Dinner with Phua Chu Kang

My gosh… Oct 15, 2007 will always stay in our heart forever. Some of us enjoyed the variety of food that consist mostly of seafood, live performances from International Music House (IMH) and not to forget, Aaron get his face artistically ‘lipsticked’ by Selina. The ending of the dinner was a superb one…

Before we go there, let’s check out what’s the dinner for…

Throughout the last few years, St. Joseph Parish Council has plans to build a HOPE (Home Of Peace) to house the needy like disabled, old and poor. To achieve this goal, cash is needed.

Various fundraising have been held. Besides that, a lot of may-god-bless-them donors donated various amounts of cash to support this cause. Currently, they have around RM1,800,000+ in their bank account. This amount is more than sufficient to build HOPE. So, the dinner is especially dedicated to everyone who contributed in HOPE and also to introduce HOPE’s vision to the public,

Actually, Aunt Florence got us a VIP table for 10 people. We love free food and Phua Chu Kang so it was a chance not to be missed.

So, we hitched a ride in Carl’s van. Aaron had a traumatic experience when that very same van broke down and he had to push the van in front of St. Theresa’s schoolgirls who were marching in that area. Tough luck mate…

Anyways, back to the story. We had to wait at the lobby for a while for Aunt Florence with our VIP tickets.. I repeat… VIP tickets!!!!!

The dinner was held at Crowne Plaza’s 3^rd Floor. It was an extravagant hotel I must say. Everything was so shiny and clean and sparkly and nice and beautiful.

We took our sits on table 9. It is just about 10 feet from the main stage. So, some of us were expecting to see Phua Chu Kang… Well, not that fast…

The waiters and waitress were very kind and polite. There’s this little boy who was much younger than any of us but handled the dishes like a pro.

The first event was the pride of all Blessed Sacrament Church. Our very own Olivia, Alex and Christine sang LIVE!!!!!!!! Their voice were angelic, what can you expect from someone trained by Aunt Florida herself… *hint hint*

Then, cute cute cute cute super cute kids around Form 1 and younger performed… Arrggh… I love cute stuff… There were so cute… Alex was with them and she fitted really well. Congrats!!!! I got to give a lot of credit to those kids… I can’t even sing Silent Night properly. ^^

Then, we were shown two videos. One from Archibishop John Ha himself and the other was a video about the building of HOPE. There were three big projector screens hung on one side of the hall. They really spent a lot on this stuff…

After that, we were treated to a boy band. Once upon a time, the world knew about El Divo.

Now, Kuching has El Nino!!! No no… nothing too hot… ^^ There were four men singing El Divo songs. If I would like to compare, I would be very bias so I won’t. Their voices filled the whole hall with awe, while some of us continued on munching our prawns…

Then, we had a performance by Michelle Wong. Sorry about the bad photo. Didn’t have the guts to get a better angle that time… ^^ She played her flute. It was fast at first but slowly becomes slower to suit our quest on finishing our bayam.

She played kinda long… So, we had time to have fun with our cameras…

A Chinese girl was introduced shortly after our photo shoot by the name of Josephine. She sang a Chinese song and wore a white cheongsam. Nice song although I don’t understand anything.

Then, the commentator, Alvin, stated that El Nino was for the ladies. Now, it’s for the guys. A group of ladies came on stage. They had super cute hats and they moved quite amusingly… to me… Then, some male musicians joined in and they plucked their fingers to the beat and sang a song that I had forgotten. SoorrryYY!!!

Then, there was this guy, Adrian!

He’s Adrian Lim.

I figured he must be some guy. He came in a unique way, from the back of the hall. How many times has we seen that already?? He sang three songs and it was really fun to hear him sing. He always sing with a happy smile on his face.

Next is an instrumental performance. Violins are used to substitute the traditional sape. Anyways, it was a cool performance.

Then, Reverend Father Albert was invited to go on stage to give a speech. Here’s a little story I took from his speech.

“The Dollar Notes”

-Rev. Fr. Albert

Note: Not entirely the same version as that night

In a purse, there was a few dollar notes. A fifty dollars note said that he’s being doing really well. We went to hotels and airports, all the high-class places. Life was really good for it…

Then, it asked the 10 dollars note where it had been. It said that life was good for it too. It went to Parkson and Tun Jugah, all the nice shopping complexes in Kuching. Then, it asked the 5 dollars note where it had been.

For the 5 dollars note, it had been at Thompson’s Corner, Kopi-O shops, all the food courts in Kuching. Life was fairly good…

Finally, the one dollar note was asked the same question as the others. The one dollar note said that its life has been very holy. So far, it had only gone to churches in Kuching.

So, that means that we tend to give small change during mass collections. This is not wrong but what is the needs of life compared to our spiritual needs? Collections during mass has never had a bar for everyone to par but this is the fact of modern Christians, we tend to spend more on our physical and earthly needs then spiritual needs.

Fr Albert added another money note to the story. A hundred dollars note was asked the same question as the others. It said that it has been kept safe so that it can be used to accomplish HOPE and thank God for all those donors, HOPE shall be a reality.

It was nearly 9pm and Phua Chu Kang was still nowhere to be found. Where is he???

Well, he made a grand entrance like usual. He single-handedly brightened the whole audience to another level. People were flocking to take his pictures, me included!!

He even called Gerald to go on stage. Then, he was asked a question. If he gets this right, he will receive a present. If he gets this wrong, he will be given a plastic bag to cover his whole face and would run around the hall with it. The whole pride of BSCYM was with him and his question was…

Phua Chu Kang : “How are you?”

Gerald : “Fine ^^”

Phua Chu Kang : “Colrect!!!!!

Gerald got a pocket watch and a pen. It’s a very good pen by the way.

Everyone had so much fun!!

Then, the highlight of the night was starting. For us BSCYM, the next event was centred on our beloved Aaron George.

Before

(Due to Aaron's request, his picture has been removed)

After

He had to put a RM10 note on his mouth, RM50 note behind his right ear, 3 belts on his right arm, and get his face lipstick-fied by Selina. Hey, give him credit for being brave! Finally, he had to collect 15 strands of hair. We were too smart so we counted 15 strands of hair for him, while the other groups just didn’t count and just grabbed their hair with their hands and went to claim their prize. We didn’t win anything but it was really fun. Sometimes, the smartest people don’t count…

Finally, he ended the night with three great songs. Aaron took videos for them and I will post it once I get them from him.

In conclusion, it was not a night to be forgotten. Thanks Aunt Florence!!!!!!!!!