 |
| Wai Yu, a fresh graduate |
My 3rd son Wai Yu enrolled to pursue a degree course in Bachelor of Communication (Hons) Advertising at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) in Kampar, Perak campus commencing on 31 May 2010. He completed his undergraduate studies with 2nd Class Honours (Lower Division) in December 2013.
Upon collecting his Convocation attire of gown and mortar-board on 1 March 2014 (Saturday), we went to Global Star Photo studio in Balakong to take his personal and family photos in the evening of the same day. All his brothers namely Wai Kit, Wai Jen and Wai Kei, my wife Soh Ai and I took part in the photography session. A total of 5 photos of varying sizes of 12x18, 12x16, 8x12 and two 6R (four with frames) costs me RM 570.00 for the record.
 |
| A family photo of me, my wife and our 4 sons |
 |
| (Pic from left: Wai Kei, Wai Kit, Wai Yu, Wai Jen) |
The Convocation Ceremony for Wai Yu’s batch of graduands was held in the Session 2 beginning at 1.30 pm on 8 March 2014 (Saturday) at Dewan Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik, UTAR, Kampar, Perak.
Wai Yu had travelled to Kampar by bus to stay with his coursemates/housemates on 7 March 2014 while Soh Ai, Wai Kit and I were to join him on the Convocation Day itself.
.
On 8 March 2014, we left Bandar Sungai Long at 5.40 am. Traffic was quite smooth all the way on the North-South highway on this Saturday morning. We only stopped by Hentian Tapah to go to the toilet without taking any food or drink as we planned to go to Kampar first and fetch Wai Yu for breakfast together.
At 8.40 am, we reached Kampar. Together with Wai Yu, we went for breakfast at a restaurant nearby his former rented house.
We proceeded to UTAR campus at about 10.30 am but it was too early for Wai Yu to register. We then hung around the campus to while away the time. The weather was pretty hot then and we had to queue up until 1.15 pm to enter the main hall. The waiting was quite long and certainly uncomfortable amidst a large crowd of other parents and relatives of the graduands.
The Convocation Ceremony went as follows: 2.00 pm - Graduands’ Procession. 2.15 pm - Academic Procession. 2.30 pm - Guest of Honour Procession followed by National Anthem ‘Negaraku’; Convocation Speeches by UTAR Council Chairman Tun Dr. Ling Liong Sik, UTAR President Ir. Prof Academician Dato’ Dr. Chuah Hean Teik and finally Guest of Honour Tan Sri Dato’ Wong See Wah (Chairman of Zalam Group of Companies). 3.30 pm Conferment of Degrees. 4.45 pm Announcement of Book Prize and Award Recipients. There were Chinese classical musical performance, solo and duet singing by UTAR students in between the ceremony proceedings to entertain the audiences. The ceremony must have taken too long a time so much so even some of the graduands started to jeer by shouting and clapping at the song performances towards the end of the ceremony.
There were all together a total of 535 graduands receiving their degrees in this afternoon session. They were in alphabetic order: from Faculty of Arts and Social Science: Advertising (Wai Yu was placed in the 8th position of the recipients, no wonder he was seated in the most front row of the graduands’ area adjacent to the ailse), Journalism, Psychology; from Faculty of Business and Finance: Entrepreneurship, Financial Economics; from Faculty of Creative Industries: Graphic Design and Multimedia, Broadcasting, Corporate Communication, Media and Creative Studies; from Faculty of Engineering and Science: Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical and Electrical Engineering, Electronic and Communication Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering, Actuarial Science, Applied Mathematics with Computing, Architecture, Financial Mathematics, Quantity Surveying; from Faculty of Information and Communication Technology: Communications and Networking.
 |
| Stage Photos of Receiving Degree Scroll |
The Convocation Ceremony finally adjourned at 5.00 pm and all the graduands left the main hall to be greeted by their parents, relatives and friends and followed by photo-taking for the sake of remembrance.
I had managed to take a number of photos and videos (not skillfully done though as I was not used to it) of Wai Yu and his coursemates and friends as shown below. Worthy of mention is that a group of his SGM friends appeared holding a banner to show their support of all SGM graduands of the day.
 |
| Pic taken while waiting for registration |
 |
| UTAR president delivering his long-winded speech in English and Mandarin |
 |
| Wai Yu was seated on the right in the most front row |
 |
| Flanked by 2 beautiful girls as soon the cerermony was over and Wai Yu stepped out of the hall |
 |
| Supporters from Soka Gakkai Malaysia (SGM) |
 |
| Wai Yu being thrown into the air by his playful friends |
 |
| A shot of Wai Yu taken with his parents |
 |
| UTAR Council Chairman leaving the hall |
We left UTAR campus at about 6.00 pm and had dinner at a nearby restaurant at 6.20 pm before leaving Kampar at 7.00 pm.
 |
Our dinner comprising of Patin fish, 3-cup-chicken, chilli-fried Kangkong (water spinach) and lotus root soup cooked with pork ribs and peanuts (all-in only RM 56)
|
 |
| Dinner at Kampar before departure |
The traffic condition on the North-South highway in the homeward bound journey was much heavier than in the morning. We only reached the exit toll in KL at about 9.30 pm. Due to absent-mindedness, I missed a few junctions and went through areas like Sentul, Setapak, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman and got caught by massive traffic jam on a Saturday night!
We finally returned home at about 10.20 pm and that concluded our journey to Wai Yu’s memorable Convocation.