WHAT A BLAST!!

Had one of the greatest time I've ever had last night...

It was the Annual Kendo Dinner, which was held at Asma Hotel... It started at 8pm, but we left home at around 7.10pm... And traffic didn't help us at all to reach the venue on time... So our sempai/senior called me on my phone and asked where we were... What's worse was that after the call, there was even more cars than there were previously.. So that slowed us down more.. But luckily the highway was clear, and we managed to arrive around 8.10 pm.. So we didn't miss much, other than some parts of the video slides of kendo's events, such as the workshop and the trip to Japan..

When we went in into the dining area, saw a table full of KB-ians.. Knew some of them were coming, but didn't expect to see some faces there... So it was really great to see a lot of KB-ians coming all the way to Bandar for the memorable event..

I couldn't comment much on the food, because I didn't eat any there, due to the lack of seats and especially the lack of plates... But it doesn't matter.. Think it's better that way, to not eat before a performance...

Then there was the award giving ceremony for the Young Kendoka Of The Year, Newcomer Of The Year, Kendoka Of They Year 2008 and Kendo Club Of The Year.. For the first two awards, we were all given a piece of tiny strip of paper to write our votes, but for the third award we simply have to raise our hands to vote the nominees..

The results are as follows:
Young Kendoka of the Year - Kaza
Newcomer of the Year - Alvin
Kendoka of the Year 2008 - Zool Sempai
Kendo Club of the Year - KB Kendo Club (for that night)

It was great to see them win, because they deserved it.. Especially Alvin, who had made great improvements.. Wish I could beat him in shiai one day.. All the winners are all those who I voted for, so was great! Kaza was the one who first thought me kendo during the BSRC demo last year.. I learnt the basic cuts from her and the basic ashi sabaki... And I still remember how difficult it was to make a good fumikomi and kept on jumping instead of stomping... Zool Sempai is our club captain, so to see him win in a way reflects how his hardwork has paid off, especially in forming KB Kendo Club, which started with maybe 15 members, and has now grown to more than 30 members (or was it more?).. So, yea... Shin Chan FTW!

As for Kendo Club of the Year, the voting system was changed.. Lim Han Sempai made a good point on how we will end up voting for our own club anyway, so he decided to give a review for each club in hope that would change our mind and vote according to the reviews... But that failed, since we voted for our own club anyway... So in the end, each club has to send two representative, and for our club, Alvin and me were told to represent.. So all the representatives went on stage and Sempai Lim Han asked a question to us...


"WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF MOKUSO?"


Everyone seem to know the answer to this one, and Alvin stated the answer for our club.. And after everyone had stated the answer, turns out that the question was not used to determine the winner... 'There is no right answer to the purpose of mokuso" stated Lim Han Sempai..

After explaining the purpose of Mokuso (' a wise man once said....'), he announced that he would keep the award for now and the clubs have to fight for it next year, during the FIRST EVER INTER SCHOOL KENDO TOURNAMENT!!

Then after a few seconds, he said that he would just give out the award that night to the club which he thought should get the award...

He said:
"The club that will take this award, in my opinion, and if you would agree with me... Is.... *drumroll by Shin Chan) KB Kendo Club... This is because they treat each other like a family (or something like that, I don't remember the exact words, but he mentioned about us working together like a family)"

I took the award for our club, and all the KB-ians were really happy about the award... So went to the KB-ians table and passed the award around... They have to touch and see it for themselves... It's theirs! It's ours! It's KB KENDO CLUB AWARD!!

However, I think the whole kendo tournament thing is still on, so the other club might be able to take the award from us next year... So what do we do? We train harder! We will strive to win the tournament and keep the Best Kendo Club Award!!

Then it was on to the band performances... Was really nervous at that time even though it was Zool Sempai's band who performed first... Their band was really good, as expected from experienced musicians.. They said that they'll be releasing their album next year, so will look forward to that...

Up next was our band.... Oh no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The main reason why I was nervous was because:
1)I had to sing two songs
2)I tend to forget lyrics
2)The last time I was the vocalist was back in 2004
3)I haven't performed since 2006

But.....

WE ROCKED THE NIGHT!!!

The crowd was not all that responsive to the first song, and I forgot some of the chords (was the bassist)... But that didn't matter... On to the next song, which was when I had to be the vocalist...
Was glad that I didn't forget any of the lyrics and interacted with the crowd a little... And when the song ended, we got the crowd cheering for us (some "wooooooooo!!!!").. What they didn't know was that there was not any break between the second and third song.. This is because the last chord of the second song and the first chord of the third song is the same, so we decided to just continue to the third song...

Now, this is when I saw them nodding their heads to the music... After all, it is HOLY DIVER!!!
After the first chorus, I tried to get the crowd to be more responsive and gave them some \m/... And those int he back did start giving us \m/\m/.. So that was great... And the ending of the song was changed a bit, and I ended it with an ascending vocal, and the crowd cheered on... Was so great..

But the peak of our performance has got to be the last song-Smells Like Teen Spirit... Our vocalist, Khairul, did well in making the crowd jump around and go wild... Was just great!! We wanted to do an encore, but time didn't allow us... But that doesn't matter... The crowd was great and supportive! There was even some technical problems in between the songs, but the crowd didn't stop cheering us on... So for that, thank you!!!

Everything ended at around ten pass eleven, but we left at midnight... Went to talk with the other kendoka and then had some photo sessions... And then received more compliments on our show...

We left when the clock strike midnight, and went to see if any cinemas are still open... But all are closed, so we went straight home... But the driver (Khairul) started to drive off lane so we all told him to stop and rest... We ended up in Jerudong Park and saw some stalls still open late that night... Some of us were hungry, so we decided to eat there...

As usual, the stall workers will bring the menu to a table when they see some customers, so some of them sat at one table and the stall worker went to them to give the menu... Seeing that the table is almost full, I decided to move to another table, only to see that another stall worker was waiting there.. Then before I could approach the table, the previous stall worker said, "sini saja.. jangan tah kan duduk tempat lain lagi" (just sit here, there's no need to sit at other table)..
That was downright rude! As a customer, I have every rights to sit at whichever table I want, and from whichever stall I like... Yea, sure, it's tough competition out there, especially late that night, but saying that to customer will not improve their business.. If I ever have to eat in Jerudong Park again, I know which stall that I won't be buying from now.. There, you lose a customer!

We then rested for a bit at the parking area, while Khairul took a short nap, since we all forced him to...

At around 3++ am, he woke up and we all left and went home... I arrived at my place just a few minutes before 5am, so was really tired at that time...

But it was all worth it... We even got a certificate for the show! So, it was a great night and had a lot of fun... \m/ (=^_^=)\m/