The Good Old Days... (sorry photo's pretty small cause screen grab from an old site)

One of the interesting thing about being a Photographer is, sometimes, we just couldn't believe the type of events we are engaged to shoot. In this instant, it was the Malaysia Book of Records 20th Anniversary Dinner and Coffee Book Launch at Sunway Resorts Hotel & Spa. Meeting all these Record Breakers that sets themselves apart from other Malaysians through their sheer determination to do their best. Some of them are even younger than my own children! And most of them are more than eager to share with you their stories even though at one point each time, I have to stop them and inform them that I'm there as a photographer first and not one of the attendees so I had to keep my conversations down to 2 questions and move on. For photos of the event, head over to MBR's website to view them. I'll eventually post them on my own facebook page and tag the link in but that'll be later on.



Working at the MBR's dinner function made me recall back to a little special day back in 2007, September 7, 2007 to be exact. Malaysia's little Salsa Community (Yes, I have been dancing even back then), at it's infancy is also at its most awesome period of time. On the 8th of September, we got ourselves in the Malaysia Book of Records too! So yeah, to be there to work at the event (I have to make a living too!) and to know that somewhere in the 2008 edition, my name is listed under “Human Achievement” category as the “Longest Non-Stop Salsa Dance” - 14 Hours. To be among Malaysia's record breakers is quite an awesome feeling.



Back then, there wasn't much of a plan aside from our pure enthusiasm to make sure that by hook or by crook, we pull it off and dance for 14 hours straight. After all, I think most of us thought to ourselves, how hard can it be dancing for 14 hours since we dance all night at the social dance floors anyway but definitely, after that experience, I can say, it's pretty tough. Especially the rules stipulate that we cannot stop dancing and if there is a strict rule of a maximum of 1 minute gap between music if deejays need to swap or something bad happened at the deejay console. Dancers of various levels, be it beginners or experts was there.



You can feel the buzz inside the Impiana KLCC ballroom as we received our final briefing from the MBR team about the terms and rules for the record to be set and then we're off! They even set up video cameras around the dance floor to make sure that we didn't cheat as it was an overnight thing. Yup, we started at 8.30pm on a Friday, straight after work for most of us and dance like our lives depends on it until 10.30am on Saturday. By then, most of us couldn't feel our legs anymore. I remembered back then, I requested to be left there to rest for an hour just so that my legs would regain some strength before driving home. I think most of us eventually just crashed there until lunch time or something like that before we went home. After all, we needed the rest so that we can go dancing again that night!



Sometimes, remembering all these sweet memories is awesome. And to actually recount back what happened although vaguely is still pretty neat. I'm not sure how many of the veteran dancers in Malaysia remembers it as the current crop of social dancers are post 2010. Maybe another attempt is in order? I've always wanted to give it another go again, and break the 14 hours record. After all, if we can dance all night and attend workshops during the day for 3/4 days straight at Festivals, dancing for 14 - 15 hours straight over a weekend is not a real problem. Right? Who's game for it?