Where Do You See Yourself?

Visitorship has dwindled on this blog, I see. Not many people coming here. Well, I don't blame 'em, me as having forgotten to put new things 'ere. Not even a picture, I might say. Not enough fancy things.

Back to the serious stuff. Sometimes I wonder why things have to be. I look at the rest, and they seem to be going on pretty well with their style, but here, there is no free will! Not free will in the general sense, but in that you are not allowed to do what you want; you must follow a system. And this system, in certain respects, wastes time. It's about life experiences, not about pre-determined things. Pardon me if you do not know what I'm talking about.

I sometimes look at others and see what they have accomplished by the age of (whichever age you want to put here). And I wonder why I haven't done the same. It's all about circumstances, not about decisions. Circumstances affect Decisions.

It's all about hard work, isn't it? You're only young once.

To Put Things Right...

Alright, for the sake of posting, I will comment a bit about the Masquerade Night of SSP Camp 08, as I have mentioned earlier. But only a bit.

Masquerade Night was similar to MIT Club's Disco Night, a regular event in MIT camps. Everyone gets together and dance about. The main difference is that SSP's event is themed, accompanied with live music (what is SSP without live music?), and ample refreshments provided. MIT's Disco Night pales in comparison to that, with its overly loud music, lack of a unifying theme, and minimal refreshments (or sometimes none at all).

Suffice to say, we had lots of fun. If I have time I will elaborate in the next post. For now, back to Tekong!

Sang Singa Purba Kem 60-an Gerek! - The NightWalk

Yet another event brought to you by SSP! I didn't write anything down in my Black Book (version écrite) this time, since I have learnt from experience that in camps there is no time to relax and write at all. There is always something to do, campers to entertain, stuff to sort out, and events to prepare. No tons of entries enough to make into a book like the Wawas affair (thank goodness). I will divide it into a few posts with a main topic and point out the interesting points, as I remember them.

The camp lasted from the 17th to the 19th of June, Tuesday to Thursday, with a Prep Day thrown in on Monday the 16th for good measure. I was part of Manpower, with a hand in the NightWalk preparations (a very big hand, in fact). I also did a few props for the NightWalk (as is my usual custom), in addition to the basketloads of props we borrowed from BE and SMA and the piles of cloth we got from MIT.

My main worry at the beginning of the camp was the lack of time to make NightWalk Props. Up until the last moment, I was either sorting out props or completing them. Even when the NightWalk started, I wasn't at my spot in W4/W5! As a result, I missed the first camper who walked the route (someone by the name of Jalil. It would have been interesting to see what was his reaction to my Ghost-Flies-Towards-You scare. ;-) I only had time to lean the ghost in a corner at the beginning of W4/W5. He was quite startled at the sight of it, I saw from afar!

The most singular thing about this NightWalk was that it went backwards! All my NightWalks since year 1 had gone from FC1 to MIT, but this was the first which went the other way. The rationale was that we would end closer to our bunks at T6. In the MIT camps our bunks were always at MIT, so the idea of NightWalks going the other way simply did not occur to us. I had some difficulty imagining the SSP NightWalk route which went the other way.

Of all the campers which I *did* scare, only one pair of girls screamed! They turned around and ran away! I was already smiling in glee. They recovered and walked back towards me. I raised the hand of the ghost, reaching towards them. They doubled up and ran! Very scared, they were. A job well done!

Of the rest, one pair muttered Arabic verses upon being shocked, and another let forth a stream of words and curses ("melatah", it is called in Malay). Some campers showed absolutely no reaction at all to my ghost; I was quite disappointed. But the most memorable was at the very end of the event, after the last camper has passed. I didn't know he was the last camper, so I waited for more. Then two people came, flashing torchlights around. Certainly not campers, maybe scare point people. I decided to scare them. They flashed their torchlight at my ghost and saw it, then shut it off. When they were near, I made it FLY TOWARDS THEM! They screamed and retreated a few steps back!

It was Fuad and Hady! What a reaction! I didn't expect them to react so strongly... Of all the guys whom I scared tonight, this was the only pair that screamed! =)

And thus our NightWalk ended. The last NightWalk for me, before I go to NS! More about the camp in the next post!

Voices (The Epic)

My internship in Year 3 was in World Scientific Publishing Co., in 2007. Voices is the name of a lunchtime concert we held at the end of July in the library on the first floor. Sharon was the receptionist in the lobby. And with this brief introduction, I begin the poem proper.

On 31st of July at 1.03
There was this concert in First Floor Library
Alamak, some came too early
They think we start already
Actually practice-practice only!

A lot of people came down to see
There was standing room only
Got one song called "Stand By Me"
This one Alvin sing
Then got another song by Rhaimie
"Save the Last Dance..." or something

Everyone clap.

After that we eat KFC
And pizza with Chicken Tandoori
The pizza a bit cold already
The rest we gave to Sharon in the lobby!

