Every organisation needs some renewal and change, and this year's AMBCQ Australia Malaysia Ball was a good opportunity for the organisation to make some positive changes and signal a new direction. We moved away from the previous format that we had used and adopted a more formal and more focused approach that concentrated on our members and our corporate supporters and allies in business and Government. We also had the event at the Stamford Plaza which made for a refreshing change that elevated the event to another level. It really showcased what the AMBCQ is best at.
Our AMBCQ members and assistants on the night, Ben, Shaeed and Sue all looking fabulous
It is always a bit scary but also so gratifying to try something new and challenging and have it work out. All these new factors had me a bit jittery - because it was unfamiliar and new territory, and as the MC or Presiding Officer, I was ultimately accountable for the running of the night. But it all came together so well, thanks to our many great members and those who assisted on the night. It has never before been so much a genuine team effort and I am so proud that we all did it together. It must be all that dragon boating spirit!
Guests in the foyer for pre-dinner drinks.
"How different?" you may ask. Well, how does bagpipes, pre-dinner drinks, formal toasts, and a speech by Professor Clive Palmer sound? Yes, very different from our previous years! It sure lent a gravitas to the night that was very memorable. Formal dining of course began in the early monasteries of Europe, and from there emerged to influence all levels of society, and its rituals were adopted by some of the oldest universities and colleges, by the military and by other institutions. And the formality was also part of us celebrating and acknowledging the very important underlying tie between Australia and Malaysia, and that is our Commonwealth ties. In this year of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, it was very fitting that we acknowledge and celebrate these historical links which give both our nations the foundations and the framework in which our societies have grown up in differing but still recognisable paths. Our Westminster Parliamentary systems, the rule of law, our shared defence ties which continue to this day, the importance of our English language - all these similarities mean that we as Australians or Malaysians, recognise more and understand more in each others' societies than we do in some of our other close neighbours.
We were very pleased at the event to welcome on board our new corporate supporter, QUT. Kiong, being an alumni of QUT, is especially pleased and it is great to have the support of one of Australia's most recognised higher education brands and leading universities.
Professor Clive Palmer speaking at the event - for many guests it was the highlight of the night.
And Professor Clive Palmer and his wife Anna agreed to come on board as AMBCQ co-patrons and mentors. We already have wonderful patrons and mentors in Dr Peter Yeoh OAM and Mrs Alice Yeoh. Now with Professor Palmer and Anna, we have the best of Malaysian business and the best of Australian business, to give us moral support and guide and advise the organisation.
Some of our special guests - I'll do my best to name everybody - from left John Mickel, Alicia Gibson, Cr Norm Wyndham, Cr Steven Huang, Jason Woodforth MP, Tarnya Smith MP, Mark McArdle MP, Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, Lady Mayoress Ann Quirk, David Gibson MP, Cr Vicki Howard , Anthony Shorten MP, my big stomach and I, Katherine Mickel, Ian Berry MP, Judy McArdle, Mark Boothman MP, James Kennett and his wife representing Rob Molhoek MP, Michael Pucci MP and Kiong.
One thing that never changes is that we always have a great line up of special guests. This year the following came along to the Ball:
Kiong with Judy amd Mark McArdle.
Tarnya Smith MP and Cr Angela Owen-Taylor
Dr Peter Yeoh OAM and Mrs
Alice Yeoh,Patrons of AMBCQ
Professor Clive Palmer and Mrs Anna Palmer, Patrons of AMBCQ, and Mentors
The Hon Mark McArdle MP, Minister for Energy and Water
Supply
The Right Hon. Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, Lord
Mayor of Brisbane
Lady Mayoress Ann Quirk
Tarnya Smith MP, State Member for Mt Ommaney and Deputy Whip
David Gibson MP, State Member for Gympie
Anthony Shorten MP, State Member for Algester
Freya Ostapovitch MP, State Member for Stretton
Jason Woodforth MP, State Member for Nudgee
Ian Berry MP, State Member for Ipswich
Michael Pucci MP, State Member for
Logan
Mark Boothman MP, State Member for Albert
Cr Angela Owen-Taylor, Brisbane
City Councillor
for Parkinson Ward, Deputy Chairman of Council, Deputy Chairman of Finance,
Economic Development and Administration Committee, Deputy to Lord Mayor on City
Hall Restoration, and Deputy to Lord Mayor on Multicultural Affairs and
International Relations
Cr Norm Wyndham, Brisbane City Councillor for McDowall, Deputy
Chairman of the Environment, Parks and Sustainability Committee
Cr Kim Marx, Brisbane City Councillor for Karawatha Ward, Chief
Administration Deputy Whip
Cr Vicki Howard, Brisbane City Councillor for Central Ward, Deputy Chairman Neighbourhood
Planning and Development Assessment Committee
Cr Steven Huang, Brisbane City Councillor for MacGregor Ward, Deputy Chairman of the Public & Active
Transport Committee
The Hon. John Mickel (former Trade Minister,
former Transport Minister, former Energy Minister and former Speaker (retired))
Alice Yeoh and I - a small token of thanks to the ladies who do so much behind the scenes.
