the day i took the most pictures

This year of AUSMAT has finally come to an end. We had our AUSMAT grand dinner at the Palace of the Golden Horses Hotel near the Mines Resort City on 27th November 2006. After our JPA briefing and psychology camp in the morning, we went back to our hostel in the afternoon at about 3pm and started to get ready. My mum was already at my hostel waiting to do make-up for me and some of my friends, namely Siaw Tze, Ling Weng, Josephine and Michelle. I took my bath and my mum started to put the foundation on my face while waiting for my friends to arrive. At 4pm Conney and Ling Weng arrived at my doorstep. Conney did make-up herself. All of us did not plan to set our hair at any salon. A few minutes later Josephine arrived, followed by Siaw Tze and then Michelle. We dressed up and it was really fun to see us in nice elegant clothes. Haha… Josephine and Siaw Tze who rebond their hair earlier looked like mother and daughter as their dress were also black in colour. Conney wore a white dress while Ling Weng in black. Michelle’s RM399 dress was a purple one. While my mum was doing make-up for my friends, I received a call from Zhi Han requesting for my mum to help make-up for Penny as the people at the salon in SACC Mall did not have enough time. So Penny came back and climbed the many flight of stairs up to my room which was at the highest floor, looking totally exhausted. Christine, who was in her room at the 4th floor of the 6th entrance (mine at 2nd entrance) called for help for someone to zip up her dress. As I was totally ready and did not have anything else to do, I went there and helped her (not to zip up her dress but to help put glitters on her back). After that I went back to my room, sweating a little and rushing as it was already past 5.30pm. The buses would leave the hostel at 5.30pm and we had to hurry.

I dragged myself to the bus stop as it was my first time wearing high heels. I was surprised to see Zhi Han (I could not recognise her as she was wearing contact lenses) and the rest at the guard house. Apparently the guard would not let us out as we did not wear according to the so-called strict dress code – long sleeves and long pants/dress till the ankle. Though my dress was long, I was not allowed to go out as I did not have anything to cover my arms (till the wrist). The shawl alone was not enough. Just then our heroes appeared. Some guys came with coats in their hands, so we wore their coat (long enough to cover our arms till the wrist) and walked out of the gate to the bus stop. However my friends who wore knee-length dresses still were not allowed to go out. Michelle and I walked out with Chean Yeaw following behind. We stepped into the bus, which was the last bus going to the hotel and realised that it was already 6.30pm. We would be late, I thought. We anxiously waited for the rest of my friends who were ‘trapped’ by the guard. A while later, whisperings of ‘oh my god’ could be heard and I was shocked to see my friends in jackets and jeans while still wearing their dress on. So that was how they got pass the guard, in a terrible way… When they got up the bus all of us clapped and cheered. The bus driver started to drive and about an hour later we reached our destination due to the traffic congestion on the way there.

I kept wondering how would Siew Ting looked after she set her hair as I did not meet her since I got back to hostel in the afternoon. I spotted her as soon as I stepped into the 6-star hotel, and my, she really looked beautiful and matured like a princess. Ling Weng, Conney, Siaw Tze and Chean Ying went to the toilet to take off their jeans. The rest of us were busy taking photos. We registered our names and got a pencil and two booklets each. We went into the royal ballroom half an hour later and found our table. My table was table 8 at the right corner near to the dessert. The dinner was a buffet style. The function began at 8.30pm with the arrival of VIPs and an Indian dance by Arwin. She really danced well. After a few speeches we were motioned to get up and start taking food from the trays. Everyone was very hungry. Throughout the dinner there were some performances such as singing, video presentation, band performance and also a magic show which was a little bit boring. We also got our AUSMAT yearbook. There were two sessions of lucky draw but none of my tablemates got any prizes. I thought that my tablemates were the ‘liveliest’ of all as we kept taking photos and talking without paying much attention to the magic show. I like the video presentation made by Yeam Shin Yao and the song sang by AUSMAT Idol Jia Huei. There was even a catwalk by some lecturers! It was really fun to see them posed on stage. Hehe… it showed that our lecturers had their cute and funny side! Finally it was the announcement of the prom king and prom queen. A few guys and gals were nominated and asked to do a catwalk. The results were: Roger was the prom king and Yi Chin was the prom queen.

The dinner came to its end at about 1am. Everyone started to take more photos again, with lecturers, prom king and queen, and also on stage. We went back by the bus provided at 1.30am and reached our hostel at 2.30pm, totally sleepy and tired and suffering from leg-pain. Anyway I really enjoyed the dinner; it’s the most anticipated and most important activity in our AUSMAT life after all!