WAWAS! - Credits and Epilogue

--Advisory: This is a Very Long Post.--

At the end of every great undertaking, there are always people to thank. I thank these people here for the photos: Aidil, Hadis, Haddad, and Jeff ("Thank God you guys took the correct photos!" ;)

Full albums are available from sangsingapurba.multiply.com. Some of the photos were taken from our blog (sangsingapurba.blogspot.com). Whoever took those photos, thanks!

Here are some photos I had selected that did not make it into the main text:

The Wawas team with the people of Stor Teater and DBP in the first row, the people who helped us greatly in making it Happen. Encik Harun is second from left, and Cikgu Hasnah is in center. The rest I don't know. Thanks guys!


Myself with my grandparents, parents, granduncle etc. after the second performance, with the legendary Yusnor Ef thrown in for good measure. My parents and grandparents came all the way from Johor to watch Wawas! I cannot thank them enough for supporting us. (And I think stage makeup looks horrendous in normal lighting!)


Deep in concentration, making music. Except for Adillah. ("Thank God!")

And finally, in a moment of folly, the pièce de résistance!

Below is a video of the New Year Fireworks. It is 9 minutes long!! Courtesy of womad (which is Haddad).




Unfortunately we left behind the WAWAS poster in Stor Teater! It was in a storage space under the audience seating platforms. A souvenir to the good people of Stor Teater, I suppose it will be.

Sang Singa Purba has gone on to other things. We will have a production called PN08, coming in late 2008. It is still in its nascent stages, though.

There has been talk of staging WAWAS! in singapore, but no news has been heard about it so far (PN08 is the primary issue on our radar). Nonetheless, it is still a possibility!


Wangsa SSP has been formed! SSP's dance section finally has an official name and logo, with the motto "Tarikan Kayanganmu". (Dunno how to translate, but it has an ethereal quality about it.) (Pardon the bad quality of the image. It was the least I could find. It's supposed to be on an all-white background.)

Just recently the preliminary orientations have been completed for the new cubs who are entering SSP this year. Some promising talents, no doubt, of which we may discover more during the coming SSP Orientation camp.

Muzikarama 2008 coming up!

And that's all. Stay tuned!

WAWAS! - "Thank God We Are Safely in Singapore!"

--19 of 19--

We are now at Woodlands Checkpoint, Singapore, waiting in line for Customs checks. Due to the impossibly large size of my accordion bag, I cannot go through the self-service passport check line (it's more fun scanning your passport yourself, what with the thumbprints and gates).

Imagine my horror earlier when I got off the bus and saw my accordion bag deposited upside-down on the road beside the bus! It had fallen out of the luggage compartment when the uncle opened it, I gather. It was nobody's fault; the uncle was already on the other side when it fell, attending to the luggage compartments there (I suppose). I was the first person off the bus. No serious damage was done, just a dented grille, which would require some knocking inside with a hammer. What a souvenir to bring back home after 9 days in KL!

After heaving our bags through Customs, we go through the corridors to the taxi stand. Before that, we bade farewell to some of us who would follow the bus to Beach Road, going home by themselves.

There was a bunch of keys hanging from a road sign by the taxi stand. Whatever were they for? Hadis put forward a lot of absurd suggestions, the most implausible being that they were for some rich driver who owns all the cars parked on this road--just take one and go! We never knew the real explanation for them.

Soon, Aidil's parents came in a van, helping to send home those of us who lived near his area. Our props go into it as well. One by one we left, in our respective vehicles, until only a handful of us remained. My parents came, my accordion bag and luggage was somehow fitted into the boot of our car, and we said goodbyes to whoever was left of the SSP WAWAS! contingent waiting by the roadside. "Send our regards to your parents!"

And so we departed.

"Thank God we are back home!"

WAWAS! - "Tooooo the Lion City!" and Reminiscences

--18 of 19--

And now it was finally time to make our way to the bus stop and board our bus. Laden with our bags and our shopping, we crossed a bridge to the other side of the road where a simple bus was waiting. We had great expectations, but this would do. At least the bus had 3 seats per row, a benchmark of quality.

There were complications as to the arrangement of luggage in the bottom compartment, but we managed to settle it in good time. I sat in the second row along with Zalinah and Haddad. We bade goodbye to Encik Harun and Cikgu (she studies here) and the bus glided into traffic. We were on our way home!


I had time to scribble a few sentences in my black book until dusk set upon us, rendering me unable to see. We shared tidbits, drinks and even ice-cream!--from Zalinah, and we three in the second row passed it among ourselves, making sure the bus driver did not see, because as far as we knew, only mineral water was allowed in the bus. By tacit consent, it was made sure no one behind us saw either, else the ice-cream would finish in a blink.

Some two hours later we reached a resting point. Within it was a tidbit supermarket, filled to the brim with crackers, cuttlefish, fish snacks, drink, and sweets! Its sole purpose was to provide customers with tidbits, and tidbits only, so no detergent or diapers here. Most were sold in gigantic packs. No such thing as "take a little bit" here. You take all or you take none.

