The Adventures of Supermum!: Sarawak Merdeka band 1993

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Sarawak Merdeka band 1993 - 20 yr reunion

Most of the organizing committee members with the instructors after the event

It finally happened yesterday! The reunion which we had been working so hard round the clock for! We were happy, nervous and excited all at once, that the day had finally arrived, but also a little sad that it marked the end of a great time working with the other amazing organizing committee members! I've made great friends through this event. All the volunteers for this committee are wonderfully capable, efficient and ever-willing to take on responsibilities and challenges! Such individuals are hard to find nowadays, and I'd like to think that the discipline we gained through band training helped this characteristic trait evolve. Thanks to the instructors for whipping us into shape! ;)

waiting for the instructors at the airport

Anyway, back to the reunion. We welcomed our guests of honour, Mr Png, Mr Goh and Mr Simon from Singapore on Friday. That night many of us had jobs to rush through to completion, before the big event the next day. I had to complete the cake and also the stage backdrop decor. The kids helped me fold countless colorful fans.

On the morning of the reunion, I had to rush to redo the top tier of my cake, as the fondant had melted and was slipping off! (Note to self: never use cream cheese frosting under fondant!)

setting up the memorabilia display board

Then the committee members started showing up at the hotel to get to work on the setting up of decorations and displays. Everyone had a part to play and everything came into place beautifully!

Our three instructors were also preparing for the event. They practiced singing a few songs which they had put together at the last minute, especially for us.

The reunion was a high tea event, so people started showing up after lunch time. Around 80 people were in attendance. There were many familiar faces, some which we hadn't seen for 20 years! It was amusing trying to match those 30-something faces to the 12-18 year old faces we knew 20 years ago! Luckily we gave out name tags which also stated which school one was from!

So the reunion started when the three instructors and one St. Teresa teacher (Mrs Chang) arrived. First we paid tribute to the members and a mentor who have since passed on.

Then the instructors proceeded to cut my cake. This was followed by speeches from the instructors. Their speeches were funny, entertaining, moving as well as eye-opening! Mr Png told of the trails and tribulations behind the scenes which we were blissfully unaware of at that time! He even told of his ghost encounter at band camp!! After 20 years, we heard their sides of the story of those amazing 8 months. The time it took to miraculously transform more than 400 "blur sotong" teenagers from 5 different schools into music-playing, flag-bearing, precision marching machines!!

Mr Png

Our comrade Fu also took to the stage to tell his grandfather stories about the funny things that happened during training! Honestly, I don't remember much, but this guy has an elephant memory! And he also keeps all the artifacts from 20 years ago like a museum curator! Lol!

Mr Goh

After that, the instructors performed their songs for us. One of them was the song "Sejahtera Malaysia" which was a very popular patriotic song at that time. If my memory serves me right, it was played on TV every night at 8pm! Anyway, this song means a lot to us, as we performed it during our band display and sang it as well on different occasions during training. It really brought back memories and a tear to the eye!

Mr Simon

There was also a speech by Jean, thanking all the organizing committee members, and an unsuccessful attempt at Skyping with fellow band member Julian in the USA.

the St. Teresa gang

As there were some people who had to leave early, we proceeded to do the photo-taking session first.

Then we watched the RTM footage of our band display. That few minutes of perfection 20 years ago, which we busted our butts for 8 months for! There was pride on everyone's faces as we witnessed our teenage selves come together and make history.

A walk to the Padang Merdeka across the road had to be cancelled, as we had exceeded our allocated time for use of the venue. The Padang was also muddy from rain in the morning anyways.

Oh yes, we also played an ice breaker game, where everyone filled in cards answering 3 simple questions. The questions were:

1. What shoes are you wearing.

2. What instrument did you play?

3. What is your most memorable experience during band camp?

So we dropped these cards into a box. Then everyone picked a card out of the box and had to go around chatting people up until we found out whose card we had!

goofing around!

Anyway, I think all the guests had a great time getting reacquainted with old friends and making new ones at the same time. It was awesome meeting our highly respected instructors again and walking down memory lane.

I'd say this was a huge success! So great job guys! Let's do it again soon eh?? Hehe...