17 December 2010
Our department held its annual FAMILY DAY gathering last weekend at One Hotel Santubong Kuching resort about 30 km north of Kuching city recently on the 11th-12th Dec 2010, inclusive of a one-night stay at the tropical beach resort. As usual the programmes included games and sports competitions for kids and adults alike, including tug-of-war and beach volleyball.
The highlight of the departmental festivities must surely have been the annual singing contest, in this year's edition, the search was on to find the BINTANG JMG 2010 (Star of JMG 2010), which was held at the Kenyalang Ballroom in conjunction with the dinner function. To cut it short, it was I who emerged as the Champion singer for the night, rendering the Malay song "Biarlah Bulan Bicara Sendiri" (translation: "Let the Moon Speak to Itself"), impressing the 3 "outside" judges and the hundreds of audience in attendance.
In fact, I was actually the defending champion, having won the inaugural competition (BINTANG JMG 2009) during the previous year's Family Day 2009 activity staged at the Santubong Kuching Resort Lounge, that time rendering the malay song "Ratu Ku" (translation: "My Queen"), that time, judged by 5 judges. I have actually participated in many other singing competitions including at Kuala Lumpur, and usually finishing among the top 3 winners. In fact I had placed 2nd at the Sri Aman Fiesta Karaoke (singing a Malay classic number, "Tanjung Puteri") in April 2009 that year (Sri Aman is a town about 3 hours' drive from Kuching city). However, success can make other people envious. So I was not surprised when the following week, during the monthly departmental meeting, when the Family Day 2010 photos were shown to all, there were many, many photos of the activities such as the beach volleyball or tug-of-war (which was attended by some people) but not even ONE single photo of the Karaoke competition (which was attended by ALL)!....
The above shows a panoramic view of the Damai Puri Resort and Spa, which is about a kilometer or so away from where we held our function, the One Hotel Santubong Kuching Resort (below):
The selection of the One Hotel Santubong Kuching Resort as the venue for our departmental Family Day celebrations was indeed a correct one as it has all the amenities for a fun and relaxing weekend for the staff and family members. In fact the BERNAS company was having their Family Day gathering there as well, although theirs was for 3 days (10-12 December), a day more than ours. Perhaps we shall continue the tradition at the same venue next year.
Which is fine with me, as the Santubong Peninsula was the focus of my work earlier this year, and I have just finished my technical report "The Geological Terrain Mapping of the South West Santubong Peninsula" and handed in 5 copies of the report (with 5 maps and a CD each) to our Librarian who will proceed to hand them over to our Headquarters in Kuala Lumpur soon...