We had incredibly strong attendance from elected representatives despite the Premier and his LNP cabinet ministers having a community cabinet in Cairns, the ALP having their National Conference in Brisbane, and the National Party having their National Conference in Canberra.
For those of you who couldn't make it, here's a quick recap. We started the night with pre-dinner drinks in the foyer of the Grand Ballroom. Our piper, Grant Agnew of City of Brisbane Pipes, sounded the quarter call, and later the five minute call. Once all guests were inside, he then piped in the official guests. We began the formal dinner with introductions and the National Anthems of Australia and Malaysia, and the Commonwealth Anthem, 'God Save the Queen'. We began dinner and during dinner had speeches by myself as Presiding Officer at the Ball, Kiong as AMBCQ President, Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, Minister Mark McArdle, and Professor Clive Palmer. All the speeches were very well received.
Toasting the Stamford staff - from left Clive Palmer, Kiong, Ray Kelly from QUT, Trieu from Stamford representing the staff, and Lord Mayor Graham Quirk.
After the main course, we had a short intermission so everyone could chat and have a chance to mingle, after which the Piper called us back. We then enjoyed a series of toasts where we were able to thank all those who have helped us and all those who hold the foundation of what we do, and many of our members contributed to the toasting.
We also toasted our wonderful Piper, and the Stamford staff for their service. Tea and coffee and petit fours were served and we concluded our night with the draw of our raffle, with Air Asia again providing return tickets for two people to Kuala Lumpur, and our silent auction. And to signal the end of the formalities for night, our Piper played Auld Lang Syne.
The following video shot by our wonderful friend and Brisbane City Council Student Ambassador for Singapore, Leong Ming En, has some of the highlights. You may want to start with it turned down because those bagpipes start straight away!
From left back, Joel, Ivan, Jason a friend; and from front, Robin, Debbie, Jocelyn, Jeen Sern and Keith
The night would not have been the success it was without the many assistants who gave their time and effort to put everything together. I sent quite a few SOSs out to members during the week leading up to the night asking for assistance with IT matters, or sourcing various items, and our members always came through! Thank you to Sue and Bryan who are always an enormous help on the night and who also helped with some of those last minute items I just described. To Ben, Danny, Ivan, and Joel, who did much of the set up and organising on the night (as well as helping me with my IT woes), and also acted as assistants during the toasts, a very big thank you. As well as to Rahmat who took on the task of liaising with our Piper and myself and keeping an eye on timings. And to Keith and Ming who undertook the task of photography that night - there were a lot of great photos taken and both did an excellent job (and hopefully had something to eat!). And to Shaeed for helping with the raffle ticket sales - actually Sue and Ben also helped out with that as well, and the front desk. And to all those AMBCQ members who hosted our guests so well, and who also made toasts on the night - it was done in a very stately and dignified manner. I hope I haven't missed anyone... there was a lot going on and I may not have seen all that everyone helped with.
Just some of our guests - at the back Michael Pucci MP, Yang Du, Sean, Maxwell and Vincent, at the front Rita, David, Freya Ostapovitch MP, Wan and Imee.
Toasting the Piper - from left Stu from Air Asia, Grant, Lord Mayor Graham. Quirk, Ann Quirk, Alice Yeoh and Dr Peter Yeoh OAM
Finally, I would like to thank our President and my partner Kiong Chan. I was very skeptical about some of his ideas for the night, but I really think the whole event could hardly have gone better. It does take some courage to try something different, especially when your partner's giving you sideway looks, but it was a very worthwhile challenge and I believe it has definitely moved the AMBCQ in the right direction. Next year can only be bigger and better.
Ian Berry MP receiving a raffle prize donated by Lyna Chen - he and his wife Karen cleaned up at the auction as well!
Anita, Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, and Rahmat
Anthony Shorten MP with AMBCQ member Ivan Tan - Anthony bought this piece which is a reproduction of a view of Brisbane from 1888 made using authentic printing techniques.
Keith, Danny and Ming - yes, after all your hard work all night, you deserve a hard drink!
There are many more great photos in our Facebook Group and on Google +. Haven't seen them - well you better join up!