After toilet breaks, burgers, drinks and tidbits, we were off again.

I remember some of the things we did which I did not have space for in this chronicle. Call this an Appendix if you will!

Let's see what we have here. I recall with some amusement the "Thank God!" affair with Adillah, when she was spotted in her room speaking on the phone, with a photo of her boyfriend in front of her, on which was written the words "Thank God I found you!" She was playfully reminded of it to no end!

We had the rare opportunity of playing a gamelan set in the middle of our rehearsals, thanks to Encik Harun, who granted us permission to do so. It was located in the foyer of the Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka itself, right in front of the hall doors.

Then there was Jeff, who burst out into laughter in the middle of his prayers at a comment made by Didi. He recovered and resumed. Suddenly he dropped out of his prayers *again*! Seeing as we were watching a video of the second performance on Haddad's laptop, he simply could not concentrate on his prayers!

There were also spoonerisms reported, concerning Mai and Jad (short form for Jihad). They were mispronounced as Mad and Jai.

WAWAS! - The Last Day (And Last-Minute Shopping at Times Square)

--17 of 19--

To cut a long story short, at around noon we had uprooted ourselves, packed everything, cleared the bathrooms, and went downstairs to Stor Teater to get the props we had left there. We didn't know what to do with the fruits that Cikgu had given us some days ago (Foods To Preserve Your Voice, I presume) so we arranged them neatly on the dressing table along with some tidbits as a token of appreciation for the Mama Indias who had been so helpful throughout our stay.

Downstairs Didi realized he hadn't taken a photo of himself with the Wisma Puspanita sign beside the road, and so there we were in the middle of the road (in the road divider at the turn) snapping pictures. He also made amends with me over the row we had yesterday, good man.

With Stor Teater duly emptied, we set off for Times Square. (I do not remember where we had breakfast, or even if we had any breakfast at all.)

We reached Times Square in disjointed groups. I daresay it was because some bags were so heavy they impeded the walk of their owners. I was one of the first to reach there, because this damned accordion bag is killing me! It is always an exhaustive prospect to carry my accordion over long distances. Haddad volunteered to take care of our bags and encouraged us to find some lunch for ourselves. The rest were beginning to arrive by now.

After a spot of window shopping and scouting for prices (too expensive), I went back down to the bags, saw some of us eating McDonald's, enquired as to its origins, and went off to search for it on the fifth floor. Jihad, Mai and Haddad were already there, standing in the queue.

The indoor roller coaster there defied description! Loops and turns wound their way all around the pillars of the mall. I heard that Jeff, Hadis, Zana and Asmida had plans to ride on it. (I do not know if they eventually did.)

After lunch there was *more* window shopping, this time for clothes and accessories. Shamil selected a pair of skinny jeans, a very interesting decision on his part, and I chose a blue cap. The rest of us, when we met up downstairs, had purchased many kinds of things like jackets, shoes, bags and other accoutrements.

I sneaked off to the reputed location of a prop shop, on the 5th floor, courtesy of a tip-off by Haddad, who had passed it earlier. There were severed hands, legs, heads, and several different kinds of masks, but none were up to my expectations, so I abandoned the shop.

WAWAS! - Concerning Our Sleeping Habits

--16 of 19--

There is nothing much to say at this point. Once we were safely in our bunks we did the usual routine of either bathe/slack/or sleep, which we had been doing for the past seven nights. It was a completely open affair, everyone mingling about, an open-door policy. I made sure the mosquito coil, which was usually placed at the foot of my bed, was placed outside. Yesterday I had awoken with a tremendous cough in the middle of the night, and it was suspected that the smoke from the mosquito coil was the culprit. Hoping that tomorrow (our last day, our departure day!) would go well, I left my friends to their own devices and went to bed.

Dawn broke the next morning. A lot of us were firmly settled in our beds. Usual air of somnolence. Some of us were already up and running, most were still snoozing. Our sole agenda for the day was to go home, nothing else. We can do anything we want before that, but at 6.30pm, the bus leaves.

At this point I would like to bring to your attention the idiosyncrasies of our sleeping habits. During the night some days ago, we all could not sleep owing to the presence of Aizat's melodious snoring. Imagine our surprise when suddenly in the middle of this snoring came the mumbled words "air stewardess...". We greatly wonder what it was that made him say that! A very memorable dream, perhaps?

Shamil also. He was scratching up and down when suddenly he did the "pull to heart" action in our Intro. A novel way of rehearsing!

In waking up we also have our habits. Nizal, upon rousing him out of sleep, would start! Then he will slowly fall back to sleep. Wake him up a second time and he would start! again, then fall back to sleep. He is not one of those who are easy to awake, it seems.

Hadis is another matter altogether. He would wake up, look around with an extremely puffy face from sleep, then go back to sleep. Again he would awake, and look around sleepily. How would you know he was awake? Well, he would start to dance. (To the rousing music from Jihad's speakers.) Well *now* he's awake!

