tonight. The shop was pretty neat, it's got stuff like masqeurade masks, fake limbs, fake shit, and whatever else like egyptian mummy costumes.




So well while we were trying out the afro wigs, Abu suddenly came up with his friend. Looks like we weren't the only ones shopping for halloween. So here's somemore vids:



Tubbs and John in Afros





A friendly handshake (yeah, I know it's gila obvious)





Abu with the arm




***

And for today's random vid, here watch this.



Best Man Fail

and



Log Throwing Fail

***
Well anwyay, today's just a short post.
So till next time!
Toodles!

The Working Weekend

Being in the month of Syawal, which is the Raya month on the Islamic calendar, many would celebrate the festive month by throwing an open house. So, this weekend, I had a 2 in one. First up in the morning was Azim's house. And second up in the evening was Emilia's open house, well, I don't think you could actually call it an open house, since she isn't even doing it at home but at that 3k complex instead. I guess she rented out a hall or something.

So Azim's house was up first, and it was just a small close friends get-together for him. So those who showed up were Pravin, Shnubby and I. Two girls from his skool were to show up too, but they were either dead unpunctual or just didn't come. At Azim's, like all open houses, we enjouyed a little banquet of traditional food. Then we went upstairs to his room and played some Guitar hero. Wait, we played guitar hero before we ate. After we ate, I whipped out my Fatal Frame III so we could play together.



Yes, I'll admit, I'm a wuss when it comes to thrillers. I don't watch thriller movies, and neither do I have the lion's heart to play thriller games alone.

Abit behind schedule, we were supposed to be at Emilia's by 2. And it was already 2.30. And I asked Firdaus to hop over here so we could go to 3k together. And as things turned out he got here at 3.15. So we were late. And I had to go to John's house at 3.30 for a little something, so we left Azim's house for my place, but not without accepting duit raya first! So with the time constraints, I thought i could just go and say hello and pop back out of Emilia's open house. But then, there came transport problems, and THEN the heavy rain. So we were stuck in my house and had no idea of reaching 3k and it was 3.45. Then I broke out the news to the guys then I couldn't go to Emilia's open house cuz I had to go to John's. Firdaus got pissed off, and stormed off out into the rain. yeah, Dude, sorry about that. And Razlan left with his mom to fetch his sister from music class.

So why was it so important to go to John's house? Because Joseph was comin' over to pick us up to go to Sheraton Hotel.



To work part-time as waiters! It's just a weekend job and since I'm low on cash, what the heck right? 6 bucks per hour seemed like a good deal to me!

In the end the Joseph was LATE because of the rain and we only got there at 4.30. Which cost us an hours pay.

How we got the job was because Joseph's aunt works there as a florist. So she hooked us up. Being late and all, the three of us were pretty much disorientated. We ventured pass the double doors of the main entrance. Walking across the lobby towards the right we walk through a lavishly decorated alley filled with paintings. At the end of it was another clearing which looked not unlike the lobby we were just from. Veering off to the left, there was a little shop. Well, not sure if it was a shop or not, but it sure looked like a little comfortable one.

Inside, we were introduced to Joseph's aunt;

Joseph's aunt

owner of the place in which we were standing. She then guided us to the back. "The Back Alley", a narrow passageway with damp navy blue rollover floormats, long rows of tables on either side, metal cabinets and eerie fluorascent lighting, was the place behind the scenes where people never see and its a place where The Help (us) only set foot in, which ran along the side of the grand ballroom. If you've gone for any of Seafield's I.U. Days, no matter Interact or Leo, you'd definitely know what the feel of a grand ballroom is. Elaborating a little morer, the kitchens, store room, changing rooms and the lot were all connected by this alley. And neither John, Joseph nor I knew that we would be seeing 7 more hours of this alley.

The Back Alley

Joseph's aunt then showed us to this man, which we all assumed was our employer, which apparenly everyone called Captain. The Captain sent one of his lackeys to show us the ropes and give the basic drill on newbie part-time workers. He took us along the back alley, which led up to an exit at the far end. Exiting the building, it appears that we seemed to be at the left side of the Sheraton. Directly infront of us, was a puny guard hut, which we advanced upon. At this guard house we had to present a copy of our IC's , fill up some card, and sign in a logbook.

Logbook signing

After doing the hasslesome paperwork, we were presented with a punchcard which the guard helped us clock in, and a staff keytag; which granted us access through all the doors of the hotel.

The Keycard : If we lost it, it takes rm45 to replace.

With that complete, our so called guide turned us to the right, and we walked down a road that sloped down. By the looks of it, this was the supply line where all the trucks come in to deliver provisions. Down there, was another building. Which we entered through a plastic curtained door. For a five star hotel, the places the general public were never meant to see sure were an eyesore. After crossing the threshold a second door, what lay beyond it, was yet another narrow hallway, this time painted a split-wall colour where the bottom half was a cerulean blue and the top half a somewhat revolting mustard yellow.

Two thirds down the hallway we make a right turn which leads us to a little room with racks of clothing. Uniforms. The uniform waiters like us were to wear was a simple black baju melayu imitation with gold patterns weaved to the rims of the collar and in the cuffs. Materialwise, it was like that of a standard blazzer.

