I will be away tomorrow and Sunday – not that I have been around since the last couple of weeks :) But I thought it must be rude for not telling my blogger friends that I will not be around and make them come back repeatedly over the weekend. See? I’m nice *smiles*

I will be at Redang for 2D1N to entertain (with my Supervisor) two separate groups with a total of 180 guests from a diving company and Malaysian Nature Society HQ. I am not quite sure what the itinerary would be like, I just knew that the diving group would be at Redang for an UnderWater cleanup in conjunction with World CleanUp Day, which is held on the 3rd weekend of September every year.

Both groups have written in to express their interest to visit the sea turtle nesting beach where a long-term saturation tagging, nesting and in situ egg protection programs are carried out. And that practically explains why we would be going in to Redang tomorrow :)

Which reminds me of a MAJOR cleanup we organized and conducted in 2003 or 2004, I can’t remember. With the help of my Supervisor (my then-lecturer), the more proactive of us in the course organized a major beach and underwater cleanup in Redang Island. Our lecturer got hold of the forms and plastic bags and contacted Berjaya Resort to sponsor us food and accommodation, which they happily and willingly did.

If I remember correctly, all 20 of us participated in the cleanup. About one third of us participated in the underwater cleanup, during which they retrieved a washing machine, a bicycle and a TV from underneath the water, and of course with lots of rubbish la. Those of us who did the beach cleanup did not lose out to them either.

At the end of the cleanup day, we had to analyze the rubbish by sorting them according to groups and items. We had to sort the cigarette butts from the plastic bags, papers from wood, glass from aluminium cans etc. And we had to weigh the rubbish separately for an idea of how much of each item was “uncovered” during the cleanup.

We were very exhausted at the end of it, no doubt, but what kept us going was the fact that Berjaya Hotel “promised” us a treat of buffet dinner at the restaurant! And trust me, until now, many of us still speak very fondly of that night when we ate to our hearts’ content.. *yum* *yum*

It has been a few years since we did something like that. My Supervisor entrusted her students to conduct a cleanup at the hostel beach last year but apart from bringing sufficient plastic bags and getting the MPKT trucks to come, they did not analyze the rubbish collected from the beach. I was there to write about the event, but was dissapointed that they did not manage to follow simple instructions – which made the efforts “quite meaningless” as the standard procedure for any cleanup would be to analyze the rubbish collected.

Anyway, what would YOU be doing this weekend? Why not join the millions of people worldwide in a cleanup and clear THAT mess on your table as well as those hidden in your wardrobe? *winks*