Attending a dinner with The Banquet on my mind.

December 9, 2006: Saturday.

Tonight I attended the Action International Clients Awards Night, at the Sime Darby Convention Center – that’s with beside the Kuala Lumpur Government Servant’s golf club (I think that’s what it’s called): a damnably hard place to find if you are not used to the area. It took me a little longer to get there for that very same reason and when I finally did find the place, I found the exit but not the entrance. Thankfully there were these two guys lugging laptop bags, they pointed me in the right direction.

Anyway, those among you who know me would probably be asking, “Hazidi? At Action International awards? That may qualify as an oxymoron or a non-sequitur, at the very least”. And my reaction would be, “perhaps there’s more to me than meets the eye, eh?” (To be said with a slight raise of the right eyebrow. Don’t you just wish you have Ziana Zain’s ultra-animated eyebrows?). But, digress; allow me to bring you back to the matter at hand… ‘Das ding an sich’ sayeth the Germans. I got my ticket, went to the table to sign in. The lady at the table was nice. She told me that I will be sitting at table eleven, gave me the table gift which was a management diary which is now the property of Ain but that’s okay because I just got the OUM one earlier this week.

The mingling before the events started was rather nice also. I got to talk to Asri (my relative and the reason I was there – a long story there) and his wife. I met Dr Ahmad Ezanee who appears to be a friend of a friend and a friend of a relative. He practices alternative healing, which I find interesting and I plan to pursue his acquaintance further with hopes that I can learn more about his healing practices. I met a lovely lady from Walton International, Jenme, with whom I talked about furthering education while working. She appears to be interested in the prospect. I hope she will consider the ideas I mentioned, it’s always good to get more education, I think. I met another attractive lady by the name of Aida who was dressed in a kebaya. I have always wondered something about the kebaya dress; I have always wondered if it was easy to breathe in them but then again we do have elastic material these days. Perhaps it must have been harder for the kebaya wearers in the past, way back in old Malacca before the advent of stretchable dress material: more precisely petticoat material.

Then I also met another lovely lady by the name of Jashida which I thought was unique name. She was dressed in a cheongsam; which she carried off very well, I might add. The cheongsam however is another one of those dresses that makes me wonder because it looks rather restrictive. Now we often watch Kung Fu flicks where the female warriors are just as mean as the men if not more so, then we learn that the martial art Wing Chun was started by a woman by that name. I wonder is Wing Chun ever wore a cheong sam because I would guess that it would be rather hard to execute Wing Chun moves without tearing the cheong sam to pieces. Wing Chun uses short explosive bursts of movements which I think could be performed in the cheong sam but the speed of these movement would probably tear your dress to shreds: then again cheong sam in the olden days would not be as figure hugging, at least not the Wing Chun practitioners. It was just as well that Jashida wasn’t using any Wing Chun tonight. By the way, if you ever go up against a Wing Chun exponent forget about the tempur olahaga stuff and concentrate on using your buah selak, buah kunci and langkah gunting, and you’ll probably be able to quickly neutralize him or her. If you are not a silat exponent, specifically Gayung Fatani or one of the Silat Tuas, and consequently don’t know what I talking about, drop me a line and I’ll see what I can do about getting you to a nearby silat class. After a few years of training you’ll be able to understand what I just wrote …. I’m mean, aren’t I? J

Now where was I?

The dinner was not bad. I’d have to say that it wasn’t the best I’ve ever had but. It had its moments and the rest was quite palatable but I’d have to admit that I will not be making a beeline to the convention center for its food.

I re-met an old acquaintance from Multimedia University. Here was a fellow whom I have met before and we both remember meeting but we could not figure out where we met however being academicians, I’m guessing we met at one of these conferences that we go to every so often. I think we must have met in the vicinity of food else we would remember. I met a fellow Kajangite who was into real estate and I met another exquisite lady from Walton, Cherish. It must be wonderful to have a song named after you, or perhaps you are named after a song. Regardless, it must be nice to share a name with a song. ‘Why?’ You might ask. This way you get people singing the song to you once in a while. On second thoughts, this could also be a curse. Stand outside a karaoke bar at late night after all the alcohol has been consumed and you will hear what I mean.

The awards were given, there were a few entertaining bits between the awards, one that I enjoyed had a Mat Salleh playing a Chinese Malaysian businessman. My table lost miserably at a few games. And finally at about nine something I had to leave because I have a whole lot of typing to do.

So what lesson have I learnt tonight? Let me see,

1. You can get secondhand golf balls at a place just before the golf club entrance.
2. You make a wrong turn along that road and you’ll end up making a huge circle to find your way back.
3. The mushroom soup at the Sime Darby Convention center was excellent.
4. Action International gives awards to its successful clients.
5. The surau at the SDCC is on the second floor (American) or first floor (British). What’s the difference, you ask? I guess you are not an Alfred Hitchcock fan.
6. Malaysia has some very beautiful women.
7. Brain synapses make bizarre connections when they fire.
8. MOST IMPORTANTLY!!!!! Don’t write your blog about people you’ve met while watching a kung fu film: in this case The Banquet. That Zhang Zi Yi is a hot, ain’t she?