Dulcineasdiarycontinued: Tuesday 5th February 2019 - Amanda & Jonesy's Official Guiness Book of World Records Largest Yum Cha

Well what an event to attend to celebrate Chinese New Year or Luna New Year to be correct as Luna New Year is not just celebrated by the Chinese.

Back to work tomorrow. My holiday is now a distant memory although I just returned to Sydney last Thursday afternoon.

I woke up extra early this morning and caught the M40 bus to Town Hall walking down to Tumblong Park Darling Harbour for the event.

9 am and there is already small queue but I am near the front of it. If I had artived 15 minutes later I would have been much further down the queue.

The line starts moving by 9.30 am as soon as they put the finishing touches to the rows of 20 seat tables.

First thing is registration but my name is not on the list - again! I seem to have problems dropping off lists ( twice in 2 weeks now). No problem they just wrote my name at the end of the list.

Lanyard handed out and we are told we must wear it throughout the entire event for us to be an official participant.

I meet another older guy also on his own and chatted to him in the queue. I choose a seat in the middle table at the end for easy access and so I can see the stage. The older man sits opposite me so we can continue chatting and take photos. Most of the time we are keeping an eye on the number of people attending, the movement of the now very long queue and making mental calculations of the number of seats and tables set up for the event as well as extra seating - it did not add up to even 750 people. We also made calculations of the number of dumplings that had to be produced in order to feed everyone and what was on the tables from sponsorship logo placements to menus to decorations even to the sauce choices - what no vinegar and ginger just light soy and katcup manis?? I ended up pouring both on over my dumplings as they were so dry by the time they were served and eaten. Do we get to take the bottles of sauce home? Everything on the tables were brand new purchased just for this event.

Between 9.30 am and 10.30 am there was the lion dance entertainment and the arrival of Amanda and Jonesy as well as some of the MKR contestants seated at the front end of our table marked reserved. A steward comes over to our table to explain the procedures and rules of the event.

We have to be seated by 10.45 am and the food was suppose to be in front of us before 11 am - it was a little late but it was ensured that everyone received their dumplings before the official start. Sitting in the front tables meant you received your food first but you still couldn't touch it until everyone received their food and the official start.

The official Guinness Book Of Records Adjudicator (Brian) comes up onto the stage and Amanda and Jonesy go through all the rules regulations and prodedure with them and us in order not to get disqualified.

Next when everyone has their food in front of them it was a countdown of 4 3 2 1 start eating. That's right everyone has to eat at the same time and you must eat 2 or more different dumplings each and you are disqualified if you get up after you finish eating and leave - there are toliets but everyone held on for a toliet break until after the event was over. Before you eat , during the 5 minutes allocated for eating and after you finish eating the steward allocated to your table is counting and double counting and watching you and everyone else eat to ensure everything is official.

Once the 5 minutes allocated to eat is up and most people have scoffed down their 4 dumplings each ( a lot of us had not had breakfast thinking the Yum Cha was going to be substantial which turned out not to be) . There is an official stop eating and the stewards and adjudicator are whisked away to do the official counts. This took a while and the adjudicator ws mobbed by the media - including the Chinese media!

Back on stage about 15 minutes later - it is officially - Sydney has knocked Melbourne's 2013 world record of 750 people at Yum Cha by just 14 people ie 764 people officially qualified at this yum cha world record.

Whilst waiting we all received an official gold coin to commemorate this world record event and the official Guinness Book of World Records certificate is handed over to Amanda & Jonesy. This is not their first world record by the way.

Next it is photo time and people start to leave by 11.49 am.

What an event - photos posted on my Facebook live as they happened this morning. Souvenirs ' I kept my MRK chop sticks ( after rinsing them in the cup of wter and drying them with my napkin and placing them back in their box) , the menu card, the lanyard and of course the gold coin in its red envelope in a safe place.

photos to be uploaded at a later time. Running low on battery power.

The event being set up @ Tumbalong Park

Big thankd to Let's Do Yum Cha - the food truck with the epic task of producing the mountain of dumplings for the event

Luna New Year banners

The 9 am queue in front of me

The 9.15 am queue behind me

First movement of the queue for registration

The table facing the centre of the stage I chose to sit at

Rows of 20 seat tables all set up identically

Centre stage says it all

table setting with subtle sponsorship logoing

light soy or katcup manis to go with our dumplings

dumpling menu - I didn't even read what was in each dumpling - I just ate them one chicken one beef and two different vegetarian ones

The official lanyard we had to wear at all times during the event handed out at registration

Brian - the official Guinesd Book of World Records adjudicator

Lion dancing entertainment whilst waiting for the VIPs to arrive

Amanada and Jonesy join Brian on stage to discuss rules and regulations of the event

Our 4 dumplings are served - you had to eat 2 different ones so there were 2 different vegetarian ones a beef one and a chicken one - no pork dumplings as not to offend the year of the pig.