As for me, I have been sighted sleeping with my arms crossed in a professional manner. Very interesting!

WAWAS! - "What? The LRT Station is Closed?!"

--15 of 19--


We sat in a corner away from the drizzle, wondering what to do next. There was some talk of getting a foot massage at the nearest reflexologist. Zalinah, Aizat, Sarah and Nadiah, among others, were fine with that idea--but at this time? It was past twelve; no doubt there would be plenty of late night reflexologists in Bukit Bintang, but the whole idea seemed somewhat far-fetched. But they were determined to go, so we wished them a good journey, and off they went.

The rest of us were still left with no subsequent course of action.

Minor commotion over a cockroach in our midst. It came from the bushes behind the fountain. Nearly everyone shifted to the other side, quite unsettled.

The Foot Massage Group reported to us the closure of KLCC LRT Station. I thought it still had an hour of service? The Group had hailed a taxi to get to their reflexologist. Impossible, Malaysian transport is! We at KLCC decided to take taxis as well.

The new woman in the MRT is terrible! She switches accents mid-sentence and enunciates letters much too clearly! The "Going to Johor Bahru?" announcement in the Woodlands area is particularly hair-raising. It appears to be an imitation of the old woman, but she says it much too suggestively, in my view. Why "Doors Are Closing" when she could very well say "Doors Closing"? (Maybe I should blame the scriptwriter for that.) The announcement at Jurong East when the North-South train pulls into the station is also particularly long-winded. But to her credit, her "Yew Tee" is quite good, can make it. However I much prefer the old woman.

Continue.

We were discussing possible locations for taxi-hailing. Walking along a back road leading away from the LRT station, Jihad and Hadis hailed every taxi in our path, but they either quoted extravagant fares or didn't know the way to Wisma Puspanita. We were getting quite tired. I was especially concerned over Didi with his injured knee. He was quite irritable earlier, entering into a minor row with me over transport. Having no luck getting a taxi along this back road, we trudged solemnly further down.

At long last, we reached a main road, and a taxi stand. A series of explosions were heard. I thought for a moment that it was some sort of terrorist attack! (I was feeling quite morbid.) We never did find out their origin.

A few unsuccessful hailings later, I was ensconced in a taxi along with Suhaila and Aidil. The journey was uneventful.

WAWAS! - KLCC and the New Year Fireworks

--14 of 19--

Soon all of us arrived at KLCC Station without much mishap, except perhaps for the temporary loss of Arif and Zalinah, which was quickly settled.

It rained a bit, but it was okay for us; it lightened to a drizzle once we reached the plaza at KLCC's entrance. The Petronas Twin Towers looked very inspiring, standing regally against the night sky, illuminated by a great many spotlights.

Only a few more minutes to the New Year! A digital clock atop KLCC Mall served as an extremely useful master timer, so that we did not have to refer to our own watches, preventing false alarms.

The rain did not dampen our spirits the slightest bit. Haddad, Aidil, Aizat, etc. whipped out their camera phones, digital cameras, etc. and started documenting the moment. We were jumping here and there trying to be in every camera's shot and every video frame. Mai did her trademark "Hi... Hi.. Hi...", looping indefinitely till the cameraman got tired of her. It sparked off (some days ago) the game of Glance-Avoiding between her and Aidil. Once you have caught the other person's glance, whoever says "Hi" first is the winner!

The people around us were getting restless. Occasionally there would float above the crowd some cheering, which we gathered were just morale boosters to warm up the crowd. Those were clearly not New Year Cheers--a quick glance at the digital clock would attest to that. All eyes were glued to the clock. 23:58. Would we catch the changing of numbers from 23:59 to 00:00?

As the Hour drew near, we simply couldn't take our eyes off the clock. I wondered where the fireworks would come from.

Then the clock struck 12! A moment's silence, then a huge chorus of cheers filled the vast space! 2008 is Here!

Fireworks exploded in the night sky! We turned and feasted our eyes on various-shaped explosions. Roses, lotuses, violets, missiles and galaxies! There were even fireworks whose particles seemed to follow their own patterns, instead of exploding straight out. By far the most beautiful were the cascading showers of golden stars.

We were treated to a full 20 minute display of what the fireworks industry could offer us in 2008. Shamil was yelling himself hoarse in enjoyment (well, he was already hoarse to begin with, so it sounded much like an old man.) Everything died down, a large column of smoke from the fireworks rose into the air, and people began clearing the area. We had seen what we came here to see! (At least *this* went on schedule!)

WAWAS! - Hainanese Chicken Rice, and a Journey on the LRT

--13 of 19--

After clearing Stor Teater of all our stuff, we headed back to our rooms. Sash reassured me that we would organise an SSP ice skating outing once we got back to Singapore, which made me feel quite hopeful. She said the last time *we* had one was back when she was in Year 1! (!) I wasn't part of SSP then, but I'm sure it was fun.

