LIMA 2011: Part 1

My first completed job at Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition 2011!! In case you didn't know, my previous job lasted for only a day[Blog post: One day salary].heh

LIMA first started in 1991 and they have it every two years. And this year, I got to be part of the team! Gup, Char, Izzat and myself applied for the volunteer programme and got the job![Blog post: LIMA Briefing]

3rd December

I shall cut to the chase now since it's going to be a long post. All the volunteers together with Mr. Haswan, the person in charge of us, boarded the bus and we were on our journey to Kuala Perlis!

I sat with Char, while Gup sat with Izzat since they knew each other since in primary school. At one of the R&R though, Izzat made a new friend, Vern! From there, we got Vern to switch bus to our bus and they got to sit together and bond! Okay, that sounds a bit wrong.

(Photo credits to Charmaine!)

(Photo credits to Charmaine!)

Anywayyyyy, we reached Kuala Perlis Jetty after almost 8 hours of butt cramps! Got on the ferry only an hour later since the Muslims had to pray and our ferry is scheduled the next hour. Ferrying us to Langkawi Island took another hour, which was killer since I was already so tired and all they had to keep us entertained was this stupid toyol movie=.="

(Photo credits to Charmaine!)

It was about this two thieves who bought a green toyol to help them with their break ins since they always fail miserably. But somehow they got the wrong toyol, a similarly dumb one as them. So instead of helping them steal things, it's just another burden to them since it'll wake the house owners up by jumping on their bed etc.

(Photo credits to Charmaine!)

Back to the journey. We reached at around 8 plus, got onto the bus and reached our not-so-chalet chalet close to 9pm. Checked into Sandy Beach Resort and got to hurry for dinner as we only had 30 minutes for it before leaving for Mahsuri International Exhibition Center(MIEC) at 9.30pm to check out the place plus some briefing.

(Photo credits to Charmaine!)

Finally got to have some rest at about 11pm before waking up at 5.30am the next day.

4th December

Nasi Lemak for breakfast and we're off for work at 7.30am! We got to hang by the beach for a couple of minutes before leaving for the day though! By the way, Sandy Beach is quite a cheater as it was stated at the website that there's free WiFi, laundry service and car/van hire. They have none of those! WiFi is only at the restaurant area, which I have to walk out of my room to the hallway to use. But better than none lah..

(Photo credits to Charmaine!)

sandy shoe!

Went to MIEC for some briefing before being told what our jobs were. But somehow, the organisers were busy, so we were left by ourselves for hours, which we made good use of to familiarise ourselves with the booths' placings according to our map:) Quite confusing for me though, since the booths were not clearly fixed yet.

It was only two days away from the event but all the booths were still being set up! If it was me, I would've been so super stressed up, but all the booths seem to be completed around the same time! Wow!

 Took a breather outside to get a good view at the static displays!

TADAHHHH! (Photo credits to Charmaine!)

(Photo credits to Charmaine!)

Augusta Westland's helicopter

Eurofighter Typhoon's

This is Sabah Air, a Eurocopter from EADS, I think.

Never got to take a step at the tarmac, where all the pretty planes are :(

Got to our lunch awhile later and it was work time!

What did we do? Nothing much actually. Oh! I forgot to state my job! I was the Liason Officer! Charmaine and Vern too, while Gup and Izzat were in charge of the Information Counter.

As a Liason Officer(LO), our job is to contact the Accompanying Officer(AO), which is Malaysian to contact the delegates on our behalf. AOs are basically the middleman. Each LO gets two delegations, one Western and one Asian.

Our job is to show them the booths they're supposed to go to according to their individual scheduled programmes. We're required to focus more on the Asian delegates as they are the targeted market of the exhibitors, while the Western ones are here to sell, not buy...since their defence technology is already so bloody good.

I got Russia and Myanmar, which I didn't have the number of both AOs to contact to introduce myself and brief them on what to do. Which, was what all the LOs are supposed to do after lunch. Others were busy helping out with all the undone delegates' programme schedule, so I helped with folding and stapling the booklets.lol

They made us stay back till about 12.30am because the PROGRAMME BOOKLETS ARE NOWHERE NEAR DONE AND EVERYBODY'S FREAKIN' OUT!!! I thought it was supposed to be done way earlier though. Hmmm...there were a few people who actually stayed till 3am too! But obviously not me..I need my sleeeeeeep!

Anyway, everyone's responsible for their own welcome packs- a bag, a file, an exhibition directory, two booklets, delegate's name tags. Thing is, Char, Vern and my Myanmar ones were missing! To cut the long story short, some colonel dude from MINDEF was being an asshole because he was mocking us, volunteers and didn't let us check our files.

