A One Way Voyage....: TRIBUNG TRALA-LA CONQUERS DARWIN BARRIO FIESTA

Tribung Tralala, not an official organization as such but simply my group of friends (my foster family here in Darwin), had organized, yet again, another venture. Not for profit, but supposedly for fun and quality bonding experience. It's the same group whom we traveled with to the Gold

Coast and Melbourne and had fun with throughout the whole journey.

Another success and a job well done to us all guys!!!

Tribung Tralala conquered the 2008 Darwin Barrio Fiesta last Saturday, 30th of August at the FAANT Community Centre. Remember the Aprons that I made? We have worn them with pride finally, along with used (disposable) kitchen hats. From the sewing of the aprons to driving here and there to buy supplies to organizing the Environmental Health paper works, down to washing chicken wings, skewing pork meats and whacking flies... It was downright draining. Had we prepared two months before, it probably wouldn't have been as exhausting. We started the preparation three weeks towards the actual event, and I reckon it was way too short

a time to organize the kind of stall we had.

I myself, have never been as busy this year as I was last week. With homeworks to be done for my course, and the new project I've been given, I did not really want to take some time off from work because I did not want to

disappoint my new Boss. But I have put in my leave request and it was approved before I was given a special project. So I took last Thursday and Friday off from work to organize our Tralala stall.

Three weeks prior, we started making the atsara under the direction of Ed Aralar (atsara expert). Cat's family from Philippines were here for a holiday/wedding and were available to give us a hand, which we are so thankful for. Kuya Tootsie, the architect, designed our 'TBIBUNG TRALA-LA' karatula which Kuya Boy, Mona and I colored with glittered paints. Thanks Kuya Tootsie! Yong mga tao-tao nga pala, for next year, request ni Eda, lagyan mo daw ng 'tribung tralala' sa likod. Balik ka ulit dito para mag drawing lang nong mga taong tribo. All expenses paid...sa pagkain lang and accomodation. ehekhekhekhek.

Every Saturday for the last three weeks, we skewed pork meats the best way we can. It was done in a special way, so as not to dry up the meat and burn the BBQ sticks. In other words, it was a painstaking process.

We only started skewing up the chicken wings three days prior to the event. We bought nine boxes of frozen chicken wings from the meat shop, each box weighing 16 kilos. Clara, Mary and myself had to carry these boxes. Imagine the hard work! Buti na lang andyan and brand new Hyundai Tucson ni Clara na talaga namang na binyagan namin ng totoong dugo ng manok!!!

Then the whole process starts, from defrosting the chooks wings to washing and cleaning them up, then

slicing them, Allan's way. Marinating them. Skewing them. putting them systematically in containers. Trying to fit gazillion containers methodically in a 1mtr x 1mtr upright freezer(or maybe even less) ni Ate Luz. Buti na lang may nag pahiram kina Eda ng empty upright freezer about the same size nong kay Ate Luz. But still, it was not enough. So, we had to find another one, which, we had so much difficulty in finding by the way!!! Mary next year, lagot ka, ikaw na ang ilalagay namin sa BBQ stick!!!

Ate Sussan's duty was to shoo the flies away and

look after Xander (did she fall asleep while on duty?).... No wonder Xander did what he did! Out of fright maybe or vengeance!

What ever happens in Dorrigo stays in Dorrigo. A secret recipe will never be revealed... The skewing must go on.

Came Friday, I drove around with Ate Lydia and Mona to buy bits and pieces we have forgotten about, then went back to Dorrigo to paint the last four remaining aprons and the Tralala 'bill board'. Friday night, we all helped put the stall up and decorated it ready for the next day. Thanks nga pala kay Lorie and his bro for helping us out nong Friday and Saturday.

When I woke up Saturday morning, I had this massive head ache. I thought I won't make it. Had it turned into migraine, then I would not have been able to watch the stall along with the whole Tralalas, which we all looked forward to doing talaga. It's where all the fun is...or so we thought... I had to drive from Palmerston to the FAANT Saturday morning to help the ladies with the finishing touches, such as setting the table cloths, etc. It was stinking hot that day. I really thought my head ache will turn into a full blown migraine. I stayed home and slept from 1:00PM to 3:00PM to give my self a little bit of rest, then drove back to FAANT in jeans and white shirt.