An hour's rest in our rooms; then promptly at 8pm we got out again for dinner. We went straight to a Chicken Rice Shop near the cafe where Cikgu and Encik Harun were left the other day. (Actually it wasn't *the* Chicken Rice Shop but a Hainanese chicken rice restaurant.)

Our seats on the second floor commanded an admirable view of the crowds below, through large, full-length glass windows covering the entire stretch of the restaurant facing the street. The food there was sumptuous and well seasoned. We gobbled down our chicken rice in record time, and those who couldn't finish it donated their portions to those who could.

After dinner we had a spot of people-watching through the full-length windows built for that purpose. There was a lot of fun to be had playing "Spot the Person/Sign/Colour". Totally picturesque, the scene was. I even spotted a person wearing the same beanie as the Black Cat in Kucing! We played for quite some time, gazing boldly into the street as if no one could see us.

On the contrary; everyone did. Once downstairs, we looked up and there it was, our seating area! Every person on the street could see us, as clear as day.

Next stop: the Petronas Twin Towers! (A.k.a. KLCC.) Pushing through the masses of People, we reached an LRT station. Up we went, and waited in a corner for Haddad and Jihad to purchase tickets. It was no less crowded up there. Downstairs, a great hoo-ha was occurring. We looked down and saw groups of people amusing themselves with aerosol cans of confetti and foam. Clearly, the Spraying had begun!

Feeling inwardly relieved that we weren't down there as well (it was New Year's Eve, by the way), we got our tickets and went through the fare gates into the station. No Adventure for us tonight!

The experience of entering the station and going up the steps was like riding a rollercoaster--for some reason, it was quite exciting and novel to us. (Of course, there was the customary snapping of pictures and capturing of videos.) It felt like some theme park monorail.


Everything was going smoothly until we reached Dang Wangi, an interchange station, where we had to switch trains. But every train that came was full to the brim! You couldn't even put a finger in there, and fitting all 21 of us in the same train was out of the question. We decided to split up into our 5 groups (S,I,N,G and A) and meet up at KLCC later. I was part of Group A, consisting of Efin, Aidil and Suhaila. We managed to squeeze into one train, clinging to each other for safety.

WAWAS! - The Excursion to Sunway Lagoon

--12 of 19--

True enough, we woke up at 9am. The transport that was supposed to take us out comes at--9am.

Great Rush! Never had we dressed up so quickly before! "Cikgu is already at DBP, waiting for us!" Haddad agitatedly announces. People come in and out of the toilet. A waiting list quickly forms. "Whoever's ready go down first!"

In due course we left for the old DBP, in disjointed groups. A van passed us at the gate, containing those who had come down earlier than us. A second van was waiting inside. We packed into it and off we went--to Sunway Lagoon!


At Sunway we took care of our breakfast. I spent a great deal of money on a Tuna Foccacia Sandwich at Starbucks which I thought cost RM2.90. I didn't notice the 1 in front of the 2.


The rest had found an A&W restaurant, a fact which those of us at Starbucks found out too late (it was a rare but delicious and cheaper restaurant!)

We didn't do much at Sunway Lagoon, I regret to say. Yes, it had a theme park, and most of us planned to go to it, but the dry rides were extremely exorbitant and the wet rides about so. Some of us couldn't afford the ticket price, rumoured to be around RM45 or so. One by one we backed off, and the rest who could afford decided it was not worth it going in such small groups (for there were only a few left). We turned to other recreational pursuits.

There was ice skating! We rushed eagerly to the rink but alas!--it was undergoing resurfacing. It won't open for another half hour. We resolved to go bowling to pass the time. The rest who didn't fancy either skating or bowling had gone off shopping (I didn't come all the way here to bowl!) so I simply sat and watched the rest play bowling. And waited. Tried to enlighten the pages of this Book, but inspiration didn't come, so I stood up and had a walk around the mall, buying a cup of Root Beer from A&W.

Time passed. 1 o'clock. We started at 12. We had purchased two games. The ice skating rink was already available from 12.30. We had to be back by 3. The first bowling game had just concluded. At this rate, we would finish at 2! How to go ice skating like this?!

I voiced my concerns to the rest of the group. They understood, and the second game was played, but with a sense of urgency and not as energetic as before. I sat restless, wondering if we'd ever go ice-skating.

At 1.45 the game finished and we hurried to the ice skating rink but alas again!--it was going through yet another resurfacing! It would only finish at 2.30, and by then there'd be insufficient time for skating. We went away gloomily, with me feeling it the most.

With whatever time we had left, we went shopping. Not a very productive activity, I thought.


After some time we got tired of shopping and waited at Starbucks near the main entrance. The rest gathered, some laden with shopping bags full of purchases. The vans came; we piled into them and started back to Stor Teater, where we'd do some cleaning up.

We lamented about the lack of fun we had at Sunway Lagoon. It was supposed to be a great time. Jihad fully agreed. We should have played just one game of bowling earlier. But then, 3pm was quite an early time to leave; we should have been given more time--the whole day, even! I was feeling particularly dejected. I went to Sunway Lagoon and didn't enjoy myself...

