Sunday, February 13, 2011

Magnum Lou Sang With Bloggers Event

Magnum has always organized really good events so when I heard about them organizing a lou sang (a Chinese tradition of salad tossing during Chinese New Year. Usually on the 7th day but not limited to that day, believed to bring prosperity and good luck) I was thrilled and happily looked forward to the event.
Why I feel that their event is really good it's because they really make you feel like a VIP. So far, that's how I feel about it, ALL of their events that I attended.

The day set was yesterday evening.
The first stop was at the Magnum building located at Jalan Pudu for us to witness the live draw of the winning 4D numbers and to help us understand how the draw is conducted.

The secured room is as secure as a bank's money vault!
Nobody is allowed to enter this room alone under any circumstances, not the staff of Magnum, not even the CEO!
It would have to be at least 3 persons to just open the doors.
Outside the room greeting us when we enter are guards to ensure that it doesn't overflow with people coming in since this is open for the public to witness the draw when there is one.
In fact, the draw will be done by a random selection from the public and then the results will be on this board:

We were really lucky to be given the opportunity to enter the room before the public and a briefing given to us.

Unfortunately, I believe most of us do not understand no matter how much they try to make it as clear as possible because the draw process is such an elaborate, complicated process to ensure that it's totally random in it's results and that there is no tampering of it.

There's four sets of number balls and 2 sets of letter balls that'll be on the stage and everytime a draw is conducted, the same balls may not be used.
There's around over 50 sets of balls that will be selected using the roll of dices to determined which one will be used.
What's interesting about these numbers and letters balls, it's purely rubber balls imported from the makers in France and each set has undergone an x-ray machine before being put to use to see whether are there any foreign substances that will affect the outcome of the game.
Also, each balls are weighed before being used in every draw and if there's a difference of 0.02mg between the balls, that set will NEVER be used again.

Noticed the CCTV cameras and the screens:

There are around 16 CCTV cameras all around and as you can see from the screens, there's dedicated cameras focused directly on the number balls and other items. There's a backup set of CCTV cameras that are in place in case of technical difficulties hence you see the 2 different types of cameras at the picture above.
One that is the rounded orb type while another, behind the screens, the normal security type of cameras.
So each draw is actually recorded and a copy will be sent to the Ministry of Finance to review on whether the draw was conducted in a fair manner.

Once the briefing's done, (me still being blur as how it's conducted) we break for awhile enjoying a little snack before the doors are open to the public and the draw commences.

Among those that are there with me are these 3 lovely ladies:

Sharon (who's there as my guest), Wendy (who brought her mom. Such a sweet daughter) and Kelly.

When the doors are opened and the draws about to begin, a presenter stands at the stage and addresses to the audience.

That box in front were supposed to contain the names of us and 4 persons will be selected of which 2 will be the people who draw the winning numbers.
And drew they did:

This was done after an inspection of the balls and the booth it's housed in by the committee on duty that day.
Out of the four chosen, they would then pick an envelope each where inside the envelopes contain a slate and those with an 'X' mark on the slate are the ones chosen which were these 2:

Then the 3 (there's one more I don't know where she came from but am assuming that it's member of the public or is it one of the staff chosen at random?) will pick one out of the 3 envelopes to determine which sets they'll be drawing and also another 3 envelopes to know who's drawing the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize number.

Once that's settled (BTW there's an internal auditor to see the whole process to make sure nothing fishy is happening) the draw begins with the person who's in the 1st sequence with the instruction from the presenter:

There's not much a whole lot happening after that, just lots of watching balls spin:

and watching balls get lifted by the drums:

and a whole lot of swearing from those die-hard uncle gamblers at the back. LOL.
Kelly as always were all-smiles:

Looks like she's like pretending to be some game show hostess presenter.

----------Once that is over and done, another chapter begins----------

We then headed on over to Overseas Restaurant at Jalan Imbi for the much anticipated lou sang.

Wendy with her mother and Sharon and Kelly as passengers had a bit of a directional problem heading towards the restaurant but thankfully they managed to arrive in the end.
All of us were waiting for them to arrive just so that we don't start without them (see what I mean by VIP treatment from Magnum!)

When the lou sang dish were ready, so were our chopsticks:

We then unanimously tossed the dish and this was the aftermath from our table:

Next dish was the shark's fin soup:

This has fish in it:

And some meaty portion, chicken (that's what they told me it is. Tasted like duck to me). Too dry for my taste though. Could use some sauce:

Once that dish was eaten, it was a break from eating for some prizes where everybody is ensured one!

But before the draw for prizes, Magnum is getting all the ladies and 2 guys to give that specially made box a spin where Magnum will be buying one 4D normal ticket and a 4D Jackpot ticket with those numbers and should it strike a prize, 10% will be given to charity while the rest of the winning cash will be divided equally among all of us that attended this dinner.
So then the ladies started spinning the numbers with Wendy's mother being the first to do so:

and then goes on with the rest:

And the result are these 3 numbers which will be bought:

While that was going on, 2 more dishes sneaked onto my table. One is shrimps:

While the other is this:

Then the lucky draw came in:

I just got a consolation prize which is RM28 cash voucher for Magnum 4D tickets.
And she got the grand prize which is erm, RM200 over, RM400 over worth of cash voucher?

Wasn't concentrating anymore since there's 2 new dish in front of me. :P
Final dish was noodles:

before desserts.
Desserts were these:

One more fact that I gathered from them is that Magnum 4D Jackpot, which is a patented and copyrighted trademark of Magnum (means no one else in the world can have that kind of game unless with permission) has the lowest odds in striking among all the 4D Jackpot games which is 14 million to 1.
And to show that it's in all fairness and randomness and no tampering from the staff at Magnum, Magnum staffs are allowed to purchase 4D numbers as well.

All in all, a very enjoyable and satisfied evening spent with the people from Magnum.
We chat, we laughed, we joked from topics about their ghostly encounters at hotel rooms to the most famous question when people knew they're from Magnum which is "Can you gimme number ah?"

They're even very apologetic when they found out that one of the guest were vegetarian and quickly asked one of the waitress to take a separate order for him.

I look forward to the next event Magnum will be organizing and would surely hope to be there!


jfook said...

oh, didn't get to say HI to you during the Magnum4D event. =D Btw nice to meet you =D

Kelvin 'finalkt3' Tan said...

There'll be plenty more opportunities in the future. :)

Anonymous said...

Nice pleasure to be your guest :-)-sharon tan-

LuPorTi said...

Cool! Nice event.

Kelvin 'finalkt3' Tan said...

Stay tune for more. :P
See you tomorrow for The Mechanic movie screening. I'll pass you your soft toy that's still with me. LOL.

It sure is.

crazywrazy said...

warao magnum 4D event wor, how come i din get to go one lol

Kelvin 'finalkt3' Tan said...

Because you didn't say you want to go loh. haha

XCB said...

omg this event is so cool!!!!

Kelvin 'finalkt3' Tan said...

It sure is. I always love events organized by Magnum. :)