The cheque presentation

Yesterday was the day for the presentation of cheques awarded by Yayasan Sultan Azlan Shah for various NGOs and shelter homes in Perak.

We (the reps from the various NGOs/homes) were to report to the person in charge at 2.30 pm while HRH The Regent of Perak was scheduled to arrive at 3.45 pm.

I had never been inside DBI's premise, so I wasn't really sure where the function hall was. And so I decided to go early. Good thing I did. I thought the venue would be somewhere at the ground floor - but apparently the function room was on the 10th floor.

There were quite a number of representatives already present by the time I reported to the person in charge. After a while, they called out each organisation to make sure we sat according to the numbers allotted. Mine was number 69. And in total there were 71 recipients. Surely you can guess where I sat, huh? Yep, last row...

Anyway, when the emcee called out the names of the various organisations, I kinda figured he wouldn't pronounce Buddies correctly. As expected, he mentioned Buddhist of Ipoh. I pointed out to another officer that it's supposed to be Buddies, not Buddhist. So this officer went to correct the emcee. The emcee replied back, "Tapi tulis sini budis!" Duh, dah lah tak tau, degil pulak tu!! The officer then said to him, "Ni tulis orang putih, sebut BA-DIS bukan BU-DIS."

Hmmmph... maybe next time we should just change the spelling to Badis...

Anyway, after our seating arrangements were settled, the protocol officer then briefed us on what to do etc. The lady sitting beside me began to get nervous. Every now and then, she'd be asking me, "What is it that we have to say after we get the cheque?" And every now and then I'd have to tell her, "Menjunjung kasih, tuanku."

At about 3.50 pm we heard the sound of sirens loud and clear. Obviously HRH had arrived. And walking in along with him were the Raja Puan Muda, and also Raja Ashman and Raja Eleena.

The official function started off with a bacaan doa, followed by a speech by Raja Nazrin and then on with the cheque presentation. The emcee did some blunders as well during the official function, with wrong pronunciation of names. Despite the presence of royalties in the room, our giggles were rather obvious when the emcee tried to pronounce Persatuan Autisme. And at one time, he was about to say Persatuan but realised it was Pertubuhan, so he went like... Pers..tubuhan... (now what does THAT sound like??)

I was quite worried that he would again mention Buddhist Society of Ipoh - what a shock it would have been to those present seeing this Mak Aji going to get the cheque!

But guess what? I think after the giggles due to the word autism, this time he played safe. He only mentioned my name without mentioning the organisation!

Well, anyway, with 71 recipients altogether, frankly I had expected a cheque of maybe just RM2K, or at the most, RM5K.

I hope nobody realised I went terbeliak biji mata when Raja Nazrin mentioned in his speech that each recipient would be awarded RM20K each. Of course, there's a condition to it. In six months time we will all have to send a written report with details on how we spent the money.

Time to plan for new project, maybe?

Mak Aji at the race course...

Sunday 23rd November 2008, I spent almost 2 hours here…


I watched this…

Ish... sibuk je la pakcik ni dengan microphone dia...

And these…

Yep, I was at the Perak Turf Club. Yes, yes, there at the Ipoh Race Course.

So, what was this Mak Aji doing at the race course on a race day?

RACING? I don’t even know how to ride a horse, what more to race one. Nope, out of the question.

I’M THE OWNER OF A RACE HORSE? Naaaah… I don’t have that much money to spend lah. I’d rather get myself a new car – at least I know how to drive.

I WAS LEARNING HOW TO RIDE A HORSE? What, on a race day? Who would want to teach this makcik how to ride a horse when there are more interesting happenings over there?

BETTING? Ish…. buang tabiat ke apa?!


Okay, okay… actually yesterday’s races started with the Charity Cup Race – the main sponsor’s name you can see in the first pic above. As the race name suggests, proceeds went to charity. About 60 charitable organizations in Perak were shortlisted to receive this year’s donations and Buddies of Ipoh was one of them. And that was why this Mak Aji was at the Perak Turf Club – to receive the cheque on behalf of Buddies.

It was my first time there so I was quite like a rusa masuk kampong (or was it Mak Aji masuk race course?). I had to ask the guards there where I was supposed to go. The invitation letter just mentioned that it was to be held at the cheque presentation area – which so happened to be at the race course. The place where we were seated (right below the grand stand) was blocked by the spectators’ stands on our left and right and as such, we weren’t able to witness the whole race although the finishing line was right in front of where we were seated. A clear view of how the race finished, but I was too slow to get any photos… not that they needed any photo finish...

After the race was the presentation of prizes to the owner of the winning horse, its trainer and its rider. Nope, no prize was presented to the horse after all the hard work… poor thing…

Then came the presentation of cheques by the Chairman of the Club to the various recipients. I was number 57 out of the 60 representatives of various organizations - shelter homes, orphanages, old folks homes etc. Thank goodness they gave actual bankable cheques instead of those big mock cheques (I think because there were too many of us), so after the cheque presentation and after making sure we got the right cheques, we could all leave before the other races started. I can just imagine the jam if we had to leave at the same time as the kaki-kaki kuda who were there to watch the races.

And so that was how a Mak Aji spent some time at the race course…