Well, after all the training, all the organisation, all the rain threatening to pour, the Parkinson Ward Dragon Boat Festival was held on Sunday 3rd June at Forest Lake. Kiong and I had been up til midnight the night before, packing the tents, baking muffins and scones, sorting the uniforms, and packing the car in readiness for the next day. We were at the Lake from 8am to set up - and despite the occasional rain shower, it turned out to be quite a lovely day. Not too cold and not too hot, and not too much mud over where we dragon boat teams assembled.
As you can see by my title, we entered our AMBCQ Water Dragon team into the amateur competition and came second overall - for the second year in a row! A wonderful result but there was a sense of deja vu as we once again came off second best to the Vietnamese MC Dragons.
Last year was the first time the Festival (which only began in 2010) included amateur racing on the Lake, and only four teams featured. This year a total of eight teams competed so in a short amount of time the number of competitors has doubled. The teams competing on the day included ourselves and the Vietnamese team, the Hakka Association, Pacifica (Pacific Islander community team), the Taiwanese Friendship Association of Queensland, the Commonwealth Bank, Chinese Catholic Community, and World Art and Multicultural Inc team.
Our team getting excited before the opening ceremony - the lady from the Pacifica teambehind us joined in too!
The Score Board after the second round. There we are with 7 points.
This year we paddled with a full crew - in fact we had 22 paddlers in total when we required 20. Some of the other teams featured several professional paddlers (including Australian national representatives), while our AMBCQ crew was 100% our own, with no professional paddlers. In fact 25% of our team were brand new. Four of the team members had never trained before, and one other had only ever paddled once before. And unfortunately, because of work and exam commitments, the rest of the team had hardly trained together. This was the first time we had paddled together. We always had a least eight to ten people (out of 20) at training, but it was usually a slightly different mix of members. So it is definitely a result we can all be very proud of.
Lining up for the beginning of round 3. I sat this one out so was able to take photos.
There was amateur races as well as professional races on the day, with 3 rounds for each. In the first round of the amateur races, we won our heat. In the second round we came second (again to the Vietnamese team!) and in the third round we again took first place. So we went into the finals with 11 points out of a possible 12. In that second round you can see we gave the Vietnamese team a bit of a surprise - they dominate the race and do train really hard and they have some professional paddlers paddling on their behalf. So perhaps they were ready for us in the final! In the final, we started well but the Vietnamese team clearly won.
Drawing ahead - we won this round!
Just about to go over the finish line
No matter the result, the whole team had a great day and it was a very nice moment to get up on stage and receive the second place (or first runner up!) medals. We had a very good drummer Gail throughout the races, and we had Pam and Julie from BRD guiding us and helping us organise throughout the day. For me personally, it was really nice to compete in front of my two kids, Ilkka and Ilmi, although Ilmi almost cried when we came second! And I was also really pleased to be able to compete despite being almost 20 weeks pregnant - I was a last minute inclusion because during the earlier stages of my pregnancy, I was suffering a lot of morning sickness and nausea and didn't feel up to it. So if anyone says they can't dragon boat race, you can tell them even a pregnant women can do it!
After round 3, everyone looks suitably exhausted.
We have to thank all the individual members of the team. In a dragon boat team, each team member contributes, otherwise we wouldn't have a dragon boat team! The team work is one of the most important and most rewarding elements of the dragon boat team to me, and I think I've probably said it before, this aspect was like a revelation to me. We also have to thank Gail, Pam and Julie for all their support and guidance through the day, everyone from Brisbane River Dragons, especially Euan and Blair, for training us and getting us ready, and putting everything together on the day. Thank you of course to Cr Angela Owen-Taylor and the Hakka Association who are the driving forces behind the event and put all aspects of the festival together. Without this event, many of us would never even considered getting involved in dragon boat.
Just before the medal ceremony - rubbing Dwight's botak head for good luck
The Parkinson Ward Dragon Boat Festival also features performances, a citizenship ceremony and food stalls. We barely get to see any of this because the times between dragon boat races is pretty tight and of course we need to warm up before each race, then kit up etc, so there is no time to explore. Perhaps in future when the event becomes more established, more time might be allocated for the festival.
For those of you who couldn't make it, here's a quick recap. We started the night with pre-dinner drinks in the foyer of the Grand Ballroom. Our piper, Grant Agnew of City of Brisbane Pipes, sounded the quarter call, and later the five minute call. Once all guests were inside, he then piped in the official guests. We began the formal dinner with introductions and the National Anthems of Australia and Malaysia, and the Commonwealth Anthem, 'God Save the Queen'. We began dinner and during dinner had speeches by myself as Presiding Officer at the Ball, Kiong as AMBCQ President, Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, Minister Mark McArdle, and Professor Clive Palmer. All the speeches were very well received. 
