After months of preparation, and countless hours of practice, the time has come for the 3rd Kuala Lumpur Boys Brigade Company’s marching band to show of its talent to the outside world. This time, it is at the International AIDS Memorial Day on the 31st of May.

  Our day began with the usual marching practice for some and followed by the last practice we would have before the actual performance. It was followed by the usual parade until 4 p.m. when we had an early closing parade. We gathered our gear and instruments and boarded a bus to 1 Utama.

  We were accompanied by our band officer Mr Ng Yee Khai. On the way, we had our usual chatter and decided where to have dinner. Finally, after a little hustle, we decided to go to Mc. Donalds.

  Once we reached our destination, we arranged our instruments and bags together to practice the Guard of Honour. We were lined up into 2 lines to escort the VIP who is the Health Minister to his sitting position. After that, we were given an hour to have our meal at Mc. Donalds. Some of us even found some time to take some photos.

  After the one hour grace period, we regrouped and were given a pair of ribbons which was later replaced with a plastic version to be placed above our name tags to show our support for the event. There we had our warm up session led by LCpl Khoo Ming Yuan. Then we waited for the MC to kick start the event.

  When our band was announced, we went out to perform 30 minutes of songs to attract some crowd. We were given loud cheers after every songs performed even though we did some repeats. The performance went without a hitch and everyone was happy with the performance so much so that the organizers wanted us to perform another song just in case the VIP was late.
In the end, the VIP came so early that we didn’t have the time to do the Guard of Honour.

  Our performance was followed by a sketch and an electric violinist just to name a few. The event ended with a one minute silence marked by our percussion team during the beginning and end of the 1 minute to commemorate the one’s who lost their live to AIDS. During this period candles were lit and heads were bowed in respect of the one’s who perished. After the silence, VIPs and famous people signed a personal message on a board. On it were interesting messages like “Don’t get owned by sex, wear rubber”.

   Then, it was time to leave. Some of the band members took off without going back to YMCA while others followed the bus. We were dismissed at around 10.30p.m.

Written by LCpl Lee Yan Gen