Vern and Char was this close to redoing the whole welcome pack, but I on the other hand, told Gup I wasn't that worried as I had a real deep hunch that our files were at the "No Tags" pile which he didn't let us touch. In the end, I was right! Stupid old man.

5th December
Just like the day before, except a little more stressful. Why? Because only this morning I got the contacts for both my Myanmar and Russian delegates, when other colleagues contacted theirs a day earlier.

Met my Russian and Myanmar AOs at the MINDEF secretariat office at different timings. Discussed a bit with Encik Khairul, the Russian LO(which I thought was the AO), since the real AO, Encik Nizam was very unvocal.lol

Mr. Artemyer Vladimir, the Russian delegate hasn't arrived then, so I met his two colleagues, one of them was Captain Ivan who wanted a few courtesy calls, which I couldn't help much since the meeting rooms has been fully booked. I then brought the LO and AO around the exhibition center to let them know which booth is where according to the map, following their schedule.

As for my Myanmar AO, Commander Ja'afar had to settle his accommodation and transportation, so I didn't have the chance to bring him around. So basically, I was done for the day at about 3pm after lots of calling, running around and explanations.

Oh! Char and I went around to all the booths our delegates would visit the following day just to inform roughly the timings they'd visit, so the exhibitors get to prepare beforehand.

After two nights of over time, majority of us couldn't take it anymore, so everyone just hurried out without looking back(LOL) when we heard rumours that the buses have arrived.heh Haswan got us to go back to claim our dinner awhile after we got onto the bus. I think they wanted to make us stay back, but decided to let us have an earlier night anyway:)

We brought our dinner to a nearby restaurant to get some drinks and ikan bakar!!

There were a few other volunteers that ate at that restaurant and halfway through, Mr. Haswan and his friend came. We were like "Oh, crap! He came all the way here to give us more work?*no eye contact, no eye contact!*" LOL But no! He freaking paid for our food..and drinks!

Have been drinking my childhood favourite- Carrot Milk lately:)

This was good, but in JB it's nicer. Yumm..

I was the first who figured it out since I saw him communicating with the waiter what with all the hand gestures..haha It was sooo nice of him. Though we didn't order much, that few ringgit means a lot to us, students. So sir, if you're reading this, THANKS AGAIN! Should have ordered more lahh..heh Hope you liked those Mini Mars BarsXD

the gang!

6th December

Here comes the real work of all! First thing to do was to text the Russian AO to bring the delegate to the Ballroom for the opening ceremony since I won't be there to assist them. On the other hand, I met up with the Myanmar ones and "escorted" them to the Ballroom.

In our awesome uniforms! It was sponsored by HeiTech, by the way:)

Gup doing her thing at the Info Counter!

I got to end the day early at about 1430 as the Myanmar delegates had a Roundtable Talk will end at 1630, which is when my work is supposed to end. But when they're having the talk, I didn't have to go in, so my job is done for the day, hence, I went for lunch!

My lunch of some rice, achar, fish and a pathetic piece of chicken.lol It was good though:)

Had the rest of the day off, so I went out to see the Aerial Display! I've been hearing the super loud plane noises since the 4th till the last day on 10th, that my eardrum somehow stretched and got used to it.haha

Oh! Not forgetting, whenever I don't have work to do, I'll head straight for the Info Counter to help Gup and Izzat out with the many questions which needed some answers, mostly where's the toilet.LOL "From here, just walk straight. See Fincantieri? Turn right, walk a little more and the toilet is on your left*smile*"

The Info Counter people! Julian and another Izzat(Monash) are some who helped out too at times:)

(Photo credits to Charmaine!)

Finally got to end the day early as scheduled, so we got to walk the streets outside our chalet!

Many shops like this!

Have always loved street signs like this one..Malaysia's having more of them now!

Free and easy dinner, finally!

When step foot to a WiFi covered area, this is what happens...

Got to chat with my hot stuff too! Yippee!

I ordered Chicken Chop since I love the black pepper sauce..and fries!!

(Photo credits to Charmaine!)

..and all of us shared this Margarita Pizza! Yummy!

That night, we hung out till about 11pm, just talking and talking and talking, mainly about relationships from a girl and guy's point of view. Yes, I took quite a number of pointers but I still don't like how some things work. But again, at least I'll try to be more understanding when things don't go the way I want it. BUT IT SUCKS! Okay, I'm done. Group pic! 

I look super oily with oily fringe, thanks to my supply of oil blotter which ran out.

To think that all the marts around doesn't sell them. I was suffering from oil overload till 11th, when my family came and I got to go to the mall!