Sue Swen's Birthday Party

We had a midnight surprise for Sue Swen last night, normally that's all for a birthday~ but these Year 4 students are so pumped for a dinner party again, most of them are going to cook some dishes that Sue Swen likes. I helped Sen Loong to prepare lamb in the morning (just wanna be the first one to taste :P).

Lamb by Sen Loong and pumpkin rice by Su Lan:

The moment I reach the party place in the evening, I know it's going to be a great night. There are so many dishes including English appetizer, bah kut teh, salad (err...) and curry! There were like 17 of us, I understand girls don't eat much, but the other guys seems to be full very soon too. I guess I'm down after 4th or 5th round.

Food all night:

The birthday cake is baked by Sera and Jessica. One truth that can't be denied, mixing with this bunch of Pharmacy students really took care of my appetite. We played charades again, have some random chats and then the night is done. Thank you so much for the wonderful food and fun, everyone.

Games and hot topics after foods:

"Beware, the LORD is about to take firm hold of you and hurl you away, you mighty man."
-Isaiah 22:17-

Everyone is getting tighter mentally due to the finishing of academic semester and it's almost time to wrap up their dissertation. Hold us close Lord, that for whatever that come against us, You are bigger than that and You will bring us through, to a place where we can see more of Your glory. Teach us to trust in You, Amen.

Magic Gala Night

A lot have been inviting me to the Magic Gala Night by Magic Society, 3 professional magicians will be performing that night. I didn't plan to go since I'm not a fan of magic stuff, but receive an E-mail by TEC team to setup lights and sound system for the show in the morning and rushed out without thinking much~

Setting up the rig at Great Hall for the whole afternoon:

It's a weekend, so TEC team is down with number of people helping, I don't normally help out in random events. Anyway, because I'm sorta new, they let me operate the lights... Still good though, coz the switches are at the back of the hall and I'm alone with the junk food while the performance is going.

I'm actually more familiar with sound stuffs:

Good thing about working with TEC is that, meals are provided if you're working with them during lunch or dinner time. We had KFC for lunch and pub food for dinner~ so I'm actually eating while operating the system behind. The performances are quite good though, although quite standard. I like the show where the 2nd magician pickpockets the volunteers stuffs and hypnotize them. It's quite amazing yet I'm still half-believing.

Dinner while the magic show is on:

After the event, the committee members are rejoicing all over and taking pictures with the magicians (as usual). I was normally at that position, but now I'm in TEC cleaning up doing de-rig. Coiling cables and shutting down the system, while watching them having fun down there~ Not too bad, the magicians' assistants are packing up the gadgets on stage with us too.

Let's pack up and go home:

"Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you; be their shelter from the destroyer."
-Isaiah 16:4-

It's definitely good to experience things from a different point of view, I've been on stage for most of the events and finally some taste behind the stage doing sound and lights, learning how it feels like to improve future team events. It really helps to understand the concept of being one body of Christ where no one is less than another, Amen.

Gostan (Malaysian Night 2012)

After whole day of preparation in the theater, the show starts as the gamelan team plays some traditional Malay music. I've seen this on TV but it's my first time seeing it live, sounds good and calm actually, very similar to vibraphone. Then the MCs came in with a few jokes and pass the time on to the act.

Gamelan performance and MCs:

The theme is basically uniting people of different races. A Chinese boy who went back to time, when the British conquered Malaysia, solving the misunderstanding between Chinese and Malay village to fight for a future. Thus... the name of the whole event, "Gostan".

During the act:

Basically I'm there to provide live background music during specific scenes, not too difficult except the hardship of knowing what happen on stage from backstage. The performances are slotted into the act as it's part of the storyline.

Malay and Indian dances:

Ghee Vui and Sera with their K-pop dance crew joined the fun too, they are the dancers for Chinese cultural dance, and I edit the song for them again. After the 20 minutes intermission, before resuming the act, they had Alvin to perform stage magic.

Chinese dancers and magic show:

After the play, we're doing a few songs to wrap the show up, just me the keyboardist and 2 singers. We did 你不在, kuch kuch hota hai, Kau Ilhamku and You Are Not Alone. Generally just to show the multi-lingual part of Malaysian.

Wu-shu and silat performance then our show down:

The event ended at 10pm, we packed up and of course some picture taking sessions that cause us reaching home after 12 midnight (expected). It's a tiring week, but not too bad, getting know so many different people and doing new stuffs.

Group picture of committee and casts:

"See, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will lop off the boughs with great power."
-Isaiah 10:33-

May all this hardwork and efforts bring blessing to the audience and also the volunteers ourselves. Thank God for all these great experiences and also new friends, peace be with all of us, Amen.

