Thesis Writing Workshop

It started on Thursday, when we were suddenly informed about a meeting for the workshop..

Ok, ok.. it wasn't as if we didn't know AT ALL about the workshop, but I guess most of us didn't wanna 'waste' our time with something else other than things we already had in hand (as IF I had A LOT on my hands pun hehe..). Abg Fadzil had asked me to take care of the food, though in the end HE was the one who ordered the food and my job was to only remind him. Other than that, I was only asked to proof read the pamphlet (which I must've done half heartedly as we discovered a LOT of mistakes after that--updated: NO lah, they had changed the contents of the pamphlet *whew*)

Anyway, during the meeting, abg Fadzil was grumbling about certain secretariats that almost never came to meetings. Me and Dgon just kept quiet while smiling sheepishly as we ourselves had missed the last meeting (not our fault though, we really didn't know about it). After that we proceeded to form a new committee for the workshop. I was glad to escape the refreshments committee.. penat ooooo! However, I nearly had a heart attack when I saw my name on the emcee committee! I had just gone outta the room for 5 MINUTES to make tea for the meeting, and I guess they had scrambled to put my name right there and then so I couldn't protest when I came back. Luckily, Fared had the GREAT idea to ask Ashraf to emcee while I just became the 'text composer'.. bless him!

I'd only have to sit with Ashraf and compose the things he was supposed to say. The most easy job.. or so I thought! Oh yeah, I was also in charge of the souveniers (again!).

We'd promise to go through it during the weekend but then Ashraf went to Langkawi so I was practically goyang kaki during the weekend. Winnie was in charge of the files so she had work to do while Dgon was in charge of the certificates but like me, we had nothing to do until Monday.

Then, come Monday, there was the thing with the notice board I explained earlier. Then since we had asked the participants to pay ONLY on the day itself, funds were really running low. On top of that, a usually mild mannered committe member was suddenly being a bit.. well.. different, I guess (Thus, making kerek as the word of the week). So it was easy to say, not everybody was in the best of spirits. The only good news we got was that participation was more than expected, and we were ready to just get less than half of the supposedly expectations.. though, being used to be in charge of refreshment, I was a bit worried about the amount we ordered so abg Fadzil added a few more.

Tuesday was filled with going to and fro to buy certificates, files, check the food, cleaning the room used for our lunch break, rearranging the seminar room, photocopying the materials, buying ribbons for the souveniers, translating the questions for the questionnaires etc. None of us got the chance to sit down haha.. but somehow, it was fun. Reminded me of the time they helped me during CEC when we'd sit on the floor, wrapping around 40 mugs together.. :)

Then, Ashraf came and I suddenly remembered that we hadn't gone through the script yet and it was already 5.15pm at that time. Added to the fact that abg Fadzil wanted to conduct a rehearsal that night at 9.30pm, the only thing in my head then was, "Tak sempat nak makan malam dah niiiiii..". And this was supported by Ashraf who suddenly decided we should start our script writing at 8pm that night.. aiyak! It was already 7.15pm when I went home :(

Lapooooooooooooooooooooo..

The only comfort I got was that he was also hungry haha.. So that night, all of us did the finishing touches for the workshop and went home, undoubtly TIRED hehe..

The next morning, since I wasn't in charge of the registration, I decided to wake up late haha.. only arrived at the school at 8.41am. I panicked a bit when I realized the souveniers missing but it turned out that they were already bought to the seminar room. Then as I was going down, I felt as if everyone was calling my name asking for this and that! Aiyak patut la orang len sumer duk kat bawah.. duk kat atas asyik kena panggil je haha..

When the workshop started, I was a bit relieved, thinking that I'd only have to sit down.. but I wrong once again. There weren't enough files, the food was also just enough (Sheesh! What happened to extras, huh?), the certificates were also not enough with the printer going to slumber every now and then, hand outs were needed to be copied and bla.. bla.. bla.. On top of that, I had to now and then check upon Ashraf if he needed any editing on his script when as in his own words, "Dapat secretary, teruih tak tau nak karang sendiri!".You know, I could've lost a few pounds rushing up and down the stairs, as well as all the other committees who were doing their part of rushing here and then haha.. yup! Somehow, it didn't exactly feel tiring.. more hilarious than tiring, I'd say!

However, lunch wasn't exactly hilarious when some participants were left WITHOUT lunch. How embarassing.. and we had ordered 40 extra meals! Turns out, the foreigners must've not realized that rice is our staple food, while the chicken and all that are the side dishes. They *not saying who* took a dish each of the curry!!! No wonder there weren't any left..

Fared was a bit mad at the refreshment committee at this time and I had to listen to his ramblings as I was the only one in the pantry haha.. poor treasurer! However, him and the refreshment committee quickly decided to go buy extra food from outside for all of us as well as the participants who didn't get any food.

By then, EVERYONE was tired. The toll of working non-stop but still kinda frustrated in the end finally came over us so when the participants went for their last session, all of us went into the dining room to b**** on EVERYTHING haha.. about some people who had expected FREE FOOD (when the participants WHO PAID themsleves didn't get food), about the kerek committee member (pity him, though!), about the inconsiderate people who took EXTRA food.. before long, everyone was back in a jovial mood haha.. seems like a good b****ing session is just the thing for our souls haha.. the picture above was as we were about to start our b****ing session (with most people in the session not in the photo) :)

Somehow, we realized, everything wasn't at all THAT bad..

After eating and praying, we went down only to realize all of us missed a great session by Choong, thus prompting us to beg Choong to re-do the session just for us :) And like I said, by then, we were laughing and joking though we were already a bit tired now.

After the workshop ended, we had some tea for the participants. Then, all of us stayed back to help clean up the dining room for the farewell 'lunch' that was to be held the next day (Penat lagiiii.. us postgrads were supposed to pitch in with the gotong royong). It was 7.30pm when we finally headed back home. I had a class that night but the whole time I only thought of my bed. Went straight home after that and slept so soundly, I didn't hear the fireworks 'commotion' happening just outside my house.

All in all, I'd say it was a success, just like all of us agreed. Even the participants were impressed (except a select few la, but the praises were enough to help us smile till the end). Would we do it again, though?

Hmm.. Let us think about it first :p