JF gathering... a sketchy account
okay, am going to blog abit about today's JF gathering... trouble is... i don't have any good pics.i'm serious... i have zero good pics.
and for the first time, i realised how reliant i am on my pics to write a good entry. you see, when you've pics, you can kindda 'rewind' the day's events in your head, guided by the sequence of the pics. and when you've pics, you can just write about the pics...
now, without pics to guide me, i don't know how to begin, and i don't know what to write about. omg!
for all the past gatherings, tiff had always been the emcee. i guess most of the JF members would agree with me that she'd always done a more-than-decent job. she's quick and she knows the ins and outs of JF and stuff... who better than she to host the gatherings, right? then coz of her 'joyous' condition, she asked to be let off this year. and for whatever reason, i was asked to stand in.
i actually said yes.
even now... for the life of me, i've absolutely no idea why i'd agreed to it. oh wait, actually i do know why i said yes. i've always wanted to help out, but i really don't have much skills like the rest of the girls. for instance, jes and kelly are really good in the creative sense; jos, julia and lynn are good with coordinating stuff and keeping track of stuff; jos also can do a mean video clip... others can pack and unpack really efficiently and effectively. me...? well, not artistically inclined, not domestically inclined, don't fancy dealing with details, don't like to keep track of things, esp finances... so, i always feel so ill-equipped to help.
whenever there're events and we would go early to help out, i would always be the one to stand around and not know where to begin to help. most of the time, i would just give up making a pretense of helping and just whip out my camera and start taking pics of the gals busying themselves. my contribution? maybe a blog entry of the behind-the-scene of the events. so... i was thinking, maybe i could just do this since i can't do the rest...
it's a crazy thought huh? not sure whatever possessed me...
basically i was away for ten days for work, then i was catching up with work the whole week i was back and then it's saturday already, the day of the gathering. at 2am last night, i was looking through the program sheet for the first time. and at 10am this morning, i was looking through our special guest, lee an's blog.
reached the venue (orchard hotel) at about 11am; most of the helpers were already there doing work. registration was supposed to start from 1pm, and the event proper would start at 1:30pm. and i still didn't find the time to sit down and run through the things i wanted to say. then i decided to be impromptu and take things as they come. it was too late to back out, and it was too late to feel nervous. i just told myself i was amongst fellow fans, and they knew i wasn't a professional emcee. and surely no one had died from doing a bad job of hosting an event, ya?
and since i was the emcee, i really didn't get much chance to snap pics... hopefully the other gals had taken good pics and would share them.
first things first, let me share kelly's artwork for this milestone. five years... it's a considerably long time for a fanclub huh? yea, happy anniversary, JF!
this was our welcome sign placed outside the ballroom where our event was held.
took these pics when i arrived in the morning. we had a turnout of 83 people, think we had 10 tables. and hey, they'd dressed up the table in pink! this princess does love pink!
oh, so there's a stage. i was half-hoping i could just stand up front and not have to go up-stage. the gals had also arranged a projector since we're playing quite a few clips.
preparation work... most of you probably don't know the amount of work that goes behind each event. there's the initial planning, then the gals have to get quotes, check out venues and work out logistics with the hotel. also need to arrange for door gifts, order a birthday cake, plan the display and even the little details like printing tickets and sourcing for lucky draw prizes.
even when all the preparation is completed, there's still quite abit of work to be done on the actual day.
like this morning, some gals were busy putting goodies into the goodie bags, some were busy with table arrangement, some were checking the projector, the PC, the clips and stuff, and hee, i even saw gals blowing up balloons.
we always have some sort of display going on at our gatherings. this time around, we decided to stick to the twssg theme, so there're two tables of twssg-related merchandise and items on display. some of these items are very precious, like the HUGE twssg picture book from japan and others. so the gals took care to wrap some of these items, and also put up little signs to remind fans to handle everything with care.
