Club Meeting on 4th May 2006

Please be informed that our next club meeting is on the 4h of May 2006 (Thursday) at Rtn Chew's office (Klang) at 8.00pm.

Our Speaker for the meeting is none other than our very own Advisor, IPP Mike. IPP Mike will share with us a talk titled "Women in Rotary" and it shall be informative and interesting.

So girls, women, aunties, female related creatures and advocates of women rights, don't miss it! Mark it on your diary now! Thank you : )

p/s: any guest who wants to join the meeting, please contact me at harnniann_toh@yahoo.co.uk

Life goes on...

Contributed by Rtr Sooling

A little boy was born in 1963, lived in a small town called Kapar. His mother passed away because of lung cancer when his was 18 years old. At that point of time, he thought that without his mother his life would stop, everything would go wrong. But the next day he realized that the sun still shines, the world still runs, with or without his beloved mother.

He realized the world still goes on even though something bad happened to his family. Then this young man started his working life as an office boy in the legal firm. That time his job was just buying coffee for his boss, doing typist job, and sending letters to clients, he never thought of a very bright future, cars, money, own career… (but one thing good about him is he likes to ask for extra work, normally he will disturb those clerical staff when he finished his job because he wanted to learn new things other than his job scope).

For your information, for professionals, even after you have graduated, you still have to work in a related field to train yourself and put your theory into a practice. Since the young man worked in a legal firm, he had a lot of opportunity to meet those junior lawyers. This young man taught those young lawyers all the basic office paper works.

Then one day, suddenly one lawyer asked him: “why don’t you study law and in future you can become a lawyer just like us?” when the lawyer asked this question, this man already worked in the firm for more than ten years. Just imagine, a person worked for ten years since after his high school, then suddenly asked him to study again.

But he took the challenge, and he went to study. He worked full time and study as a part time student. In between, this man has met a beautiful lady and he got married. This man married when he was around 28. Finally, this man came to his final paper and he needed to complete his course by going to United Kingdom. The problem came: the man have financial problem. He planned to sell whatever property they have just to make sure he and his wife have enough money for them stay in United Kingdom so that the man can concentrate in his study. Unfortunately, even though this young couple successfully entered United Kingdom, his wife has to work.

After two years, this man graduated. They came back to their own country. Now, this man has his own career, his own law office, three children and he lives happily with his family. This man motto is whatever things happen around you, life still goes on.

This man is none other than our PP Eric Yap from Rotary Club of Port Klang, the boss of our president.

Good Bye, Rtr Lloyd!

Contributed by President Toh Harnniann

This evening, Rtr Lloyd (pic) will be flying to the States to pack and wrap up his stuffs left over there. In another words, our club will have to endure his absence for the next few weeks or maybe even a month.

Lloyd has just joined us as guest in the month of February and was inducted as a rotaractor only on 2nd March 2006. Though his “rotaract life” is rather short, he has made significant impact on our club, other clubs and to certain extent, the District.

He is such a energetic and enthusiastic young man with bottomless ideas and creativities. His participation in our club has greatly lowered down our club’s average age, not biological age but in terms of energy, strength, and the urge to break the barrier and have fun.

Lloyd always complains that his president never gave him compliment or said nice things about him. He was upset that the president had always liked to make fun out of him (though he seemed to enjoy being the subject matter of the joke). Well, then this article shall serve as little compensation for the president’s omission.

Lloyd, you need no further public praises from your president or any other members for we all know in our heart that you have contributed extensively and tremendously towards the growing of our club.

How can we imagine not having you as our member for the past few months? How can we discount the fact that it was you who had motivated other people to go swimming, golfing etc? Your absence will definitely be felt immediately once we notice that from this evening onwards, no one else will call us out at night or suddenly appear in front of our house to kidnap us to the swimming pool or driving range.

I am not too good in my Malay but since PE Sunil of RAC UTP had made a pantun in his speech during recently concluded DRA 06/07, I will risk embarrassing myself by following suit. Here is how it sounds:-

Sabun jatuh semasa mandi tidak lagi dipikat
Lembu tua mati kerana masih nak minum susu
Berjuta rindu sampaikan ke Amerika Syarikat
Pulanglah dengan selamat “An Ta” baik ku

Take care, my good “An Ta” (brother in Mongolian)! We wish you safe journey and early return for there are still many things we can do together!

Welcome fellow Rotaractors of RAC Kowloon Northwest!

