Bazaar

So here's a recount on the quite huge bazaar my school held this year to raise funds for our new school compund, down near 1Sulaman. So anyway, our class decided to open a stall during the bazaar. It was discussed months ago, I don't even remember when it was held. So what were we going to sell? We thought of asking shops to sell their food in our stall (eg Big Apple), or making homemade cakes and stuff, it went round and round. In the end we decided to make homemade food like lasagne and spaghetti and stuff like that. In the end what we sold was the peanut kueh, the one that is sort of like a muazhi, butter cakes, both by Shelia; lasagne and spaghetti by me, macaroni in white sauce by Malina, and cheap cocktails by Crystal and Sabina.

I know, you must think I'm crazy, that lasagne and spaghetti is so much work and stuff. But it was what they decided, and because no one wanted to do the lasagne so I took up the job. Thanks mum. And I say cheap cocktails because it's not the kind you get in a bar, not those Pimm's Cocktails and stuff like that. We also had some small side earnings like my totally all time favourite chocolate cake made by my mum and Kev's durian cake.

So for preparation, everyone in class put up small amounts of money, and we got some sponsors from some classmates or friends. Our chairperson for this bazaar thingy, Bubble discussedwith the organiser, Mary Liau and it was decided that the earnings would be split into 3:7, we would get 30% of what we earned. So we were all excited but some of us were really worried because the school's goal for every stall is about RM3000. So we bought the ingrediens, confirmed who was going to be sponsoring their food and who wasn't and stuff like that. Then I asked my mum whether she would do the lasagne, she was quite reluctant, because for those of you who have made it from scratch before, it is quite time-consuming. So anyway in the end my mum agreed and she agreed to do the spaghetti too. I felt and still feel quite bad for asking her to do so much work when she didn't really want to. She says it's really ok and that she doesn't want to take back any money but I know better. But she got her way anyway.

The bazaar was on a Sunday. On Friday I came home and found my mum already cooking some sauce or something. I was worried because at that time I thought it was too early. I was afraid that the sauce would dry up or something. I had a church camp to go to, it was for the weekend. So I left and on Saturday when I came home, I found my mum already in the kitchen , having done about 2 lots of lasagne, or more. I was so anxious throughout the whole camp, wondering whether they did all the last minute check ups and confirmations on Saturday during school. Let me tell you, to be able to sell about RM3000, we had to make about 300 boxes of each I guess. That's sort of what we targeted. 300 boxes more or less. So I started helpng out and finally LeePei and her sister came. It really got easier. We had to pack everything in each container that Qiing bought and sponsored (thanks!), make sure that every serving is equal. And by that I mean that we weighed each container to make sure that had an equal serving. The lasagne was harder. Had to bake it, cut it, put it in the boxes, weigh it and price it. We had different prices according to the weight of the serving. The cheapest was RM10, the most expensive coming up to RM28. But there were only 3 boxes or so of RM28s. It really was hard work. Steph came later, much later and she helped out too. We made a poster, with the help of Pei's sis (thanks!) and eveyrone helped colour it in. Thank goodness my house is full of junk, that we could find a huge manila card at that time. We packed everything in plastic bags and a huge box the containers came in. We had to bring a microwave that next door didn't want and which was lying outside my house, waiting to be discarded. We needed microwaves to heat up the food for those who wanted to eat straight away. I packed an extension cord too. It was stressful because I kept worrying whether I had missed anything. We got to bed at abot 2am? I'm not that sure. We were bushed. And when we went to bed, my mum still hadn't finished up in the kitchen. Kev was baking cakes. Gah. I remember worrying so much I got quiet. Steph was so scared because it was the first time she saw me like that.

