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| Our AMBCQ food stall and marquee - all set up at about 8:30 am |
We started setting up around 7am - thank you to Gomi and her crew, Ashley and chef JJ for coming out so early to set up. Thank you also to Bryan, Maxwell, and Jamie for volunteering at the beginning of the day to set up the marquee (always easier with a group, rather than just Kiong and I!) and tables and chairs for the day. It really made a big difference especially in the very brisk air next to the lake at that time (brrrrr!!!). It was a good thing we had that help, after having got off a plane from Malaysia the night before, attended the function with Consul Khairuddin, had a terrible night with our daughter Ilmi, and gotten up again at 6am, Kiong and I very much appreciated the assistance!
I must also thank Rose and Nicole for volunteering to help with the stall during the day. It was a big job for Gomi and JJ so it was wonderful to have that backup.
To start off the day, there was a citizenship ceremony, followed by the opening ceremony of the Festival, beginning at 10 am. The ceremony included the blessing of the dragon boats by Buddhist nuns, and the painting of their eyes. Deputy Lord Mayor Cr Adrian Schrinner was present for the event, along with Cr Angela Owen-Taylor. The nuns then blessed the Khuan Yee lions and painted their eyes as well (our AMBCQ affiliated lion dance team) - something a little bit different for the crowd to see. Khuan Yee then performed for the crowd.
As many of you will know, getting our Malaysia-Singapore (Singapore-Malaysia) team together has been quite a struggle at times. We had the support of Grace Tan from Singapore Business Council Australia, who helped recruit some key people for our team. At one stage, we lost 6 people and thought we would have to throw in the towel. Eventually however, we had 20 people for our mixed team. In the end, our team was made up of Malaysians, Singaporeans, Aussies, two Dutch, a Swede, and a kinda Finnish-Swedish-Aussie who sometimes thinks she's Malaysian (ha! that's me).
It didn't take long before the dragon boat races began - in fact, for those of us in the dragon boat team, we seemed to be in a constant cycle of boarding, racing, and disembarking. We had four amateur races during the day. Our first race was frankly a bit sloppy - we really pushed hard but didn't do as well as we hoped. But, we came second - just. The white team (the MC Dragons, which was made up of the Vietnamese community and Queensland Police Service), clearly dominated the first race. They were way out in front of everyone else and very much in time - you could really see their power.
There were also professional races throughout the day, including the Aurora's, the Australian representative mixed team. At one stage three of our team members - Calvyn, Hendry, and Kiong were hijacked and upgraded to a professional team!
The second race was also very close - well for second, it was. First place again went to the MC Dragons -- way out in front again. We think we came second, but the race was very close for all the places. Besides Team Rojak and the MC Dragons, there was also an Indo-Chinese team, a Taiwan team, and a Hakka Association team.
We had a little break again, and many of us had a little snack and a drink (thank you Gomi for feeding our team). I loved that prawn curry and those rotis - the one drawback to being situated right next to the food stall was I kept feeling hungry, and there was hardly any time to eat. (By the way, Blair from the Brisbane River Dragon boats said he almost had a heart attack when he saw all the rowers wolfing down the rice dumplings and other food!)
Then Hendry gave us a very good pep talk. He spotted those problems that we were having as a team, identified the individual things we could do, and focused us all on what we had to do for the next race. We were all fired up!
And guess what?! It showed - we really rowed together as a team much better this time and we very clearly came... second! Again! The MC Dragons were still dominating the racing, but we were getting closer. And this time we were clearly ahead of the other teams.
Now for the final race. Hendry gave us another pep talk - and we really must acknowledge also Dominic and Jolyn for spotting for us all as well. It was invaluable to have some experienced rowers on the team. We were ready.
We started off well, but we got better - the MC Dragons were in front but we were drawing closer and had practically caught up with them. But then a mishap! Dwight was rowing so hard he knocked his own glasses into the lake and lost a stroke! Just goes to show how much effort everyone was putting into the race. Our team came SECOND! It was an amazing effort of real teamwork for us all.
Our final time was 1:05.30. The Vietnamese Community/Queensland Police Service team beat us by just two seconds in 1:03.27.
All over it was a very successful day for the AMBCQ. We must acknowledge again Gomi Chendi and Blue Gulabi. Unfortunately we did not have the best location in terms of food stalls - we were located on the opposite side of the river from the other stalls and the festival stage. Although we didn't raise any funds as was our aim, with Gomi's help we flew the AMBCQ flag very well. We also have to thank Grace Tan for supporting us in fielding a joint Malaysian-Singaporean team - without her contacts, we might not have been able to get our team off the ground. Of course, Calvyn Tan was fantastic, recruiting the bulk of the team and motivating everybody to get involved. Hendry was fantastic at identifying the problems with our pace, focusing the team, and motivating us all to do better. And every single person who turned up, made our team work - without them, we wouldn't have been able to get into the water. It truly was a team effort.
Below is attached the link to the Facebook album which includes some more pictures of the day:
Things are not over for our Dragon Boat team - we are planning a get together to celebrate the achievements in the near future. And we are also looking towards another upcoming event on Saturday the 16th July from 9am - 2pm, at Colmslie.
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