Contributed by Rtr Vivien Kuah

The visit from our fellow Rotaractors from Hong Kong to our humble town of Klang on Tuesday night (18.04.06) was short but certainly eventful. Although we were not their host Club, (RAC Subang was kindly hosting them), I do hope that we have done our best to make them comfortable and happy during their short outing to Klang that evening!

At 8pm, President Harley of RAC Subang reached Klang with a car full of friendly smiling friends from Hong Kong. Meet our 4 new friends, Rtrs Angus, Alvin, Kwan and Shari from the Rotaract Club of Kowloon Northwest! They had been here for 5 days already, in which President Harley had brought them around KL, Ipoh and Malacca and this was their 2nd last day in Malaysia before flying back to HK the next night. Attending from our club were Rtrs Eng Tee, Timmy, Lloyd, Soo Ling, Feldman, Diana, Shawn, myself and our President Toh. Rtr Fei Lin of RAC Shah Alam was present along with President Ping Ling of RAC Bandar Sunway as well.

Our first destination? Bah Kut Teh (BKT) dinner session of course!!! How can we have visitors come to Klang and not try our very famous BKT? Anyway, our dear guests tasted our BKT, soup and dry as well, but we seemed to have got carried away and ordered a bit too much. We had our photography session and exchanging of bannerettes after everyone’s stomach was filled and headed off to our 2nd destination of the night… Karaoke!

People from outside would have thought our room was filled with professional singers! Ok, maybe I’ve exaggerated it a little, but there were certainly a few talented singers that night, blaring out their vocals and entertaining the rest. Our guests from HK were good and sporting singers as well and surprisingly liked songs from our local singers Michael Wong (Guang Liang) and Fish Leong. Our karaoke session ended at 11.30pm with a little Souvenir-giving Session by our President Toh, who presented our guests with a few local Malaysian products such as Tongkat Ali Coffee, Dodol, as well as Bah Kut Teh herbs packs for them to bring back to HK to share with their family and friends.

You’d think this was the end of our night, but no….how can we possibly end the night so early even though most of us had to wake up early the next morning for work?

Food was in our minds again, and this time, we headed for another Malaysian specialty – the Mamak food stall. Once there, President Harley was playing the good host again and ordered some Satay and Tandoori chicken for our guests, which we were informed by President Harley that they enjoyed eating previously. Since this was to be their last night in Malaysia, we thought that they should have these foods again before returning to HK. I left the mamak around 12.30am together with my brother P.E. Feldman, leaving the group still enjoying their food and drinks (they left at 1.30am!), but not before I said my goodbyes and wished our fellow guests a good day ahead.

We hope to see you all again!

Breaking the 1000 barrier

Contributed by President Toh Harnniann

Dear supportive readers of this blog, if you notice the sitemeter on the sidebar, you would have noticed that we have breached the barrier of 1000 hits a couple of days ago.

I started the sitemeter on 7th March 2006, which means within a short period of slightly more than a month, we have achieved 1000 hits.

The idea of this blog was a decision of a few seconds. On 27th January this year, while browsing through other blogs it just occurred to me that we should have our own blog where we can share ideas and opinions, further promote the habit of writing among the members which is a skill required in many fields of profession.

I would like to thank all the contributors of this wonderful blog and of course the faithful visitors of this blog. Without your constant support, this blog would have collapsed long ago. It was you who made this blog vibrant and alive and full of energy and strong determination to strive for further improvement.

I sincerely hope that you have been entertained or inspired or have learned from the articles published here.

As we look forward to the next 1000 hits and more, let us all work together towards the betterment and improvement of this blog: let it be the intellectual wealth of our club.

Once again, thank you very much.

Screw it, Let’s do it

Contributed by President Toh Harnniann

It was a wonderful way to spend your weekend by reading book that will potentially change the course of your life. Book is a powerful tool that has the capability to motivate and inspire when you are going no where.

Last Sunday Engtee and I went to Bukit Raja Shopping Mall. She wanted to buy some accessories and I was there as a means to an end. But I grabbed the opportunity to flip through books at the bookstores.

I wanted to buy a book written by a local entrepreneur titled “Never Say I Assume”. But they don’t have paperback and hardcover was too expensive. So I randomly picked a book which cover appealed most to me. It was a thin book about 100 pages titled “Screw it, Let’s do it: Lessons in Life” by Sir Richard Branson. If you don’t know who he is, Richard Branson is a flamboyant British billionaire that has built his company (Virgin) into one of the world's biggest brands. He is brash and isn't afraid to take risks.

