one of my nephews, my late brother datuk dr abdul aziz b. muhammad's son, had his akad nikah on friday night and had the wedding reception last night. i still cant believe that Zek is married now. he still looked like a 10 year old boy as he sat on the pelamin last night. i know my late brother would be so happy to see his son married, he would be giving the wedding speech in the tone of a wise lecturer, as he often did when talking to anyone.i still had my SAT tuition classes that lasted until 5.45, and then i dashed home to bathe and change. when i was out on the road i was dismayed to find that there was a congestion on the MRR2, but it only lasted until i entered the seremban highway. i gave a sigh of relief when i spotted the palace of the golden horses sign, but when i reached the small roundabout there was no sign anywhere, and before i knew it, i made a wrong turn and was on a small road to UPM. had to make a big turn, and after asking the girl at the toll booth, i finally reached the hotel - at 7.45pm. and when i was peering at the board looking for the venue of the reception, i heard abg zaki's voice and there was my siblings. we were seated earlier in the ballroom, and there abg mi started showing me off his iPhone, which he bought in NZ for rm2k (after being converted from NZ d). i called farah, who was unable to attend because of her pregnancy condition who asked me about the cake, the pelamin bla bla bla... then kak mah's family arrived - her mother, toh puan nik maimunah (whom i called mak cik nah) and my nephews and nieces - nana, looking ever so slim now that he's a gym freak, didi - ever so friendly, who says that he's expanding, the girls and yaya. the food was nice, although they really rationed the nasi impit in the soto ayam. i never thought anyone could cut nasi impit that small. having said that however, we enjoyed the food, partly because we're too hungry already.
the next reception (on our side) will be held next sunday night in bangsar.
i tried to lie to myself that today's debate wouldnt rattle me. on the contrary, i kept waking every now and then to check my alarm clock - a sure sign that i was nervous.it was a sunny morning. i kept thinking of the debate as the pail of water that cooled my excitement of going to bangkok. as promised, i met my teammates at puteri titiwangsa, from where we the english and the bm debaters trudged our way amidst the jam to PPD Bangsar-Pudu, situated next to Victoria Institution.it was stated in the programme that the debate would start at 7.30am. as if!it was a blessing that my team comprised of zany teachers, because at this time i needed their zaniness to keep me sane, after seeing the serious faced debaters - the sentul team even wore lawyer styled attire - in white tops and black skirts. i'm sure my fren elison the lawyer would be very much amused if she knew this.and so, amidst the seriousness, farid's peals of laughter were refreshing, and that helped me to relax a bit and while the other teams were talking about strategies (including our BM counterpart) we were busy posing for pictures.when the 1st round of debates were going on, we were ushered into a meeting room and - just moments after farid said "i hope we get the opposition", the lots were drawn, and we were the Opposition! that was enough to guarrantee our loss, because we were not really prepared for it, and we were hoping to lose anyway.in the quarantine room, i was nervous, but i kept thinking, these ladies were with me and we wanted to get this over and done with.at 11 ish, we started our debate, and i must say that at first we kept quiet and let the PM of the Govt had her day as we didnt want to POI even though i could detect a lot of flaws in her arguments and was itching to POI so badly. you have no idea how much i suffered, trying to bottle up my POIs and sitting there silently, giving the picture to the adjudicators that we're a bunch of idiots.they tried to POI us lots of time. we kept denying the POIs - not because we couldnt answer them, but because we desperately wanted to lose. strange, huh? when the DPM started delivering her speech, i thought, what the heck, let's POI this lady. which i did. which she didnt reply. which i commented later in my rebuttals.later, i told their third speaker that i had a lot to POI, but i was there to lose.the results were obvious.we could win if we wanted to. not to say that we're incompetent speakers. we could have smashed the govt team with our wit if we wanted to, but we purposely lost. if we had won, this means missing school, and wasting a lot of precious time. besides, if winning the debate means a pay raise, i won't mind. but my pay will still be the same.
the teachers at my school usually have outings together and last night we attended a dance show at petronas philharmonic hall. despite being late (since most of them are not familiar with the strict regulations of the hall) we were able to be seated and watched the show, performed by the Petronas Cultural Group. i enjoyed the malay traditional dances, however i cant say the same when they started dancing the sabahan and sarawakian tribal dances. or the chinese and the indian dances. one can trace soft undulating hand movements of the malay dances in all the other dances, and no wonder, because the choreographers are too young and i think they should have done some research and kept to the authenticity of the dances. well, having said that, i dont mean to be a sour grape because i enjoyed the malay dances. only the malay dances.
right now i'm listening to Jason Mraz's Lucky, trying to calm my nerves and pretend that tomorrow isnt a big deal.i've been chosen (cekup is more like it) to represent Zon Keramat for the Teachers' Debate. yes, you heard it right. The teachers debate. as if we dont have enough talking to do in class.i was fuming last monday when i had to attend the briefing, just because i had already prepared the teaching materials for my Form 5 tuition at school. i do not like the idea of wasting time doing something that is pointless.the teachers in my team are of the same sentiment. beside us is the BM team who, shall we say, very enthusiastic to win? while we are debating only for the sake of participating, we don't want to win. don't get me wrong. it's not that we're that bad. we just don't want to waste our precious time discussing points at some other school when we can be teaching in class.and so tomorrow morning i've to plaster a plastic smile on my face and try not to do the best.
