Taizo's Birthday & Open House

Another reason to party...

It being a Chinese New Year and also coincide with Taizo's birthday, he decided to have a party and many of us were invited and of course, present ourselves.

The few of us decided to get him a barrel of beer, whereas other comes with their own assorted presents and whatnots. For us the beer group, our Mary Wee designed a very beautiful card and I got everyone who contributed to the pool to sign on it. This is what the card looked like, it was made with such TLC and written with so much sincerity that I think this card is one of the best I have seen so far.











This is how the barrel of beer after installation looked like and Cathy's sister officiating it.





The cake blowing session, with birthday boy making his wishes.







It was a night of laughter, merriment and full of joy, peals of laughter were heard, people chattering the night away and there was even time for posing for some photo shoot!!







As usual, long night, even when everybody says time to go home, everyone would still lingers on for another few tens of minutes, like this.





For more photos, go here.

Chinese New Year Get Together

New update.

Venu just uploaded some new eve photos, accessible here.

I can see lot of smiling faces, laughter and merriment going around. It was satisfying to see all these happy faces. Truly an unforgetable first time experience for us, the organising committee.

And special thanks to one of the cameraman, Venu, for capturing these precious moments.

On another note, we had another eating session, yesterday, at my place. I didn't get to call everybody because I don't have everybody's number, or probably some did not receive my sms or probably I got some of the numbers wrong. I was hoping that words would pass around, apparently, our Glenmarie's Residents are very private lot, we don't tell...the lot of us should be politicians instead, hahaha. I ended up with lot of foods and by the look of it, I might have to eat the same re-heated food for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper for the coming few days...the horror of it!!!

A recap of people who spared their time were Anita, Patma & Sheila, Taizo & Chris, Taizo's parents, Jeff & Cathy, Ian, Teh & Pat, Nicky & Doris, Joe & Stella, Albert & Agnes, Tony & Mary, Mary Lowdik, Nazer, Mano, Thana, Azlan & Bad and a few others. Can't recall all of them. For those who did not, well, if ever, ever you all heard someone's organinising a party, especially with tent put up, AND one or two of your neighbours are invited, chances are, you would be welcome with an embracing arms, so, do pop in. After all, the food is all there and the company is there too..

I didn't take any photos but I believe someone did, if ever I get hold of it, I will put a link to it. Meantime, enjoy your new year, many happiness for the year and years to come, to my GC extended family, you guys are a great REASON for organising a party. I sincerely hoped that everyone had fun and I hope any shortcomings on the host's part will be excused, not executed.

Note From Geraldine Wee

Tick tock tick tock, it is like more than a week since New Year. Time do flies, don't they?

I got an email from Geraldine, who we got to know when Tony and Mary Wee had their Christmas party and she asked me to post her message to everyone. I have sent it to our mailing list, for those not in the mailing list, here is the message :-

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Hi everyone in GC!

Just a quick note to say that it was good to put a face to a name when I met you all over C'mas. Mom and Dad are always talking about 'GC this, GC that' so it was great to experience it firsthand.

It was really nice to see how close everyone is - that is, you all hang out together not just because you're neighbours and have to, but because you all genuinely like each other and want to hang out! And boy oh boy did I witness just how much hanging out you did. Seriously, think you guys were more happening and had much later nights overall than I did when I was back home.

I am relieved that the move from PJ to Klang has gone smoothly for my parents. At first we were all like 'Are you mad, you know how far away Klang is????'. Then when we saw the place we were like 'What, no grills?? Safe or not??'

But it feels safe in GC (and hope it stays that way too going forward). Mom and Dad have plenty to keep them busy so a big THANK YOU to you all for looking out for them.

Happy New Years to all and here's to 2009 being a good year for GC, as the community and it's members grow from strength to strength.

Cheers!
Geraldine

On behalf of GC, I would also say nice knowing you and don't worry about your parents, they are some of the nicest people around and inevitably, nice people will get nice and caring friends. Trust me, as Chinese New Year is just around the corner, your parents will be very busy attending parties and feasting again. Over here, people in GC are excellent in partying and having good time and feasting and all things nice.

Pictorial And "Advertisement"

I wonder whether some of our neighbours would be interested to let their house interior's picture be taken and be made into a glossy magazine? I am trying to get a friend to do some photography and it would be nice to get a group, instead of my house only. Sampler of his works can be found here. Anyone interested? I am still trying to get the costing for printing it into a glossy magazine form. It will be interesting to see how, in the eye of artist, how our houses would be pictured?

