Boys' Concert Part I - The Preparation

“I’m excited”, that was the first words that came out from Idlan’s mouth that morning as soon as he woke up. It was his school concert day, and he knew he had to be up early to be at the concert hall by 10. It was just past 7.30, and he was getting anxious that we might be late. I remember from last year that the concert used to start after lunch. It would start at 11 this time around, and it was at a new venue as well, about 15 minutes drive from here in Sentul. A newly renovated Chinese school event hall. A nice little place but less spacious than the previous hall the concert was held in Cheras.

Idlan's hair full of gel and glitterFirst order of business was to get the boys ready. Puan Anita had to dress them and sort the make-up and hair. No complains from her as she seemed to have enjoyed that a lot. Foundations, lipstick, eye shadow, the whole nine yards. It was bordering on child abuse to be honest! I am sure some of the photographs wiil haunt them for the rest of their lives should their future girlfriends got hold of them!

Last minute practice

We finally got everything ready by 9.30. Tok Abah and Tok Mak went along, and we finally got to the venue by 10.15. We were hardly late. After sending the boys off to the teachers, we went on to take our seat in the main hall. The hall itself could easily have accommodated 3000 people. It was three-quarters filled up by the time the show started. The hall was very well sign-posted from Jalan Genting Kelang. In fact, we scouted the hall earlier in the week. Unfortunately the parking space was rather limited, and we had to park our car at a nearby parking lot and walk across. It was a bit of a hassle for the grandparents. The entrance was only a floor up by stairs, although the stairs were rather steep. 

Tok Abah and Tok Mak at their seats. Tok Abah looked like Simon Cowell with the stare.On taking our seats, we noticed that there were a couple of big screens on the sides of the stage. There were video cameras recording the whole show and the feeds were projected straight onto those screen. Therefore, we did not have to rush to get a good seats in front. My Dad preferred to sit near the toilet due to his medications. Anita sat with her parents, but I sat nearer to the aisle to be able to sneak onto the front during the performance to take some photos.

Irfan ready to take the stageBoy! Does he look excited?These must be for the welcoming parade

The boys seemed pretty settled when we left them with the teachers. The had their final costume adjustments and final make-up applied. We were worried that Irfan would throw a scene, but he was completely cool with things instead. Idlan never had a problem mingling around with his classmates. He was certainly having fun with them, joking around and pointing out at their costumes.

We finally got ourselves settled in and the call were made when the VIP arrived for the opening ceremony at 11. I will write about he show on the next entry.

The slideshow can be seen through this link. Here is part II of this entry.