Sunday, July 22, 2007

His Majesty's Birthday Celebration @ Taman Jubilee (2007)


As mentioned earlier, I was given a task of guiding the kids in giving His Majesty a warm welcome by waving flags. Of course not only our schools, all schools (both secondary and primary) of Kuala Belait participated in it, forming a long stretch of pupils in various colors of uniform.

Arrived school at 6.50a.m, saw a lot of students hanging around at the waiting area already having some light breakfast, orange and packet soy bean. Seriously, what a disgusting combination!





It was a beautiful morning... for most people but not for me. I was hoping for a cloudy sky, but sadly.. it was scorching hot that day!



We arrived the padang at around 7.30am.. waited and waited and there comes another breakfast set (rice + sambal + a piece of meat + half an egg in a container and canned drink). Uhmm... we'd eaten that for the past whole week whenever there's a rehearsal actually. But still, having thousands of people performing, you can imagine how much were being spent on this event.

Had a couple of false alarm when we heard choppers flying above us and saw others flocked to the roadside and lined up properly. I felt quite lucky as I came very well-prepared, I had my 2-fold umbrella, sun block and a plastic fan (lacy fans are no used at all! No enough "power" and very fragile. My free plastic fan from Computex comes way handy) in my bag and ready to use anytime. Some more, I could always hide under any shelter available, and passed my umbrella to the girls and also my sun block.

The funny thing was... I only apply the sun block on my face and neglected my neck areas. When I went back home wanting to shower and saw myself naked on the mirror, I realized my upper chest was all red and sun-burned having the V-shape printed clearly.




Poor kids. Stayed under the hot sun and got all dehydrated and blacked out. Hope they're fine by now.

And by around 10a.m, Sultan arrived, along with his entourages.

(I got a video of his arrival, but it's not edited yet... I, was talking quite loud (as usual) and I find it embarrassing to post it up. You all want to see? Or hear?)

After the national anthem, everyone walked towards the park just to have another glimpse of His Royal Highness. Terror, I felt like the whole population of Kuala Belait were there. It was so crowded and I gradually got lost and wandered off from my students.

And so, I took the opportunity walked around and took some pictures.



Squeezed in and hide myself in a group of media people, but it was so obvious that I'm not a reporter or any sort of those because everyone has their huge DSLR with really long lens that make themselves looked professional. Some even brought along their tripod.

And me, I just had my tiny-weeny FX8 hanging around my neck.
Sigh...



Oh Oh! I forgot that I did saw Princess Nashwa. Recognized her immediately when she was walking towards my direction with her professional looking camera. And when she saw me, we smiled and talked a little. Very little in fact as s he was busy finding a nice spot to get some good shots. Was thinking if I could take a picture with her, but never mind la.. Maybe next time.



I gave up (taking pictures of His Majesty and the stage) pretty soon. Hai-yoh, my 5.0MP with 4x digital zoom is no fight compare to those scary one-eyed-monster.

Skills - don't have.
Good camera - don't have.

Stayed there also waste space nya. Might as well back off and let others have a better view for taking good shots and later steal their photos from their blogs.

And so I walked out from the media crowd and squeezed in to another one looking for my colleagues and students.



No pictures of them performing because it was too crowded. Could hardly stand properly with the people pushing behind me.


Random Photos







As I walked back to St's James School (for refreshments ready at 12 and get my feet rested), I saw His Majesty's Rolls-Royce parked at the road side. Of course, the kaypo and curious me must posed with it. Not something you see everyday okay.



(Spoil eh that 2 men on the left)



It might look as if I was leaning against the car, but actually my hand was in the mid air. I was just pretending. The driver was standing beside looking at me and warned everyone who wanted to get near to the car that we wouldn't want to scratch or dented it.

Rolls-Royce bor... I guess I can only afford the bolts of the tyres.

- And I'm a pair of shoes poorer. I overworked my shiny red heels and the left one decided to OPEN it's mouth and go on strike!

-_-"



* * * * * * * *

Lastly-


I sure hope that Belait is going to win, for the EIGHTH time!

11 comments:

Tina D said...

Hahaha, my colleague, from KB, and I want to see who will win this year. I'm hoping Brunei-Muara will take the crown, and he hopes for the same thing you are!

Heehee. ;)

Anonymous said...

Wah lucky you got a shot with the Rolls Royce :-) No need all those dslr, you take nice pictures also, its all in the perspective.

Ya, hope belait will win again.

Iwan said...

wah...
nice baju there!! heheheee!!

Looks like a grand celebration hor..

Nonnie King and the King..

hahahha!!

u mean the student who passed out due to the scorching hot sun? and its NORMAL?? hehe!!

and u got tanda tangan or not??

Anonymous said...

Woah nice photos of the event! You sounded like a professional photographer covering the event! And I love the way you present the whole thing using photo collages, since they save a lot of space (so that my thumb won't get sore from too much scrolling) and they deliver the same amount of visiual impact!

I must say that your photography skills have blown me off my feet! I love the photo with the blue sky and the photo of you and that majestic-looking car. Haha! And it hurts to see that all the kids are performing under such hot weather conditions! But it must be a very great experience to celebrate right?

Oh and not to forget you look so glamorous in that dress! Two thumbs up for wearing such a nice dress and braving against the sweltering tropical heat XD kudos to teacher Nonnie!

War186 said...

Lovely pictures you took with your FX8 lah. Maybe you should save up and get a DSLR camera in the future. ;)

And nice picture of you with the RR. :)

Nonnie King said...

Tina : Eight is an auspicious number for Chinese so yeah, I'll like KB to win for the eighth time.

Jewelle : You don't know, I was fighting for my turn to take that picture with most foreign labourers..

Credits to the good weather and sunny sky, else I doubt the pictures will look that great.

Nonnie King said...

Iwan : Nice baju? But it doesn't have any kisi-kisi or katok-katok with nice beads. Then I guess my auntie is a great tailor who cut nice baju.

Yeah... it's pretty normal to see student passed out because it was so hot and we had to stay under the sun for hours. There's even one secondary teacher pengsan during the rehearsal I heard.

Sad.. no tanda tangan..

Nonnie King said...

Teddy : Me? A professional photographer? Hahahahahaaa. I wish.

Know what, I learned the collage idea from you one. But measuring and position them in kinda troublesome for me. But the result looks not bad. Thanks for your idea.

That blue sky photo is also my favorite, never know my camera can did that shot so well. Stil... I wish I can take up some photography lesson and be/act more pro.

That dress is my usual attire for work actually. Well, I admit lah.. it looks slightly better than the rest. Still, a $10 kain can't look any better than this.

Nonnie King said...

Wardah : Before the camera, I'm forced to save up for a new LCD monitor, 4 tyres for my car and maybe a NDS just to pamper myself.

And oh ya, not to mention my one-year insurance premium....

So.. I guess I'm far far far away from the DSLR. And.. I don't have the skill yet.

Thanks. The RR is gorgeous!

thrumyeyes said...

nonie, nice shots and write up. if u need an slr i'm selling my compact slr Panasonic Lumix FZ50 for B$650 hahaha... tarus advert nie.

Nonnie King said...

Kantalensa : Wow. $650. But the thing is.. I don't know how to use a SLR...