While standing there waiting for Engtee to finish her quest for more accessories, I started reading it. Even the “Introduction” completely caught my focus and I could not stop reading. 15 minutes later Engtee had finished her shopping and we had to rush to school to meet my little brother, I decided to buy the book and finish it at home. At RM19.99 (RM17.00 to be exact after discount by using Popular Card), I could not ask for more.

I am in the midst of taking a big sudden turn in life but something unknown is pulling me back. Every time I think I am ready and brave enough to take the first step out, there will always be some little noise telling me to think twice. Have you ever experienced the same thing? Like you know what you are doing now is not what you want or will never lead to your dreams but nevertheless you are just too afraid to make changes?

It took me just hours to finish that book but greatness of a book is not judged by the hours you spend on it. After reading it, well, I guess I have confirmed what I need to do. Screw it just do it! That shall be my motto for now whenever I feel fear or uncertainty.

I strongly recommend my friends who need motivation and encouragement to go and search for this wonderful book. If you are feeling lost right now, remember this passage below:-

“A journey of a thousand miles starts with that first step. If you look ahead to the end, and all the weary miles between, with all the dangers you might face, you might never take that first step. And whatever it is you want to achieve in life, if you don’t make the effort, you won’t reach your goal. So take that first step. There will be many challenges. You might get knocked back—but in the end, you will make it.”

“Whatever your goal is you will never succeed unless you let go of your fears and fly.”

Richard Branson

Our First Outdoor Fellowship 11th April 2006

Contributed by PN Timmy

My alarm clock rang at 6:30 a.m. Monday? Nope, it was a public holiday. What got into me? Well, there was this Rotaract fellowship I got to attend early in the morning. It was an outdoor fellowship organized by our Fellowship Manager Rtr Lloyd Cheam (yeah, the guy in the famous thumb-up picture).

When I stepped out from my house in my exercise outfit, I saw the cloudy sky and some lightning. It was raining last night and it seemed like it is going rain again pretty soon. Okay, maybe we won’t have any outdoor fellowship this morning afterall. Anyway, President Toh, little Jay Chow (President Toh’s brother), Lloyd and I made it to the field and started our preparations before the arrival of other members.

The sky may look cloudy but the good thing is, we got ourselves a spacious and not-so-wet field, I told myself. Within seconds, rain drops keep falling on my face… me and my big mouth! I spoke too soon. Anyway, the preparations went on, and fortunately, the rain stopped and the other members arrived. We have ourselves a dodgeball court made from raffia strings and some botanic stones (“borrowed” from Lloyd’s mom garden). We have with us nine members and six guests that morning: a total of fifteen non-sleepy faces.

After a briefing from Lloyd, we started the first game: dodgeball. As what the name suggested, one team will be stationed in a rectangular area, surrounded by the opposing team. The team situated inside the box will try to dodge the ball as long as possible while the opposing team needs to hit as many “sitting ducks” as possible. Each of us were assigned to a group randomly and got our fair chance of being hit and hitting others using a 10cm diameter not-so-bouncy “ball” made from old newspapers. Big guys like Bom had a good time and the hitting and dodging proved too easy for him. I think he hardly sweats. As expected, his team cruised to victory, it was a breeze.

We proceed to our next game Cross-the-Line. In this game, one team will be the “stopping” team with its members scattered and standing on four straight lines. The objective for the “advancing team” will be crossing the lines without being touched by the “stopping” team. It was something like dodgeball, only without the ball. Or maybe I should say “dodge-hands”.

The third and last game was simply a chasing game, where running is only allowed on the lines. I must admit that these games are kid’s games, and I believe there’s still a child inside each of us; so I think everyone still enjoyed the games (even though I was on the losing side). Think again, when was the last time I had such games with a bunch of grown ups?

The games ended and we headed for our breakfast. (Eng Tee was nice enough to drop by to say hi even if she’s busy with baby-sitting before we left the field) I know there’re lots and lots of Malaysian food to choose from but luckily for Klang people, if you are bringing non-Muslim or non-vegetarian friends for food in Klang, the choice is simple: Bah-Kut-Teh (stewed pork served with Chinese tea, is that what you call it in English?) The restaurant in Taman Rasnah was crowded (as usual) but we managed to find ourselves two tables. The breakfast was pretty long as we exchanged conversations while sipping Chinese tea. I think it has turned out to be a brunch. Still not content with the day, we decided to extend the fellowship by going to Feldman and Diana’s place for a movie.

