The invasion of the little children begins

King's Club is an annual holiday program for primary school kids, run by North Beach Baptist Church; many of the participating children are from our own church, but we also advertise it around the local community. It began 9am Monday and finished 8.30pm tonight. I had originally decided to take a break this year, but somehow got myself talked backed into it in a conversation that went something like this:

Me: I won't be at King's Club this year.
Noah: What?! Why?
Me: No big emergency or anything. I just decided to take a break.
Sarah: You can't take a year off... We're really really short of leaders!
Me: How come?
Noah: All the senior leaders like Jo and Decky can't do it anymore cuz they've started working full-time. WE've been put in charge of an entire group now!
Sarah: C'mon... we need you. Don't leave us. Our age group is now basically the senior group, and there aren't many of us at all. You HAVE to do King's Club!
Me: ...
Me: *inner conflict*
Me: ...
Me: Ok, ok... I'm in!
Noah & Sarah: ^_^

(I go off to look for Laura)

Me: Hey Laura, I've been talked into Kings Club... you can put my name down. What do you need me to do?
Laura: Great! We need your expertise in making a fool out of yourself in front of the kids.
Me: (-_-"

As a side note, Noah's real name is Wynand, pronounced 'Vay-nahnd'. That kinda explains why we call him Noah.

Anyway.

We expected about 150-160 kids on the first day, but got 201 instead. That's the largest group we've ever gotten, and sure made things a tad bit more complicated! (40 extra heads might not seem like a large number, but just imagine a Malaysian classroom of 80 kids as opposed to the regular class of 40)

Nonetheless, the leaders -- both novice and veteran -- worked well together over the past 5 days to keep things organized. There were several hiccups as well as triumphs, but the details shall be left till tomorrow's post; old people like me tend to become half-dead after 5 days of kiddy action.

Before I leave though, I'll share some photos of the props involved. I can only wonder how long it took the Woodworths to construct the scenery and for Mrs Crosby to produce the costumes. If the lion, monkey and antelope look realistic, it's because they used to be alive; these are ex-museum exhibits. Also, the theme was officially "African savannah", but I guess green leaves make the place livelier.

Decorated stage

Green savannah

Roar

Face-off

Peek-a-boo

Explorer monkey

Toy monkey

A 7-foot-tall wire mesh/newspaper giraffe

Live animals. Clockwise from the front: Zoe the zebra, Mikey the monkey, Brutus the buffalo, the Cheetah, and the Lion

That's enough for now.

Need. Sleep.

Da Capo al fine

I attended my final piano lesson today.

I'm halfway through my preparations for my diploma, but still have a long way to go. Recently, I realized that I'm unwilling to invest all the time, money and energy anymore into taking things to the next level.

My trusty piano; a Technics SX-PX224

It's been a fruitful 10 years on the electric piano (I've never owned an acoustic one), and it all started when my mom dragged me to MASS Music in Tabuan Jaya after she heard that musical education is good for a child's development. I eventually started liking music and got quite good at playing, but never got passionate about it.

I won't let the piano simply collect dust, of course. There are still tunes that I enjoy, but exactly where I'll go with my music now remains to be seen. Time will tell, I suppose!

P.S. Above is the first published photo from my new camera. :-)

A slight inconvenience

It's two weeks till exam time.

My zeal to study (which had been with me since the beginning of the semester) has gone M.I.A. as of last week.

Dam.

Winter's advent

The cold season is here again. Along with it comes 5pm sunsets, rainy days, frozen toes, thick clothing, and...

...garden snails on footpaths.

I'll have to start watching the road as I walk again, lest I hear the dreaded crunch beneath my foot.

Can we have... 42 boxes of chips and 42 bottles of juice, please?

Actually, the exact words that the guy used on my supervisor were, "We're in charge of this group of kids here. Would we scare the sh*t out of you if we ordered 42 boxes of chips?"

NOT what a chip fryer ever wants to hear!

My day as a cashier at Subiaco Oval yesterday started normally enough. The event was only a West Australian Football League game (not a national one), so only about 5% of the stadium seats were filled. My food outlet wasn't getting many customers at all. Wish I'd brought a book to read! And so, I thought a good way to pass time would be to pester my friends. ^_^ I only managed to SMS 2 people however, before the crowd started getting larger and larger. Ooh, looks like it's back to business as usual.

It almost seemed like business as usual too... but then the 42 mini humans in football jumpers turned up, chattering and hollering away. I'm glad I wasn't in charge of cooking chips at the time. :-P Unfortunately, I still had to handle the payment. You see, the cash register did NOT have a multiplier, meaning that I had to press the "Hot Chips" button 42 times (Kirsti got the chance to push the "Assorted Juices" button on the other register 42 times, so it was all fair and good).

