Yes we were amongst the few hundred muggles at Kino KLCC on the morning of 21 July 2007 buying Deathly Hallows. Had a marathon read of the book on the day itself, but my daughter beat me to finishing the book. I had guests and interruptions from the younger ones..what do you expect!On the eve of 21st Khadijah, Yusof and I watched John Q over TV3 and it ended like 1 am. Managed to finally retire at about half one and the alarm woke me up at quarter to four. Yusof decided to tag along as he was rather curious why Khadijah and I were overly excited over this final installation. I usually ask my brother in law to buy the previous books as he is a staff of one of the bookstores and gets discounts! This time we decided to witness ourselves the first day of sale of the ultimate installation.
Arrived at KLCC at half four and the car park wasn't open yet. Parked by the roadside and saw at least 300 people were already queueing. We had decided that we would not be fighting for the fisrt 13 free books! It's the ambience of excitemnet and anticipation which we were so looking forward to! Imagine at the same time around millions of people around the globe were camping outside bookstores waiting for the simultaneous sale of the book!
The crowd was a bit rowdy...mostly teenagers. There was this group of teenagers with hijab (veil) and black abaya (long dress) were all ready to run - they had running shoes on! The wait seemed like ages for us! At least 20 people got ejected by the security guards for hiding within the building. Apparently these people hid in toilets and obscure places within the complex! Once ejected the crowd clapped and shouted "nice try"!
Once the doors were open....the crowd rushed, ran and banged the glass doors and some even pushed others completely compromising their own security! Yusof was one of the victims - squashed and trampled on. Luckily I was right behind him to pull him out of the mound of fallen muggles!
Once in the queue we realised that we had like another 2 hours to kill. We decided to abandon our spots and made our way to KLCC mosque to perform dawn prayers as the surau within the complex would only be open at 1 pm.
We came back at about half six and we were amongst the last in the queue and the crowd had swelled to double the size than before. Whilst in the queue superwoman texted me to say that she was at Ca***f*** queueing for the book! I asked he to get another one for Khadijah so that we wouldn't be fighting over the book. Apparently there were only about 70 of them there! We finally managed to purchase the limited edition at about 8 a.m. We bought other books too! I am now reading "Confessions of an Old Boy" by Kam Raslan.
Free quibbling quill (real peacock feather) came with our purchase
Yusof and me with the Fat Lady before entering "Gryffindor common room"
The queue snaking on fourth floor
This was about quarter past five in the morning!
Some decided to sit
Whilst in the queue, majestic sight of the Twin Towers.
One of the adverts
"Violet" ain't it?
One of Gryffindor's students queueing
The entrance of Kinokuniya drssed up as the entrance to Gryffindor's common room complete with the Fat Lady
Th lady before us who did not know the password; Fat Lady seen here prompting her! "Gillyweed Violet", by the way!
19 comments:
Wow..what a sight..!! We saw the sights here on TV..sampai ada kids melalak lalak when they get their hands on the book..
I'm still savouring my reading - reserved on Pato's night shift to finish it.... ;)
Pearl
oh, that really must have been exciting! btw, did the lady infront of you make it through without the password?
Pearl - We saw one girl, may be about 11/12 menangis whilst in the Q!
D - It was! The Fat Lady was nice....She gave her the password and managed to enter without a fuss!
only bought for my son yesterday at Carrefour....hes very happy with it...
Zaitgha - Thanks for drooping by! I'm glad he's happy with your purchase!
Hello,
Hmm another father that got drag into the whole excitement, ya? Anyway, wanted to go to Kino initially but decided it was too far for us in Subang and sure tak dapat be the top 13. Ended up buying in Carrefour Subang. Like Book 7? I do
Hello Mior....
We had in our mind resogned to the fact that we wouldn't be the top 13....This is our first time queueing for a HP book. Enjoyed the book very much!
Only managed to get a copy for my daughter (and another three copies for her friends!) today at Popular. Members get 25% discount -still slightly dearer than TESCO's or Carrefour's price, but, well...what the heck, we just couldn't wait for the nearest TESCO to restock!
I really don't know when exactly I will have the time to read it! I might just do a marathon back to back reading of all 7 books one of these days, insya Allah.
(Hmmmm...bila lah tu agaknya?!)
Wah what can I say. A lifetime experience too. I wonder if the encylopedia of Harry Potters' characters esok will get similar response.
Kat C4 Putrajaya plak lain cerita. tak dak orang plak hehehehe
pentultimate? isn't this the last one?
Haq
luckily am not a big fan of Mr Potter.. otherwise you'd see me queueing up there as well... :)
Minah S - Mm...Wait n see!
One Na - Lucky you!
B2A - It should read ultimate...TU la...tak check before publish! LOL
Xis - It was gr8 fun!
Thx for sharing the photos. All those people were there before 5am??? Wow...
Wow You actually stood in queue so early in the morning. It was fun reading this post.
for a moment there i thought ada lagi sambungan in this series in 2 yrs' time HEHEHE
Helena - some youths were alreday there since 1.30 am (we overheard). Some watched mid-night show and hid in the toilets..Can you believe it?
Adam - It was our first time..and since it's the last book, we wouldn't miss it for the world.
B2A - may be subconsciously I was hoping that there would be another one (while tyoing this entry!)
wah, another HP fan. I was there to during the sixth book release. Tahun ni tak ke KLCC sebab I heard KLCC bawa buku US version. I nak cukupkan koleksi Bloomsbury, so pergi Borders Times Square.
Queue pun panjang tapi x le tahap KLCC. Best kan buku 7 ni :D
Sherrina - Best habis!
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