gals sorting out the display. you know, some of the gals really had alot to bring on-site. julia was responsible for collating the lucky draw prizes and auction items. so she came with a huge suitcase. the suitcase was even bigger than the one i'd used to go to japan for my 10-day trip. yea, it's that big. kelly nearly always showed up with a suitcase for gatherings too. she collects quite abit of BYJ items and she's ever so generous to share. so is esther, generous to share.
the before and the after of any event is always quite un-glamourous.. things are always strewn on the floor, we gals would be squatting and even heaving heavy stuff around... totally unfeminine, and definitely un-glam. again... the things we would do for a certain korean man!
the helpers at work... without their help, the event would not have been this smooth! thanks much much, ladies!
and oh... something exciting...
the gals had actually invited a special guest to grace the occasion. since we became bae fans, some of us started to embrace all things korean. so a few of the gals were kindda following lee an's singing career. so they thought since he's based here in singapore and has just launched his second album, maybe we could invite him to sing at our anniversary party... and so, he did...
he came in the morning to do rehearsal... these pics were taken when i was helping out with the photo display and he was singing on-stage. i didn't run to the front of the stage to take his pics like the rest of the gals. hehe, guess he ain't my type, although he did look very good in his album 2.5 released in korea.
oh man, this guy is tall!
keke, see the gals running up-front to take his pics?
oh, then they delivered our anniversary cake! unloading...
the cake! nice? i think so!!
sorry, bad pic. think someone would have better, brighter pics. my pics are really really really bad this time around.
and oh, like i was saying during the gathering. there're tickets and there're tickets.
honestly, the easiest way out would be to just print JF 5th Anniversary and then the number. we had to number each ticket and give out to the attendees for lucky draw. but no, our dear kelly's just like wuri yong joon, a perfectionist. she stayed up till 5am last night to do this!
do what, you ask?
see this picture of a hundred kings? well, this is a picture made up by 100 tickets. each ticket has a different image of wuri tae wang, you know...? so each of the attendees actually had a ticket that's, yes, numbered and unique too! she did two sets. one set for display, and the other set for us to cut up the numbered tickets to give out to the attendees.
hee, i chose ticket no. 44 (yon yon!!), but sadly, it didn't win me any lucky draw prizes.
me, with my yon yon ticket and goodie bag!
julia and me... taking a pic in front of the lovely, lovely, lovely tae wang posters! keke, julia's finger 'landed' on wuri yong joon's lips!
other than the two tables of twssg display, there were two tables of items for sale as well. one table was of nice and current merchandise from AS and also twssg. one table was of older magazines, older drama sets and items relating to older dramas.
sales proceeds from the first table were supposed to go to the singapore cheshire home, a charity organization that caters to the needs of the severely disabled people in our society. we also had auction items for this purpose. we always try and do our little bit for charity at our annual JF gatherings...
the second table of the older items were supposed to raise funds for the club.
again, i think the other gals had nicer, clearer pics of everything.
then the event began, and i don't have many pics since i was on-stage half the time. but just for the record, here's the run-down of today's program.
- registration & collection of door gifts
- lunch & screening of twssg special, part 2
- lucky draw (10 prizes)
- lee an's Q&A and performance
- lucky draw (10 prizes)
- game: scavenger hunt
- cake cutting & champagne popping
- group picture taking
- auction for charity
- reflecting on the past 5 years (clips of past events & gatherings)
i managed to take some pics during lee an's performance. and oh, it's a rousing performance. he was supposed to just do two songs, but the gals started shouting encore after he's done. and he obliged, choosing a fast dance number for the encore. but we needed sometime to draw up the projector screen to free up space for his dancers, so the gals took the opportunity to snap pics of him.
well, at first it was of him... then somehow it turned to taking pics with him.... and even when he was doing that last dance number, a few gals bravely marched up the stage to take pics with him whilst he was singing! and he also urged everyone on their feet...
see how most of the gals were standing? they're either clapping or swaying away with the beat...
