Sunday Concert

Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony 2011, swiped from SFA Union City on Flickr.

Went for my regular Sunday mandarin mass and later proceeded to Seri Petaling to share a bowl of dry Pan Mee with mum. Many makeshift food places had sprung up along Jalan Radin Anum in recent months. Seems that DBKL finally sanctioned their existence by allowing the temporary structures and even allowing water and power supply. Those who operate in the million-ringgit shoplots must be fuming. At 2:00pm, we proceeded to Hotel Seri Petaling to watch my nephew's 'graduation concert'. Kids these days. Sounds like a college convocation right? He hasn't graduated, but all the children were required to do a performance. All the parents were seated around the stage. Every performance would see a new set of parents sieging the front of stage, jostling with their iPads, cameras, videocams, iPhones, Galaxy SIIIs and whatnot to record their adorable child. And boy, were they adorable. Quite amazed that the kids could actually memorize scripts and perform in public. But of course, there were cases were some younger kids just refused to budge when the eyes were on them and started bawling. The teachers were definitely annoyed, but just kept a frozen smile and tried to prod the kid to continue (I bet the teachers grimaced and cursed under their breath). LOL. The whole thing was insterspersed with prize giving ceremonies for contests and academic achievements. The director came on stage to do the honours. Kids whose parents had not paid school fees were denied their trophies and were publicly chastized. It was all so dramatic. The kid who was crowned 'valedictorian' actually held up her giant trophy like it was a WWE championship prize belt! She was barraged by flashes of light. The emcee kept on repeating, "This is the moment we have all been waiting for!". Should get someone to write a better script. The performances were quite good with really good costumes (well, the parents paid for them). My nephew's performance was the "Boom Boom Dance". The kids held pom-poms and kept shaking their booty. I guess it's an apt name. By the time the kids dressed in rat costumes came on, I was on the verge of breakdown. Went home. But the main reason was that I did not pay for the MYR70 high tea! Luckily I didn't, mum said that the food was insufficient. Cheapskate organizers.

I remember my own concert. My class had to do a Chinese dance with soy sauce saucers fastened to our fingers with rubber bands. With each step, we would clack the saucers. Amazing right? Mum was the official seamstress who sewed the costumes. Something in light yellow satin with a red sash. I remember being the odd one out on the day of performance. I was the only one in thick makeup! My phoenix eyes were accentuated with eye shadow and the rouge! The rouge! The gayest in kindergarten. Go figure!

Do you remember your graduation concert?

P.S.: Talking about kindergarten graduations, I didn't get to wear robe and a mortar board! Both my brother and sister even had studio photos taken! Apasal I takde?