WAWAS! - A Night of Celebration!

--11 of 19--

It is unanimously agreed among us that tonight's show was the best out of the three shows. There are improvements to be made, of course, but that would be for later. Now, we must hurry and get out of our costumes, for tonight is a night of celebration!

There were two choices available to us. We could either go watch a movie, or we could go to a karaoke lounge. Most of us were tired of singing any further after Wawas, so a decision is made: we go to the movies.

Then the question arose as to whether we should all eat before or after the movies. A light dinner had already been consumed earlier, before the performance (provided by Cikgu), so we decided to eat afterwards.

And off to Times Square we go! Cikgu, Encik Harun and Zalinah, on the other hand, chose to go to the karaoke lounge.

Once there, half of us went off in search of toilets, and the other half waited for us at the cinema. Zana delights in irritating Efin with the harsh squeaking of her shoes.

Jihad settles the purchase of movie tickets. We buy enough refreshments to last us the whole movie and march through the ticket gates to Hall 9.

Aliens vs. Predator 2! That is the movie we are watching. It starts off rather promisingly at first, and ends with a big bang, but in the middle are some parts which are rather tiresome (and gruesome) to watch. There are lots of conveniences here and there, and at times I thought I was watching a pirated movie (because usually the pirated movies I watch look like this). We were left in a daze at the end of the film, wondering "What the heck happened?"

The Final Verdict?

No.

It wasn't very satisfactory, to say the least of the ending. The first one was far better, and at the very least it made *sense*.

Nevertheless the ticket price still had to be paid back to Jihad. He was slightly peeved upon hearing us joke that for that sort of movie, it was not worth paying the ticket price. But it was all in good nature, and soon most of the accounts are settled.

Back to the issue of nourishment. It is already very late, and we are too tired to sit down at a restaurant and eat. It is decided that we order from McDonald's and have it sent back to our bunks.

The McDonald's arrives very late, nearly two hours after we place our order. I stagger out of bed and we eat the meal in silence, too exhausted to actually taste the food. Well, at least it was not as silent as the other day during rehearsal when we were ravenously attacking our lunch. SSP had never eaten so quietly before!

We crawled back into bed after that. It was nearly 4am. At this rate, how were we going to make it early tomorrow for the day's activities?

WAWAS! - The Last Show

--10 of 19--

Tonight is the night of our last performance. We are prepared to give it our best. There is the usual bustle of applying make-up and getting into costumes. I took some time to actually find out the meaning of my lines. The rest occupied themselves with their final preparations.




Jihad thought of using the two toilet bowls reposing in the lift lobby for SHIT but Haddad thought it was wiser not to do so.

Sarah came to us with the sobering news that there was no one outside. Well, at any rate, we had to put on a good show! We gathered in a circle and had a final mood-capturing session. Then we wished everyone good luck and took our places.

The third and final show went well, except perhaps for a few shortcomings here and there, as would inevitably occur in any production. But there were highlights as well; Haddad's shrill cackling in the middle of Pelita never fails to make the hairs stand on the backs of our necks, and the Prostitute's seduction of the Old Man in Kucing goes on without a hitch (but still the audience is very cold). At the Ending, Didi dances with vigour!

And then the crux of the whole event--*the* Highlight of the Night, if you could call it that--"Wawasan Anak Singa, menyala..."--and at the last word, which means "burns brightly" in Malay, we all raise our hands and produce a flame!


Finally, a use for all those Cricket lighters! We stumbled upon this idea earlier, and we had enough lighters to go around--so why not? A classic Eureka moment. Ingenious!

WAWAS! - Concerning Afro Hair and Purple Corsets

--9 of 19--

The next day we woke up at 11am. We had intended to awake at 8am for a visit to Central Market (suggested by Cikgu) but none of us could wake up at that early hour so the visit to Central Market did not materialise. Instead we washed up, had brunch at Kancil Restaurant (where I was again mistaken for Hadis in my shades), and made our way to Stor Teater. Cikgu had already declared yesterday that there would be no rehearsal today, so hooray!--we lounged about and had little run-throughs of the Opening and Ending.




I remember one completely nonsensical occurrence some days before when we were making props. I was cutting some designs in styrofoam when suddenly a hideous mass of afro hair and purple corsets which turned out to be Nizal paraded onto the stage. It was a complete turn-off. He disappeared backstage and reappeared some moments later, a scarf wound around his huge afro in a feeble attempt as a tudung.

By then we were rolling about in laughter! It was an inside joke; it is rumoured that under Mai's tudung lies a full head of afro hair. If it were to be loosened--whoosh!--hair would burst out of every seam!

Needless to say, Mai was not amused.

WAWAS! - End of the Second Performance, and Our Toilets

--8 of 19--


After the performance, we had the special opportunity of hearing some inspiring words from the famous Yusnor Ef himself! Many photos were snapped with the renowned people within our audience, and we closed the performance that night feeling very elated, in high spirits. My friends kept pestering me for my father's comments on the performance, of which there were none yet, because my father is not a man of many words! (He *did* give his comments a week later during the day of the post mortem, a rightful time for such things.)