Before that, Lloyd was kind enough to spare his house’s bathrooms as “public” bathrooms by allowing the guests to shower there.

We met up in Feldman’s place for a movie. Final Destination 3 was our initial choice but we ended up watching “A 40-year old Virgin” (don’t ask me what’s with the extreme choice). Anyway we did enjoy the funny movie (except 14-year old little Jay Chow who dozed off during the movie). We decided not to call it a day yet and when Malaysians are bore, they makan (eat!). So we drive to Eng Ann, to get some food from the food stalls at the roadsides.

The fellowship has finally come to an end. We went back with a full stomach and even if it’s was an outdoor activity which should make us fitter, it actually makes us fatter! But nobody’s complaining.

Hey Lloyd, good job! When are we going to have another food, err.. I mean outdoor fellowship? Looking forward to it!

Club Meeting on 20th April 2006

Please be informed that our next club meeting is on the 20th April 2006 at Rtn Chew's office (Klang) at 8.00pm.

Our Speaker for the meeting is our President's boss who is also a Rotarian of our sponsoring club, PP Eric Yap. PP Eric Yap has graciously agreed to share with us briefly on his life experience and also his recent "sudden turn".

It shall be interesting and don't miss it! Mark it on your diary now! Thank you : )

p/s: any guest who wants to join the meeting, please contact me at harnniann_toh@yahoo.co.uk

The Perfect Host, Rotary Club of Port Klang.

Contributed by Rtr Lloyd Cheam

Weekend approaches in a usual path, yet, it has been quite a remarkable weekend for us.

After getting off from work, I could not help remembering that some of my friends are coming over to my place tonight. I make a trip to Ocean Market nearby, for a little grocery shopping, making sure there is enough supply at home. We have planned for a movie night in my house. Of course, our true intention is to save time from picking each and everyone from their house. Nonetheless, in proceeding to our movie night, most of us were knocked out even before we get to the second disc of the movie. The girls have their own room and the boys are sharing the same bed in my room. Since we practiced extraordinary discipline and we managed to get up very early on the big day. It is in fact, the 72nd Annual Rotary District 3300 Assembly held in Holiday Villa, Subang and this time it is hosted by our sponsoring club, Rotary Club of Port Klang and we are honored and privileged to be invited to play the role of Flag Bearers!

At around 5:30am on 8th April 2006, pretty much everyone has gotten up for brush up. All of us, in the similar outfit, white long sleeve and collar shirt with black pant and shoes, (or put it in simple, the outfit of waiters and waitresses) head out of the house 30 minutes later. We picked up Rtr Fei Lin (of RAC Shah Alam), whom is nice enough to give a helping hand. Hui Hui, Soo Ling and Timmy are the rest in my truck. In the mean time, President Harnniann has picked up Vivien and Edmund from their house. Much to releasing the stress for IPP Michael, our dear advisor who has been dead worried about this occasion, we made it to Holiday Villa right on time. Zee Kin and his friends, Guan You, Wen Harn, Chun Yen, our Nanthini and Ban Fong and our dearly President Harley (of RAC Subang) had also made their way to the hall soon after our arrival.

At 7am, we begin to practice the steps and rhythms of the flag bearing process, with the vest and white glove on. Seriously speaking, (given we all look alike) that crosses my mind for a moment that we are back in the high school again! President has also kindly brought out the bananas that we bought from Tesco for everyone. Banana = energy, something I have learned from my days in high school. It does somehow help out given that we have postponed our breakfast until after the whole thing. Even though many still doubt that the bananas is a joke.

Plenty thanks to PP Sangars who co-ordinates and makes it clear to us about the ‘what to do’ and ‘when to do’. The event starts at 9am and quite to my astonishment, we actually managed to pull it through without having anyone falling off from the stage or stepping on others’ tail. Everything looks perfectly in order and excellently presentable, besides having our President Harnniann insisting that I cannot walk straight and no matter how hard I have tried it is still a hip hop walk.

