LONDON: Just before the sun dipped into the horizon, with its hues staining the skies above the Thames, a familiar tune drifted in the summer air.
It was unmistakably the Wau Bulan, perfectly performed by the Battersea Community Choir group. The gentle lilt of the folk song from the east coast state of Malaysia had flag-waving revellers in their red, blue and white attire, the same ones who had been dancing to ABBA songs, swaying to the rhythm.
This touch of Malaysian-ness in the largest celebration of the century the country has ever seen is a fitting tribute by the Battersea Power Station — owned by a Malaysian consortium — as it hosted a weekend-long special Britannia-themed party to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee and her 70-year reign.
The choir, with members from the local community, had in the past performed during events at the Battersea Power Station (BPS), but never before had the opportunity to perform anything remotely Malaysian. For this special occasion, they had been practising hard for this touching tribute.
The recognition to the Malaysian consortium that had successfully seen the redevelop ment of the 16.9ha site with residential homes and businesses, and indeed to the Malaysian government, didn't stop there.
The highlight of the evening was the lighting of the beacon. That task fell upon Malaysian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Zakri Jaafar.
It was an honour for the high commissioner and Malaysia, as he held the torch, poised to light the beacon, thus making history as he took part in an age-old tradition in the UK, where lighting beacons were carried out to mark Royal Jubilees, weddings and coronations.
Beacons were lit to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, and then in 1977, 2002 and 2012 to mark Queen Elizabeth II's Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilees, as well as her 90th birthday in 2016.
Last Thursday, as part of the four-day celebrations, there were more than 3,500 Platinum Beacons lit in towns, villages and capital cities in the UK and across the Commonwealth at the same time as the principal "Tree of Trees" lit up the sky outside Buckingham Palace.
The Queen started the ceremony by touching a globe representing Commonwealth nations, symbolically sending a chain of lights from Windsor Castle to Buckingham Palace.
As Zakri and Marlene Price, stalwart of the Battersea community and organiser of the Battersea Festival, performed their task to cheers from the crowd, the iconic chimneys of the historic power station lit up in purple and gold, the official Platinum Jubilee colours.
Not too far away under the arches and at a pop up stall on the jetty, revellers had a taste of roti canai, nasi lemak, mi goreng mamak and teh tarik, thanks to Malaysian eatery Roti King.
Revellers who chose to come to the BPS to celebrate also witnessed the arrival of the Birmingham 2022 Queen's Baton Relay on its return to the UK after its international journey across Commonwealth nations.
So, one might wonder why the BPS is celebrating in such a big way. Apart from providing such beautiful venues and surroundings for revellers with its live entertainment and eateries, it also shares its moment of history with the Queen.
In 1946, the birthday girl had accompanied her grandmother, Queen Mary, on a visit to the former coal-fired power station when it was still in operation, for a behind-the-scenes tour of Turbine Hall A and Control Room A. This was the same power station that supplied electricity to many notable London locations, including Buckingham Palace.
The UK, blessed with good weather and glorious sunshine, is still celebrating with crowds thronging street parties and enjoying picnics in the parks.
We had been treated to a spectacle Royal Air Force flypast and for those lucky enough to be near the Buckingham Palace, there was the Trooping the Colour.
More than 200,000 Big Jubilee Lunches are being staged across the UK and around the Tower of London, where a field of flowers — or the "Superbloom" — with 20 million seeds planted in the moat in the spring, will provide a spectacular scene from now to September.
Today, there's more street entertainment, with the Platinum Jubilee Pageant — including a dragon puppet larger than a double-decker bus, marching bands and circus acts — celebrating the Queen's reign on the streets of London.
Twelve members of the Malaysian Armed Forces, as part of the military pageant from 24 Commonwealth countries, marched past Buckingham Palace from Wellington Barracks nearby.
Away from the madding crowd, a group of us, carrying masks of the monarch, sat in the royal park of Kensington Gardens and had nasi lemak on banana leaves. What better way to celebrate in our host country, in a celebration of a lifetime.