the COCO tree: March 2009

Wow! It’s been 1 month of complete silence from me. I’ve been so busy with things around the office last month…leaving office only around 8pm – 9pm everyday and reaching home just in time to have my shower and sleep…didn’t have time for my baby and I’m sure he felt it too…lonely dinner nights, massaging me after all the body aches and making sure I have enough food and rest as well…OMG…it has been a very hectic month.

The most exciting event that I would like to share with you guys is the latest company annual dinner that took place on the 28th February 2009…yeah yeah it’s kinda weird that it’s in the second month of the year and not at the end or early of the year like all the other companies. Well, the thing is with working with a Japanese company, everything is just simply weird for some strange reasons…our financial year ends on the 20th February which means, our so called ‘New Year’ is celebrated only on the 20th February of each year and doing the annual dinner on the 28th of February means we are only weird in ‘your books’…hahahaha

Anyway, I was one of the committee member (I was coned by the way) for the Annual Dinner this year because they needed fresh ideas and most likely fresh blood to do all the slaving around and I volunteered because they needed some idea for a team performance – battle of the bands or some sort. I said ok in attending the meeting just because the person in charge was not sure of the idea and she asked me to explain it to the other committee members. I said ok. Well, there I was, in that meeting room…just waiting for a chance to explain what my idea was and all of a sudden, I AM ONE OF THE COMMITTEE – according to the meeting minutes. Well, since then, I was dragged into doing this and that and everything. Seriously, if I was not one of their staff…I would have been paid quite a fair deal for everything I have done.

Anyway, the idea of the battle of the bands was scarped when they decided that they would like to have something with an ‘open concept team performance’ since not everyone can form a band or even just simply sing without killing our ear drums… I was ok with the whole idea of having an open concept so that more people would be involved. Jeng jeng jeng…they needed one group from HR and who took part? Me and my lovely gang J it was a tough task to begin with and at that time, I seriously regretted opening my mouth in the first place.

There were 12 of us who represented HR and Finance and we decided to come out with a dance routine. OMG who’s great idea was that? It was crazy in getting the steps, we watched videos, dance CDs, you tube and MTVs to learn some steps but all those pro moves were too complicated for us…we had to make up steps and name them and make sure that everyone was able to do the step…if it’s too difficult, we would need to crack our brains for more new moves. I really salute those creative and brilliant choreographers around who do this for a living…I never did appreciate them until we had the experience of doing this crazy dance.

Anyway, since the ‘theme’ for the event was Golden Retro Night, we decided to come out with a compilation of retro songs. We went with – sister act (medley), staying alive, dancing queen, get your boogie down, and that’s the way I like it. It was a crazy mixture and the 7 minutes that we had was like a drilling 7 hours. We started practicing way in advance from the other teams and thank God we did because… (drum rolls) Can you hear the music at the background?? The crowd going wild and the winner goes to????...Jeng jeng jeng…The dynamites! That’s us J and you would not guess what our performance name is…Shhhh…Kaboom! Ken said it was Funny but appropriate… “…come on and sing along…We are the champions, my friend…and we will keep on fighting till the end…dum dum dum…” and the crowd still goes wild……..WOOOOWHOOOO!!!

To tell you the truth, just before I was on stage…I wished I didn’t submit those names. What if we screw up? What if we did not blow people’s minds with our performance and it was a total mess? OMG…It’s too late to turn back time now…before I knew it, Sarimah Ibrahim our emcee was already calling us on stage. The tension was rising, we need to be perfect…here goes nothing…and the music started…I remembered what Ken told me when I told him that I was super nervous…and those were the only words that was repeating in my head… “Let the music take control” oh, and my brain was also reminding me to breath, smile and look in front!

Thank god they dimmed the lights on the gigantic hall – Sunway main ball room. There were about 1,200 people around and I was not able to see any of them because 1st, it was dark and 2nd, thank God for smoke machines! The cool thing about the smoke machine is that, when you are looking against the dark, you basically only see the smoke…but for the audience, they are able to see us and occasionally the smoke.

I haven’t performed any dance or even been on stage for the longest time ever and even though those 7 minutes was soooooo long during our rehearsals, on stage it was a total opposite. I actually enjoyed every second I was on that stage…with my crazy wig and costumes…it was a wonderful experience and I would not mind doing it again. The thing is, we did not notice that we were soooo ready that we were freaking out in the changing room…one of the girls were so stressed up that she actually got her period even before her due date…poor girl. Watching the video on the performance, we were close to perfect! I could not believe the fact that we were damn good. We were so synchronized!! I promise you that have never happened during our rehearsal and that was the same reason we freaked out in the first place.

Anyway, to cut the story short…it was a very nice and exciting night. One of the best annual dinner I’ve ever attended. The food, the activity, the people, the PERFORMANCE! It was all good.

Last but not least, I would like to thank the 11 jokers who was in the group performance; Faril, Frodo, Shafa, Esha, Faisal, Ikbal, Faisul, Azmil, Siti, Ain and last but not least, my partner- Din. Thanks for putting up with my weird dance steps and that you guys did not give up half way even though we know that we wanted to…

This is for the dynamites…enjoy!

My sisters from different parents - Faril, Me and Joyce