The Party

Christmas is a time to be jolly. It is a time for celebration.

For me, it is a time in which I will be truly tested.

Everyone at work had told me that the day would come for me to…

Arrange the party! Gaaaaaah!

Since it is Christmas and we do have Christmas parties on board our ships, it is normal that we should have one at the academy. And I am appointed to make this thing happen. The thing is, I don’t make parties. Hell, I don’t even do parties. I’m not a party person. I’m more of a stay-at-home-with-a-good-book kind of person. Parties make me nervous.

But it doesn’t seem like I have any choice on this matter.

For the past three weeks,  I’ve been coming home late because all the party preparation can be discussed with the students during after-class hours only.

On normal seasons, our academy usually has around one fifty students or more, but this is our busiest season yet as we have eight classes currently running and two more are coming next week.  There will be approximately two hundred and sixty people turning up at the Christmas party and worst of all is that we cannot hold the party outdoor like we used to since it is the rainy season and all.

So the venue will be at the Lido (our eating area) and lobby, which can only occupy half of the number of the students, plus we have a stage to be set up on the day.

For your information, I have never, ever organized any public events. At all.

I’m not a people person, I don’t know how to delegate, and the thought of having two hundred and sixty people all huddled up in Lido area with only five ceiling fans running really freak me out.

Worst still, all the other teachers at work have been too busy with their own projects – which is totally not their fault since we have eight classes running everyday and some of them have to teach combined classes. Luckily there are some who are still willing to help me.

Our biggest problem yet is dinner time. As I’ve said before, the Lido area can only occupy half of the students and staff. And to make matters worse, the big boss wants it to be a nice dinner where everyone is sitting down and be served a nicer-than-usual-dinner.

I proposed nasi goreng and fried chicken.

He said, “Nay. We’ll have steak.”

And he decided this after I proposed the budget, in which he disagreed to change.

Aaaaaaaaaaaargh! Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!

So steak it is, for dinner. We’ve also surveyed the students who don’t eat meat and provide chicken steak for them. Don’t ask me about the budget. I really don’t want to talk about it and honestly, up to this point I don’t really care.

The Lido and lobby area has been decorated by the students who have worked their ass off until past midnight, in which I am so thankful, and I am giving full authorisations to all my clerks students to do the important tasks such as getting the prizes for bingo and raffles, managing drinks orders, dinner and snacks, security, class performances and decoration.

I must say, after the decoration has been set and the dinner menu has been decided, the thing that worries me the most turns up to be the event itself. We want to make sure everything runs on time and on scheduled. I’ve appointed one clerk to be the event controller for the schedule and the class performance.

The rundown of the event has been made, but still it worries me a lot to think that anything can happen and it might ruin the party. Students can get drunk, they can mess up their timing for class performances, dinner serving might take longer time than usual, Bingo sessions might stuff up, power failure, etc., etc.

Let’s just hope for the best as we have only four days left to prepare everything. Meanwhile, to reduce the stress (mainly mine), I hope you enjoy the cartoon below.