CEPG Christmas 2010 and New Year 2011 Dinner

*As appeared on Herald on Feb 13 2011 issue.

** Written by Marlina Sara (CEPG #54)

The Penang CHOICE New Year 2011 celebration dinner was held recently at the Little Cottage 2 restaurant in Penang. Close to 100 CHOICEes attended this event, most of whom brought their family members as well.

The guest of honour for that night was the Bishop of Penang, Bishop Anthony Selvanayagam, Father Dominic Santhiyagu, the CHOICE priest & Fr Gerard Theraviam. Initially Bishop couldn’t make it for the dinner, but he came to the dinner and surprised us all.

The dinner began with a welcoming speech by the Penang CHOICE Coordinator 1, Elizabeth Anthony & followed by the Bishop, and he blessed the food before the dinner was served.

There were lots of lucky draws & almost everyone won something. There were gift exchanges as well; where everyone who attended came with a gift and then it was later exchanged in a very unique way, by narrating a story. We also took this opportunity to celebrate birthdays of all those born in the month of Jnuary; Fr Dominic is one of them, who cut the cake together with a few others. The dinner ended about 10.30 pm, with everyone carrying a gift home.

The next English CHOICE Weekend will be on 20-22 May 2011 & the Mandarin CHOICE Weekend will be held on 5-7 August 2011. Calling all single young adults to join and experience a fulfilling weekend; please email ann_eliz1@yahoo.com.my

Tamil CHOICE Penang Jubilee

Written by Marlina Sara (CEPG #54)

This event was held on 4th December. I represented the English CHOICE group. Thank God, that weekend I didn’t have other function and wanted to attend this Anniversary event, to show my support for the Tamil CHOICE.But after buying the tickets, I found out that many girls were not going, the girls I’m close with. Then I rasa tadak mood to go. On that Saturday, it was raining heavily, lagi la, I didn’t want to go. But mom insisted that I should go, since I paid for the tickets, so I went.

Fiona & some of the girls were already there. I wore a simple attire; the rain really spoilt my mood to dress up.

I met Sagaya as I reached the entrance & she guided me to the English CHOICE table; it was at the front. Fiona, her dad, Maureen, SuSee, Liz, Jacinta, Mary were all seated. Thank God, the show haven’t started.Bishop Selva was there, as well as Fr Dom. After the opening speech, food was served. Jaya Catering Food, not bad la.

What I enjoyed most: the 2 MC’s – they were very entertaining & funny. They speak good Tamil. The other thing I enjoyed was the performance – wow, really superb! I really didn’t know they have so much of talents; the singing – superb voices; the dances – superb steps! Most of them sang as though they were professionals; no stage fright and there was Style when they sang. Really, damn good!There were CHOICEe’s came from all over Penang diocese and also from KL too. There were also 2 singers (twin bros) who recently released their album and their songs are currently been playing in the local radio stations. They are like our local Tamil rappers; their song was really good. Another talent - they hail from Sg Siput.

The setback: The MC’s did a good job, but most of the time, they were talking among themselves. Since this is a 15th Anniversary, perhaps they could have done ‘walk down memory lane’ & share with us some interesting stories/facts. However, their jokes were really good.

Another thing, there was no door gift given. At least something to commemorate this event.

But overall, the event was awesome & 2 thumbs-up for them!

Youth Leadership Congress 2010

the Youth Leadership Congress 2010 was held from the 12-14 of November at St.Anne's Church in BM. it was organised by PDYN and it's sub-groups. CHOICE was one of the groups and we helped out in certain areas. this congress was to bring together youth leaders and members to attend talks and workshops that will help them in their own youth groups.

there were different talks going on at the same time, from Praise and Worship to Leadership to starting up small youth group and many more other talks. there was even a Q&A session. it was quite informative and i'm sure the youths have gathered lots of information and ideas to be brought back to their own groups.

the CHOICEes were there to help out with the marketing, accomodation and F&B. while we were not on duty, they also attended the talks. it was great fun to be working together for a good cause.

there was a fellowship dinner at the BM Country club where we had Chinese sit-down course dinner and of course performances, games and lucky draw! food was good and the entertainment was good too!

on the last day of the congress, the organisers and participants were to sign the banner to leave their mark in the congress! and i believe the banner was not big enough! LOL.. and of course some had to pose with the beautiful banner :)

this congress is a great way to bring all the youth leaders together to help each other to build and strengthen their own youth groups. looking forward for the next one in 2011!

