Tuesday, July 20, 2010

ENJOY

Beijing Day 3 – 18 June 2010

Club 12/68 Annual Reunion Dinner

 




The venue for the dinner was at the Yijinyuan Muslim Restaurant. About 45 minutes from our hotel. On arrival we were led through a spacious building with a main hall and to a room reserved for our function.
There were other on going functions and we could here the actions all over the place. The room for us was big enough to accommodate all 39 of us.
         




Our guests included the DA and his gracious lady, the ADA and his lady too. The rest was all of us.
The banner depicting our ‘tour’ that were used off and on for publicity were hung up. Or at least tried to be hung.









Some of us were mobilized to put it up, though at the end it was finally put up albeit slanted. Can Also.
The dinner was kicked off by the Chairman of the Organising Committee giving a speech. He updated us on the tour so far and also what would be happening for the rest of the tour. It was a fun speech interspersed with lots of jokes. Good start for the dinner. He was followed by the Presidente with his Annual Speech. He extended his happiness that most members and families were able to make the trip. He gave thanks for the close camarederie between us and hope this would go on. He thanked the Chairman and the committee for a splendid organization and a splendid get-together.
Dinner proceeded with a sumptuous Chinese spread. In between there were a lot of intermingling. An anticipated ‘karaoke session’ never got off the ground. Presumably due to no available equipment or no request. An anticipated ‘pocho pocho’ session too never came. I  wonder whether there was any requests made for such sessions. I personally feel that such sessions were really an interactive tool for us. I guess the next chairman would ensure that would take place.
The dinner ended at about 2230 hrs and we went back to our hotel for rest to face the next day.

 Regards

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Beijing Day 3 – 18 June 2010

The Itinerary For the Day.
Stated in the programme was:
a.    Visit to Panda Zoo.
b.    Take a trishaw ride touring the Hutong and local old Shiheyuan houses (Courtyard) where you may learn about the culture, history and lifestyle of old Beijng.
c.    After lunch, Zohor prayers at Niu Jie Mosque, the oldest mosque with over one thousand year’s history.
d.    Shopping at the Fresh Water Pearl Centre..
e.    Shopping at Wang Fu Jing Street.
f.    Club 12/68 Annual Dinner.
For Golfers: Golfing at the Beijing Orient Pearl Country Club.
For the golfers this was another attempt to complete an 18 hole game in Beijing. Again we left early to be in time for tee off as arranged by our DA. As mentioned earlier, being a golfer I was thus unable to follow the itinerary as set. I hope somebody could say something about the day’s activities and mail it to me. I will post it on our blog.
Golfing at the Beijing Orient Pearl Country Club.

We reached the golf club early enough. In the coach, the Presidente announced a contribution of RM 1,500 as the day’s prize. That would be about CNY 3,000. Thank You Mr Presidente. There was then a discussion on how to disburse the ‘booty’. We finally decided to buy each one of us a T shirt. At CNY 200 we could get one a piece.  This time there were 3 extra golfers. The DA, Razaki Darus and Burn joined us this time. The registration and all other arrangements were done at their temporary clubhouse.
Their new clubhouse were being built and only due for completion end of the year. Still, the clubhouse provided us the facilities expected. Only setback was that the Pro Shop was only a small outlet with not much to offer and set at quite high prizes. The T shirts we wanted to purchase were above our budget and their sizes were restricted to medium ones. For sure most would not fit us.
Once all the prelims were done we set out on the course. Another nice course.


I was with Apai and Burn. To my mind at least Apai, a rusty Mandarin-speaking member was around to get us by. Being on buggies we were not together all the time.



I had to rely on Burn being my buggy mate to interpret what our caddy said. It’s a lot like the ‘Ayam and the Itek’, but we get by.
It was a nice course, well trimmed, though later disputed by Razaki who felt it could have been better managed. Razaki being a ‘golf course designer’ once must have his reason. I for one, enjoyed the overall atmosphere and surroundings. It was a good recreational outings. It’s a beautiful place.
We managed to complete the 18 holes in a reasonable good time. Time for makan. Thinking of Malaysian style cooking. Our DA, Azahari suggested a restaurant he was familiar with and we all proceeded to the said restaurant. It was the ‘Malacca Legend’.

Owned by a Singaporean this restaurant prepared us one of our best meal in Beijing.
Prize giving was done after lunch. The prizes were presented by the Presidente and as shown by the pics, everybody got one.







A well spread takings.






























The dishes were so good that we decided to have one of our group lunch with the families at that particular restaurant.
Regards