Newcastle University Malaysian Night 2011

Okay I'm doing this in a rush because I just realised that it's less than two hours before May arrives and I've not published any post for April. It's kinda unbelievable because the last time I published anything was over a month ago!

Blogging has been taking a backseat really ever since the year started thanks to my EJR (essential junior rotation) and while I'm now on Easter Break, I'm somehow taking a break from everything (I'm still doing a lil' amount of revision now and again but that story is for some other entry). I'm pretty much enjoying doing nothing or as Elizabeth Gilbert put it in her 'Eat, Pray, Love', bel far niente. That is Italian meaning 'the beauty of doing nothing' which I'm loving at the moment.

Having said that, this entry is about the annual Malaysian Night that took place some time in March. It was my third year joining in the preparation and taking part in the performance and just like previous two years, I had enjoyed every aspect of it immensely. I'll let the photo do the talking.

I was in charge of making the Kolam this year and I was helped by a group of dedicated people..

unlike the previous two years, I decided to take part in the Indian dance instead of the Malay dance in the spirit of 1Malaysia (or whatever fake slogans they're using these days!)

the Malay dance crew doing some last minute practice...

finally...

the wristband we gave out as door gift...

the posters for the performing casts and crews.. 

doing some final preparation before the night started..

ticket girls at the ready..

the Chinese calligraphy team..

Dr Bradley giving his speech..

Phey Feng, MalSoc president, recorded speech because she couldn't be there on the night..

and the night began..

first dance for the night...



Azeem and Ainun took the stage as the lead characters..

my favourite for the night..

the Malay dance crew...

dinner time during the intermission..

performers eating backstage on the floor, kinda sad =(

Ali and Nawal belting out Taylor Swift's 'Mine'

my part of the performance...we practised for well over a month for a 2-minute stage time...

and the post-show camwhoring began...

with Maggie and Jeevan...

the Chinese dance crew..

group camwhoring as per usual..

with Faizal, Cecilia and Pina..

my dance partner Chean Yuen....my contact lense decided to pop out

Pina, Surein and I camwhoring with the poster and the Kolam...

with Jamie who helped massively with the Kolam...we took this photo before we had to clean it up...



such a shame to have to clear away a magnificent work of art..

The night was not without its hiccups and mishaps (food arriving late, hall technicians coming late, video not playing properly - at least it was good to know being late wasn't the disease of Malaysians only!) along the way but we managed to deliver a good show. People who came was satisfied with the selection of delicious food (something that I'm always proud of with regards to our country although I didn't get to try them all =( ) served during the event.

I'm still waiting for the proper recording for the performances to be out. The videos here were from my digital camera so they weren't the best. I also don't have a video of our last performance where we all came together to sing 'Satu Suara' in which I was suppossed to be rapping. (Un)fortunately, the microphone chose that moment to not function so the audience didn't really know I was mumbling through the words. At least, the whole hand movements were there I believe.

The annual Malaysian Night has always been one of the highlight for every academic year and I must say I really enjoyed it tremendously. I'm kinda looking forward for next year's already!