The event started at around 7pm. The weather was good although there was some rain earlier. The Ark Cafe is a 2-storey building sitting beside the Rejang River. The space is actually limited to accommodate more than 200 participants at a time, therefore the organizing committee had extend it to the space in front of the premises and that's where the main stage had been placed.
The foods had been spread all over the cafe, with the 2 section at upper stair serving main dishes and its downstair is where you can find self-service salad stuff and also rojak. At a corner outside the premises was where on-cook BBQ satays, chicken wings and fish could be found.
The DJ of the night was the sensational company's event manager which I personally love to call him the "daigo" (I think he did look like a big brother). Who else if it is not Mr Eddy who is really expert in event hosting and deejaying. His sense of humor and ability to control the crowd had cheered up the event, yet I think the unresponsive crowd had made the night a bit dull.
Well, maybe they were not unresponsive, but they were shy. For some reason, most of them prefered to stand 10 feet away from the main stage. This is one of the weakness of most Asian where they are too shy to express out their feelings. They might feel excited towards the event yet they rather keep quiet just to avoid being labeled as an "alien".
Some very simple games and performance had been arranged for the event, including the magic show by company's all time amateur magician Mr Liong. I personally felt that magic is not just about making thing disappeared while the spectators still scratching their head on what had just happened, but it is about how the magician interact with the audience to let them know clearly what will happen next, then applying some tricks to make that happened mysteriously.
This magic show certainly lack of the interaction element, but Mr Liong's efforts to entertain the crowd and cheer up the night was something which is undeniable and certainly worth some applause and compliment.
Simple games arranged include drinking red wine with straw competition, mandarin orange eating competition, seek & win game and lucky draws. 3 respective best dressed ladies and gentlemen had been chosen to receive prizes, but I was a bit doubt if some of the "winner" deserved it.
Long service award also being given out to the staff working in the company for more than a decade.
The foods arrangement was a bit disappointed where we need to go upstairs and down repeatedly in case we forgot to get ourselves a glass, spoon, fork or even tissue papers.
The foods served were some simple dishes such as "The 4 kings of all foods" - fried rice, fried kueh tiaw, fried noodles and fried beehun, prawns, limited deep fried chicken wings, mixed vege, fish, steak, otak-otak, self-service salad, rojak and some desserts. There were also on-the-cook BBQ chicken wings and satays, but as you know, those are "limited edition"(TM) and people just fighting hard to get them!
The event finished at around 9.30pm. I personally felt that it was a little disappointed night, the participation, the arrangement of foods and the programs still have much room of improvement.
Anyway, credit and appreciation should be given to the organizing committee for their time and efforts to make this annual (hopefully) event a success! At least there is a platform for the colleagues to meet each others in a different presentation instead of daily office attire.
Most importantly, it was the only consolation for our hard work throughout a year when there was no hope of bonus has being seen.
