A Relaxing Weekend In Ipoh
It was nice to attend a semi annual convention in a city
without the nightmare traffic jams encountered in KL. This is what I
experienced in attending the 2013 Semi-Annual Convention in Ipoh, on 8 and 9
November 2013. It still takes some getting used to a semi-annual which only
lasts 2 full days and is over by Saturday midnight, sort of like Cinderella's
coach which turns into a pumpkin at the stroke of midnight. The unique things
at this convention, from my perspective were that every delegate received a
fresh pomelo upon registrations, and I hereby certify that it was delicious
upon consumption. The other thing was that the convention t-shirt was very
nice; it looks very presentable with a stand up collar and a zip instead of buttons,
and I can actually use it for business casual purposed. Alas, it was not free
and I had to spring RM30, but I must say I don't regret it.
It started on Friday morning, with the District Exec Meeting
in the morning at 10, followed by the District Council Meeting at 2, and the
memorable thing for me was that not one hostile question was raised, and
everything went swimmingly, and we actually finished ahead of schedule, which
as a 15 year veteran of conventions, I cannot ever recall having witnessed. The
night was of course the grand opening, and that went quite well with a sit down
Chinese dinner. One surprise was that a winning bid was put in for the 2015
Annual Convention in May, and it will now be held in Langkawi, roughly 18
months from now.
The contest started at 830 on Saturday morning, and it was
the highlight for the convention. The sad thing was that there were 2 time
disqualifications in the Humorous speech contest, and one of them appeared to
be one of the most humorous speeches of the day, which many of us expected to
win or at least be placed in the top 3. Nevertheless, I have no quibbles about
the winner, who was a breath of fresh air, with his prop of a giant chicken
doll, his very original material, droll delivery and his live prop of a gorgeous
lady who was presented as his wife. This lady later revealed the truth, with
the inimitable phrase, 'The chicken hired me', when she did a hilarious 5
minute stage presentation about her quest to find a husband. This was something
unusual, as she did this 5 minute presentation during the 5 minutes in which
the Evaluation speech contestants prepared their evaluations, which I thought
represented good planning and innovation, rather than allowing the 5 minutes to
be an airtime slot, or just sit around.
The night gala was a hawker themed dinner where so-called
hawker stalls were arranged around the hall, but the only problem was that the
food was prepared by the hotel, so it tended to be on the cold side, as the
food was cooked in the kitchens and served early, particularly for dishes like
chicken satay, which was actually quite tasty. Yours truly, Johnson and Chun
Ming got the opportunity to go on stage and collect our club's President's
Distinguished Club program from the Immediate Past District Governor,DTM
Ramdas. I thought it would have been nice if more of our club members could
have been there for this recognition of our club. The dinner ended at around
1130PM with the formal closing of the convention, and that was it.
The next stop is the annual convention in May 2014 in Kuala
Terengganu, on the east coast, the first time it has ever been held there.
Regards,
G. Siva
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| Past President G. Sivalingam DTM receiving a token of appreciation from Immediate Past District 51 Governor Ramdas Nayar DTM for the prior's service as part of the district Education Team (2012/13). Congrats Siva! |
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| Past President Teoh Chun Ming receiving a token of appreciation from the Immediate Past District 51 Governor Ramdas Nayar for the prior's service as District Secretary (Term 2012/13). Congrats Chun Ming! |