Efin and Arif joined us during dinner, looking a bit weary. But all that disappeared later when we played a birthday prank on Shamil by drenching him with gallons of water! A load of fun, it was.


We returned to our bunks, Jihad turning on the music on his self-brought speakers. It was a brilliant idea to bring them--it made our room the more happening one! Everyone was free to contribute their mp3 playlist for our listening pleasure.

Already I can see a clear preference for toilets. The boys' room has two toilets, which are singularly different in design. We preferred to go to the one on the right. I don't know why. After some time, we tended to go to the one on the left. I, personally, preferred the one on the left. I can tell you why.


The arrangement of the components of the toilet on the right were thus: the mirror faced the door, and between the mirror and the door was the shower pipe. Now, showering in front of a mirror is quite distracting, so I moved out of direct sight of the mirror. But then I saw in the mirror the reflection of the towel hanging behind the door, which, out of the corner of my eye proved even more distracting. So I didn't use that toilet anymore after that.

The left toilet is better; it has plenty of space around the sink to put your toiletries. It also has a ventilation window at the top; the other toilet has absolutely None. That toilet feels like a cubicle--it has two walls of blue plastic like most toilet cubicles do, and sometimes we use it to startle the person inside with a great bang! And yes, the mirror of the left toilet doesn't face the door; the toilet bowl does.

And so, after a quick shower, we fell asleep.

WAWAS! - The Second Performance

--7 of 19--

The schedule for today was a full dress rehearsal, plus the curtain call. Nothing much happened, except that Cikgu suggested changing the character of Ray & Do in SHIT to a blind man and a half-blind man. Jeff and I played these roles, and so we were the most affected. We went through the full dress as these disabled people, and decided at the end that they were not suitable.

The idea was scrapped.

That night's performance seemed very prestigious! Even though there were lesser people than the first night, those that came were more renowned. (My parents and grandparents came too!)


A small LED light was set up backstage. It was used as illumination during the show because backstage lights switched on would spill out onto the stage. Sash (our lighting woman) said it did not matter because no light could be seen, but I disagreed with her view. Thus the lights remained turned off and the LED light plus an electric lamp provided sufficient illumination for the backstage area. All makeup and costumes were done outside, and during the show the backstage served as a waiting area for the actors.

The highlight of the night (of every night, come to think of it) was the part in Kucing where the prostitute seduces the old man. Nizal was the prostitute, and Jihad was the old man. On the first night Nizal did not sing his song! He simply forgot, and said out the lyrics as dialogue. Dressing up for him was a hasty affair: he only had about a minute from Pelita to Kucing to get into costume, and even then it was without his purple corset. *That* went on just before his seduction part. Very flustered, the costume people were.

The audience there was very cold. They didn't laugh much, and on the rare occasions when they found something funny, most simply smiled. So the jokes prevalent in our plays carried on in silence.

Jihad's sarong was quite loose. It came off twice in two nights. He managed to hide behind some boxes and correct his sarong, we were relieved to see.

I had the Bright Eyes Syndrome, an anomaly which happens when only one eye is exposed to bright light, and the other left in darkness. Peeping through the curtains led me to suffer this, and I walked for some minutes slightly disoriented.

Didi looked at the box.

3 seconds passed.

Why didn't he kick it?

Then he continued.

All the Kucings were left wondering why he didn't remember his actions. Mai was left to carry the box into its rightful position.

And in SHIT, Jeff mixed up his lines. Luckily I recovered in time with the tempo. "#@!x*& memang hebat..."

WAWAS! - Room Reshuffling, Mama Indias and Cricket Lighters

--6 of 19--

On the morning after the Atrocious Snorings, all of us changed rooms. There were various reasons for this, some of which I shall not disclose, but the general agreement was that it would aid in synchronisation (for want of a better word). These new rooms, 3 and 4, were extremely spacious, 10 beds each and two bathrooms, so all boys took room 3 and the girls went into 4. Any communication between us would pass through faster this way, rather than having to relay messages between four rooms previously.

I also saw for the first time the Mama Indias! Not one, but three of them! They looked exactly like what I imagined: bright floral blouses and dresses, and a sarong around their waists. The Mama Indias were engaged in animated conversation, seated on a bench outside room 10 waiting for us to clear our rooms so they could do housekeeping.

The Malay lady in charge of the rooms was chattering away, reprimanding some of us for sleeping in the corridor. Well, we were guarding the corridor, in case anything untoward happened. She mentioned that she had not heard of any unusual event in all her years working there.

(At that point I remembered the other man's warning about not being too happy at night and wondered if she was wrong.)

In any case, after moving away from the inauspicious rooms (and corridor), we hoped for the better. We got dressed and went down for brunch at Kancil Restaurant.

