Turquoise and Roses

And it truly was the biggest red crowd!

Lucky Draw

Over the past week or so, various posts from many corners of the Brunei Blogosphere, called for readers to wear something red and participate in a modest event at Taman Sir Muda Omar Ali Saifuddien, at the heart of the nation’s capital, this morning. The event is the “Walk for Life” Walkathon, organized by the Brunei Darussalam AIDS Council, with the main objective of reintroducing themselves all over again, and hoping to encourage more successful events in the future. Thus was the theme of the Walkathon, hopeful for the future, hopeful for life.

I spy with my eye

And so the morning came, and a torrent of the red-wearing general public came. Red, a bold, bright colour symbollic of the blood that hastens through everyone’s veins, representing life and its exposed vulnerability, representing this unprejudiced disease that threatens each and everyone of our loved ones. Representing the fact that when dealing with AIDS, simply no one is immune. It’s the colour of raw humanity. It’s the colour of life.

Waiting

It was the perfect color to kick off an event concerned with seeking appropriate forms of attention, this colour desperately screams to be scrutinized, so that we notice, so that we care, so that one day, when that line on the graph drops drastically, we’ll be able to take a deep sigh of relief.

Name the “celebs”!

A lot of bloggers were present showing their support, wearing what else but red. It is amazing to know the kind of people behind the online writings. Through mere words, they get to motivate and to inspire their readers. They are real people, recounting real life experiences. They share their grief, and their happiness, to strangers, knowing very well, that their privacy is at stake. Some people set them as examples, as figures they look up to, no matter how mundane they think their writings are. Tears are shed, laughter shared. I think I should take this opportunity to say, what is not being said often enough. Thank you Bruneian Bloggers, for simply existing.

We be warmin’ up

And so, the event started with aerobics warm up (which I did badly, as usual), but was fun nonetheless. I think some bloggers took videos displaying my atrocious hand-eye coordination (or maybe I’m just self-conscious and paranoid), however if any form of media resembling a Maurina attempting to exercise not-so-magically appears somewhere on YouTube, do not, I repeat, do not proceed! Eyes will burn.

The one with the ribbon

We (a couple of Girly Bloggers and I) were way at the back, so we couldn’t see the official cutting of the ribbon, however, we heard loud and clear that we MUST FOLLOW THE RED CAR! And followed the car we did.

Everybody

Men, women, children. A uniform flow of people, practically painting the town red. Boyfriend and I started slow, because I’ve already warned him my feet hurts taking in the scenery. Out of the Taman Sir Muda, past RTB, past the Royal Regalia Building, past St. Andrews’ School (I think), past the huge Kiulap Junction, past STPRI, past SOAS College, past Tasek Lama, past Sheraton Utama, past Pusat Belia, past Chung Hwa Middle School, past PGGMB Building, past Brunei Hotel, past Kampong Ayer, past Yayasan SHHB, past BIBD and finally back to Taman Sir Muda.

Can he cure AIDS?

Back to the Taman, who greeted us but the pensive-looking Red Ribbon Man! (There was also a Milo truck and a lucky draw but hey, this was the only one with pictures). Hehe. None of us bloggers won anything I think. Sigh. Better luck next time!

To end this post, I’d like to give a hearty congratulations to the Brunei Darussalam AIDS Council for organizing the Walkathon, and Liyana for involving the blogging community. I look forward to more collaborations in the future.

For more recounts and pictures, feel free to click on the links below:

• “Red Morning…” by AnakBrunei
• “Walk For Life” by RanoAdidas
• “Walk for Life II” by RanoAdidas
• “Inspired Walk” by Bandar360
  
• “It’s a Red Day Today” by Pablo
• “Painting the town RED” by Muaz
• “Walk for Life: A Bloggers United Call to Arms” by StupidLogic

All pictures taken by Boyfriend.

Walk for Life Route marked with red stars (all 6 km of it) from GoogleEarth.

Let me just say, DJ Honey of Kristal FM, Ness and I completed this route in only ONE HOUR (with a few extra minutes).

The Walkathon was definitely a star-studded event.Will post pictures and a detailed account later so you can play “Spot the Celebrities”. Ha!

As LL had said, “the biggest red crowd I have ever seen”. So wait for the next post!