Next stop, was the locker room. Nothing special about this place. I even forgot how we got there. Just a place where I put my bag. Our guide then took us to a cafeteria which was probably for staff which was connected to the mustard-blue hallway. John and Joseph took some food. I on the other hand was still full from the open house, so I didn't take any.


Besides, coming from a home where both parents can cook, and deliciously at that, I thought the food they served to part time workers didn't look appetizing to at all. Our guide took a plate and ate too.

Joseph seems to be enjoying the food. Not too sure about John there.

Sometime during then, our guide disappeared. So after eating, we were kinda lost. Not knowing what to do, we just sort of loafed about and ended up losing ourselves in the inside the works of the hotel. Then I had some jakun fun with the keycard.

It detects through my wallet! zOMG!

Then we ended up in the toilet, ok so well none of us felt like taking a leak. What we did do was, take some pictures!

So that's how I'd look if I had to serve you for the rest of the evening.

Later, by some miracle, we managed to end up back in Joseph's aunt's florist store. Here Joseph had a change of footwear. Since his Adidas imiation didn't pass for black shoes. And since this spare pair he got from his aunt didn't have laces to tie with, we had to use an alternative. What's abundant in a florist store? Josepth ended up tying his shoes with black ribbons, which he tied neatly into bownots.

If you didn't get a good look at the store. Here's another view, with John in the left.

And here's Joseph tying his ribbons.

Going back to the back alley afterwards to look for the Captain to get a heads up on our situation, we get a scolding on because we were back there when the other's were getting a briefing in the store room. And so we go there.

At the store room, we were given a briefing on the nights procedure. Summarizing it all up, we were briefed on who we were serving, which were people from MacFoods. Yeap, the bigshots who provide us with heart-attacks-in-a-bun. Para-pa-pappa~! I'm lovin' it alright. Then were were briefed on the nights menu. The usual CHINESE SERVING. Which meant an EIGHT course meal. Which consisted of a Sheraton 4 Hot and Cold thingy, followed by sharkfin soup, some chicken, Prawns *ughh!*, Fish, Vegetables and Fried rice. That was the order of the whole nights dinner. Drinks to be served were cordial punch, (The pinkish stuff they served during IU day!) and chinese tea.

Standing back and looking around, it wasn't a surprise only the 3 of us were school kids. Youngest besides us were college kids. Most of the workers were indonesian. And there was this other part time worker who had a striking resemblance to Billy, my classmate. He was a very helpful guy. Helped us out alot later on

Being newbies, we were eached paired up with a partner. I got a malay dude while Joseph got an indo dude. And John got a malay girl. Each team was sent to cover a specific set of tables. So heres the layout: (forgive the pathetic MS paint drawing)

RED line represents my area.
BLUE line does Joseph.
GREEN lines represent John's.
And incase either my drawins are too ugly or you lack common sense,
round black circles are TABLES.

Immediately after that, we were sent to rehearse our food presentation. It was this weird/awesome/tiring ceremony we were asked to perform where all the waiters walk in one line to present food in front. i'll elaborate more later. but anyway, we weren't the only ones rehearsing. Here were some Japanese people doing some Tribal? music.

After that we were sent out to the grand ballroom to begin preparing for guests. Main priority: Fill all glasses with punch, and prepare cutlery for the tables.

Here's John refilling the Punch Jugs

Candles we put on the table for decoration.

When we ventured out into the dark ballroom to begin serving drinks. And a choice between forks and spoons or chopsticks. Being new, I gelabah abit. And I split the drink on either the table or the seat more than once. I had to retreat back into the Back Alley more that twice to refill the jugs of punch to cover 4 tables which meant 40 glasses. My partner did the cutlery. Unfortunately for Joseph, his partner seemed to be acting out on this one. So he had to do most of the work.. or so he says.

When the lights came on, finally could I comprehend the entire expanse of the hall and the amount of people who worked for McDonald's. Then came on the PA with a womans voice which to me, was very pleasant on the ears.. which was Sazzy Falak's who was hosting for the night.

There's Joseph to the right standing at his station,
and Sazzy being projected on the screen.

Alright so the event finally started, and as you can see, the setting of the tables and the grand ballroom do not look unlike those of IU Days held by Seafield's Interact and Leo. Only difference is, when dinner time came, it wasn't a buffet. So thats where WE, The Help, came in. Going back to The Back Alley, we had to each pick up a huge plate laden with an assortment of stuff.


I got one, and it wasn't that heavy. John and Joseph got one for themeselves too. Trooping through the back alley going around the grandballroom, we end up at the entrance of the ballroom nd fall into formation for the food presentation. So how it went was, 2 lines of waiters with arms outstretched with the huge plates walk towards each other from 2 separate ends of the ballroom. Left, and right. We met up in the centre of the ballroom, just before the KLCC imitation gateway. Then we head up toward the stage in 2 file lines. Oh, and the coolest part was, the guy infront of me, he didn't carry a plate. He carried something much cooler. A stick wrapped in some sort of flammable material with a crossguard and hilt. Alright, lets just call it a Flame Saber since they lit the blade and it ended up looking like a sword on fire. Too bad I couldn't get a pic because my hands were occupied supporting the weight of the darn chinese serving starter. So after marching up toward the stage, the two lines converge into an arc and face the audience. Then we bow down and present the food like an offering. After recieving a round of applause, it was time for the McD bigshots to get served!



