today is the day of the PGA and PSA ceremony 2004. =)

got up at 6am..man. the guide uniform is really tedious to wear...never really expected it to be such a hard uniform to wear, but well, PGA has taught me much about the uniform that i've never knew ever since i joined guides. =/ hahas, this means that the juniors have to make alot of changes to their uniform too! lalalax. anyway, i only finished getting the uniform into perfect condition at 7am, yes perfect. that's what dear regina oon and ms jalilah wants. quote something that regina oon said,

"you all are PGA recepients, so we expect the best from you. the perfect. everything less then that will not be accepted."

as i said, hq people are all evil. wahha. okayy..they're nice when they can be lahx..yep. but the uniform part includes the tying of the troublesome scarf and the tying of my hair..have mom to thank for that! now i have pure wavy hair~ #grinx# wahahha. got a free perm for tying my hair in plaits for so many times...bleah.

anyway, reached hq at around 7.15am..then we finally left hq..don't know the time..cause hq didn't allow us to carry anything with us, which means, no bag, no money, no wallet, no handphone. so nice of them. anyway, we went to istana in a big bus..yep scouts and guides shared the bus. anyway, the atmosphere in the morning was quite fine, all of us weren't feeling stressed or anything. before entering istana, we hadta be checked. and as the security states, "we will check the girls with the least physical contact" =/ sheesh. in the end, he only asked us for our ic number and see whether it matches with our names on the paper. haha, don't even need body check.

got in..and the first word that came into my mind about istana was that. whoa. like oh man..the first thing i saw was a NINE hole golf course. can just imagine a golf course itself is already so big lohs..plus it's nine hole. then they had tennis courts, swimming pools, and my! the garden there is superb. the flowers are all flowering very beautifully, and the grass, not one strand is out of place. it's really like some kind of a painting, painted with extra care and neatness. hahas. the house itself is of course damn big. but we didn't had the time to go tour it..or should i say, we didn't even have the chance..=(

anyway, the ceremony was to be held in the State Room..after our uniform inspection, we started off with the rehearsals..the mood now was still ok..yeah..but time seems to fly very fast, and it was only after 3 rounds of rehearsals [the 3rd round being the full dress rehearsal] when parents started arriving and other guests. then we were told to report to the corridor outside the state room at 11am to get ready for the ceremony. meanwhile, we checked each others' uniform to make sure that everything was fine and neat. ahhh. okayy..

when it was finally my turn to go in to receive my scroll, of course i was nervous, scarly i screwed lehs..ahh. but i didn't lahx..wahha. marched up..saluted..greeted..received my scroll, shaked hands with Mr S R Nathan [ms j says we're not suppose to wash our hands now] whaha. then saluted again, marched off, once i turned to march off, i then realised how many reporters and camera man there were. all the flashes!! then all of us were like ahh..can't see le..but that wasn' t the worse part. after i received my scroll, made my way to the banquet room where the receiption would be held. the guides before me were all there, and we were all so excited cause everything was over..wahahha. then chieh hwee was like, oh man it was okay loh! hahas..=)) oh btw, Mr Nathan's hand is damn big and warm. wahahha..nice to shake de..once the scouts joined us, we all stood in our groups and waited for the Mr and Mrs Nathan to come around and take group photo..here, all parents and reporters and camera men started off their taking photo craze..cause in the State Room, all parents weren't allowed to take photos of their child while they receive the scroll..hahas..deprived of the chance, so now they had to keep taking. wahahah..

then we had individual photo taking session with Mr Nathan himself, his body guards are really strict,all have to stand at least 1m away from the President himself, then they were busy trying to keep families off from coming too near.=/ Mr Nathan is nice..hahas..cause when it was my turn, i went "hi Mr Nathan" and extended my right hand to him..then he almost shook my hands but suddenly went "oh no no.." and extended his left hand instead..wahhah. forgot to mention the fact that he's chief scout...oh yeah, all Presidents have to be chief scouts what..and next time sam says that she'll be the first lady president and her husband will be first man. wahhahaha. sheesh. it was damn funny lohs..cause all of us got it except jessica..hahA! then she so blurr...whaha. anyway, back to the photo taking, at first we wanted to take a nanyang group photo with Mr Nathan himself, mdm mak and ong..budden didn't had the time and we were ushered off to have tea with the First Lady. it wasn't really tea, but all of use, in batches, had to sit with her at the table and interact with her..yeah...it was really an honour actually. ha. then cause my group was the only group that brought our tea with us..well, actually we were the last group to be sitted with her, so regina woon had time to tell us to go get food..hahas then Mrs Nathan was very pleased to see that all of us got food..wahha so cute. =) she's a damn cute lady..short short de..and very pleasent.=) #smiles# she talked to us..then after that we hadto excuse ourselves for the photo-taking at the grand stairs.

okayy. HERE is where i felt what it was like to be a star..wahhaha. serious. and i bet everyone felt the same. man~ but it was tiring. once the guests realised that all guides and scouts had disappeared from the banquet room, they obviously followed us to see what was going on. all of us got into position, and were told to just stand there and pose, pose as in not that kind of modelling pose, but just stand there and smile. the scouts master told us that we were expected to stand there for around 10-15mins..wahhh. once the adults got the hang of what was going on, all we saw was flashes and flashes, and all of us were trying to keep our smiles on for so long. =// but that wasn't all..when Mr and Mrs Nathan themselves, plus the scouts and guides officials joined us, and the 2 security guards gave the cue to start the photo taking session, wahhhhh...SO many cameras flashing and flashing.....ahh. like some da ming xing. wahha. now i know why ms j says that for today, we're the stars. thought she was just saying it for fun or something, but now, i finally understood why she said that.

oh man!! then after that we went into the garden to take guides group photo again..people were commenting [all the evil people from hq =PpP] that all of us, have never looked so demour before. wah laus..ahhaha.. shimin and sam got interviewed..=) after we received our certificates from regina woon, we took somemore photos and finally, we were allowed to go. was damn tired after the whole commotion lohs..but i'm glad that the whole thing is over le lohs..cause it has been overwhelming! hahas..

yay. and of course, to have to chance to even go into Istana and come up close with the President himself, i have the school to thank, ng [i have to admit she did do alot for us], more importantly my parents, the support from the rest of the PGA candidates...and lastly and most importantly, God himself.=) yep. once i develop the photos, will bring school show you guys! hahas..yup.=)

all in all, it was a great and exciting and overwhelming but tiring day. hahas..

btw lowly, i took photo with regina OON. wahaha..she asked me go back and help out next year lohs!! wahaha....#smirks#