While we can find already find Teh Botol at Ninso, another of Indonesia’s pride Good Day coffee is still not easy to come by. We had this coffee during our family trip to Medan and Yogyakarta many years ago. I ordered this coffee online via Shopee as part of my Teacher’s Day and Farewell gift. It is going to be part of the goodie pack that also has a golden spoon with it.
The cappuccino flavour was easy to order. The other flavours are mostly out of stock. I bought a big box of Good Day coffee. Inside the box, there are about 120 sachets. Plenty of leftovers to enjoy myself after I make the gifts.
The coffee is featured briefly in this video. It’s a snippet of Eid and the recent farewell luncheon we had at The Windmill Station at Bukit Beruang. I tried the Wes Anderson trend in the intro of this YT video instead of my usual one.
Organizing an event after the Raya holidays require determination cause not a lot of people will be in the mood. However, having this luncheon is important as it is a farewell ceremony to a very kind and hardworking Family Medicine Specialist (FMS) at our clinic. At first, I had wanted to wait it out and let someone with more calibre take on the reins and organize the luncheon. Time passed and the silence got more deafening, triggering this anxiety within me to just take the plunge and be in charge.
Good Luck in finding colleagues better than us 😛
At first, we wanted to do the farewell at the clinic but the usual seminar room is already booked for another function. A colleague suggested we bring this outside for a change. I welcomed the idea and soon enough we chose The Windmill Station at Bukit Beruang as our venue. I wanted to make the reservation a few days in advance but the manager told me to make the call again on the day of the event.
I really wanted this to be a luncheon fit for Pinterest. On a budget.
So, I had a few ideas in mind. A decorative table, door gifts and delicious lunch.
Decorative Table
I enlisted the help of my colleague, Erenna who is known as The Decorator. As usual, she makes decorating so easy and I tried my best to be of help by getting some stuff that may be useful for her project. I made a trip to Kaison and got some beautiful trinkets and fairy lights for the table. I was selective in my choices because I wanted things I could reuse later for other social events and even for my own home decor. Erenna helped me to choose some flowers and matching vases to go with it.
Door Gifts
I started very early with my Teacher’s Day gifts by ordering some Indonesian brand coffee, mini spoons and packaging. I thought I could prepare the same for the luncheon. Indeed I spent a few minutes of my night after work putting some love into the labour of assembling this door gift. I also packed some chocolates I got from Langkawi into small packages as an extra touch. I just hope they loved it. I DIYed the frame.
As for the farewell gift, I made the trip to the new IOI City Mall in Putrajaya to get a bag from Sometime for the boss. IOI is huge and I feel it’s a great place to hunt for gifts which are exclusive by our local designers. Will blog about it in a different post.
Delicious Lunch
Everyone gets to order an ala-carte meal with drinks with a budget of less than RM30 per person. On top of the meal, I also bought a cake from my favourite, Italy Bakery. This time I tried something new – Cranberry Chocolate cake. A small one with enough portions for 13 people and extra for the guy on lunch call.
Craving for Nasi Goreng Tomyam
Organizing a social event is fun when people cooperate and you have the money to do so. I am excited to take on further mini-social projects in the near time which include Bridal Room Decor (for Matin), Eid Adha, Aug-Sept birthday party, clinic Open Day, listening party etc. In the meantime, Semester 11 is starting next week. We will see if I have residual social stamina to keep going.
Planning and organizing this programme was a learning curve.
Human resource stuff. Funding stuff. Logistic stuff. Part of my miscellaneous task includes printing out certificates, present hunting and creating montage. This is my first time using Canva to create videos. I had no idea you could make one so easily. I am contemplating getting the Pro version. I was swayed to get Spotify Premium just for this event as I wanted background music to always play while participants were registering. So now there’s no more music interruption on Spotify and I can download my tracks to play offline.
One of the most valuable lessons was in communication. Learning how to talk to the boss, and team members (the good and the bad), physical communication, and online communication..
The beginning is always the hardest, once it looks easy, more people want to be part of it.
2. Teamwork Works when the Core Members are strong
3. Sometimes you have to be authoritative in your approach. Saya nak ni. Saya nak tu Sediakan bla bla bla
4. A multidisciplinary programme requires skills to not only work with the leaders of other units but also to overcome issues pertaining to the Generation Gap. Aged members or those too young may not understand where your ideas are coming from.
5. Having said that, we cannot change how other leaders choose to run their units. Especially when the practice is ‘ memang biasa kita buat mcm ni’.
6. Organizing a programme/outreach is fun when you have Money, Human Resources and No Redtapes. Nak pinjam board utk tampal poster promosi pun kena surat seminggu before programme. In the end, I used my Elaun keraian to support the programme. I printed out our own certificates using my trusted Brother printer at home.
7. Patients can change. Patients can improve with the right psychological state and an appropriate biological intervention
7. Malaysians enjoy free things – so we prepared mini goodies to bring back home.
8. To lead means having the skills to delegate – knowing who can do what task. Failure to do so results in the head shouldering most of the responsibilities. For some people we give instructions, and they can carry out and consult back accordingly. Some need to have their work scrutinized with frequent checks. Let’s just say that I learned my lesson.
9. Creativity means different to different people. What you imagine/envision may not be properly interpreted by some. So, if the results are acceptable, you kinda learn to just shut one eye.
10. Show up and face the challenges
The award recipients and The Team
I submitted our event to the International Diabetic Federation committee for consideration to be featured on their site. We will see how it goes.
With god’s will, we will plan more activities for Hypertension and Asthma next year.
In an interview, Suga BTS was once asked if he was given a chance, which song would he like to record or again or remaster as they call it. Namjoon made an educated guess by saying that Suga would record none. To him, whatever was produced at the time was the best version and effort they have put into the piece. I understood his point.
You should always create an output, even in daily life, your best. The best meal. The best of yourself and others. Of course, there are times when you are not at your best but always do something that will make you proud in the future. It will not be perfect but it will showcase your personal growth in mind and matter.
There are plenty of tips online on how to grow your Youtube channel. The most popular one I came across from a lot of video gurus is to be consistent in your uploads. Some even suggest daily uploads of anything. I don’t think I could do that as it will compromise quality and what I hope to show on my channel. So, this is the best I can do – weekly or 2 weekly uploads.
Minci Moss 