On another note, I was informed by Sheila that Pastor Joe's church is on fund-raising drive and that, this coming Saturday, they will have a fund-raising dinner. I don't have much details, probably those interested to participate, or contribute, or purchase the tickets, can get in touch with either Sheila Padmanathan or Joe and Stella themselves.

Irregardless of your own personal belief, a good cause is a good cause and deserve some support, contributions in any form would definitely be a welcome. I am not Christian but for this good cause, more so because I count both Joe and Stella as friends, beside them being some of the more involved residents in our neighbourhood's activities, I personally will get a ticket in support of our friends' mission, "crusade" if you may.

Those who don't have their numbers, leave a message at the comments box and I will relay them to you.

I do hope that as in everything else Glencovers does, we will do Joe and Stella honour as their friends.

Countdown 2009

Pheww, for the organinising committee of this countdown party, we can finally have a peaceful sleep. My "investigation" revealed that a majority of us, yours truly included, have been having sleepless night for the few days leading up to the countdown party. There were so many last minutes loose end to tie up and finally, it was all system go and whether we did a good job or not, it is for the participants to judge themselves, though I must say that those who knows how to party, have a good time and those who are still shy, there is always next year.

I didn't have opportunity to snap pictures, but I do know that Zafri, Venu, Tony and a few others took loads of photos. So, while waiting for the photos, I will attempt to capture some of the moments of last night in here.

Before I do that though, I think our Event Head, Ms Agnes Lim deserved to be awarded a medal for doing a great job, she was the busiest person yesterday night and doing 1001 things, without which, many of the things would not have gone so smoothly. Her kids, Michelle and Andy manned the reception. Also, she prepared the finger foods when the caterer was delayed by an accident. Organising the event, taking the lead in the party and many many other things that I didn't notice personally but I know she did it, out of passion, responsibility and love for the community. A big bravo Agnes (you are staying on permanently on this job, I'd say)

Of course, the rest of the organising committee for job greatly done, I will list here and any good Glencovers should thank them when you all see them during your evening walk, gym time and whatnots.

a) Mary Westholt - for wrapping the presents and making the whole presentation looked like a million dollars!!! And walking around the neighbourhood with Sheila selling the tickets and promoting the event.




b) Nicky and Doris - for running up and down to buy things, get things organised, leading some of the games etc.

c) Mary Wee - for arranging the presents for the carollers.

d) Sheila - for aggressively promoting the event and selling the ticket, at the same time assisting Mary for presents et al.

e) Tony, Dahlia, Penny, Albert, Padma, Jeff and Cathy - for assisting in organisation of the event.

And a few others who chipped in but probably skipped my mind, of course, the things everyone mentioned above did was not limited to that stated, it was definitely more than that, I am just listing what little I can remember. Of course, not forgetting the sponsors for the presents, Ganesh & Prames, Rajan, Syed & Sharifah and yours truly lah of course.

The event started around 10.30 with speech from Penghulu. Then some game, some lucky draws and we were at the eve of the year already. A quick countdown by Nicky and lighting of fireworks, again, sponsored by Ganesh and Prames. Everything goes so fast that I don't really recall the chronicle of events, suffice to say that it went as well as I could wish for and I am really going to let the picture tell the stories, later, when I get the photos, of course.

But some of the guys stayed on after the event proper, I was with them until 4.00 a.m and I think, most of them would have watched the dawn of a new year by the riverside as it was only 2 hours to go for that view. We shall know later.

Well, that's about all that I am going to write about this party, until I remember more. I do hope everyone enjoyed themselves.

Security Issue - Tony's Response

My good neighbour Tony is an avid angler/fisher/fish catcher. Apparently, he has seen his share of outsiders in the precinct in unearthly hours and following was his comment to the security issue posted earlier (it can be found under the main post too) - I am reproducing what he saw and along with his suggestions that I totally agree.

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tony wee has left a new comment on your post "Security Issue":

Yes, yes Thomas. I agree 100%. The tight security is one reason we bought into this community, but recently there have been many "friends" who come fishing at the pier. sometimes overnight.

Perhaps one way is to insist that all who come in are not only registered, but that the host must stay with the "guests" all the time.

