Early Easter Present From The Easter Bunny!
Who would have thought… of all the people, I, Adeline, someone who had never won the tiniest thing in my whole life won the ballot of the year!!! My heart is still thumping at the thought of it! What could it possibly be other than my sheer Easter luck? It must be the early Easter present from the Easter bunny! 
The present was a whooping USD4000 F1 Paddock Club ticket!!! And paddock club ticket is the most expensive ticket one can get. It is equivalent to the VIP ticket. Instead of standing out under the hot sun, the paddock club ticket holders wine and dine in the air conditioned area with free flow of champagne, wine and first class mineral water! There’s also free flow of ice cream and foot massage! Have I mentioned about the pit lane walk and the garage visit yet?! Can you imagine all these exclusive treatments?! Well, I can hardly believe it myself too!
It was Thursday afternoon after lunch. The day was getting a little bit slow after the heavy lunch. I was giving my presentation slides one final scrutiny before sending them out and I heard Shearn saying to me, ‘Eh, check your email now.’ I casually moved my cursor to open up my mailbox. Staring back at me was an email sent out by my project manager titled ‘Formula 1 ticket for Friday 6 April 2007 now available for balloting’. Shut up!!!!!! This must be a joke.
Eagerly, I read on…
Hi Team,
Due to some last minute cancellation by our client, we now have 1 Formula 1 ticket for Friday 6 April 2007 available. I’m putting this ticket up for balloting to the ACN team members. Please indicate with a (Yes) whether you are interested to be included in the balloting for the ticket. You need to reply back with a (Yes) vote by 5.00pm today latest in order to be eligible for the balloting. Ticket won is not transferrable or for resale. Please inform others.
Good luck.
I could barely believe what I was reading!!! Without wasting a second, I clicked on the (Yes) button.
Moments later, another email came through…
The ticket offered is for access to the Paddock (VIP area) with air-conditioning, buffet lunch and free flow champagnes etc.
It includes:
1. Complementary buffet breakfast at the Sheraton Imperial
2. Complementary transfer from Sheraton Imperial to and fro Sepang Circuit
3. Pit Lane Walk, where you can get up close and personal with all the cars and the drivers.
SHACKS!! He’s ruining my chance of winning!! Everyone’s gonna click THE button!!! I knew there were three of us replying with a ‘Yes’ before the second email shot out… Sigh, now that the probability of winning didn’t look great! With that, I told myself to stop dreaming of winning the ballot. Even though I’d love to be at the circuit for once! It will be such an experience since I’ve always been following F1 on telly… and I SO wanted to meet the Ferrari drivers and for that matter, any cute mechanics/engineers there. 
By 5.00pm, my PM walked by… ‘You still have 20% of chance winning the ticket. There are only 5 people replying.’ Even so, I had a feeling Shearn probably was going to be the winner. He always wins something! Along with Syamsul and Kenny, the three of us followed our PM to the ballot room… The moment’s gonna come and I couldn’t wait!
‘So how are we doing this?’, my PM asked the three of us. Apparently he hadn’t figured a way to do the balloting. But a wiseman he is, he got some papers from J* and started to write our names on it. ‘So who wants to pick the winner?’, he looked across the room and asked. Unsure of his game plan, the guys being the perfect gentlemen themselves all pointed at me and said, ‘Adeline you go first. Go on and pick one.’ Alright, if they said so…
Lying on the table were five pieces of folded paper. I thought why should I just pick the paper from the existing arrangment… I should probably shuffle ‘em a little. After second time of shuffling, I finally picked up the only and one piece of paper which was lying away from the rest of the papers. Hesitated, I held the paper in my palm… It’s now or never, I willed myself to open it up. ‘Adeline’, it’s my name! But hang on, what did it mean? After all we hadn’t been told of the rules yet. ‘She’s the winner’, quipped my PM. You don’t have to imagine my next reaction!
OMG! OMG! OMG! I WON! I AM THE WINNER!!! I remember jumping up and down like a little girl who just received her first barbie doll. Honestly, I didn’t see this coming at all! The guys were dumbfounded! How did the balloting work?! ‘I asked you guys to pick the winner and you two asked her to. She picked her own name… What are the odds of doing that?’, quipped my PM again. He was amused! I swore he was so amused watching the whole drama unfolding in front of him. Haha… two confused and puzzled men and a delirious girl claiming her precious prize!
SO, I AM THE WINNER. Notice I don’t even bother to use the past tense. I AM the winner!!! For once in my life, for once!!! This is the most coveted prize of the year! A VIP ticket to watch F1. Well, for people who love F1, that must be an experience of a life time. Seriously! I couldn’t care less about my professional imagine. I practically bounced my way back to 25th floor. I couldn’t hide my excitement when I got back to my usual working area. I just had to SHOW OFF and GLOAT about my luck! (sorry, I really have to gloat about it this time. You don’t get to be this lucky everyday and this is not an everyday kinda luck too!)
