Monday on the Virgo

On Monday, I decided to join the Superstar Virgo Supermum contest. What was required for me was to show my talent in any area, singing, dancing etc. I told my family that if I could write a poem on mothers I will sign up for the contest. After a delicious western breakfast of several varieties of eggs: poached, sunny side, runny, omelette, croissant, brioche, cereals. nasi lemak, turkey ham etc, I rushed to the Celebrity Disco for the rehearsal.

10 of us had signed up for the contest: 8 Indians, 1 Filipino and me the only Malaysian. We had to give a short intro of ourselves. We were then ushered into the Lido where we were required to rehearse the following:

1. give our names, country and a one liner on "A mum is.....",
2. our standing positions, our numbers which were pinned to us (yours truly was no: 4), our posing and our movements on stage,
3. our talents (I did not read out my poem as I had not really finalized it. First Harold gave us one minute then he decided to increase it to 2 minutes, so I had to write 2 poems to accomodate the time!),
4. 3 pieces of linen bedsheets were given to us. To show our creativity we had to wrap it around our bodies and come up with the most creative wear. It was not easy as the linen was long and the size of a single bed. I spent the whole afternoon trying to figure out what to do with them. For the first piece I made a pareo with it. For the second, I made a long wrap. For the remaining piece, I folded it into a handbag and tied it loosely with a beautiful necklace I had bought from the Ports O' Call,
4. we then had to wear our evening wear (clothes we bought for the gala dinner, though I did not bring anything special as I had no idea about it) and show it off to the judges,
5. finally we had to answer one question from our judges.

My family waited around for me from 11 am to about 2 pm and then we had a quick lunch at the Mediterranean buffet. At about 3 pm, they went to see the magic show, while I continued fine tuning my poem about my mother. At about 4 pm, the crew gave a lively dance performance (again I had seen it before on the Libra last year).

Well all the hard work finally paid off. The judges loved my poem and I won the first runner up! The prizes were: a bottle of champagne and a ticket to the Las Vegas show 'Casanova'. I was also given a certificate and a sash. The winner was a Filipino Chinese who won a ticket for 2 on board the Libra! Well never mind if I missed that as I made some nice friends from India. They were really talented. Some of them did Bollywood dances, some sang, one did a yoga....it was all good fun! One of the judges came up to me later and told me that he really loved my poem!

Here is the poem for my mum written on the Virgo that clinced me the prize (for the record, this is the first time I wrote a poem on board a ship and the first time at 50 years old I had entered a Supermum contest and won!):

"Though my mother is not with me on this beautiful ship today
Allow me to say a few words on her behalf on Mother's Day
Mum is 76 years old this year, but really her eyesight is good, her mind is clear.
She did not go to University but her words of wisdom remain with me.
She did not climb Mount Everest but she ensured that we (her 5 children) had the very best.
Cooking the most nutritious home cooked fare, yes, my mum is truly chef extraordinaire!

Though she did not sail the seven seas, her zest for life inspires me!
I remember how at each festivity, she will have lovely dresses sown for me.
She made sure that we dress nice and neat, politeness and respect for others
the hallmark of our speech!

And when we fall sick, she even treats our maladies, cough medicine, aspirins and medicated oil for all emergencies!

She is no Donald Trump or Bill Gates, she did not start a business conglomerate,
but all 5 of us had a good education - an auditor, a lawyer, a speech therapist, a business woman and a trainer economist!

To all mothers on holiday here today, this is just what I want to say.
Thank you for taking care of us with unceasing patience and unfailing love!
Your work is 24 hours and your salary is pure love!
And if we have not said it before, we want to say it again....

Thank you mums and a million thanks, hugs and kisses again and again!"

The question the judge I chose (he was the head chef) was: Would having more children make you a better mum? My answer: It is not the quantity but the quality as the job of the mum is to raise up children who are well behaved, polite, hard working and responsible citizens of a country and who themselves will be examples and models for their own children!

What an experience! We could not stop talking about it after the contest and there were endless photo taking. In the evening we had a lovely western dinner and decided to take a taxi to the Sri Bhurapa cashew nut factory at Phuket. There we bought many packets of cashew nuts and my favorite anchovies.

The only disappointment was that Samuel did not get to watch Phuket Fantasea. Daddy did not want to take him as 1) he did not have enought bhat and 2) he had seen the show before on Astro. It was also raining heavily in Phuket. The taxi driver was friendly and spoke really good English. I promised Samuel that if we come back to Phuket for the next cruise, I will make sure that I had enough money to take him for the show.

What about Amanda? She was busy studying her Maths. She had to re-sit her Maths paper as she had failed in it. Her exam was on Friday, one day after our return to Malaysia. Before we left, Amanda got her results for her foundation in science. She had a B and 2 Cs. That put paid to her desire to do dentistry as the minimum was 3 Bs. Finally daddy relented and agreed to let her do law, apparently her first choice. When she went to HELP to see whether they could take her in, they told her that she had to pass her Maths.

I guess sometimes as parents we really want the best for our children (maybe even for ourselves). Children with vocations like doctors and dentists will earn more money, more money means bigger allowances for us in our old age!However I realize that this may not be what our children wants. Further we need to be fully aware of what they can/cannot do and their natural inclination.

From this experience, I can see that things will always come full circle. Water will always rise to its own level. I truly hope that Amanda will shine and excel in her chosen career...will write later!