Back to normal routine (I hope!)

Last week had been such a busy week for me. Being the last week of the month, I had the usual Buddies duties… clinic duty in Taiping, clinic duty in Ipoh and board meeting. What actually made me busier than usual was the launch of the Men Against Violence campaign at Padang Sultan Abdul Aziz (Polo Ground) in Ipoh on Sunday, 31st October.

As always, despite the event being just a half-day event, the preparations got into full gear a few days before. Frankly when I volunteered to be in charge of the booths, there was supposed to be another person to be in charge of the venue preparations including the tents etc. How I ended up having to take care of the venue preparations as well, beats me!

Anyway, despite some minor hiccups here and there, the launch went well, alhamdulillah.

The big balloon promoting the event at the padang.

On D-day itself on Sunday, I was at the venue by 6.30 am. I was there on Saturday to oversee the setting up of the tents, the tables, the skirtings etc, but the workers were working day and night and told me they’d get things ready by 6 or 7 am the day of the event! No way was I going to wait for them to finish! So, I decided it was best if I got to the venue as early as possible on Sunday to mark all the booths with the names of the various organisations at each booth to avoid people setting up their things at the wrong booths.

The MB was initially supposed to arrive at 9 am, but just 2 days before we were told that he’d have to bring forward his arrival to 8 am since he had to rush off elsewhere after that. So we had to make sure all the booths were ready before his arrival. We had various NGOs and government agencies at the booths… Perak Women for Women, Family Health Association, Rose Virginie Good Shepherd, Befrienders, Malaysian Indian Mangalir Iyyakam (MIMI), Pink Champions, MAPIM, Puspanita, Legal Aid Centre, Prihatin Bandaraya Ipoh, Wanita UMNO, Pemadam, MAKNA, IJN, JAIP, JKM, JASA, PDRM, Amnesty International, Ipoh Specialist Hospital, Rotary Club, Jabatan Pembangunan Wanita and of course, not forgetting, the Buddies of Ipoh…

Many students and youths also helped out with the day’s events. And there was also a coloring competition for primary and pre-school kids…

The MB and wife finally made an appearance at about 8.15 am. After Negaraku and doa selamat, came the launch events including speeches and performances…

The MB giving his speech.

The choir (the kids in front were from the taridra team) singing the song HENTIKAN, composed by Dato’ Wah Idris specifically for this event. Oh don’t worry, the full mix CD with the voice of the original singer was played (please refer video on side-bar of this blog). Our own voices could hardly be heard by the audience… :)

The launch

Leaving hand prints as mark of support for the campaign.

The Buddies chairperson (in red vest) receiving the sijil penghargaan from the MB :)

It was a rather tiring day for me… (I got somebody else to be the photographer using my camera as I was busy, and apparently this photographer, like me, also love to take “gambar curi”!)

Overall, the whole event went quite well, with the MB leaving his mark (literally) despite having to leave early…

 

When I got home at about 1.30 pm, the first thing I did was to have a good bath, then zohor prayer, then the much needed nap…

This morning while I was shopping for my own household needs, I suddenly remembered that it was already 1st November. Even when realising it was already 1st November, not much registered in my mind initially. Then suddenly I remembered… alamak, groceries for the 2 sponsored families!! With all the running around I had to do for the past few days, I forgot all about the groceries!! Immediately I sent a text message to the owner of the minimarket where I usually take the groceries, to tell him to prepare all the stuff for me to collect later at 2.30 pm.

Later when I went to collect the stuff, just as I was carrying a box into my car, suddenly there was a heavy downpour which got me drenched. So after loading all the stuff, I got into the car, and put the aircond on at full blast to dry the clothes I was wearing. It wasn’t raining on the other side of town, so I decided to go ahead and deliver the groceries to Sofie’s family.

I’ve already made arrangements to collect more groceries tomorrow morning from the minimarket to be sent to Lin’s family.

With the delivery of the groceries, I think I should be able to get back to my normal routine…

I just hope that the chairwoman of the Sekretariat Pembangunan Wanita (main organiser of the campaign)doesn’t have any big events in mind in the near future.