After all those preparations .. what can I say .. the day has finally come to celebrate the 15th year of existence of A + I Design specifically and the spin off of all the firm as a whole!
Just to give a feel why it is so important to celebrate even though it is only 15, not even 25 let alone 50 years. It has been a long and incredible journey for the office and the people in it, tested for endurance and patience. The founder a.k.a El, went thru hell and came back (literally speaking) .. with the discovery of her SLE when the office is barely 2 years old and still not that strong financially, project wise. She was in and out of the hospital so often that she had to rely on others to keep the office going.
Special thanks to all those people .. your help during those hard times will be duly remembered, and repaid if not in this life time, may be in the hereafter. Along the way some how things got worse, then miraculously better and manage to withstand the test of time and then some ... so we celebrate this 15th Anniversary of glory with much thanks to the Almighty.
Now let the show begin..... tra-la-la!!!! Our 3 MCs- Amri, As + Lina
Now, the entertainment .. the most favourite was the auction. To get the guests in the mood, we 'auctioned' 5 of our staffs so whoever 'bought' them will be served on hand and foot that night. We had, Tanggang, Cempaka, Cendana and ?? but the most popular that nite is Badang. He collected the highest bid when two ladies (mother and daughter) were trying to outbid each other! It was exhilarating .. to the ladies, I am sure. However, the mother later gave in and the daughter won the bid. We heard phone numbers were exchanged that nite between them .. but if there is a continuation to it, we will tell later ...
After the auction, the successful bidders were treated to a V.I.P treatment, ok... just serving them drinks + food. Of course the proceeds will go to our Amal + Ikhtiar Bakti fund, where we do our part to help the not-so-well off community.
We also had the 'poco-poco' (I know, how lame that sounds) but we got at least a quarter of the guest to join the stage with the rest of the A + I staffs dancing to the tune of Coldplay - Vida La Viva..
It seems that almost everybody knows this line dancing, so there is not much coercing required because as soon as the music starts, the staff took their place, some of the guests then, without much persuasion, jumped to join! Mind you, we have practised for at least 2 months prior to the Anniversary bash so if we seemed to dance better than the rest, you know why
The kids were awed too seeing grown-ups acting like they did + seemed to be enjoying ... and the adults too!
One surprise appearance was Bob. Bob is usually found on the hi-way waving his hand to alert drivers on road diversion ahead. But here, he is seen waving to welcome guests at the entrace as all signed the Guest Book.
Of course he was dressed as a pirate (probably the Somalian type, not Johnny Depp) and the orange hard hat is suitably covered. He was a favourite among the kids .. courtesy of Azam Propel and Azita Plus, thank you very much. Sorry guys that you were not there to see his transformation .. pretty awesome!
The night ended quite late .. and after all the guests left, we were busy cleaning up before leaving for the weekend. Tired, but enjoyed every minute of it and more. A big thank you to all friends, families and associates who had come and make our celeberation more meaningful. Hope we can make it to next significant anniversary .. 20 maybe??
