Is Labour Day A Rest Day?

Woke up at 6.30am yesterday, many of you would wonder why I woke up that early on the 1st of May…Well, this is why…It was FGA church’s Family Sport Carnival Day and I volunteered to help, that’s why! I had to be at the Matsushita (a.k.a. Penasonic) Sports Complex in Shah Alam where the event was held at 8.15am but the bus from church was bound to leave at 7.30am so I had to wake up earlier to get ready. I gave myself ample time to even stop by at the 7 Eleven store along Sri Neela’s Restaurant to get myself a bottle of mineral water before I headed off to church. I was surprised at first to see the street along the Faber Towers so quiet until it hit me that it was Labour Day, so blur! Effects of waking up early I guess!

On the way there in the bus, while on the Federal Highway, I witnessed a rare sight, no jam at all. It was so smooth, for all those who don’t know, Federal Highway is known for it’s ‘jamness’. You can hear the traffic reporters on radio reporting about how jam it is all the time and also ways you can avoid it. Then it hit me again, It was Labour Day. It MUST be the effects of waking up early.

The sport that I volunteered in was running and I was given the role of a timekeeper. Yes, a very important job considering that the top 8 fastest times will qualify for the finals of the 4 x 100 relay race. There were around 30 teams in total contesting for the 8 spots in the final race. Everything went quite well except for the second round of the race when the stopwatch that I was operating had some technical failures and gave me a time of 0.00 at the end of the race. That would have been the fastest time ever recorded even beating the world record. Luckily for me, we sorted out the issue by estimating the time and the fact that their time weren’t near the top 8 times recorded helped! Anyway, moving on to the final result, a group of Africans won by less than a second from the second placed team. There were some disputes and protests however from the second placed team that one of the African team members had crossed over to their lane en route to the finish line. The matter was then brought up to the committee to be discussed and the final decision went to the Africans.

I was relieved of my responsibilities at around 12pm and I had time to roam around for about 7-8 hours around the sports complex which consists of 2 tennis courts, an international swimming pool, a children’s swimming pool, an indoor arena for the multipurpose use of futsal, badminton, table tennis and basketball, an outdoor football field surrounded by an Olympic size running track, and also a smaller size football field which was also used on the day for the sport of netball. It was truly the perfect place for a sports carnival to be held. And all glory to God because he provided a perfect weather for the day albeit a slight scare when it looked like it was going to rain after a 1-2 minutes drizzle and after that it all but stopped.

I had a bit of a kickabout during the afternoon with a bunch of guys and gurls from youth church(YC), something I haven’t been doing much since the days of secondary school. There was also a telematch held after that and I represented YC in the final event which was the Tug of War. It Brought back memories of my secondary school days as well when I was a regular for the green house and we would give it all we have and never give up till the end. There were four different teams that qualified for the Tug of War and we(YC) were one of them. We incidentally lost the first round to our first opponent before coming back and defeating them twice to win the first of the two semifinals. The team in the final was a step to far for us however as we lost in 2 straight rounds. And rumours were that their team consist mainly of Indonesian workers and if that’s the case, No Wonder! We were still glad that we still at least got second place.

After the prize giving ceremony and a worship session, everybody soon dispersed and I went back to the church with the bus as when I came. Reached home at around 8 pm, and I found out something when I was taking my bath……all four of my limbs were scorching red/Roasted(sunburn)and instantly I knew I am going to suffer tomorrow. I also got some bruises from the Tug of War at the side of my arm and my body where I use to tightly grip on to the rope. I think I even lost the first layer of skin on both my palms. True enough, as I am typing right now, I am suffering from sunburn, muscle aches, body aches, back aches(I must be getting old, does 19 sound like 90?) and mild flu(dunno why)…Luckily for me, I wore a cap for most parts of the day which saved me from a red face!

Anyway, anyhow, I would like to thank God that everything went well throughout the whole day’s event and that he gave me enough energy for the whole day even though I only slept 4 hours the day before.

To God be the Glory and Praise Forever!

shaunsttey