University of Newcastle Graduation 2009

Had some difficulty waking up in the morning. I felt so tired. It was such a good weather to sleep in too. I quickly prepared myself and off I went to take my bus. I was really lucky that my bus came when I reached the bus-stop. Not much waiting and I did not miss the bus.

I reached my workplace relatively early. Chatted a little with Uncle Jimmy while waiting for the cleaner to refill the toilet paper for me. After all the preparations were done, it was time to get started with work.

Patrons gushed in to the house after we got our instructions from our in-charge. There was a moment of confusion due to a conflict in the instructions given. Bottle-neck. Glad that it was solved in a moment. The few minutes that I took to locate BT seems like hours as the patrons were accumulating at door three. Scary.

The chancellor seems friendly. He seemed to be the emcee for the whole show. He was "in-charged" of telling the patrons what was going to happen next, from the presentation of certificates to the performance by a performing group. According to BT, for serious graduation events, there usually would not have any performance at all. Was a litle shocked to see that there was a performance as the organiser was predominantly "angmohs". It was usually perceived that events by "angmohs" are more strict.

The performance was by a performing group in the school. They performed a traditional Indonesian dance. To some, it may seems very funny as it was not the type of performance commonly seen. It was really a great artistic performance as lots of coordination was needed. I can see that they had put in a lot of effort in rehearsing to make it so perfect.

It was the long presentation of certificates after the performance. I was rather annoyed by one of the photographer who kept taking pictures of the graduates that walked past me. Can't he just stand elsewhere to take pictures of them? The constant flash was rather annoying. Furthermore, I do not like the idea that I am at the background of the photos.

Heard that there was a delay in the timing but we got to have our one hour lunch after the first shift. I was hoping that the event would drag so that I can don't have to walk all the way to amoy street. We had to travel there in the end. It was a good chance for bonding. BT bought some fried stuffs to treat us after lunch. I took my favourite "youtiao". Yummy! Thanks Anna for helping me to take my stuffs back as my hand was too oily to touch my stuffs.

It was a rush as we need to punch in for the second shift. I really prefer the one hour to be deducted off rather than punching in a second time. Before the second shift starts, I was flipping through the namelist of the graduates, trying to recall if a friend of mine was called out. The reason was that I saw his name in the booklet before going off for lunch. Was hoping to see him again as it has been years since we last chatted. Furthermore, it was him who wore the graduating gown and I don't think I have seen anybody that I known of wearing that yet.

Second shift was a little tougher as there were more patrons. Met some annoying patrons who thought so highly of themselves. I was also again annoyed by that photographer.

I think I was tired. Some patrons walked past me and I didn't realise. They almost exited from door four. My fatigue has affected my quality of work. The photographer caused me to move around to avoid his camera. This had kind of affected my work.

There were a number of graduates that were awarded with the title "doctor". They came in together with the staffs and chancellor during the procession before they receive their certificates. Cool.

As I was still hoping to see that friend of mine, I thought I saw him when a graduate walked past me. Thinking that it must be my the doings of my eyes, I ignored it.

I somehow still felt that the graduate that walked past me is my friend, so I took the booklet to check again after the family members were cleared, hopefully I can find some clue to my question. Checking halfway, I was asked to go over to door three to direct the graduates to door two. Walking towards door three, a graduate called out my full name and asked me why am I here. Looking up, I was shocked. As I don't really recognise him, I took his certificate and look at the name written on it. Yes, it was my friend. Wow. We had a super short chat before he went off. I was rather surprised that he still recognises me.

Frankly saying, I don't think I will recognise him if I had not visited his profile page in facebook by chance some time ago. He really had changed a lot. Anyway, mystery solved. Guess this was the first graduation ceremony that I had "attended" with someone I knew graduating.

It was the routine checks after the people left. It was really a "good harvest". I found quite a number of things. The most expensive of all was a black colour PSP. Wow. I didn't see it initially. Only realise it's presence when I pushed the seat a few times and it doesn't respond; the PSP was stuck at the side.

During debrief, feedback was that our quality of work was not good. According to BT, the reason was that the "angmohs" want something that is more customer-oriented. It was finally time to go home after all the administrative stuffs were settled.

Uncle Jimmy packed some leftover food from the reception. Before I left, he asked me whether I want to have any. It was my favourite tiny eclairs! What a coincident that I was asking him whether he had any eclairs before he opens the box. I ate three eclairs. The tasty chocolate cream just "explodes" in my mouth. Yummy!