I cannot tell exactly how everyone felt when walking up to the central stage, holding up the particular flag with hundred pairs of eyes looking and spotlights shooting at them. Nervous? Thrilled? Ecstatic? Scare the shit out of it? Personally, I really feel proud to be part of it. I am glad that we have done a great job at such an important occasion for the Rotarians and making them feel proud of us too. Just like how parents feel proud of their kids.

The whole thing lasts only for about twenty to thirty minutes and we are free to go right afterwards. IPP Michael has graciously offered us breakfast. We walk a short distance from Holiday Villa to a nearby restaurant for our breakfast, which we all had a great chat. Yes, it is so rare that we could obtain such an opportunity to gather together. The small walk in Holiday Villa is short but the experience will forever leave a footprint in our life.

The Flag Bearers

How wonderful if I’d joined their trip too…

Contributed by Rtr Sooling

During our last meeting on 6th April 2006 (Thursday) President Toh graciously shared with us his experience where he traveled over to Taiwan with another six rotaractors. They are from RAC Port Klang Centennial (President Toh and Engtee), RAC Subang (President Harley, IPP Wai Ling), RAC Shah Alam (Fei Lin) and RAC Ipoh (Sheau Wei and Joe).

President Toh told us that the day when they arrived in Taiwan airport, the Taiwanese rotaractors were already waiting in arrival hall and prepared to give them a warm welcome. They came in a big group to welcome our rotaractors. I can imagine how they felt after a few hours flight… touching !!! : )

Taiwanese friends were so kind and friendly; they have spent their precious time bringing our rotaractors to visit here and there. I heard from President Toh, some Taiwanese friends purposely applied leaves from their company just because they wanted to bring our rotaractors to tour Taiwan.

Everybody knows that Taiwan is famous with their foods, they have a lot of delicious food. I think people will no reject any delicious food. (especially Taiwan’s food). According to president Toh, every time after they visit a place, the Taiwanese friends will bring them ‘makan’ (eat). Every meals with at least six to seven dishes, and they took more than three meals a day (so,… have you guys checked your weight after coming back from Taiwan, hahaha …… ~(^@^)~ )

Another thing, Taiwanese friends respect their president very much. Any instructions from their president will surely followed by the members without any question. For this trip their president has passed down orders, that was to make sure everyday our rotaractors played until mid night and waked up very early in the morning. The Taiwanese friends did it very well, our rotaractors nearly become pandas after the trip.

Hehe……

Taking the Sudden Turn vs Staying in the Comfort Zone

Contributed by President Toh Harnniann

I enjoy my current lifestyle very much. I earn a decent living by doing works which I have little complaint about. I have a lot of free time and I think I spend them wisely and fruitfully by mixing with our favourite friends or busying with club’s activities. I am so content with my life!

Little did I realise that not having any problem in life will eventually turn out to be the greatest problem of my life. It is undisputable evidence that I have stayed in my comfort zone for too long! So I decided to come clean this time and face the truth. Yeah, truth does hurt.

When I first joined legal practice in 2002 I found almost everything stressful: seeing a client was stressful; drafting a simple letter was stressful; making a phone call to demand for money was stressful. As I learned bits by bits about this profession, in due course I took those initially seemed so stressful tasks so stress-freely. Then I unwittingly started to relax myself and in doing so I killed my fighting spirit chronically. I started to dislike things that require much effort or involve loads of difficulty. I prefer short distance to long distance; smooth driving to heavy traffic jam; cool and comfortable working environment to serving a legal notice under the hot sun. Laziness soon runs into my blood and poisons every cell of mine.

Sound terrible doesn’t it? But don’t we all who had stayed too long in our own comfort zone suffer this kind of disease? When we obtained our driving license, we prefer to drive to the mini market just steps away from our house even though we had no problem walking there earlier. Why? Because we had stopped pushing ourselves once we fell into the comfort zone and are too afraid of the uncertainties that lie outside of it.

There’s a saying, “taking break is to enable one to walk farther”. I am a strong believer in this but I have become too strong a believer that I have habitually used that as excuse whenever I feel like not doing anything or going anywhere. I am being surprisingly honest here.

How far can we go? Am I pushing myself too hard or have I pushed myself at all? It’s all in our mind. We know the answer.

The Filming of a TV Commercial

Contributed by Rtr Vivien Kuah

Upon request by our beloved president, I have decided to write a little about my job while working in an advertising agency. This article might give a little insight to those of you who have no idea at all how a TV commercial (TVC) is done. The process might vary to different agencies and TVCs, but the below is an account of my experience in my job.

