Bread and butter #17

Some random photos I took at work so far...Theresa's sexy bikini, Seng Meng's ears turning red, my kids' frog cards, Benjamin fooling around with the bikini, Benjamin's "Welcome Back" sign, and my preparation work for groupwork tomorrow afternoon. It's sort of like Deal or No Deal. Just that it is more simplified, has questions asked with a purpose, and looks much more cheap. I don't care whether it looks cheap or high-class, as long as the kids are attracted to the concept.

Botak Jones with Jane.

Had Botak Jones with Jane. Not super marvelous but the serving was pretty generous, and most importantly, it's within budget.Jane took so many photos of me, but we did not take any photos together. :S

An idea sprouted out from my pea-brain while I was having those bloody cramps...

If men can get a slightly higher pay for their National Service, why can't women get a higher pay for being able to withstand the undesirable monthly affair while working?

Meetup with SW pals.

I hope to make this a monthly affair, so that when we need to talk about SW concerns, we can always raise them up when we meet.

Sadly, the other most common issue we always bring up as fresh graduates is the lack of money, which is largly due to the stupid study loan.

But since we've all gotten ourselves jobs, let's work real hard and pay off the loans as soon as possible!

Merry-go-round.

Sometimes I really wonder about the accuracy of women's sixth sense. I think women can be pretty smart at guessing things at times, but I am really not sure... because women tend to be more sensitive (than the usual woodblocks), and like how I have written a number of times in my kids' notebooks, being over-sensitive might not be really good if it makes you think TOO MUCH.

I guess for now, I will never know the correct answer just like donkey years ago. I might go for multiple merry-go-round rides without knowing the answer for years or forever. Hopefully, I will gain something out of the merry-go-round rides, say wisdom or a higher level of happiness. If all I can get is a chronic headache, I might as well die on the spot.

Bread and butter #16

Here's more photos, I got from my colleagues, taken on Volunteers' Connection.

Me, Theresa and Puay San.We're supposed to be posing with our fingers indicating ascending order.
Looks like Seng Meng is allergic to me, hahaha.
More group photos.Isn't our King fortunate to have so many ladies around him?***

Second session of Reading Stars (without Diana).

I couldn't think of any simple ice-breaker, but thanks to Kelly, I decided to use "Blow wind blow". The kids don't seem too enthusiastic about the game, but fortunately, my enthusiasm got them going. And to have a good level of enthusiasm I need to have enough sleep.

There was no baking today, but the area became a mess due to the chocolate and colourful rice. Thankfully, some volunteers helped me to sweep and mop the floor. A kid whom I thought was pretty attitude helped me out with clearing the tables and distributing materials for preparing the food. Wonderful boy!!! :D

Everyone thought I am okay. I definitely hope I am really okay. I'm just unsure of many things- when to do what, whether something is done in the right way, whether to carry on with the baking, what to let the kids take home with (what lessons I want them to learn), what the kids would love to do, etc.

Also, I have to constantly remind myself to be enthusiastic or else the programme will seem boring, to keep affirming the kids so that good behaviour is encouraged, to make sure that everyone is engaged, and to network well with the volunteers, etc.

Oh well, I will have to take baby steps first...

***

I want a retreat! But I don't have much money to spare. Anyone wants to go for a massage for something, please call me along okay.

Traditional Chinese meal with Beauties cum Xinli's birthday.

The princess overslept, and we had to wait for her to wake and dress up. Oh my god... Since we promised to eat a traditional Chinese meal together, "steamboat" immediately came to my mind. It was timely too, because Xinli and Ying Fong just came back to Singapore from Germany a few days ago. So the steamboat served as a reunion meal?
We made the soup choice first as Elayne was still on her way, and we regretted for choosing the medium hot 麻辣 soup. It practically killed all of us. And my lips looked like red sausages, I think. In the end, the 麻辣 side became a rubbish chute where we throw unwanted stuffs into.When my dear Elayne finally came, she refused to take a proper photo with me.All she did was to eat 4 pieces of crab and teach us how to act cute.The shop was supposed to close at 3.30pm, but we ordered quite a number of dishes and stayed till 3.45pm. It's only fair and logical that we stay longer because we arrived late.Trying out a special photo-taking mode on Ying Fong's camera.
I ate till I couldn't feel that I was full. Seriously, I think I might have a hole in my stomach.Ying Fong, Xinli and shy Elayne.Long time no see, Xinli and me.And the girls tried the manual 三连拍.

I realised I could not react fast enough for Ying Fong's camera......and that resulted in me having the similar pose in different pictures.But it's still a lot of fun playing around with the camera!Then we had coffee and donuts- sinful high tea right after the buffet steamboat.

One of the donuts is supposed to act as the birthday cake. Didn't know Elayne hate bread so much. :(

I kept wanting to take a picture with the cute little snail but YF just won't let me do it. Auch ein boese Maedchen! Look at the way she's laughing...
Beauties trying very hard to persuade Ying Fong to not play with the lighter. Muahahahaha~

GROUP PHOTOS! It's been ages since we last took group photos! Although I looked kind of ugly, still want to post them up because my beauties looked pretty in them.
Me and Ying Fong were wondering why we were the ones who had to hold the camera.

Anyway, the lunch was great! Thanks for the company... and to Xinli,

Viel Glueck zum Geburtstag, boese Maedchen! (Du wirst nicht allein sein...)

