✉ Service and Action Update ✉

✉ Service and Action Update ✉

☼ Alzheimer’s Service Visit ☼

a.k.a : the tea party

This month for our Alzheimer’s Center visit, we planned to have a tea party for the patients. We organized food like cucumber sandwiches and cupcakes and cream crackers as well as organized tea from the center itself. We even printed out little menu cards and dressed in black and white to be pretend waiters and really get into the mood of the ‘Sunshine Café’ as we called our little venture.

For my part, I was in charge of making and baking 60 to 80 tiny chocolate and vanilla muffins. I set up my day so that I could bake the day before the trip and then ice them in the morning before our actual visit. In the end, I managed to make about 70 cupcake (40 chocolate and 30 vanilla) all prepared and given to the group the morning of the visit so that they wouldn’t be stale or soggy.

  The actual activity, in talking to the ladies and being their waitresses, was a hit. The older people liked pretending that they were in a hotel and they found it funny that we were serving them, playing along. I guess it might have reminded them of their childhood and pretend games. Most of the ladies were happy to eat anything they were given and one of them (my favourite Francesca again ~ ! ) even wrapped up a few cupcakes to take back to her friends which I thought was amazingly sweet.

Once the feasting died down, it was time for us to dance! ABBA songs were played on a little CD/radio player and with a little coaxing, some of the patients were willing to dance. I think this was a good experience because this time around, there was a new lady called Rosemary, younger than the other patients, who was convinced that she couldn’t dance. With a little nagging on my part she finally got up, took a risk, and walked onto the dance floor. It was awesome to see that she was willing to step out there and for the rest of the dancing time I spent with her busting a move and getting the other ladies to join in. It was actually a lot less embarrassing and a lot more fun than I thought it would be!

The day was rounded off with a rousing game of snakes and ladders and a memory (picture matching) game. It was really cool to see how the patients were happy with some of the smallest things like finding a matching pair of pictures, or climbing a ladder in snakes and ladders. Whilst playing the board games I got talking to the patients and Rosemary told me that what we did was a great thing, especially for the older patients as it brought a lot of joy and fun into the life. She kept commenting that it made everyone happy and that it was something that was unusual and interesting.

In asking her about dressing up and fancy dress she simply laughed and said that would be nice… next time maybe, I think?

Most definitely!

➹ ISAC Badminton ➹

in regards to the upcoming tournament

Well, I haven’t talked about badminton for a while now have I…? Hmmm, I haven’t talked about it very often actually… so here goes ~ !

First up, we have our ISAC tournament coming up on Friday. Like this Friday. Which is to say that on the 25^th through to the… ummm… 27^th, we’re going to be playing the first proper tournament. Honestly, I’m a little worried because despite all the training we’ve done, we’ve never seen the other teams play so we don’t know how good or bad they’ll be. Singles will be tough, girls’ singles less so (since you have a partner to cover your back after all!) and mixed doubles will be… interesting to say the least as we’ve spent the least time practicing mixed. 

You know what, I take my original statement back, I’m really worried, and nervous, about the entire tournament. Despite every competition I’ve taken part in, despite having experience, it’s always daunting to have to actually compete and it’s harder still when it’s you and your wits, your judgment, and no-one else to back you up as in singles. *shudder* I’d hate to make a fool of myself, or even worse, make a fool of our team by fouling or something equally stupid y’know?

Anyway, on a more positive note, I got a new racquet a while back, lighter than my previous one (which was about 5 years old :P ) and I can see a difference in my playing, how I need less strength for the same shot and how it feels like the racquet is simply an extension of my hand. It feels natural and I’m hoping that works for my advantage… 

And I’m rambling. 

Ehem…

Other than that, we’ve been doing some last minute training for specific weaknesses such as short serves and smashes and I think it’s been helping. Working with the coaches (and the awesome tatted parent ~!) has really helped with improving specific parts of our playing as well as given us the confidence to play with and against better players.

Here’s hoping that we do well this week!

[ I do realize that this was a wholly writing post so I'll put together an entirely picture post for next time :) ]