Chinese New Year 2013 - Year of the Snake events

Chinese New Year is always a great time for members to get together.  We haven't been involved in as many events as in the past, due to other matters we were involved in, as the previous post explains.  With Australia Day washed out (for the third year in a row), we were looking forward to the start of the Year of the Snake and we still made the most of the events that were on.

Our AMBCQ Water Dragons team!

Once again this year, AMBCQ put a team into the Chinese New Year Dragon Boat Regatta at South Bank.  This is our second year in this regatta and the competition is pretty fierce.  There were 16 teams this year, the majority being corporate teams.  It proved a bit difficult to get a full team together as the regatta was scheduled on Chinese New Year Eve, so many of our Malaysian and Singaporean regulars had returned for the celebrations.  The training schedule was also interrupted by the floods and we were only able to get two sessions on the water before the race day, so we felt unprepared.

That's the AMBCQ Water Dragons in the foreground!

Luckily, the day was lovely and sunny and a lot of fun as usual.  We didn't win - I'm not sure if we even did well, but it's still a great day of chatting, laughing and snacking in between racing.  The team started out very promisingly, leading in the first race, only to lose steam near the end and fade to a third placing.  That was the best showing of the day unfortunately.  The team changed tactics a couple of times, but the lack of training showed.  Never mind, there's always next year - and now, we have our eyes on the Parkinson Ward Dragon Boat race in June.  That's the one we would really like to win this year!

Cheryl, Vincent and Mark Stewart MP

We were also very pleased to be able to attend the Premier's Chinese New Year reception at Parliament House.  It was the first time the Newman Government has hosted the event, but much of the format was carried over from previous years.  Of course the CNY event at Parliament was introduced by long-time AMBCQ stalwarts Dr Peter Yeoh and Mrs  Alice Yeoh, who also provided the inspiration for the annual Indian Community Reception at Parliament. It is a privilege to be able to attend an event at Parliament and we were able to catch up with many friends, including political friends, such as Cr Steven Huang, Freya Ostapovitch, Mark Stewart, David Gibson, Lawrence Springborg, and a host of others.  It was a shame that the bells kept ringing for divisions during the event and most of the MPs had to rush back into the Chamber.  We've been to many of these events before and that had never been the case in previous years.  I can only think that perhaps one of the scheduled debates had gone over time and they weren't able to delay it.

Ben, Sapphira, Lion! and Vim.

Andrei, Jolyn, Kiong, Izzy, Calyvn and Sapphira

Dessert at Sunnybank after the Premier's event - that's Ilmi scowling in the foreground. The dessert was great, she just doesn't like getting her photo taken. Ilmi, me, Ilkka, Kiong, Ivan, Cheryl, Vincent and Maxwell.

Finally we had our AGM - (technically it was the day after the last day of Chinese New Year, but close enough still). Our current serving executive was returned, and Kiong laid out plans for some new directions this coming year.  In particular we look with interest to some new opportunities on the horizon, the continuation of our growth and providing more service to our members.