Upon successful persuasion and presentation of our advertising campaign, the agency will develop creatives (or storyboard in the case of a TVC) to be presented to the client for approval. Usually, there would be several rounds of revisions or new creatives before we have total approval and satisfaction from our client and then we will proceed to contact several production houses (recommended by our creative/art director of the project) to pitch for the job.

The agency storyboard will be given to the production houses and they will be asked to provide costings and director's treatment for the ad to us. We will then choose the production house with the best director that we feel is suitable for that particular ad together upon approval of the costings from our client.

Once the production house and director is selected, we will hold pre-production meetings with the producer and director to discuss about how we want the ad to be as well as what effects (computer graphics, etc.) are best to bring out the message of the ad. Changes or effects discussed will be reflected in shooting boards or sample shots by the director to be approved.

Locations setting will also be discussed as well as the talents (models) for the ad, their wardrobe, etc. After 2 pre-pro meetings with production house, the final pre-pro will be held together with the client to show them everything we've discussed in the earlier pre-pros to seek their approval.

Upon final discussions and revisions, we will proceed to the wardrobe fitting session, where we'll meet the talents and choose their dressing for the commercial.

Then, comes the day of the shooting. Shooting normally lasts at least a day, depending on the amount of locations needed to be shot for the ad. My experience so far was 1 full day of shooting, all in just 1 location only. We started shooting at 9am and finished at 11pm. There were about 25 scenes that we had to shoot and each scene took at least 6 takes. Totally exhausting!

We will then have an Offline session, where the rough shots will be arranged according to how they should appear in the ad without any touch up and computer effects for our aproval of the flow of the ad.

This will be followed by several CG (stands for Cine Graph if I'm not mistaken) Reviews where the computer effects are added in and the shots are touched up. Also needed would be the V/O (Voice Over) Recordings which will be done in a studio to match with the final compiled ad. After everything is thought to be finalised, we will have an online meeting, where the final outcome of the ad will be reviewed. If everything goes well, the ad can then be transferred into Digital Betacams and delivered to the TV stations to be aired.

P.S:
The above proceedings have of course been simplified and shortened, and is reflected in the most ideal of situatuions, where the client has total agreement with the opinions of the agency and production house, and the production house understands totally the 'feel' and requirements that the agency want out of the ad.

Another thing to bear in mind as well is that all these procedures and revisions have to be done within a very limited time frame, sometimes only of around 1 month to complete the whole TVC.

Activities for May

Dear Rotaractors & Guests,

I am pleased to announce that our Board had recently planned out a series of activities for the month of May 2006 and they are as follows:-

3rd May: Board Meeting

4th May: Club Meeting @ Uncle Chew's place @ 8.00pm

12th to 14th May: Club Assembly @ Port Dickson (We shall have club meeting, incoming board meeting as well. Have Fun!)

27th May: Fellowship Activity (to be finalised by Fellowship Manager, Rtr Lloyd Cheam)

Members and Guests kindly take note of the above dates. It is definitely a relatively relaxing month hope to see you in these exciting activities!!

Club Assembly 12th to 14th May 2006

Contributed by PE Feldman

Dear beloved members. Time flew fast and it has nearly reached a year since we officially served as a Rotaractor. After a hard-served year, the club would like to invite each and every member to our own club Assembly cum Breakaway! The club has agreed to subsidise for a 3-day 2-night stay in Port Dickson.

The details are as below:-

Venue: Port Dickson
Date: 12-14th May 2006 (Fri-Sun, Fri Wesak Day)
Departing Time: 9am
Meeting venue: Berkley Corner, Berkeley
Cost: RM100 inclusive of accomodation, F&B, transportation.

This breakaway will guaranteed to be a relaxing one with 2 apartments with 2 bedrooms each. Some activities planned include barbeque dinner, teambuilding games and fun at the beachside. It will be well worth of your money and your time, we assureyou all. So, are you game???

Fellow members, please replystating whether you're coming or not at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rotaractpklg/polls

Poll closes 20th April. Guests are invited but on availability basis (1st come 1st served)! Do not miss the fun!

Taiwan Story: The Hot Spring

Contributed by President Toh Harnniann

It was meant to be a relaxing activity. There should not be any sound of screaming yelling or mourning. But those sound were everywhere.