Journal of a budding social worker #21 (Of light bulbs and social workers.)

How many social workers does it take to change the light bulb?

-- The light bulb doesn't need changing, it's the system that needs to change.

-- None. The light bulb is not burnt out, it's just differently lit.

-- None. They set up a team to write a paper on coping with darkness.

-- One. Can't really tell you why, it just feels right.

-- Three. One to do the work, one to share the experience, and one to supervise and make sure that professional work is done.

-- Five. One to screw it in, three to form the support group, and one to help with placement.

Bread and butter #15 (The kids.)

Was secretly happy when I could carry out the Big Fish-Small Fish ice-breaker, which carries the message that our non-verbals are very important in faciliating out verbals. But the peace only lasted for a while. It was a mess thereafter. Somemore, anyhow do homework! No chop. No chop for you all!

Anyway, been meeting different kids. Some of them can be really disruptive during groupwork and I find it irksome to deal with them. But after discovery of certain facts and observations during groupwork, I can actually find reasons behind their conduct. Their conducts are perhaps just symptoms of something bigger and (sometimes) invisible.

How often do we care enough to put ourselves in their shoes?

Bread and butter #14 (Funny and heartwarming farewell dinner for Puay San, Sockling and attachment students.)

Was so sorry, that I sort of promised to come up with a skit cum story-telling session and never carry it out in the end. That was partly because of me being too ambitious and also because of me being too last minute, or you can say, inefficient? :S

My fellow cubicle mate preparing the present for Sockling.

Tremandy and me in green.
Setting off from office, dividing ourselves into three (tour) groups.
Thereafter, we marched to the restaurant, Sakura at Clementiwoods,
where Seng Meng professed his love for durian puffs.
And the SASHIMI!!! Theresa and me flew to the sashimi counter many times... this is the first time I ate so much sashimi at one go! Even when Theresa is full, she still insisted on three more slices, wahahahahahahaaaa~Passing unwanted food around.

Cher Meng, Theresa and Sockling.

It was a really sumptuous meal, I would say. The pizza was great, the salmon was great, the sharkfin soup (according to K) was great, the orh-ni (yam paste) was great, almost EVERYTHING was great! The only disappointing thing is that we can only converse with the people sitting near us. Aye.
A really lovely group photo we took at the stairs while the rest of the folks are setting up the romantic place...
...which is this! It looked a little like two-groups-of-gangsters-going-to-fight scene or car-racing scene, huh?
We settled down on plastic sheets, and started singing songs (songs for farewell compiled by me). Special thanks to Chris who had to bear with my naggings at finding the chords which we did not really use on the spot! Was really touched because almost everyone was singing... except the SENIOR. Er-hem. Can I make a special request for him to sing during my birthday??? HAHAHA...

By the way, sitting around in a circle made up for the lack of contact during dinner. Whoever brought the plastic thingy, thanks thanks.

Sockling's gift- a beautiful paper wind-chime with our well-wishes, prepared by Theresa. Puay San got a really inspiring and beautiful calender (with quotes), which was specially designed by Tremandy and specially cut-out by Chris.

Julie claimed that she wore a green underwear. WHERE GOT!

Really nice and cute poses by Puay San and fellow folks...

And lastly two kisses from the directors... :P

Thanks all, for being game enough to wear green. So glad that you all were laughing almost all the way throughout the whole evening, such that we were eating less than what we usually would. Even though the videos are of low-quality, the laughter is enough to remind all of us the beautiful times we've had together.

Family treat.

Have received my pay about a week ago, and I wanted very much to give a treat to my family. Being the baby of the family, I think it's not easy for all members to wait for this day to finally come. My eldest brother was smirking at me and threatening to order everything on the menu. If only he can finish lor. Poot.

Anyway we went Yum Cha early in the morning, because we have to accommodate to my uncle's working hours. Really glad we went there because the food was GREAT!!! SUPER YUMMY! All of us thought the food was super yummy! Yum Cha is yummy!!!

Mum ordered some fruit salad dish, and I was thinking what for order fruit salad when you're at Yum Cha?! But no! It's not the usual fruit salad! The dish looked like 春卷s, but with fruits inside. It was awesome! And another dish had mango (oh my gosh) and prawns in them. Simply delicious!

Too bad there's no photos because when the dishes came, we ate them up rather quickly. :P

Bro's friend commented that Yum Cha is not good, but we think it's super good! Oh well, I guess it's subjective. I'm definitely going back there again!

Anyone wants???

Even though I spent a bomb on the meal, I thought it's rather worth it because everyone is happy. Afterall, familial happiness is the greatest treasure of all.

Bread and butter #13 (Weekly Friday Exhaustion.)

Couldn't churn out a script for the farewell dinner, so I ended up watching videos the whole morning. Most of them are of SCS folks laughing and crying in farewell dinners. I know I am quite inefficient and untalented. My fault lah, my fault.

Anyway, I forgot how it started. We suddenly talk about MSN addresses, and suddenly, all of us were online and we started a silent discussion on MSN. There were occasional laughters due to the humorous content. And all of a sudden, someone suggested creating a group blog, and we did create one almost immediately. Wonder how long it'll last though because my previous group blogs were dead now, and I was always the most active one- which defeats the purpose of a group blog.

I'm physically tired. Recovered a little mentally. Tomorrow's another long day. Ciao.

:(

When pressure, self-pity and self-belittling set in, only tears can help relieve the pain from within.