The first thing I saw there was a sign proclaiming the sale of Roti Prata (or Canai):

"Attantion! Roti Canai ada dijual di sini!"

It led us to wonder about the sort of food sold there, whether it was as bad as the spelling.

Then there was the absurd impossibility of having "no plain pratas but got egg pratas". 17 egg pratas left, to be exact. Some of us chose to eat pratas, whilst the rest went to the rice buffet table.

Brief uproar over Cricket lighters. These are the ones that come in many different bright and solid colours, with exchangeable heads in also as many colours. Hadis had gone off in search of them, and returned with 10 or 15 lighters! Jihad saw one that he liked and a heated exchange of words ensued as to where they were found and whether he could buy one from Hadis instead, with the others joining in.

Our pratas came. They were Very Good! We ate to our hearts' content.


Brunch finished, and we headed to Stor Teater. Someone remarked that I looked very much like Hadis in my sunglasses, which led the others to agree. Photos were snapped for comparison, and yes, we looked quite alike in shades! It looked as if we were brothers! We all delighted in this amusing fact.

WAWAS! - Mama Asmida, and our First Performance

--5 of 19--

The past few days were not without adventure. Many events have occurred, some which are humourous to the extreme, some which are singularly unusual, and some which I am not at liberty to disclose. I shall describe them as they come to me and as I remember them.

There are two kinds of Mama. One is Mama India. Another is Mama Asmida. Well, Mama Asmida sent a message to Sarah Atiqa on Wednesday afternoon, enquiring about our general health and well-being, also mentioning that we appeared in the newspaper yesterday! It was an interview about Wawas, conducted about 10 days prior to our departure. How thoughtful of her!

Back to the plates of chicken wings laid before us on the table. It is an appetizer before our dinner on the night of our first performance. This dinner is also a post-mortem for the performance (the fastest one I can remember; usually by the time it is held, we would have already forgotten everything.)

Earlier on, there were lots of mistakes and shortcomings (the most fun part of any post-mortem, in any case!) Jihad related how he rushed into position during Kucing.

"5...4...3...2...1.......Vroom!" he darted to his spot. It was Very Dark. And there was a box in his way.

(Crash!)

Nizal's error was a more appalling one. This was what he was supposed to say:

"...menjadi angin, menghembuskan bara..."

And this is what he actually said:

"...menghembus gembra..."

Even worse, he could not help but chuckle to himself! (In full view of everyone!)

During SHIT, Didi startled a makcik in the front row. Twice. Once with Asmida when they screamed at each other and another time during his "Gol!" solo. The makcik nearly fell off her chair!

Kucing had mistakes of the Late, Forgotten and Untuned categories. There were forgotten tails, tails that came off, dropped cat's ears, and tails that lengthened themselves in an alarming way as the show progressed! It was Didi's tail that had this defect. By the middle of Kucing his tail was encircling him haphazardly.

WAWAS! - Dinner at Jalan Kenanga, and the Atrocious Snorings

--4 of 19--

The Highly Entertaining movie ends. We clear the theatre. Outside, all the shops are closed, and it is quite warm in the mall. I have the faint impression that it is 3pm in the afternoon. Must be the overly bright display of one of the shops coupled with the warmth (it is 3am in the morning, by the way!) We make our way back to our bunks, having ridiculous as well as learned conversations about the movie on the way.

We reached our rooms. It was now 3.30am in the morning! The aircon was set to 23 degrees. My iPod was set up, playing soothing melodies. We slept.

Day 2 began quite late. Due to our very late sleeping time last night, everyone (nearly everyone) arose late. Breakfast consisted of two plain pratas.

Very uneventful. Rehearsals were done, and lunch was eaten outside. It was delicious. Nothing much after that. We rehearsed again till 6, then went out for dinner at a Roadside Stall along Jalan Kenanga.

Now--we are at this very same Roadside Stall waiting for our Dinner! Our first performance has just ended at 9.46pm earlier, and currently four plates of savoury barbecued chicken wings have been placed on the table before us, awaiting consumption. We are only permitted to consume one wing and one drumstick per person, following Cikgu's Tips for Preserving Your Voice.

I catch drifts of various conversations around the dinner table. One topic in particular stands out--the atrocious snoring of some of our members!

"I even saw AJ stuff tissues in his ears!" exclaims Aidil. (AJ is the name I am known by in SSP, to differentiate between another Afiq who is a senior. It stands for Afiq Junior.)

Indeed! Of the 3 or so snorers whose snorings were powerful enough to be heard in the next room, Aizat's ones were particularly melodious. Some of them even sounded like a conversation! Stuffing the aforementioned tissues in my ears proved ineffective, so I rose and fetched my in-ear headphones, the closest thing to earplugs that I had.

Not 100% effective--because what is a pair of earphones without music? I got up again and took my mp3 player. It was better.

The others who were forced to listen to the rousing chorus of grunts, sighs and groans sat wide awake, unable to sleep.

Suffice to say, we did not have a peaceful night.