Accenture BUM 2007

Note: This post is long.

Over the weekend, I attended my company's annual trip to Somerset in Rompin at Pahang. We got up super early on Friday so that we could be at the Taman Jaya LRT Station at 6.30AM. However, knowing Malaysian timing, we didn't leave till it was 7.30-7.45AM. During the journey, they showed a DVD movie; 200 Pound Beauty. Gosh that was funny. However halfway through the journey, I could not enjoy the movie as we took a turn to the trunk roads and it was really winding; twisting back and forth. Since I was sitting in the front of the bus, I was really uncomfortable and at one point wanted to throw up. Thankfully, the roads started to straighten out and I managed to continue watching the movie.

Day 1

Shortly after that, we arrived at Somerset Resort and we checked in. I hence realized that I've been there before during one of the treasure hunts I participated. Strangely though, I only remembered the floor tiles in the toilet and nothing else. Lol! Shortly after that, we adjourned for lunch in the lobby and I met many people I wanted to meet. People from the TM project, UOBM project as well as people who will be joining the Maxis Project soon.

After lunch, we adjourned to the Octopus Hall for the opening ceremony of BUM 2007. The committee put up a presentation for us with Beng Choon appearing as Jack Sparrow to officially launch BUM 2007. After a quick speech, we all split up to our individual departments and have a short community meeting. I left the meeting early after Janet gave us the green light to go for our new-joiners performance rehearsal.

The Dining area at the beach

My group met up in the beach with our props and we ran through our lines and I tried to get everything thought up. Problems that could occur like is it too windy? Will the sound play? What if the music suddenly stops? Will the slides come in on time? Eventually our time came and we hence had to perform. Our group was asked to perform under the category of "others" and given a theme of "JAWS"

Our performance is supposedly a fashion show with a small twist. It's basically a fashion show with a mini skit in it. Let me try to run through the performance with you all. It starts out with a fisherman going out onto the stage and says "Haih, Saturday also have to work". The screen shows "Oh no, it's Just Another Working Saturday". (Do note the Acronym of JAWS). Then the fisherman continues "Eh where are all the fish?" At that moment, our narrator will then say "Unknown to him, some sharks decided to have a fashion show where he is fishing. Presenting the various species of sharks". At that moment, the next slide comes in with the music of "Tiesto - He's A Pirate (Remix)" playing in the background.

The narrator continues by saying "Great White Shark". At that moment, our great white shark will come out acting super aggressively in front of the crowd. After some parading, he will stand beside the fisherman. Next is the Hammerhead shark. We got one of the girls to do this role with her hair tied up like pig tails on the side. She comes out and looks really cute with her prop attached on her head. Next is the Tiger Shark. This time, a guy comes out with a golf stick and takes a swing on stage. (I hope you guys get the joke :P).

After that, the narrator says "Now presenting, the latest species of sharks... Loan Sharks!" The 2 loan sharks goes out with the song of "Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz - Get Low" playing on the background. One of the loan sharks was me and we both try to act like some hip hop rapper or something like that. Once we reach the front of the stage, the music stop and one of the loan sharks goes, "Yo yo yo! Whats up? Are you guys in debt?" This is followed with the other loan shark saying "Do you need money? Don't worry, because all you need is us! Cause we Janji Ada Wang Selalu" (Do note the Acronym again) This is then followed by the other loan shark saying "Yes That's right. There is no need for Form J, Guarantors or 6 month of account statements". Then the other loan shark will say "But! If you don't pay! We Janji Anda Worry Selalu!.... Like you! where is the money you borrowed for the 37" LCD TV?" Then the other loansharks says "You! Where is the money you borrowed for the BUM alcohol fund?". We both then turn to the fisherman and say "YOU!!! You can't run now! We got you!" We both run to him and chop him with out makeshift parang. The sharks around starts sniffing and then smelling blood shouts "BLOOD!" and chase all of us down the stage.

That ends our performance. I find it really good but unfortunately, we didn't win any prize due to the fact that I actually forgot a line and froze in front on stage and also our presentation was a little short. Oh well. Never mind. It was good fun anyway :)

Avoid the pool

After the performance and dinner, the dunking session opened as well as the drinking session opens. I went to my project's table and immediately was forced to down a glass full of Chivaz in one gulp. I don't know why but I did it thinking that it would be less stressful if I were to down it all at one shot. I quickly left the table after that. Since I didn't want to be dunked or get drunk, I started walking around making sure that I'm about 20meters away from the pool.

