going full throttle to made a difference

that is the tagline of the formula one (F1) themed ‘light speed’ gala charity dinner held yesterday at the traders hotel, penang.  it was held on 31 march to co-incide with the F1 racing that will be held this weekend at sepang   all the decorations were themed F1 of course.  (for example , see the photos on my facebook photo album and the photo here – this was on every table – left was the menu/programme while on the right, on top is a model F1 car and 2 square boxes with some screws on them. centre of table-cloth show the racing track.)

the dinner was organised by the shangri-la  group of hotels (rasa sayang resort, golden sand resort, traders hotel), as part of their corporate social responsibilities (CSR) for the lighthouse, a drop-in centre, part of the catholic social arm in penang. they planned to raise at least RM70,000 – all for lighthouse.

the dinner was titled ‘light speed’ with the theme (tagline) ‘going full throttle to make a difference’. thus it was a formula one (F1) theme dinner, so you’ll notice the decoration of FI and the title of the food too based on F1.

all our staff went for the dinner and we took the silver table (RM2000). there were also the platinum table (RM3000) and gold table (RM5000). each table had 8 persons and the menu was western style set – 6 course menu.  since this is so far the most expensive dinner i attended (and of which i enjoyed very much) i had better blog about it for record purpose!

there was a cocktail reception before the dinner and i really enjoyed the cocktail as there were so much free flow of alcohol! red wine, white wine, beer, apple juice,  orange juice. i took both the red wine and white wine! had wanted to take the beer too but i felt a little bit giddy already after the 2 glasses of wine. hehe. but then when i went in for the dinner, i took again another glass of red wine.

oh the food was lovely. the menu are:

1st course – red, amber, green… go!

sicilian crab cake with red chili remoulade sauce.

2nd course – take the lead

fresh pumpkin cream soup with powdered pumpkin pizza

3rd course – slowin’ down

raspbery granite

4th course – head to head (main dish)

i.  grill fillet mignon with spring vegetabls, mash potato, dried fruit compose and beef au jus

ii.  baked fillet of salmon with braised leek, spring vegetables, mash potato and dill be blanc

iii.  wild mushroom serudel with artichoke bolgnaise, sweet herb pesto and micro sprout

5th course – final lap for a sweet win

tiramisu with espresso sauce and fresh berries

6th course – first to the line

coffee and tea

and there were 2 bottles of wine – red and white (condor peak cabernet sauvignon 75cl, leconfield synergy shiraz) accompanying all tables! a nice surprise was that towards the end, there were 2 plats of chocolates – small bite pieces chocolates, many different types. (red wine – )

the emcess for the day were JD and dilly from red fm radio station. penang chief minister, YB lim guan eng was the special guest and he gave a short speech.  first entertainment was from the bluebirds band, followed by LCD presentation on the lighthouse project by the penang shangri-la group.

then the highlight of the event came – eddie and the robbers band!  who is this eddie? he’s eddie jordan, former BBC F1 presenter, now playing drums with two of his band members on guitar. wow! they were great! and they started with a song i love too – sweet dreams by annie lenox. in this picture second picture here you can see eddie jordan with the pretty F1 umbrella girls.

to see more photos, please go to my facebook photo album. i only have 12 photos up anyway, though i had taken over 100 photos. since my colleague, stanley, had uploaded lots of photos already (some including taken from me), i feel not necessary to upload more on my own. further, i actually prefer to upload my photos at my own photo gallery than on facebook but these days my photo gallery site seems to have problem so can’t access it. am still working on the photo gallery site to made the site accessible.  you know lah, facebook is not owned by me, the photos will disappear one day (or one day facebook will start charging for uploading of photos!). it’s better to have good, important photos on my own photo gallery with my own hosting.

the 3rd picture here shows YB lim guan eng talking to lighthouse chairman, with the bishop of penang (right) looking on.

final photo here you see yours truly in the centre. yeah i know i look fat… that’s why i need the nu skin TRA slimming programme.   🙂