Good day all. Hope the new year has been good to you. It certainly has been a busy start for me. I didn't intend to mothball this site, but with one thing after another, well, you know how it is.

Anyway, I'm back after a period of holiday bliss, and the first thing I have to do, I suppose, is to tie up the loose ends from last year. We had an active period at the tail end of 2008 with charity events and contests and such, so I do owe you  reports, big thanks, and to some, prizes.

Splashing Charity Car Wash (Dec 13 & 14, 2008)

The charity event was a success as far as car/visitor turnouts and tickets sales are concerned, but we were a little disappointed by the lack of volunteers. We had a total of eight volunteers among AMBP members who showed up for the two-day event. That left us seriously short on numbers, but thankfully, we managed to get our colleagues, friends and family members to help out, and pulled through rather well in the end.

In total we managed to collect RM4500 from ticket sales. That's an estimated figure by the way, as I've yet to receive the final numbers from Hospis Malaysia. Will update this space when I get it.

As for the car wash itself, well, let's just say that it wasn't a walk in the park for the volunteers. It was more like a swim in the waterpark. Heh.

Still, both the volunteers and visitors had plenty of fun. Just about everybody got wet. There were tired but cheerful faces everywhere and while the weather threatened a number of times to spoil the party on both days, it didn't, and we came out of it with a wonderful sense of achievement.

My thanks to ALL the volunteers, whether you're a blogger, a representative of a sponsor, a Hospis Malaysia volunteer, a friend, family or colleague. You made this a success. You made the difference.

Oh, and don't forget to check out the Splashing Charity Car Wash Photo Gallery.

Project 'Gift a Kid' & visit to Rumah WAKE (Dec 20, 2008)

Besides the car wash, we had one other charity project called Project Gift a Kid, a joint initiative with the Rotaract Club of Kuala Lumpur.

The objective  of the project was to raise funds to buy back-to-school material for 100 underprivileged kids aged six to 15. Thanks to your efforts, we managed to raise enough funds (amounting to RM5793.75, as of Dec 25) to buy a 'full pack' each for 40 kids.

Each 'full pack' contained a pair of school uniforms (with socks and shoes), a school bag, some notebooks, a pencil box, and stationery (2B pencils, pens, eraser, ruler, scissors, glue, sharpener, pencil colours, highlighters and oil pastels).

The folks from Rotaract Club have handed over the items to the kids at Rumah WAKE and SJKT Cheras in time for the new school term. I made the Dec 20 trip to Rumah WAKE as well, and while we weren't encourage to take pictures of the kids, we did manage to capture a few shots of the home (view Photo Gallery), where the caretakers organised a little lunch do for us.

All and all, you could say we're very happy with how this one turned out. My sincerest gratitude and thanks go out to everyone who played a part in this project.

UIP Caption Contest: Winners List

We ran a caption contest in conjunction with Project Gift a Kid to give you a chance to win something for yourself while doing some good. Y'know, two birds and all. Anyway, it took us some time to go through the entries; but we've finally done with that, so here are the winners for the UIP Caption Contest:

3 x Grand Prize:

1. Happenstance & The Reason Why...
2. Simplified
3. Built to Last

5 x Second Prize

1. Plus Size Kitten
2. One Nine One Zero
3. Avant Garde
4. Hey Don't block the Bloggerz
5. Life’s Happenings

5 x Third Prize

1. ..:: Avenue 299 ::..
2. Morphing Stories
3. live.laugh.love
4. Blissful Bizarre
5. seventeenyears-gone

4 x Consolation Prize

1. The Missing Days
2. i ♥ blackieandwhite.blogspot.com
3. A New Beginning
4. Fiona T.H.S

Guns N' Roses Music CD Giveaway Winners

If your name isn't listed above, well don't fret. See if it's below, 'cos if it is, congrats! You've either won yourself GnR's lastest album Chinese Democracy + a T-Shirt, or just the T-Shirt.

CD + T-Shirt

• useemeiseeu
• The "band dude"
• Bluey Scheluwee & Co.
• d'Frog Prince Croaks
• As Good As It Gets

Just the T-Shirt

• Rhadykallista

Bolt Caption & SMS Contest Winners

If you participated in the BOLT Caption & SMS Contest, you ought to take a look at the list below. You never know. ;-)

5x Lightning Bolt Prizes

• The MovieBuff
• Story Of A Girl
• A New Beginning
• Simplified
• anthroblogia

 5x Barking Good Prizes

• d'Frog Prince Croaks
• ..:: Avenue 299 ::..
• Criz's Sanctuary
• My Little World
• Luv Life Ndy

And that's it for now, folks.