Holding that little piece of paper with my name written across it, I went around to share my pure joy! This is not the end… the best part has yet to come. My PM came by to conduct a little prize ceremony. He handed me some cool merchandize which others can only drool on… ‘There, here’s the USD4000 ticket.’ I could only look at it while trying very hard to live in the moment, my moment!
I took a few deep breathes and suddenly remembered Audra and Carmie would be at the event too. They were the lucky marketing girls who get to attend the glamorous and happening events! I clicked on their name on my MSN and spread the good news in no time. I would be at the event too! Better still, I was going to go as a VIP! I just had to repeat this in my mouth, VIP!!!
You bet what I asked next. ‘What should I wear? Is there any dress code?!’ ‘Is it going to be really hot out there?’ Poor Audra, she was bombarded with my endless questions. ‘Yes, it’s hot, hot hot! Double meaning here, girl. So, DRESS TO KILL!’ It’s a tall order but hell yeah, I was gonna obey, GLADLY! ‘OMG, you mean, you mean there are going to be a lot cute guys?!’ ‘Yes, apparently even the mechanics are cute!’ ‘OMG, are you serious?!’, I moved my fingers even more frantically across the keyboard. Audra had just conjured up a bigger and better excitement in my guts!
‘Look I have to go home now. I’ll call you later, k? You have to, HAVE TO answer my call!’ Quickly, I packed up and went home with my arms full of Williams’ merchandize. Even so, every step I made that evening seemed to be feather-light. What a wonderful feeling. I felt like a happy little seahorse. Err, I don’t know why seahorse but it’s just felt that way.
As soon as I got in my car, I dialed Elaine’s number. I could hear her squeaking from the other end… Hahaha… I know, lucky me. Yes, I AM the lucky one. I was hoping she would be there sharing the once in a life time experience with me though. Too bad, Lady Luck wasn’t on her side that day. Someone else from her project got the ticket… Anyway, that’s not even my secondary concern. My primary concern was to spread my happiness all around!!!
You can imagine the number of calls I made… Hehehe… Audra was on my list. I just HAD TO call her to confirm a few IMPORTANT details, such as, dress code. I had a few choices in my head already but I just needed to find out if there was any black and white dress code that we must follow. ‘You have to wear the Williams’s Polo-T and a long blue pants’, came the voice of Audra. Say what?! Over my dead body! No way, I wasn’t gonna wear that oversized Polo-T!!! Didn’t she just tell me to dress to kill? I can’t even kill a fly with that hideous Polo-T, let alone the sizzling hot gems I was gonna meet. I slumped into my driving seat. There had to be a way… I DON’T FREAKING WANT TO BE SEEN IN THAT POLO-T!!! ‘So what are you going to wear?’, Audra asked again. ‘I don’t know… I haven’t made up my mind maan. I need to go back and have a look at my wardrobe.’
The last I checked my shortlisted list before I got into my car, the list read:
1. White cocktail dress from xoxo (or)
2. Purple cocktail dress from Miss Selfridge
3. White Prairie inspired Guess blouse (or)
4. Cute little pink halter Guess top (or)
5. Black Miss Selfridge shorts (or)
6. All time favourite - Mini skirt from Topshop
7. Gold Aldo sandals (or)
8. Baby blue Lewre sandals (or)
9. White HushPuppies sandals (or)
10. Pink Elle pumps
‘By the way, you are advised to wear comfortable shoes since there will be a pit lane walk. You will need to walk a little bit.’ Wait a minute, comfortable shoes = flats!! ‘NOOOOOO, please don’t make me wear them! To me heels are very comfortable! I can run in it! Not a worry in the world, man!’, I wailed… ‘Hahaha, well, if heels are comfortable enough for you… you can just wear ‘em.’ Pheeeew, no flats! Yay! It’s bad enough I had to overwrite my cocktail dresses. There is nothing in the world can stop me from wearing my heels! Nothing!
I yakety yak yak away on how one should never wear something which is totally ill-fitted. Finally, Audra relented… ‘Well, you can wear your own top. But please, it should be business casual! and no shorts!’ Yay! No more Polo-T! I sure was determined!
I could barely conceal my excitment later that night. I had all my clothes chose and ironed. I even had the matching sandals to go with. There’s only one thing in my mind. I must look my best!
I went through my checklist again:
1. Paul & Joe Blotter –> checked
2. Anna Sui Lip’s gloss –> checked
3. M.A.C compact powder –> checked
4. Anna Sui blusher –> checked
5. Paddock Club Ticket –> checked
6. Sun lotion –> checked
7. Mobile phone –> checked
Okay, it looked like I had everything else covered. With a smile I said a quick prayer and summoned myself to bed. Ahhh, what a Thursday I had! Extraordinary Friday, wait up, here I come!