So I served the food to 2 tables while my partner got the other two. Then these people, especially the one table in the corner which, not to be racist, or generic, were occupied by these Indian men ranging about age 30 - 40 who were well, extremely obnoxious and loud. And I had to serve them. They ravaged the appetizer like a pack of ravenous wolves and it was gone by the time I returned to serve the neighbouring table their dish!

And get this, this little part made me go like WHAT THE F**k!?

On one of my refilling rounds, I saw one them take out from who knows where a green bottle. And he started pouring small glassbottomed portions into several glasses. And it smelled realy punget, like tapai. Then he shared it with his tablemates, which I assume were his friends. So I thought

"Oh, he brought alcohol. whateverlah."

THEN, I saw him mix one of the glasses with the punch I had been refillling forthe past hour. And assuming they all work in the same company, he calls over a colleague from another table. Only thing is, this guy is MALAY. And a super semangat one at that because he was dressed in Baju Melayu. So then from where I stood I could over hear their conversation. (Yeah, talk about being a good waiter.)

"Ahh, bang! Sini sini!"

Guy in baju melayu comes and sits with them.

"Ahh asal?"

"Ini nah, minum ini."

"Ape nihh? Orange juice ker?"

The rest of the table joins in.

"Yeah yeah! Ini orange juice!"

Malay dude chugs down spiked punch.

What the hell!?

Yeah, something to witness there, but well, it's not my problem. I was just a waiter. So after the first course was over and done with I had to clear the plates.

Joseph's hands were shaking too much from the heavy plates he had carried.
Thus the blurry image of me carrying plates off to the kitchen.

Back in The Back Alley, I had to walk to the dish washing segment where, If I'm not mistaken, Pakistani workers were busy cleaning up the first wave of dirty plates. But on the way there, I had to fight my way through a bunch of bumbling chefs and preparing food on the long tables for the next course. Sharkfin Soup. And here's where I got kinda disgusted, some of the workers.. well, sorta help themselves to the food. "Sharkfin soup in a bowl? Hey, let's scoop some up and have a taste. Oh no, it's too salty, lets have a glass of punch." or "Hey, I like it, lets have some more!". Imagine those scenarios, all happening to ach course. Even the dessert cake. I don't know about you, but I have a sense of integrity, and well, we may spend hours on hour feet, smelling it, serving it, but it's not ours to take. I mean, if you think about it, what if you payed big money for a dinner, or if u had a wedding, and it was your wiedding, and you found out your guests weren't the first people to dig in on the hearty meal?

I guess these McD employees sure were getting a Happy Meal.

My job was repetitive from then on. More refills, take in dirty plates, stack up new plates, and bring in the new courses. But there were some interesting events along the way, such as a bunch of security guards storming in and swiping my sector because there had been a report of stolen belongings. So well, if people halt eating, I stop working :D

Investigatve Security Guards

Which meant I had a break then. But not all was interesting. The table full of the obnoxious men I was telling you about earlier, they didn't stop with there, they called me over, and asked

"Eh bang, itu meja arh. Ahh, yang tu tu.. Dia orang tak makan habis ayam. Bang boleh kasi mintak dia bagi kita tak? Kita banyak lapar woo."

"Baiklah encik, saya tanyakan dulu. Sebentar ya."

Yeah that was me, being all budi bahasa. Well in truth, I didn't even ask. I just went there, refilled their drinks. And doubled back the men and said "Maaf Encik, mereka masih sedang menjamu selera."

And thats how the night went. We were working ourselves sore. My feet were tired out. The entertaintment provided for the night was kinda fun to watch though. There was a magician from some european country.. or was he american. But he was really good, and watching magic live is awesome! Then there was a lucky draw where a dude from one of the tables i served won a washimg machine. Then there was a spot of horrible singing by some volunteers, and some rock melayu by a band. I'll add more details into this part if I get the time. So basically after all that, the night was done.


And if the night were to be classified into 2 parts, the one before was just patience and perseverance. Now, it came tp endurance and strength. Why? Because we're all tired out, Joseph was on the verge of collapsing, and we had to stack up heavy dinner chairs and tables.

The end product of my efforts

At the end of the day, we were all parched and hungry, hands shaking, legs wobbling, and oddly enough, all that standing made my butt sore.
So daddy fetched me and the guys up.
We went to ehsan, and YUM. Food always tastes better when your dead hungry.

***

Ash says cheerio!

Ah, and for the random vids i like to post at the end of a post:



Fall For You - Secondhand Serenade

His name's Ray Mak. He's Malaysian.
And my fav video of his is his cover he made of
Peterpan's "Mimpi yang Sempurna"