Coming or not? Please confirm…

For the past week I’ve been calling/texting my clients – informing them about the coming family day, asking them if they’d like to join, and giving them a deadline to confirm their attendance and number of pax.

Since this year’s event will be at a theme park, where the entrance fees alone takes up a huge portion of the expenses involved, I told them to make sure they can attend before submitting their names. (Tommy, before you say I am so typical accountant everything oso want to kira; we get our funds from public donations okay? So cannot simply spend ikut suka hati!) Through past experiences, quite a number of clients (and sometimes even volunteers themselves) who said they were coming but ended up giving it a miss without even informing us about it and with excuses that don’t qualify as “unavoidable circumstances”. They don’t feel it’s such a waste because it’s not THEIR money we’re spending. Since this year’s event requires more budget than previous years’ events; I need to remind them how much they’re wasting if they submit their names without even being sure if they can make it.

Anyway, as always, I’d usually be the one who’d end up with the most number of clients attending. Without even all of them confirming yet, I already have 28 of them (including their children) coming. Fuzi confirmed immediately after I sent out the text message to her. Her family had been regulars to our Family Day ever since she became our client.

For Sofie, this will be the first time for her family. She was already our client last year, but she was too weak then to join us, and her children were not that used to me yet at that time to be joining the Family Day on their own (unlike the time when I took along her 3 kids with me during my day trip to Kedah last year). I saw the excitement on Saiful’s and Ika’s faces when I mentioned Lost World of Tambun.

Murni and 3 of her kids joined us last year at the National Stud Farm, while her younger son didn’t join us then because he couldn’t see what was so exciting about going to Tanjong Rambutan. He was even asking his mother, “Nak pergi tengok orang gila ke?” Well, this year, they are all coming!

As for Rosnah, she did tell me before that she wouldn’t want to be joining all these functions as she was afraid she may bump into someone she knows and that someone will end up knowing about her illness. But when I sent her a text message telling her about this year’s Family Day, she replied almost immediately asking me to include her and her daughter.

Lin’s family joined us when we went to Taiping Zoo 2 years back. But last year, although they wanted so much to join, they simply couldn’t make it back in time as Lin went to fetch her daughter at the airport (the daughter came back for summer holidays). This year she’s certainly joining, only thing is now she needs to confirm first if her older son would want to join as well.

There is however one regular who is now difficult to contact – Jah, who had always been the “live-wire” during any of our activities. Always so jovial, always so chatty. I hadn’t been able to contact her of late. I even tried asking her best friend Shila if she had Jah’s latest contact number; but Shila said she had not been able to contact Jah either.

I was already thinking of asking my fellow volunteer who stays in the same town as Jah, to visit Jah at home and inform her of the Family Day. But yesterday, when I went to the hospital, I met Fuzi and Fuzi told me she had just met Jah who was there for blood testing. Too bad I didn’t bump into Jah. But Fuzi said she did mention about the Family Day to Jah and was told Jah wouldn’t be able to join. Huh? That’s weird… knowing Jah, she’d usually be the first to jump in line!

According to Fuzi, Jah doesn’t even own a phone now. And she’s not joining the Family Day because, “Dah ada suami, suami tak bagi, tak bolehlah pergi.”

Oh, so she’s married! Wow, marriage for her meant she’s now no longer allowed to meet friends! And in addition to that, she no longer has her own phone number for us to contact. It is so not like Jah. I wonder if she’s really happy now as she was before…

Oh well, there are a few other married ones who had always wanted to come but never getting the “visa” from their other half… like Maria and Asiah. Asiah did express her interest again this time, but I told her to really confirm she can make it before she submits her name to me. As for Maria, I will try again this year. She did mention last year that her hubby may allow her if he himself doesn’t have to send her and if someone could fetch her at the bus station. Let’s see how it goes this year.

Mrs K will confirm with me by this weekend while a new client, a single mother of two, whom I will be visiting tomorrow, did express her interest to join us.

Looks like my clients alone will make up more than half of the total attendees…

 

p/s

Brad & Angelina, you are both below 90 cm, so free entrance for both of you. No need to jump up and down telling me to include your names ok?