A weekend that was

Unlike any other weekends, last weekend was one that I didn't opt to go home. Not that I didn't want to go home (and I actually did, but just for a few hours to take some things), but I was involved as a performer for the Convofair and Convocation Lunch ceremony.

My performance together with the UTP Chinese Orchestra was on last Saturday at the ConvoSquare, where the Convofair was held. Convofair is just like a normal fair or expo whereby companies are invited to set up booths to promote their items or to give information to the people. It's just that during the Convofair, there would also be big-scale performances (dances, singing, orchestral performance, etc.) and lots of food to eat!

The Convofair is a big function because it is when the Convocation is held, too. The Convocation is normally known as the Graduation Day for undergraduates and foundation students who have graduated their courses. During the Convocation, the Chancellor of UTP, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad will be here for the ceremony.

I had enjoyed myself thoroughly during the Convofair. One particular booth sold digital cameras and it so happened that I am in dire need of one (conventional cameras don't allow me to take as many pictures as I want), so I went to have a look at the cameras that they had promoted. Among the brands they promoted were Canon, BenQ, Samsung (one model) and Panasonic (one model).

The prices of most of the cameras were within my budget (of RM500 to RM700). With RM499, I could buy a Canon A430 4.0 megapixels camera with a 512MB memory card already! To me, it is rather a good deal but something struck me: a BenQ camera, 6.0 megapixels (TFT screen) with a 1GB memory card plus rechargeable batteries at RM599.

For a while, I couldn't decide on which camera I should buy, because both the Canon and BenQ cameras were quite appealing to me. It is true that BenQ is a better deal, but Canon has a better support service. I had tried BenQ cameras before and more often than not, they give me more headaches than solutions.

As I was undecided, I telephoned three "experts" (one of them is a teacher, the rest are my peers) in choosing a digital camera. Out of the three, all of them told me that Canon was a better buy although it has a lower resolution (a 4.0-megapixel camera could give a clear 8R print already) because Canon is a more well-established company compared to BenQ and its (Canon) support (including online support) is simply first class. One even said that although BenQ camera might be a 6.0-megapixel one, she doubts whether it really is a 6.0-megapixel camera. She had experience before with a BenQ camera which said that its resolution is higher than her Canon camera, but the print-out of the picture from her Canon camera (lower resolution) turned out to be clearer, sharper and better than the print-out of the same picture but from the BenQ camera.

Having decided to have the Canon camera, I went to the bank to withdraw money from the ATM. I was wondering why were there people waiting near the bank and there were road blocks. Ignoring the small crowd (I noticed that some were the authorities of UTP), I made my way to the Auto-Teller Machine and withdrew some money. I was about to leave after withdrawing my money when I turned and, lo and behold, I met Tun Dr. Mahathir face to face! For a moment I thought, "I should have taken my camera out so that I could have a picture with him!" There were not many people around him so taking a picture with him shouldn't be a problem. I smiled at him and he returned my smile. We exchanged not a word, for I was too stunned to say anything (he appeared so suddenly) and it wasn't so necessary for him to offer any word at all. Nevertheless, our smiles conveyed the message: "Hello."

I made my way to the Convofair again to purchase my camera. With the camera bought, I can now take pictures easily, upload them into my computer and use them for my blog!

On Saturday night, the UTP Chinese Orchestra was required to perform. Before we performed, we enjoyed an array of dances by students from various countries including: South Africa, Mozambique, Cambodia (it reminded me of the Ngajat dance), Thailand, Pakistan, Malaysia (they did the Punjabi dance; nicely done!) etc. Then, it was our turn to perform. Our performance received some good response, if not excellent.

Yesterday, the UTP Chinese Orchestra was required to play during the Convocation Lunch too. It was when I got to meet Tun Dr. Mahathir again. The lunch was after the Convocation ceremony. The UTP Chinese Orchestra was not the only group performing. There were also the UTP Orchestra Indian Musical group and the Malay Caklempong group. All of us performed well and at the end of the performance we even combined forces to play Rasa Sayang, which received much applause from the VIPs and the lecturers who were there during the lunch.

During the performance, all the male performers were required to wear a certain type of outfit that Tun Dr. Mahathir used to wear (even until now). When I got the outfit, it somehow reminded me of the kind of outfit Dr. Sun Yat-Sen and Mao Zedong used to wear, too. When I get the pictures uploaded, I'll post the pictures here to let you see.

With the Convofair over, it is time for me to get back to my original life in university. Tutorials and assignments still pour in, as usual, and I feel more settled and contented to do my work now.