Time for another update!

Every now and again, I get a bit swamped and this blog ends up lying dormant for a little while - but I always come back to it sooner or later! As everyone who has seen me lately will know, I am expecting baby number 3 in less than 2 months, so between the tiredness and multiple medical appointments, the AMBCQ and our own business, this blog sometimes gets a little neglected.  Never mind, members always know what is happening because emails keep on going and so does Facebook and Google.  Thank goodness for electronic media!




But it has been a very busy time over the last few months - much has been going on behind the scenes.  I'll start with our latest event first and then go back over some of the other events we've been involved in.  On Sunday 19th August the AMBCQ hosted a Hari Raya Puasa Open House at the Centenary Community Hub at Mt Ommaney.  This was a free event open to members, family, friends, international students and other interested people.  We had a good crowd of around 100 people on the day, coming and going, with lots of yummy Malaysian food including Kari Ayam, Beef Rendang, Nasi Briyani, Sago Kueh, Sarawak Layer Cake and Bandung, just to name some of the dishes!  We had a good group of students turn up from QUT and UQ's Malaysian Student Association, as well as our Patrons, Dr Peter Yeoh OAM and Mrs Alice Yeoh, and other community leaders and bilateral business people.

Kueh and cake courtesy of Anita and Sapphira.

And here is rendang, briyani and kari from Lilian.

We have also recently hosted a number of visits by Malaysian High Commission staff, including the Deputy High Commissioner En. Eldeen Hussaini, En Faizal and En. Fo'ad.

We also had the privilege of hosting the Malaysian High Commissioner His Excellency Dato' Salman Ahmad and his family, on the Gold Coast.  It was a lovely evening at Seaduction (corny name but a wonderful meal and a great venue directly across from the beach in the Soul building).  It was a great honour for the Business Council to play host to Dato' Salman and his family and staff on the evening.

We have also attended a number of events with our ally the Australian Council for Europe, helping to host dignitaries such as the Afghan Ambassador, the German Ambassador and the Czech Ambassador.  There was also the launch of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce Qld at Parliament House.  And there was also the new Premier's Queensland Day Citizenship Ceremony at the Convention Centre.  We have also had meetings with the UQMSA and other student bodies, and with the organising committee of Citra Malaysia, which is a student managed promotional project for Malaysia which will take place in October.

This is not to mention meetings with Malaysian counterparts and our own members as well, and our AMBCQ Water Dragons celebratory meeting and meal. We hosted visiting corporate leaders from Malaysia, and AMBC counterparts from Kuala Lumpur, Victoria and from ACT. We also had a number of meetings and liaison with senior executives from several local and international firms.

Just loading the boat...

And this mostly updates us all the way back to June, when we last raced as as the AMBCQ Water Dragons in the Te Waka Challenge.  After our experiences at Parkinson Ward Dragon Boat Festival and our second placing, we were quite confident of doing well.  However, the field was at another level - there were around 12 teams competing and this included two teams from a commercial Gym!  Still, we did quite well, and on time and placings, we made it into the mini-finals (they had a major finals for those who came 1st to 3rd, and a minor final for those who came 4th to 6th).  I posted the photos on Facebook but didn't get a chance to blog about it.  However, luckily someone else did ;).  Sharlene's auntie who lives in New Zealand did the blogging for me, he he he.  http://annsnowchin.blogspot.co.nz/2012/06/ambcq-water-dragons-at-te-waka.html.  And here is a couple of photos of the day - although we didn't win, we did paddle very well.  *Sigh* - it will be a while before I do any dragon boating again!

That's us in the red - I think this is our first race of the day.

We do have more events coming up.  On the Saturday 15th September, our Australia-Malaysia Ball will be held at Stamford Plaza - this is our peak event for the year and one of the highlights of our annual calendar.  We will also be having a meeting and gathering for Merdeka, and there will be other events for the Lantern festival, Deepavali and Christmas.  And we also look forward to hearing more from Austrade and other partners about the MAFTA (Malaysia Australia Free Trade Agreement) which was signed earlier this year.