So we planned to wake up at about 6 the next day. Everyone going to prepare our stall was going at that time. But guess what? We woke up late. Haha. 6.30? 7? I really don't remember. Really. So we rushed and we packed everything in the car, we sped of to school. The bazaar hadn't started but there were many people there, mainly students, doing up their stalls and evertyhing. There were still packets of spaghetti hadn't used, spaghetti sauce in the fridge and unbaked lasagne in the fridge. The planned was that we would call if we needed more. Originally we had these set menus planned, with the help of Pei's sis. Like if you buy 2 of these and 2 of these, you get how much discount and stuff like that. But it was so hectic. We had to pour sauce into the spaghettis and heat them up and stuff, it really was a headache. Sometimes you put a packet of lasagne in the microwave, and when it's done someone else takes it and gives it to another customer. It was very confusing. So we didn't do the set menus thing. Sorry Gwen!!! It was quite funny too. Malina was shouting and shouting, trying to attract people to come. Steph too. They were like shoutng things like 'ARE YOU HUNGRY?' and we were supposed to shout 'YES' (in chinese of course) and they would say 'THEN COME TO OUR STALL WHERE WE HAVE HOMEMADE FOOD WAITING FOR YOU!' and stuff like that. Hahaha. They were so loud. The stall next to us was selling leong cha and drinks like that. They were all laughing at us.

So after a whole day of selling and shouting and heating things up in our two microwaves. (The other microwave was Raymond's very, vey good friend's microwave. Thanks!) So when the bazaar was coming to an end and everyone was scrambling to finish up their coupons, to finish selling everything, we still had alot of kueh to sell. So we dropped the price quite low and in the end managed to sell everything. We had to get extra containers (thanks Qiing's mum) and call for more spaghetti and lasagne. It was really tiring. I did not leave the stall for one minute at all, and just stood there, selling and stuff. I didn't even want to stand by the end. It was the most tiring to finish selling the last big of kueh. Sure we dropped the price quite alot, but I'm just glad the main food stuff didn't need its prices to be dropped. We had fun with the leong cha stall. We were like 'BUY SPAGHETTI HERE FOR RM10! THEN GET A lEONG CHA AFTER!' and stuff like that. We were all anxious to count the coupons we earned. So guess how much we earned? We earned a whopping RM6800++! So our 30% was RM2000+! My gosh, it was definitely worth it. The feeling of accomplishment and stuff. I was absoutely bushed. Not to mention LeePei, who went home in midday beacuse she was nauseas and dizzy. Lack of sleep probably. Thanks!

But.. Of course, with my luck, nothing good ever comes my way. So we kept the money we earned and planned to use it for a celebratory dinner after exams which were in a few weeks. We planned to only ask those who came to help at the stall, those who sort of helped out. But then some people complained because they said it was not fair, that we should include everyone in the class. Their argument was that this was a class activity, that we did it as a class, and although some people did almost nothing, those who did make a big effort made t by their own choice. I thought that this was slighly unfair, though it is true that it's our own choice. Because there were some people who really did nothing except come up with RM5. And compared to us who cooked and stuff, those who sponsored hundreds of ringgit.. I'm not sure. Give me your opinions on this matter k. But in the end it didn't matter. As I was saying, with my luck, nothing good ever comes my way. Or at least, it does, then it's taken away.

One day Mr. Chia came in and told us that a problem came up with our principle, Mr. Hiew and the board of directors. Someone apparenty complained how and why some of us could earn money using Tshung Tsin's name. Which means us. How could we earn that 30% using Tshung Tsin's name.. etc. I'm not that sure. So they said, claim the cost price and give back the remaining money to the school. This was to get Mr. Hiew out of the trouble he was in, though according to Mr. Chia, the damage had been done. Some entertained the idea of faking our cost price so we could keep part of the money, but then some said that the bazaar was to help out our school, so we should give it back. The problem was that most of our food was sponsored by those who prepared it (like my mum!) and so only Shelia claimed her cost price (which she originally wanted to) and we gave back the rest. Sigh. So that's the end of this bazaar chapter. I think it was fun, a good experience. With Leepei and Steph. And my class overall.. I guess. I won't forget selling all those things, shouting and laughing and burning our hands by transferring the container from the microwave to the table. Hahaha.

So yup. This happened back when my hair was really long. In case you didn't notice, it's short now (been for a couple of weeks now). Haha. So yup.. Hope there is a next time.....?