Loosen up...

So there I was helping out a friend, whose event company had organised a Makan Trail for a reputable overseas wealth management bank. Along with Shai and Kev, the 3 of us looked quite decent in our aprons I must say.

I was paired up with Kevin to man the Ah Hung Durian stall at Geylang. It was a very hot day out and we were impress with how the hard-working fellas do 16 hour shifts day in day out. I was complaining about the heat 20mins into my short stint, an I was not even involved in lifting any baskets of durians!!

So the teams started streaming in shortly after lunch. Most were enthusiatic about the task at hand, which was nothing more than removing the delicious "yellow gold" from the thorny fruit and packing it into styrofoam boxes. Really, it wasn't difficult to give them full marks for their efforts.

Teams consisted of an employees of the bank, along with their friend/family/maid... Most were quite upbeat, despite the heat. Many had already eaten their fill at other stations; oysters, pizzas, Indian rojak, chicken rice. Still they gobbled task in a short 5 mins, from opening the durian to spitting out the seeds of the fruits! Another team consisted of 6 kids ranging from 1-6 year old, being herded around by 3 adults. Whilst they probably didn't know what to expect from the pungent fruit, the adults still fed them small morsels. Of course, being a foreign bank, here were expats aplenty in some teams. Most gamingly tried the fruit, egged on by their local colleagues.

I was quite impressed with the way the Makan Trail was organised by my friend's young upstart events company. Even the special guest, Makansutra fame KF Seeto, was glad that the event brought people to all the best foods in town. The particpants also enjoyed themselves I suspect.

However, there were a few teams who had too much of a Singaporean competitive streak in them. Granted, it was a race of sorts, but ultimately the objective was to have some fun with friends and family. At my station, there was a team that complained that the improperly opened fruit was slowing them down, and made little effort in eating the fruit as soon as they put it into their mouths, spitting out half eaten ones just to shave off a few seconds. Another decided to not even touch the fruit when she saw that they were not of the highest quality, and sped off...

At the end of the Trail, participants were treated to a nice lunch at a local restaurant/pub. Food and drinks flowed, but many also made a hasty exit once the prizes were given out, some midway through a speech. Tsk tsk tsk...

It's an activity with so much finances/manpower pumped in by a generous company. The least one could do is to let loose and enjoy it.


Otherwise, why even turn up eh??