G7 Opening Ceremony at Malim on 10 May 2009

It was a really busy weekend, with Wesak Day on the Saturday and Mother's Day on Sunday. "Great" choice of dates for GC to plan their opening ceremony....

Now the Melaka branch was situated at Malim Jaya, opposite the Shell Station, near Brothers. It's not exactly called "GC" - rather, being a JV (joint-venture) with another partner, the official name is G7 Auto Tinting and Styling.


Prior to the event, I tried to make some arrangements with the incoming 8GCC members, mostly from JB. Unfortunately, they didn't get back to me, so me and the Melaka 8GCC team left them to their own devices and arrived a little late at G7 (10.10am), after a brief breakfast at Air Keroh. We were greeted by Desmond from GC, JB and later made the acquaintance with Lester, the main guy at G7.


Surprisingly, we were the first on the scene. Later, we found out that none of the incoming convoy members were familiar with Melaka, and thus they all put their faith in their GPS systems. GPS is a good thing, but it would be better if you had someone escort you there. Some of them ended up coming through the Alor Gajah toll gate, I hear....

Now, it was a hot and sunny day. The organizers did set up tents, but omitted the crucial cooling systems (fans), so it was really, really unbearable. Most of us flocked to the air-conditioned showroom.

Basically, the opening ceremony consisted of a traditional lion dance (normality for Chinese-run businesses) and fire crackers. Our group photo shoot was briefly "hijacked" by a bunch of middle aged bikers (Malaysian equivalent of "Wild Hogs" (movie starring Tim Allen)).


Our Melaka team were just a handful in numbers, in contrast to the 20+ Civics from the visiting convoy. Our regulars Bro Hanne, Semisonic, Nick_123 and others were unable to make it due to prior commitments (it was Mother's Day, and before that was Wesak Day, after all). Though we did catch a glimpse of a car that looked rather similar to the one driven by Nick_123 driving by (which of course couldn't have been him, as I heard he was in Bukit Tinggi(?)). Halfway through, our Melaka Bro Boy_9669 did manage to stop by for awhile, but had to leave early, as he has just become a father! Congratulations to him! (so now should we re-designate him as Man_9669?


From there, we proceeded to Bukit Serindit, which sported the largest available piece of open land for assembling all the 27~28 Civics in our group, for yet another photo shoot. There were 4 of us from Melaka, and 20+ Civics from JB with absolutely no idea of how to go about Melaka, so herding them along without breaking the convoy (and without reckless driving) was a challenge in its own right!

Finally, we proceeded to Jonker street for some Chicken rice balls (famous food of Melaka). Unfortunately, the shop that was opposite Harpers, next door to Raffles, served some pork dish on their menu, so it was a no-no for our Muslim friends. Ended up joining them for lunch at a Muslim-operated joint nearby.

Well, it was a good successful event for 8GCC (apart from the getting lost bit, and gargantuan task of keeping the convoy together going through the streets of Melaka through the busy weekend traffic).

Glad that I finally got to meet up with Bro Alvin and Bro Melvin (better known as Keanu7997 in the 8GCC forum) face to face!


For more photos, do check out my small gallery over [HERE]