I should probably mention that this happened to be my first morning shift. I made the mistake of assuming that it lasted 4 hours (just like all my afternoon/evening shifts), giving me a few hours to spend in the city library before starting my evening shift at Perth Oval. Good time management, no? Turned out that I had to hop into my supervisor's car as soon as we finished at Subi, and we sped over to the other stadium together for an immediate start. They'd better pay me well for this! :-P

Here's a list of other exciting goings-on at both workplaces:

1. Argued with a bloke that no, we do NOT give out free packets of vinegar.
2. Got paid $8 in tiny tiny coins. The kid had to cup both hands, and they STILL looked like they were gonna overflow.
3. The power went off every 2 minutes while the customers watched me making burgers from outside. To keep them happy and entertained, I got them to count down the seconds until the patties came out of the microwave. (Yes, Spotless Services has strange cooking methods)
4. Snuck in to watch the live performance for free at the end of my shift.
5. Got told off by Security for carrying an umbrella around Perth Oval. Nobody told me they were illegal!!! :-S

Life is never dull.

I should get back to finishing off my physics assignment, completing my physics and biochemistry pre-labs, and studying for my upcoming maths, physics and pharmacology tests. It's amazing how much freedom a student gets!

Under the microscope

This post is in response to Sam's attempts to resuscitate a blogger who seems to love staying comatose (i.e. me ^^;;)


1. Do you believe in love at first sight?
According to the principles of probability, there is a chance that there exists at least one person in the world such that if you achieve visual contact for the first time with him/her, then you develop a loving relationship with him/her.

Mathematically, for some x which is an element of W,
Where
W = {People in the world}
a: The event that y enters the field of vision of x for the first time
b: The event that x and y form a loving relationship


2. Do you eat without brushing your teeth?
Doesn't it seem silly to clean your teeth, and then get them dirty again immediately after?


3. Where is the place that you want to go the most?
Kingdom Come sounds like an awesome place


4. If you can have 1 dream to come true, what would it be?
:-)


5. Do you believe in seeing a rainbow after the rain?
Oh yes. All I have to do is look 42 degrees above the axis of sunlight, after it rains.


6. Do you like being who you are today?
Yes, I like Sze Howe at the moment. His likability can still increase, though!


7. If you win $1 million, what would you do?
Drop my jaw.


8. If you meet someone that you love, would you confess to him/her?
Of course. Just not sure when!


9. Would you swim in a vat of chocolate?
Well, the viscosity of chocolate is low enough to swim in if and only if its temperature is uncomfortably high. So... no.

I'd happily eat it though. ^_^


10. Do you Obsess over things, Anything?
Yeah... I suspect that I suffer from a mild form of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder when it comes to collecting things that I MIGHT find useful in the future. Am learning to chuck things away! >_<


11. Which type of cars I love the most?
...ones with engines that don't die when I drive them. *grumble*


12. Which do you prefer from your other half? hug? or a kiss?
Can't have both ka? That would be sad...


13. If you have faults, would you rather the people around you point out to you or would you rather they keep quiet?
A certain BB Corporal pointed out my faults when others kept silent. It was a very kind thing he did for me.


14. What new hobbies are you considering at the moment?
Sword-fighting, hang-gliding. Seriously, they seem fun! Alas, it's a bit hard for me to pursue them at the moment. =P


15. Are you a shopaholic or not?
Do pigs fly?


16. What kind of electronic device/gadget you own that you like most?
My Sony Ericsson K610i is serving me VERY well. I'm also looking for a camera to replace my ailing Cybershot DSC-T33.


17. If you have a chance, which part of your character you would like to change?
My instinctive reactions to others.


18. What makes you feel disappointed?
When I fail someone who counts on me.


19. If given a chance, do you want to see your future?
I don't think there's a need to. However, being the ever-curious (and kepo) person that I am, I'd say yes. ^_^


20. What would you do when your secret is found out?
Be relieved that I have one less secret to carry.





P.S. The chain of tags die here.
P.P.S. Normal posts will resume soon!

The Universitian Life Returns

1. Get really pumped.
2. Work hard.
3. Gradually lose motivation.
4. Start slacking off.
5. Take things easy.
6. Very easy.
7. Stress out the week before exams.
8. Scrape through exams.
9. Have a 3-month holiday.
10. Repeat #1 - #10.

For some reason, many students have similar semester outines which can be modelled as above (granted, not all academic institutions make #9 possible). Unfortunately, I allowed myself to fall into the same trap last year, so my results weren't as good as they could've been. Let's see if I can avoid it this year.

Nowadays, they like to tell you that there's more to uni than just learning, which is true. If only you could have been at O-Day (the final day of orientation week) and seen the few hundred stalls, with people trying to con encourage first-years to join their clubs! I think I'll take Cantonese lessons with the Chinese Society if they don't clash with my classes like they did last year.

Yep, this should be an awesome year. If only we didn't have to start classes on a public holiday, of all days. (It's supposed to be Labour Day tomorrow) Ah well. Time for bed!