Malaysian Night Preparation

Finally, it's the day that showcase all the hardwork of these few weeks of practices. I'm involve in the Malaysian Night, playing piano as background music for varies scene in the act. It will be pretty spontaneous as I only get to practice with the actors for only 1 week. After Sunday service at T-street, me and Sera went straight to Nottingham Arts Theater to prepare.

The actors and dancers already started practicing as we arrived:

The committee made an effort renting a real theater for the show, and that place proof itself worthy. There are so rooms behind backstage for changing and practices. Sound system and lighting are proper, except that I have no monitor for myself. Although it's quite old, it's still great.

Prop team discussing about stage space and Gamelan team practicing:

According to plan, I'm suppose to use the Technics clavi in the theater, too bad it's so OLD and no more functioning! Luckily we bought along the keyboard that we used for practice, I thought finally some proper keys or clavi to play with... so yeah, spent the whole afternoon running through the play and off for meal.

Over-age Technics clavi and free lunch:

I'm squeezed at one side of the backstage, director says I'm not suppose to be seen... but this make it difficult for me to see or hear the actors. Good thing that this is a proper theater, they have small screens at the backstage to see what's happening in front, I'm relying on those the whole night.

Backstage view and small screens:

OK... after the preparations, feedbacks and trials, we're ready to rock the night. Heard that almost 250 tickets were sold, it doesn't matter since I'm at backstage most of the time. Oh ya, the costumes and make ups are one of the best that I've seen out of so many events that I've been involved. I'm wearing my new vest :P

Make up for the cast and I'm changing to pianist mode:

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned."
-Isaiah 9:2-

May peace be granted upon all of us who are part of this production, be patient when things go wrong, be constructive during suggestion and let it all come from the heart to make it a better night for the audience and ourselves. I can only do little, but through this gift, I wish that I can share this joy tonight, Amen.

Malaysian Cultural Festival

The Malaysian Society in Nottingham University is organizing a cultural festival for the first time to promote Malaysian culture. They kinda get a lot of sponsors from the tourism department, being great to see all sorts of cultural games and costumes in Portland.

Ang Mo playing batu Seremban:

They set up booths for different races, representing the uniqueness of Malaysia being multi-cultural. The Malay booth are promoting Jawi letters, Indian booth doing hand drawing arts and rice arts. There is also a booth that sells Malaysian foods like nasi lemak and kuih-muih, but they're in pounds currency...

Kuih-muih and Indian hard art:

The special presentation on that day is the wedding ceremonies of Indian, Chinese and Malay culture. A few student volunteers making demo of how wedding of difference races are held. I missed the Chinese wedding but still make it to see Indian and Malay weddings.

Indian and Malay wedding:

I found the Borneo booth interesting, mainly because I'm from Borneo :P Anyway, they're mainly promoting Kadazan and Iban stuffs. The Chinese booth is writing calligraphy for visitors name, I got one for myself before leaving.

Borneo booth and my name in calligraphy:

"But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts."
-Isaiah 5:16-

For the next production by Malaysian Society, may we all be blessed with unity and understanding. Despite all the coursework and research hardships, let us have a great time getting along and doing great stuffs. Peace be with us all, Amen.

Solid Rock Fundraising Dinner

Solid Rock is taking a break from our weekly bible study, but we're still meeting on Friday night for~ FOOD! We're doing a fundraiser dinner for the upcoming retreat, also for people to show off their talent in cooking. Sera cooked curry chicken, so me as the housemate helped... to chop chicken while she peels the potatoes.

Peel potato peel peel potato~

Luckily I'm involved in the worship team that week, so I don't have to stay in the kitchen any longer. Replacing somebody to play bass again. We have more people than usual, it's good~ kicked start with worship session and then to the food.

Worship session:

We have quite a lot of dishes, 2 tables full of pots. Fried rice, chips, soy sauce chicken, curry chicken and a lot other Asian style homecook dishes. We didn't really expect so many people to turn up, but hopefully it's enough for everybody (I only ate for 3 rounds).

Finally dinner before 11pm:

The best thing of the night, we played charades, teams are formed according to our cell group. It's really the BIG LAUGH of the month, seeing so many people acting like never before and all those crazy guesses flying out. Oh ya, our group did pretty good, the winner of the night~

Crazy night until the guard chased us out:

"Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned."
-Song of Songs 8:7-

Grateful that we are blessed with each other, thankful that we are cared by one another, for this short time in UK and still able to grow with other believers, it's just wonderful how God put things together. Once again, I'm thankful of the great things happening now, Amen.