Sunday, May 20, 2007

Bloggers Gathering

At Bloggers United Malaysia Gathering 2007
I got to meet student blogger Daphne Ling. Finally. And what a delight it was.
Daphne is the young lady who has been untiringly helping Siti Aisyah, the 3 year-old who needs surgery to correct her glued eyelids.
If only there were more Daphne's out there, ours would be a grand world to live in.
We talked a bit and she asked me whether she could call me "aunty".
I told her she certainly could because I have nieces older than her.
So, it's Aunty Nuraina from now, eh, Daphne?
The entire evening I sat beside another student blogger, June Tan whom I had the pleasure of meeting earlier this year when she was doing research (on bloggers) for her Masters thesis.
Last evening, she was informally introduced as the one whose research findings on bloggers many people are quoting.
I also managed to catch up with another young lady - journo-blogger Le Tsin .
She is on the organising committee of BUM 2007 gathering. The others are Desiderata, Howsy, Lucia, Nathaniel and Mob1900.
Was looking forward to chatting with another committee member, Jed Yoong (the erstwhile Freelunch2020), but she was not around.

The gathering was at Lake View Club, Subang Jaya last evening, Saturday, May 19.

Also caught up with Marina Mahathir who was really looking good. I asked her if it was her climb up Mount Kinabalu last month that got her looking so nice.
Very shy she was. Wouldn't admit it at first but finally, yep -- it was the climb that got her looking fit and good.
Le Tsin and June got her talking about her Kinabalu climb.

MarinaM was among the panel of speakers for the evening. The others were Jeff Ooi, Rocky, The Sun journalist Nadeswaran (citizen Nades) and Sonia of the Independent Centre for Journalism (ICJ).
Malaysia Today's Raja Petra Kamaruddin and lawyer Haris Ibrahim were invited to give an impromptu speech.

At our table were BigDog, Salahuddin, Raja Petra and wife (Marina) and A.M Ubaidah. Later, Sharon Bakar of Bibliobibuli joined us.

Also there were Pokku, Pak Idrus, Bernard Khoo (Zorro), Stephen Francis (Shangaifish) and Shar101.

I met What a Lulu who had come with a former colleague of mine, former Malay Mail entertainment writer Chow Ee Tan. What a pleasant surprise!

It was a great occasion to meet so many bloggers, and as MarinaM said - be able to put faces to the nicks.

Rocky who spoke about the National Alliance of Bloggers (All-Blogs) has his take on BUM here.

21 comments:

Rockybru said...

of course, blogger-lawyer nizam bashir came up all the way from malacca. i saw him standing by the entrance when the speeches were in session but couldn't catch him as he had to rush back home to watch the man u - chelsea match. i hope it was worth it - the rush home, i mean.
and yes, akram.
what did you think of haris ibrahim's 2-minute speech?

J.T. said...

awww... wish I could have been there. i waited for my fairy godmother in vain. :)
Next time la ...when I am back in Malaysia.

bibliobibuli said...

hello! it was so nice to meet you again and now i know where your blog lives!

Anonymous said...

Kak,
How nice if the gathering can be done quarterly. It will help to foster closer tie among bloggers. Wat say you Kak?

zewt said...

very exciting! certainly fruitful!

Daphne Ling said...

Hi Aunty Nuraina,

Hehe...A relief, I must say to get to address you as Aunty...

It was great (and an honour!) meeting you too...I will post my BUM thingy another day...

Cheerio!

Hi&Lo said...

Great to learn of such a gathering of diverse crowd where everyone has their own worldview and interests. What better way to broaden one's horizon.

Re: Rockybru on Haris Ibrahim. Impressed with his commitment to go the distance.

Wah, wherever I go I can find JT. Her sense of humour blows my mind away.

Anonymous said...

Proof That Bloggers Are Egotists
http://www.trendsspotting.com/blog/?p=89

tajuk "Bloggers Gathering" sepatutnyer "Egotist Gathering"

Unknown said...

true malaysian gathering. god bless all.

NURAINA A SAMAD said...

Rocky: Yes... I saw Nizam Bashir standing near the door.
Haris' 2-minute speech? A good one. An honour to have him amongst us.

JT: Awww.....find a new fairy Godmother, JT

Sharon: So nice to see you there! I know where you live too.

Nora: Bagus tu, bro.. sering jumpa, lebih rapat kita semua.


Zewt: Mutli-racial, young and old. A good mix. Very Malaysian.

NURAINA A SAMAD said...

Daphne; You sweet sweet girl. Take care and I will be visiting you shortly.

Hi&Lo: It was indeed. HL, don;t tell me you were there but we didnt meeet?

Pokchad: Egotists? Hmmm.... I know I'm not though I am trying hard to be one. Shall find out how.

Yok Hoong: Yes. a true Malaysian gathering. Something I am familiar with, and I cherish. A diverse mix of races. Also, there were political bloggers who support certain political parties like Umno, DAP, PKR, Gerakan etc.
All could sit together and chat. No problem. We are Malaysian. There is hope yet.

Anonymous said...

Dear Kak Nuraina

It's heartening to see bloggers of different creed, colour, religion and diverse political affiliatians meeting up to "hear" one another and unite through this new medium of blogging.

Way to go bloggers!

Anonymous said...

Ah missed it! Miss it I did.... because my other half insisted to bring his son golfing under the rain.

What a waste! Should have been there. See ya tuesday Kak Ena

Unknown said...

Kaka ena...missed it...missed it... I missed it...(sigh)

Anonymous said...

Sis Ena,
From the photos and slide show of the unmissable event that I've seen so far, I couldn't spot that particular gentleman who resembles a Hollywood movie star. Just wondering.
aMiR

Hi&Lo said...

Nur,

I wasn't at the gathering. I picked up the points from Rockybru's comment.

Countdown to TWB. hehehe

NURAINA A SAMAD said...

Adik: Indeed. so nice to see people of all races mingle. there is common ground -- and that is blogging, and the fact that we are malaysians.

so, i suppose if there are people who are not happy with this mix of people among bloggers, then all i can say is you can't please everyone.


Elviza:You missed a wonderful evening. But nevr mind, more wonderful evenings coming your way, i am sure.
See u tomorow.

Raden: Dont worry, Raden. There'll be another time.

aMiR: Oh dear...whoever do you mean?


Hi&Lo: oh i see...

TWB? ayoyo...pressure, pressure,

mutalib saifuddin said...

it was cool. i think such gathering should be twice or thrice annually?

what says you, mdm aina?

jesscet said...

hi! yeah it was nice to see u again..and not just in cyberspace (have been following your blog)! it was an interesting evening for me.

do keep up the good work! :)

ee-tan

Maverick SM said...

I saw you with at the table at the wall and doorway. I wanted to go up to say Hi but found you're busy, and a bit shy lah... Hope to meet you again soon.

NURAINA A SAMAD said...

mutalib: be nice to meet up regularly.

Jesscet: Nice to have met u after so long. take care

Maverick: Rocky told me you were there -- the following day.
I certainly will not be too busy to say hello to you-lah!
The next time, I will go up to you and say hello.
Take care.