Food for Thought

"Look up and not down;
Look forward and not back;
Look out and not in:
Lend a hand."

- Edward Everett Hale

To look upward is to trust,

to look forward is to hope,

to look outward is to feel the pain of others,

and to lend a hand is love in action.

Sharing by Pub

Changi BBQ cum Stayover (30th to 31st May 09)

Visits are temporily suspended due to Influenza A (H1N1-2009).

Yes, that's saddening.

BUT it doesn't mean we can't meet up!

We had our volunteeers' outing at Changi Beach last weekend! Thanks Donny for planning this BBQ & stayover

In the afternoon...

SHOPPING at Tampines Mall! We bought a lot of food! (about S$90++)

Then...

Time to set up! We had booked a BBQ pit...but we did not have a pit??? (BYOP = Bring Your Own Pit)

Fret not! Superheroines went 7/11 to buy aluminium tray substitute ~

We had problems starting the spark (lesson learnt: never use matchsticks) to burn the charcoal. For a while, it really seemed that charcoal wasn't flammable...

Superheroes came to the rescue with their strong arm power (for fanning the charcoal)!

So we finally started the fire to cook our food (though superheroes had to re-fan two more times)...

We considered ourselves lucky: We watched the 84km Sundown marathon runners jogged by right in front of us, as we indulged in the delicacies (cheese sausages, hotdogs, nuggets, otah, satay, crabstick, garlic bread, marshmallow, topped with honey and butter. Besides drinks, we had durain too)...

After the food was gone...

It's time to catch the start of 42km Adidas Sundown after midnight!

Then we played frisby and cards...

... and slept in the tents & under the beautiful stars ...

..and talked...

..and dreamt...

... and dreamt in talk...then talked in dreams....

It's all about wonderful moments spent together! Catch these memorable times here.

   Specially brought to You by Pub

Influenza A (H1N1)

Dear Volunteers,
 
As Singapore has confirmed its first case of influenza A (H1N1), Bishan Home will be cancelling all volunteer activities with the residents until further notice. This is for the safety of the residents and volunteers. For those volunteers who have not updated the database, please do so especially for the contact number and address section at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Bishan_Home/database?method=reportRows&tbl=2
 
I understand many of you are going to be disappointed but we can use this time for our outing! Coming up will be the bbq this saturday, hope to see many of you there! Do check your email again for the details and the resumption of our usual visit which i hope will be soon.
 
Xinyi

New Programs!

A warm welcome to our five graduated babies who just came back from their Taiwan grad trip! Of course, not forgetting all other beloved volunteers - thanks for turning up  

New programs lined up for this week's visit: Caterpillar Making. Sharing some snapshots taken by Davin:

... our familiar recycling game...

... more random shots...

View more pics at BHID RVP Picasa Web Album (look out for the link on your right)

Coming up: Volunteer Gathering

We would be having a BBQ next Sat with stayover! Reply your attendance here before 27 May (Wed). Visit our Yahoo Group for more infor. Thanks!

Pub

Extraordinary love in the ordinary space

Exams are finally OVER!!!

It was awesome getting together with our fellow volunteers again after the long exam break. This week we had our session in the spice garden!

As usual here's a quick bite for today's session.

Besides saying "hi-s" to more wormies, beezzz, millipedes, ants and what-not today, we witnessed more fruits of our labour.. =)

After a month, the empty kangkong patch in the little garden (the one Xinyi and WeiJian worked on during our last gardening session) is filled up with greenery again, while the overgrown lady's fingers are trimmed and no longer blocking the walkway.

Xinyi with a super big spade to lossen the soil at the papaya plot. =)

here's our girls doing the usual weeding..

Huiping and Yan Ping flashing their megawatt smiles at the camera.. =)

This months's Brinjals seem a little bigger then the ones we saw during the previous session.. This time with it's pretty purple flower! =)

After the session, we asked our fellow volunteers for their comments on our monthly gardening sessions at BHID. Here's a few quotes our volunteers have shared on this collaboration with YMCA Y-Green Finger program (after squeezing quite some bit of brain juice):

- It gives us a sense of fulfillment after clearing all the weeds and a sense of accomplishment when we see the harvest.

- Volunteerng and gardening provide a sense of satisfaction.

- An ordinary spice garden with a touch of extraordinary love.

- We love being spice girls.

- We are so sweet that ants are attracted to us.

Got to admit some of our volunteers are really creative!!! ~ Guess who said which line?

Pub's personal favourite is the third quote.. An ordinary spice garden with a touch of extraordinary love.. How apt, and this is where we got our inspiration for the title of today's entry. =)

We thank all volunteers who have contributed. If you have more to share with us, feel free to email apple1189@hotmail.com or stertoh@hotmail.com or simply input your thoughts into the chatbox. Some of these quotes may be published in an article column in YMCA newsletter at a later date.

That's all for now! Looking forward to having more of our regular volunteers joining us next week!! =)

Cheers,

Pub