ThE rOaD nOt TaKeN.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Actually, more like the past few days... everytime I want to sit down and put up something on blogger, time always slips by before I can even start up SnApPy! Bad excuse, but it happens...
Rewind:
Monday(continued)
Later in the day, the main thing was that some of us from my group were going to visit a children's home to see if it was suitable for our upcoming project and whether we could provide some help to the residents.
We had dinner at Chomp Chomp Food Centre where the food was ok but pretty pricy (sort of like Newton without the fighting hawkers!). For e.g. the sugar cane drink costs $2, $3 gets you sugar cane juice in a VASE...i'm not kidding!
We went over to the home which is just a few hundred metres away, called Chen Su Lan Methodist Home. The kids are quite friendly and some of them came up to us to chat while we were waiting for the matron to finish the daily worship/sharing session. The place is very nice, like a holiday chalet, very clean with spacious rooms and facilities like basketball court, indoor soccer, computer room, library, etc. We heard from the matron that the meals and laundry are taken care of by the staff. However, the kids still have chores to do like cleaning the dorms and the toilets.
After spending some time with the matron, I got the impression that she is quite used to having volunteers around and she can be quite wary of new volunteers. Perhaps it is because in the past, it is quite sad when volunteers come in to do some comm service and then sever all ties the moment they complete the project... To be blunt, I felt sad when she mentioned that "the home is open to whatever the volunteers is interested in doing" I think that being a volunteer at a home is about doing what needs to be done for the home and not what the volunteers want to do...i.e. meeting the home's needs! We are definitely going to have to show her how we want to make a difference! =@
Went back and hit the sack early as the trip was quite tiring. Wanted to buy roti john for Dear Wife but it was sold out. Oh well, next time then.
Tuesday
Went to school early to prep for lessons as usual. Met my friend Jeremy in the library cafe catching forty winks on the couch. He looked really tired, so I tried not to disturb him and did my work quietly. Picked up a double choc muffin and hot chocolate(which was gd!) from Max at the counter. Cafe Hotshot is really a very nice place to hang out!
Lessons were ok although I was trying not to fall asleep during the Bio lecture... the lecturer is nice but needs to try to make the lesson interesting. Got in touch with my tutor Dr. Tan to ask for some time off to attend a briefing which clashed with his class. He was nice enough to return my call and let me off. During the briefing, realised that the runway show is quite large scale, the whole of NIE is involved! So I started to 'panic' after and quickly sent out SMSes to request for support the next day. The event coordinator had even suggested that the guys put on a little makeup(?!)
Dear Wife picked me up after school and we hit Vivo for dinner. Food was ok although I did meet an interesting boy at the drinks stall who insisted on touching the straws after digging his nose...(yes I chose my straws carefully after that, bleah!)
Dear Wife picked me up after school and we hit Vivo for dinner. Food was ok although I did meet an interesting boy at the drinks stall who insisted on touching the straws after digging his nose...(yes I chose my straws carefully after that, bleah!)
By the time I reached home, I had received at least 7 affirmative replies from the gp members which was quite gd to know. I was not going to be involved in the show by myself. Yay!
Wednesday
The day of the show! Managed to re-schedule my morning lesson but was still late for a discussion with some classmates on an assignment on Friday! Arghh! No Beng so I had to take the train and the bus (total travelling time of 45 min and heavily loaded with lots of barang barang for the show.)
Starting the whole process didn't turn out as stressful as I expected but due to the costume, it was like being in a mobile sauna. The weather didn't help as the sun came out to provide "additional lighting". Enjoy the show!
Amazingly, we managed to break into the finals... but I didn't become NIE's next top model la! It was lots of fun all the way and really cool in the sense that I even had people coming up to me later to say "Hi!" (like I was a real celebrity!)
Later that evening, went to MIL's for dinner and dry swim as usual...
TODAY (Thursday)
Spazzed around the entire morning after having breakfast of ham sandwiches and Ovaltine. Felt like a kid as I was watching Kids Central on tv for about 2 hrs non-stop. Whoa! xP
Popped out in the afternoon to setup my sister's lappy and visit my mom and the cats. By the time I reached home, it was almost time for the NDP to start. Dear Wife mentioned that she wanted to watch the flypast and the fireworks so we went over to the bedroom to watch. It's fantastic to see the helicopters as they fly past with the flags...
Dear Wife wanted to see the fireworks so we left the house to go to another block of flats for a better view...apparently, we were not the only ones as we met some other 'HDB tourists' along the way. Fireworks were great!
Just want to finish off by saying that I'm really thankful that we live in a country where we can enjoy the simple things and not get bogged down by survival issues like clean food and water or war...
AC
Labels: home visit, start work