Another point to note is that the pier is often left very messy after their fishing session, and I have seen them climbing into the residents' boats. If they are residents and children of residents, we can always talk to them, but being strangers, its more difficult. Hope the Glencove CEO is reading this blog.

Unquote

I share Tony's sentiment and now, knowing that they don't even have respect for resident's property when they are guests, do we still want to be lenient? What if they are no more resident's friends or if someone posed as resident's friends? It is food for thought and we are the long term resident here, our collective decision in this matter is crucial to determine what kind of neighbourhood we actually want??

Security Issue

The people in Glenmarie Cove really knows how to party and have a good time. One after another, we have drinking, eating, singing, jamming, gossiping, story telling and whatnots. A fine example of community living at it best. Slowly but surely, most of the main residents are getting to know each other pretty well and glad to note that, most do get along pretty amicably too, except for a few, which is common, as perfection is an ongoing process, if it is already perfect, then there is nothing to pursue anymore, right?

Well, during the parties, where I am pretty much a listener, I noted that many residents noticed that recently, there has been many outsiders coming and going at our precinct at their whims and fancy. Standards of security seemed to be going down. There has to be some sort of control to stop outsiders from coming in by just saying they are visiting a friend, especially at unearthly hours.

Even personally, today, I got back from a function in KL and reached the first guardhouse around 11.50 p.m. In front of me, there was a motorcycle. I saw the guard pointing to the Sri Santai but the motorcycle just turned left, without registering. I wind down my window and asked the guard, who were the two people. He told me that they were the friends of some residents, coming in to FISHING!! Apparently, he must know them, otherwise, how would he know they are just coming for FISHING?


I told the guard, why are they not registering at the counter Sri Santai? He immediately talked into his walkie talkie to ask the 2nd guard at the second guardhouse to turn them back to register.

My grouse now is this :-

At 11.45 p.m, can a visitor just be let in without verification with the resident? can the "visitor" just mention to go fishing and they are friends of A resident and be let in? It is fine if residents don't want their visitors to be hampered, but at 11.45 p.m?? Shouldn't the guard at least be calling the resident to verify and get the resident to vouch for this visitors? They are not even really visiting the resident but coming in to FISH, on the pretext that the resident is waiting for them. I think late night visitors should be subjected to more stringent procedure and may even need the resident to vouch PERSONALLY, or pre-alert the guards on late night visitors.

Also, what about the overnight visitors? (Taking this two fellows on motorcyle, if they are fishing, they would be "stay" overnight? Are we sure they are just "fishing"? Do we want to care?) Shouldn't the security be informed too by the residents? At least as a courtesy to other neighbours. We are all sharing the same precinct. Do we really want to wait for something untoward to happen before we put in all the precautionary deterrents? Do the residents want to cry over spilled milk?

I have also noticed on a few occasions that contractors (I am assuming it is contractor) that just come in, passed the first guardhouse and proceeded to the second guardhouse, without going to Sri Santai either. Then, they will wait at the second guardhouse for the security guard to open the boomgate for them. What I am not pleased about is that the guard DO open the door for them, probably they know each other well but procedure is procedure and it is put there for a reason! Start bending rules and regulations, that is where the problem all starts. On many occasions too, I observed that people leaving in cars and motorcycles waited at the second guardhouse for the security guard to open the boom gate for them. Meaning, they didn't register too, because otherwise, they would have their own touch and go key to slot in to open the gate!

I will definitely highlight this to the management and the security company, and our penghulu, after hearing it from fellow residents and observing it myself too. Most of the people in Glenmarie Cove are bought in the security and leisure lifestyles offered here. If we want to have strangers loitering around our neighbourhood, we don't have to pay a premium for our property and monthly security fees to get that. Any taman will have strangers loitering around anytime of the day and we can get that for free elsewhere for that matter, why pay for it?

Discipline has been wanting, rules has been bent, it is high time things are being righted. It is really a lovely neighbourhood with lovely people and we really don't wish to have any untoward incident to mar such a blessed place. Some residents might not like a strict enforcement of rules but if the majority requested so, the minority has to follow, that is called democracy and majority rules. The interest of the majority has to come first, I guess, though it sounded selfish but we just couldn't risk polluting a well just because some people refuse to take joint care of it? Granted, we are not under siege but everything starts small, to snowball into something that might be regretted later on. Nip it at the bud, like our penghulu always advised us.