CAC 2010 - CHOICE Asia Conference, Singapore

CAC 2010 - CHOICE Asia Conference was held in Singapore from the 8th-10th October. The Malaysian delegates were the largest group who attended this conference. I believe it is because we have recruited quite a number of new CHOICEes who were interested to experience the conference and it's a combined group of the Penang English CHOICE and the Penang Tamil CHOICE members and not forgetting the KL CHOICE as well!

while the meeting was going on, the other delegates (thanks to the hosts) were doing a couple of MAD projects. One was a visit to Missionary of Charity and the other group went to St.Vincent's Home. it was an eye opening experience for these CHOICEes and i'm sure it made a difference to the people at those homes.

other than the MAD Projects, our wonderful Singaporean hosts also organised an "Amazing Race" for us. the stops were around Singapore which was a good, as we got a glimpse of the sights around Singapore. one of the stops was at the Casino at Marina Bay Sands to get a SG$5 chip. this item was to minus 15mins off from the total time duration. there were other challenges as well and we all had fun doing it!

then there was a Cultural Night Fellowship where everyone was to dress to their traditional costumes of their country. it was a very colourful and beautiful sight! everyone was in costume! there were even performances as well! Good Job guys!

after the conference, some of the Malaysian delegates, took extra days off to sight-see Singapore. they put up at the Singapore CHOICE Retreat House. it was comfortable and had a homey feeling. how nice if we could have a CHOICE house like that in Penang eh? hehehe

the group went to Marina Barrage to have the full view of the Singapore Flyer and the Marina Bay Sands hotel. that was quite a lovely view! then of course they went up the Singapore Flyer to get a 360 degrees view of Singapore! wonder if anyone felt sick? hahahha.. then of course, a day trip to Universal Studios!! u've got to ask them how it was! i'm sure you'll be hearing lots of stories!

so that was the trip to Singapore! everyone had a great time and i'm sure they would love to go back there again. :)

CHOICE Coffee Morning - Holy Spirit Cathedral

we love having Coffee Mornings!!! and every time we have one, it always have different type of foods and that's what we like about it :) it's also a time for our fellow CHOICEes to try out their baking/cooking skills, great way to market their products! so when you see a group of people, full of energy selling food, give them your support, who knows the food you buy is worth it and is DELICIOUS!! oh and it's a great way to catch up with other CHOICEes as well - networking people!!

this time, our Coffee Morning was held at the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Sept. we went full on for 2 days and what fun we had! of course before we start, we had an opening prayer for a great day ahead. then we had everyone wear our new *CHOICE National T-shirt - i personally love the design

and i'm glad to say, everything was sold off and had people asking for more too! :) God Bless to all of you!! good job everyone! and will be looking out for more Coffee Mornings to come ya! :D

CEPG #55 - Social Gathering

i know i know, i'm sorry, it's a long over due post :)

CEPG #55 had organised a Social Gathering in August this year. and it was quite a success eventhough less than half of CEPG #55 attended. but never the less great effor on the organisers and i'm sure we all had great fun (with the heat from the steam and bbq LOL). we were blessed by our fellow CHOICE Melaka-Johor friends who joined us for the gathering. lots of chit-chat, laughter and food!

this gather was held at Town Steamboat, Macalister Road. it's a huge place (hawker centre like) where it's buffet style. pay one price (differs from weekday and weekend) and you can eat all you want. they have fried stuff, to raw meats/veg/mushroom/taufu, to seafood, laksa, noodles, ice-kacang, ice-cream, jellies, cakes and drinks. great place to for such gathering, fun too! hahahah

i do hope in future, more gatherings or reunions of CHOICE weekend participants will happen. and it was great to see all of you again. when will the next one be ah? :D

CNCM - Kuching 2010

CHOICE National Conference Malaysia was held in Kuching this year at St.Lukas Centre. This place is known to be the venue for CHOICE Kuching weekends, as we are able to see familiar posters around the facility regarding to CHOICE weekend. About 20 odd CHOICEes from Penang (both English and Tamil group) flew to Kuching for this conference. It was quite an exciting trip. :)

dorm, hall and dinner hall of St.Lukas

The conference was chaired by CHOICE Penang and there were a good number of observers from CHOICE Penang, KL, Kuching, Miri, Perak, Melaka-Johor. Turn out was a lil less than last years but yet a good number as well. We made friends and caught up with other CHOICEes as well, and also to exchange experiences, ideas for each group.

group pic

We headed to St. Joseph's Cathedral for evening mass and it was a wonderful church. it was my first time there and my jaw dropped at least for a few seconds. i'm sure if u were there the first time, u'd feel the same way too. Fr. Simon and Fr. Dominic was 2 of the CHOICE priests to celebrate mass that evening. We even had our CHOICEes to be lectors for the readings.

after Mass, we headed to Penview Hotel at their Chinese restaurant for our fellowship dinner. Food was lovely and the company too! each state performed a dance or action song and everyone enjoyed it! in the end everyone joined in and danced all together!
the last day of the conference was bitter sweet, it was time to say good-bye to old and new friends and time for sight-seeing around Kuching! :) we're glad that a few of Kuching CHOICEes brought us around, to eat the famous kolo mee, Kuching laksa. we even went to the Kuching Cultural Village, that was very interesting. coming home to Penang was hard, as we had such great time in Kuching.

Thank you very much to CHOICE Kuching for being such great hosts to us. You were lovely! and we do hope we meet again! God Bless!

arrived Penang safely