well, the response to his little segment was great. and lee an even sold out all the CDs that his record company rep had brought to the venue. yea, he was doing on-the-spot autograph-signing, and he was also very obliging when it came to taking pics with him. oh boy, i saw some of the gals sharing a chair with him to take a pic... hehe, if only yong joon would let me do that!!
and oh, wuri yong joon did send us a little congratulatory message. JF was nice enough to make a copy of it for everyone to bring home. my heart leapt abit at the sight of the words singapore family. i guess at the point when he wrote out the word singapore, surely he thought of us alittle...?
and oh, he had signed this when he was still in NY. then he had it sent back to seoul, and then it came to singapore, hehe!
p.s. just in case you're wondering how i did as emcee.... well, i think i sucked at the job. i was speaking too quickly half the time, and i was just rambling on senselessly the other half of the time. some would say it was an impromptu and improvisational style, but i think i'm prepared to face up to reality, i was just ill-prepared and not quick enough on my feet... hehe, not when i'm on-stage anyway. funny, i've given speeches and done presentations, but this BYJ-event-emcee-thingy just seemed harder...
well, at least it's over now. and the best thing that came out of it was that i did a job so bad that no one would ask me to do it again, wakaka!
p.p.s. another little story from the gathering. since my mom likes wuri yong joon too, i decided to buy her a ticket and show her abit of the bae world. towards the end of the program, we did the charity auction. i had contributed a set of the twssg items from taiwan, namely, the twssg picture book, the twssg large poster-calender and also the small calender.
and know what? my mom didn't know i had contributed those, and she bid for it. so we sorta did 'double charity'.... i donated the items, and she bought them back, haha!
posted by bb @ 6/01/2008 01:24:00 AM
9 Comments:
ayo...why so modest all the time? you've written before how you don't actually get nervous before presentations (a far cry from the rest of the world) - i'm sure you were born to do these things.
Congrats to JF for their 5th Anniversary!
p.s. your mom is so cute - if mine knew she paid good $$ for all my boxes of "stuff" that she threatens to send to charity every day, I think she'll have a moment of unconsciousness :)
hihi bb,
thks for helping with the hosting and the helps u rendered yesterday. u did wonderful hosting yesterday (what about helping next year too :-) keke). at least u dun have stage fright which i believe most will hv if we were to address a group of audiences on stage. Give yourself plenty pat on the back. Job well done.
On JF's behalf let me thks u once again for the thingsd that u hv contributed for this gathering.
hehe oh dun forget we still hv to visit O dae yang for meal once everybody manage to get together.
cheers
Hi princess
Thanks for sharing, I enjoy reading your report very much.
And I agree with Mishio, you're too modest princess, I'm sure you did a great job there.
Congratulations to JF for their 5th anniversary !
hey mishio!
thanks for the blogging last night... really enjoyed it. and i sincerely hope you, your friends, my friends and our man enjoy the day :)
and... i really ain't being modest. yea, i don't get much of a stage fright and stuff, i was really bad la... i mean, i was only checking out the base prices of those auction items when i was on-stage, and i was not at all certain of the sequence of things... gosh, i only hope none of these were terribly obvious :p
hi hi julia!
hope you don't mind that i put up our pic up... anyway, you look nice and young and fresh and pretty in that one, so no worries, ya?
and... the contribution is not much... compared to the time that some of the gals put in for each and every event :)
yea yea yea... o dae yang!! when when when...?
p.s. keke, you won't want me for next year... tiff will probably be okay to do it then, and there's always ros, kaylin... and you :)
harlow camille!
thanks for coming by, and thanks for reading this :)
Dear bb,
Congratulations!! Wow! Glad to know that you all are enjoying yourselves!
Thanks for sharing!!
Loves, xiaoyi
Dear bb
Your postings are amazing with or without pictures... I love them.
Congratulations on your(our) 5th anniversary!!!
I love you guys~~.
oaktree
That is so sweet your mom bought them back.
Congratulations honey on your anniversary
Mooontime
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