As you may see from my previous blog, yesterday my family and I attended my sister's award ceremony for the Yayasan Tuanku Fauziah at the Istana Melawati, Putrajaya. The timing has been really a hectic and luckily I applied leave prior to the event. If I wouldn't have done so, I would not have made it to the award ceremony to personally see my sister receiving it. Of course, also the opportunity for me to step into the palace, meeting with all the important Dato's and Datins in Malaysia which is a real eye opener.
We arrived at the palace a day earlier to attend the rehearsal. The rehearsal ran pretty well. We had an opportunity to be up, close and personal with the Foundation’s board of trustees, Deputy Finance Minister Dato’ Dr Ng Yen Yen; YTL Corporation executive director, Dato’ Yeoh Soo Min; lawyer M. Rajasekaran and chartered accountant Raja Dato’ 
Azwane Raja Ariff where they are really a down to earth person, cracking jokes and laughing about, just like us despite holding such high positions. Besides, Dato' Dr Ng, is always emphasising on to thank parents of the award winners during the rehearsal for both my sister and Xiao Qing. Her emphasis on parents was really heartfelt, especially by my mom and dad. We went off at about 10pm however, they carried on having their rehearsal till about 1pm.
As the next day took off, my mom and sister went to set their hair while I went to One Utama to shop for the attire for both my dad and myself. We need to have a touch of purple on our suit as it was the theme for the night. He wore Dexter's lounge suit with a nice bow tie with a purple napkin on his left pocket whilst I wore my purple tie. I was surprise that both he and Dexter share the same body measurement. Despite the sling arm, it fitted him perfectly. My Dad was dashing, my mom was stunning in her baju melayu, my sister was dazzling, and of course, myself was handsomely charming... hehehehe...
After dressing up ourselves, we headed on to my father's place a little bit earlier to dress him up where my sister did her final touches to her nails and speech and then headed to the palace. We were pretty punctual to arrive at 6 in the evening. And the worst part is, it rains during both days, during the rehearsal and the actual 
day. Sigh. This time, I was smart. I drop them off at the porch of the istana whilst I walked myself in with an umbrella rather than having to see my mom running all the way from the parking lot to the istana doorstep like the day before. hehehe... imagine both she and my sister running on high heels and my father on his leather shoe and sling arm, getting themselves all soaking wet? And it would be far worst if they were to slip and fall. Shocking horror!
Whilst waiting for the event to start, we managed to have a conversation with Dato' Ir Robert Tan and Dato' Yeoh Soo Min both husband and wife speaking to both the parents and children. 
Another down to earth couple especially when Dato' Robert said "Don't call me Dato', Robert will do fine". And the diamond ring worn by Dato' Yeoh, sparkled all the way through to the back of my cornea, just like a laser beam. It was beautiful! Both my sister and Xiao Qing was having their interviews seperately as well. Later, they joined in for a photography session.
At about 9, the dinner started. We had the Royal band performing strings of quartet for us. The award took place right after the dinner with both my sister and Xiao Qing was tasked to convey a speech each. 
Whilst my sister was receiving her award from the Queen, I almost burst into tears thinking to mysef "The hardwork of my parents finally paid off and my sister really did them proud". The media was busy clicking the camera all the way through trying to capture images of photographs for their respective headlines. In fact, the event was apparently featured on RTM 1 as well. At the same time, I've also discovered that Xiao Qing's brother Tian Yu also covered the event of his version (http://www.xanga.com/siciliandragon). Check it out! It's cool. This is where when one could not resist the temptation of the event untill having to skip his revision for his SPM to create his debut. I enjoy his part where he captured a lady digging her nose. It totally cracked me up when he told me of his quest. He's observant!
I was pretty worried initially before the award presentation as my sister was complaining that her skirt was really tight. In the middle of dinner, she excused herself to the ladies and disappeared for almost 20 mins. Seeing her absence, my mother went to look out for her and she herself didn't turned up. I followed suit in hunting for both the ladies. And when I finally managed to find them, I found out that my sister was having tummy cramps due to the tight skirt which she no longer could wear which 'suffocated' of the stomach. She had to unbuckle and unzip her skirt in order for her to breath and walk properly. If not, she will faint. That is why, throughout the presentation award, during her most nervous moments, the nervousness was actually overulled by the fear of her skirts that could drop off right in the middle of the audience. Thank god it did not happened! If not, it would be a biggest headlines!
After the award event, the Her Royal Majesty, Queen sang a few numbers of ballads. The guess were invited to dance. My mom and dad danced, Xiao Qing's parents danced, she and her brother partner up and danced, my sister and I danced. Whilst bidding our goodbyes to the Royal family later on, Tuanku Faizuddin Putra cheekily throw in a question asking whether am I my sister's brother or boyfriend. This really cracked me up. Besides, I was pretty shocked that Dato' Ng actually observed me when she commented how good a dance I was and my dad, a talented singer. In fact, both Tuanku Faizuddin Putra and Raja Puan Muda Tuanku Lailatul Shahreen Akasha told my dad that they now know who to find if they need a singer, as my dad was invited to sing Il Mondo by Dato' Ng Yen Yen. Besides, my mom too was praised again and again on how elegant and beautiful she looked. The Datins taught her how to dance the line dancing when all the ladies were invited to dance including the Permaisuri and the Raja Puan Muda.
This came pretty unexpectedly and special. Indeed it was the most memorable night to being able to meet the King and Queen, to see my sister getting an award from the Queen (something which I will not be able to do, yet!), to see my parents dancing on each other's arms once again after so many years and most importantly, the 4 of us, having the chance of being together as a family! I think I treasure these moment most!