We were told to bring swimming trunks or swimming suits to Taiwan as the Rotaractors of District 3500 had arranged a hot spring bath for us. (I was half relieved and half disappointed with the idea that there would not be any nude scene in the hot spring though).

It was scheduled on the very last day of our visit to Taiwan. How appropriate could that be? After 5 days ordeal of critical deprivation of sleep and severe exhaustion, a nice hot spring bath could not have sounded better.

When we reached there the air temperature was about 10 to 15 degree Celsius which would definitely freeze a naked body. After we got changed, we headed straight to the hot spring pool almost bare naked except the swimming trunks. The cold air almost killed me but our Taiwanese friends comforted me by saying that everything would be alright once we jumped into the hot pool. I did believe them.

The hot pool was 44 degree Celsius and I almost went into shock once my whole body was in the water. My heart felt terrible pain it nearly quitted on me. I stayed submerged in the boiling hot water, trying very hard to adapt to the sudden temperature change. Once I was slowly winning the battle with the hot water, our Taiwanese friends told us it was time to go into the cold water. What?! Have I heard you wrongly?

Like jumping into the hot pool was bad enough, wait till you try the cold one. It was freezing cold. But since everyone (including the ladies) slowly one by one gone into the cold pool, I was too macho to call it a quit. So I did what I had to do.

I stepped into the freezing cold water, I immediately felt a sensation that I will never forget. It was like millions of small needles poking into my skin. I went deeper but I stopped once the water level reached my waist: that was all a man could take at a time. I pulled myself out from the cold pool and I made a silly and just about fatal mistake: I jumped into the hot pool again thinking it will warm me up. But I felt worse.

I suddenly remembered how they cooked Hainanese Chicken Rice: repeatedly hot boil the chicken for few minutes then soak the chicken with cold water. My body was treated like raw chicken meat that day.

Be that as it may, my Taiwanese friends, I am not complaining. I know that was the way it supposed to be. It was a great experience for me who had to constantly endure the equatorial burning hot sun. I could not imagine anyone in Malaysia would want to jump into a pool of 44 degree Celsius after one whole day burning under the merciless sun. We have had our fair share of HOT POOL.

Club Meeting on 6th April 2006

Please be informed that our next club meeting is on the 6th April 2006 at Rtn Chew's office (Klang) at 8.00pm.
Our Speaker for the meeting is none other than our very own President Toh Harnniann. He will share with us his recent trip to District 3500 Taiwan by pictures presentation. (Part of his wonderful experience had been written down and posted in this blog).

Don't miss it! Mark it on your diary now! Thank you : )

p/s: any guest who wants to join the meeting, please contact harnniann_toh@yahoo.co.uk

For those who do not know how to get to our meeting place, please follow the map below:- see ya there!

I miss you so much... District 3500

Contributed by President Toh Harnniann

Imagine this: two groups of total strangers, they never met, they knew little about each others and they live more than 3000 kilometer apart but when they met, they embraced each others like long lost friends: all in the name and spirit of ROTARACT!

How unbelievable was that?!

When our club was chartered last year, I saw Rotaract as going for fellowship every 2 weeks. Later when we visited RAC Pudu, to me Rotaract equals to meeting new friends from another club. When we took part in the District Rotaract Assembly last July, Rotaract equals to mingling with 16 rotaract clubs in the district. But after visiting District 3500 Taiwan, my perception about Rotaract had been greatly widened. Rotaract now is about meeting rotaractors around the globe!

Rotaractors of District 3500 are simply awesome! They have performed their role as host so perfectly well that I doubt anyone would find any blemish. Every minute detail had been meticulously looked into. They are so amazingly passionate, caring and friendly. We were like babies who need not worry about a thing except concentrating on sightseeing, playing and eating.

During our presence in Taiwan, these Rotaractors of District 3500 painstakingly took turn to accompany and entertain us. They do not have long annual leaves like Malaysia. They only have 7 days annual leave and some took 5 days leave just to keep us companied and make sure we are safe and happy. Each day our schedule dragged into the wee hours, and these rotaractors had only few hours to sleep despite having to work the next day.

Like any great vacation, time flies like arrows. On 30th March 2006, it was time to say good bye. Though rationally I knew I had to hop into the airplane and go home, I found myself walking extremely slow towards the boarding gate, attempting to savor those very last moments.

It is unbearably cruel that now I am writing this blog in Malaysia while missing my friends badly in Taiwan. When can we meet again? Have faith mate.