When I got there, every thing's set. Eda's cooked her yummy Butse and Puto. She spent Saturday morning doing that. Ate Luz spent that morning cooking rice. Allan and Mona prepared their secret sauce. Cat organized the bain-marie's delivery. Ate Lydia and Ate Sussan helped with the table set-up. In other words, everyone's put sheer effort to make it happen.

Anyhow, complemented and praised as 'looking so neat and professional', we felt every effort, sweats, late nights, bloods and pains (I've got a splinter still stuck on my finger right now...it's starting to swell up) from Allan's draconian quality control in skewing of pork and chicken meats all paid up.

We looked like we had 'vendor franchise

for sale' written all over our stall. We even called our main meal, the VALUE MEAL (a cup of rice, two BBQ of their choice-pork & chicken, and Atsara). When someone orders the meal, we had fun yelling out, "One Value meal Please!!!"...Then the trail goes, one puts atsara on the styro plate, then passes it on to the next person to put a cup of rice, then passes it on to the next for the BBQ. Like we're so professionals! But when the going got tough, everyone just sort of bumped into each other. When the BBQ came less and the customers started queuing up in masses in a disorganized manner, we all sort of retreated

towards the back to avoid confrontation with them. It may sound funny, but we definitely learned from this experience.

Mona earlier on said she's got something to flaunt to attract customers, but when crunch time came, the cleavage was soon forgotten. But here's a photo of her practicing on how to serve male customers...

Not wanting to face the anxious customers, we instead helped the boys behind the scene to try and cope with the demand.

The Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Hon. Paul Henderson graced the 2008 Darwin Barrio Fiesta. He, himself complemented Allan's BBQ as the best BBQ he's ever had in his entire life. He also congratulated our group for being so organized and looking so professional. When he came over our stall and hanged around us, spoke to us and joked with us, I think all the exhaustion disappeared. Everyone, specially the boys felt rejuvenated.

Hon Paul Henderson with the Tralala Boys

Waiting....waiting....waiting....then run away!

Around 7:00 at night, I felt the whole Filipino population in Darwin swamped our stall wanting to have a taste of Allan's BBQ. It was massive!!! When I say massive... I meant we literally could not cope with the demand. We've run out of food, as soon as a BBQ gets cooked, people seemed to fight over it (even us, to give to the

customer we have served) that it rarely ever got to the bain-marie at all. Our bain-marie was literally empty most of the night. Even the Aussies queued up!

First. we've run out of Pork BBQs, then the rice came scarce, and few and far between. Ate Lydia cooked more because we brought a number of rice cookers with us. Unfortunately, the generator is not coping with the demand of electricity from all the other stalls. We plugged it in in another building, but even that did not work. It kept on tripping off. So we've run out of rice... Then the BBQ chicken also got wiped out. We were just hanging on next to the

grills waiting for any cooked BBQ to serve to the customers. They were willing to wait for 20 minutes...but I think some of them just got frustrated, tired and angry at some point, so they've left.

But even when they've left, they still kept on coming back to check whether we have more cooked

BBQs. Unfortunately, as I've said, we were not able to cope with the demand. Nag loloko na po yong grill na gawa ni allan. Napuno na po ng ashes kaya humina na ang apoy.
Ire-design daw ni Allan to for next year and dadagdagan ng another three??? Ang daming dapat nating i improve ano? Ano pa nga ba yon Ed? Get rid of the liabilities? Mga hindi assets? Heheheh. Jok! Jok!

One of the three custom-made grills ni Allan.

Have a look at how the customers engulfed our stall

Si Mona naman po, patuloy po talagang chini-cheer up ang buong grupo. Kahit pagod na pagod na, sasayaw sayaw pa sya sabay sabing, "It's for fun, di ba? It's fun...It's fun...It's fun..."

My feet were aching like crazy. We all ate in a rush, just enough to refuel our bodies. When it was not as busy anymore, syempre picture picture na naman. Di mawawala yan. Nakakapagod po talaga, but in the end, we all agreed it was all worth it.

Monetary wise, we got back the money we've spent and an extra on top of that. But if you consider the time and effort we have put into the realization of this stall, hindi po sapat yong pera. But the bonding experience and the fun that we had, has made it a venture, everyone agrees, worth planning for again next year...except me I think. Seems like I have not gotten over the exhaustion yet. I am definitely open to all possibilities for next year, providing we make it better. We've pointed out all our weakest points that night during a meeting over dinner at Dorrigo the following night. We have identified aspects where we need to fine tune and improve. So hopefully, it'll be a lot easier and less stressful the next time we do it.