picture in my mind

I am rich and happy. (okaylah, not so rich, but still happy):)))) Haaaaa. It feels good. After much stress and agony, (right to the last moment, let me tell you), it feels real good to know people were happy with pentas. And that we made it work - DESPITE EVERYTHING.

Despite our certainty that murphy's laws were toying with us at every turn, we managed to overcome. Everything that could have gone wrong really did. So much so that ibnur himself lost faith in 'ibnur's laws'. Haha. So many merepek obstacles overcome. Ohmygosh. Farhanah was right. Can't believe it's over. 10 frakking months, was it? So looooong.

I don't have any photos cause I was lazy to whip out my camera. Too kecoh with everything.

Just to illustrate the craziness of pentas, even on the night itself:

1) an hour to arrival of GOH, I discovered our reserved parking lots were taken over by two unknown vehicles. (Wanted to scream, man.) I was about to breakdown, I tell you. Haha. Then, I paced around the carpark, wracking my brains. Here, I have to thank Yusrina, whose cute, tiny blue car was miraculously one of the cars that managed to get parking. So we begged her to give up her space for GOH's big merc and she obliged. We owe her big. Miracle, that was. Stupid, useless VT people who didn't tell me properly to guard the lots. Eeeesh.

2) Front doors refused to open at 8 pm. Wahlau. People swarming around the registration table with irritated faces is not a pleasant experience.

3) As me and yammie were starting to clear up the registration table at bout 8.30, this boy came up to us and said, "Kak, boleh masuk tak? I baru kena rompak ah. Nak jumpa kawan kejap." We were like @_@, WHAT. "Sumpah???" "Sumpah!" Apparently, some three dudes, just round the corner, took away his bag of money and his ticket. And we gave him the benefit of the doubt and yammie took him in to see his friend. We were freaked out ah! Me especially, owing to the fact that I was holding on to a cashbox overflowing with bills.

4) omg. the most kecoh results tabulation EVER. Lin and Hidayat calculating scores at one end of the world (we had no idea which corner of the theatre they were parked at, painfully taking FOREVER counting), and me freaking out over prizes, at stage right. Waiting for Lin to come over with the results. Hilarious to recall now. Ibnur was writing out names of sponsors on a piece of white paper for our dewa/emcee, as a filler dialgue, while we waited for Lin. And then we couldn't find SCOTCHTAPE to tape the paper onto the dewa's scroll. I was wringing my hands with worry. Then Ibnur started peeling off tape from the plastic bags backstage to pathetically paste the paper on the scroll.

Then, when Mahathir, our fantastic dewa, was on stage unfurling the scroll, the white paper fell, and he went, "Tengoklah makhluk bumi ni, tak tahu nak gam betul-betul!"

OMG! He is so hilarious. Fantastic, spontaneous performer. My sis (who sat right in front of the judges) said Rafaat Hamzah was totally impressed by him. He was like, "Mana dorang dapat budak ni seh?"

I kept calling Lin up to tell her to STOP COUNTING AND COME WITH THE RESULTS NOW NOW NOW. I think there were three of us there running around like worried, headless chickens. Wany was totally stressing, "I need the results now! Now!" And then when Lin finally came, there were like about ten of us crowding over the judges' papers. I was totally totally BRAIN-SCRAMBLED. Cause Mahathir was done announcing the sponsors and we still didn't have the results.

I had to squat down for a moment to gather my thoughts before I totally went nuts.

Then we were all like, crowding around the papers, dashing out:

"Okay, sape overall?"

"I need everyone to look at the drama sheet, the drama sheet."

"Lin, SAPE OVERALL WINNER???"

"Purnama Sari! Purnama Sari!"

"Best actor? Best actor?"

"Just give me a name!"

"(read off judging sheet) Yang pakai baju merah..."

"Sape yang pakai baju merah!!!"

"OHMYGOD!!!" (this is probably me being totally stressed and unhelpful)

"Mat Jenin, Mat Jenin!"

"You sure???"

And all the while, Mahathir was going back and forth, on and off stage, entertaining the audience while we figured out the winners. His booming voice, "Apasal lambat sangat hah!", was half-making me go into hysterics.

GOODNESS.

That whole 5 minute fiasco has made such precious memory now. I'll never forget how crazy it was. HAHAHA.

Wooooooooooooooooooooooh.

I'm glad we all stuck by pentas budaya.