Someone lit up a Campfire

Walking around, I composed the following on my phone.

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Here I am alone, walking around composing this message while the song Valentine's Day by Linkin Park plays. Far away I hear cries and screams of various people getting dunked into the pool. I cannot go near there as they will either dunk me or force me to drink up the various alcohols available on the table. I dislike the idea of getting dunked and getting drunk. Is this considered fun? If the people are enjoying it, why can't I enjoy it? Is this the change I'm talking about? Am I supposed to follow the trend/flow of change? But if I don't like it should I follow them?

---

After composing that, I walked around the beach to see what is going on. I was welcomed by really loud music and the various people dancing to the music. It really looked like the scene from the Basshunter MTV video clip. I couldn't stand the loudness of the speakers and I went to my room. I fell asleep shortly hoping the next day, I wouldn't feel like this; longing to be with someone, someone to talk to who share my same ideas/opinions.

Day 2

I woke up and headed for breakfast. I met up with some UOBM project members and had lunch with them. After that, we adjourned to the beach to find our game team members. There were 24 game teams in total and even with 4 teams at a game each time, it was all coordinated very well and for once I'm not complaining in the games session of a camp. Thumbs up for the committee. After a tiring and fun time, we headed for lunch.

From Left: Lai Ling, Vincent, Eileen, Lai Yee

After lunch, its an optional choice of activities to be done. You can choose whether to play the court sports like badminton, tennis, ping pong, water polo, and some others or go jungle trekking or canoeing or kayaking or cycling. I met up with Eileen and she wanted to play volleyball. I have no idea how to play it but decided to join in for a while and try to learn the game. Sadly to say, I have a problem playing that game as

1) My hand eye coordination is bad. I tend to miss the ball when I try to hit it
2) When the ball is near me, I tend to run away from it

My project members playing volleyball

So I just observed the game and took some pictures of the people playing it. I walked around and took more pictures. While going around, I found Wai Kit and we went to his room to rest a little while. At 3pm, we decided to head out to the beach as there will be some various games where one could win some prizes. One of the games was to blow 3 balloons and let it burst. The game already started when I was there. It was quite funny to see some of them struggle to blow the balloon and some of them struggle to get it to burst even when the balloon is awfully big.

The balloon blowing/bursting game

While watching, I met up with Eileen and she asked me to join her and Lai Ling to go on a bicycle ride. This is the first time I rode a bicycle after many many years. I think the last time I rode a bicycle was when I was primary 6. Anyway, like driving, once you learn it, you won't forget it. I got the grasp of it and started riding with them around the resort. We explored around and found a NS camp there. We didn't enter as we don't want those NS recruits to randomly shoot a bullet into our heads :P

We cycled past the canoeing/kayaking place

We headed back and as I was getting off, I lost my balance and fell off the bike. Gosh it was quite embarrassing. Thankfully, there weren't any injuries. Lai Ling invited me to play carrom with her and it was a really frustrating game as we tried really hard to pot the seeds into the pockets. Eventually it was almost time for dinner and we went back for a shower and then had dinner at the beach.

This time I decided to hang out with the UOBM guys as most of them don't seem to be the one who drinks nor dunk people into the pool except some few cheeky ones :) Just need to avoid getting close to the pool with them behind me and never let go of the camera.

I eventually joined Kok Sheng and 5 others in playing this card game called "Bang!". It was fun as we try to kill the sheriff while the sheriff tries to stay alive and kill all the outlaws. After learning the game, I played 2 rounds and then left at 12am. Shortly after a walk around the beach, I went back to my room and fell asleep while watching a movie. A good day and a good night.

Day 3

Woke up at 7.00AM and headed to the dining hall for breakfast. I can't believe that there was no one in the dining hall. I hence went back to my room and watched a little bit of TV till 8.30 and then headed out. This time there were a lot of people and after eating with Zi Qian and Wai Kit, I left to get my bag and headed to the hotel porch to get on the bus to get back to Taman Jaya LRT station.

The bus journey took 6 hours as we were stuck in a jam in every highway we got on. Got back home at about 4pm and only had lunch then.

In Summary

BUM was fun but tiring. It might be more fun if you drink and if you welcome yourself to be dunked. (Although I still don't think it is).

Anyway, that's it! I hope I didn't bore you all to sleep. :)