31th May was a special day…

for the Moral Angels as this was the “opening day” of our Moral Angels’ Kopi Roti Corner/Café, where our multi-talented angels took on the various F& B roles to serve our Ah-gong Ah-mas their afternoon tea…So without much further ado, let me your dietitian-angel give you a special “nutritional analysis” of the day’s event! =)

“Source of energy”:

Needless to say, our angels are the greatest source of energy, always so full of life and zeal! And today, we are super “lively” as we have a large turnout of volunteers. Firstly, we have our Café Towkay – Hui Quan (who has designed the menu with mouthwatering pictures). Together with Uncle Song and Jin Xiong’s help, they came early to buy all the ingredients and Jin Xiong has generously sponsored the tuna and peanut butter! (Keep up the benevolent spirit! =p). Then with extra help from Stuart, Doris, Hui Quan’s cousin (Rina Teo) and Towkay-neo Rico ‘Lee’ =p, they “build” the café at the dining area swiftly before the auspicious opening time (~1.45pm), where our customers (Ah gongs Ah mas) start coming in for their afternoon tea.

“Source of carbohydrate”:

Brenden is our baker who helps to toast the breads to golden brown…though we have also spotted some that has turned chao ta and carcinogenic!

“Source of protein”:

Jojo was making the tuna sandwich. Though this is the most nutritious item on the menu, the demand is so low that we had many cans of tuna left. Half-boiled eggs were supposed to be served by Mei Kuen, but unfortunately, the hens have all gone on strike the past few days, so we made do without it. =p

“Source of fat”:

As what I always hear, fatty food are the one that taste good!..True enough, kaya toast is the most popular among the elderly, followed by the butter toast and the peanut butter toast.. Rico and I who were making them wished we had multiple hands like Guan Yin to meet the overwhelming orders!.. Business is so good that we even had orders of the kaya and peanut butter toasts to be delivered to the Ah-gong Ah-mas upstairs.

“Source of caffeine”:

Our Kopi/Tea sohs – Sharon and Doris… I guess there’s no scalding incident this time as moral angels are fast learners…No more Kopi-boy or Kopi-Ah-Pek around to distract the kopi-sohs this time! Haha.. =)

“Source of vitamins and minerals” (all others without whom the event will not been made possible):

Uncle Song, Hui Quan and cousin Rina, who were taking orders from our Ah-gong Ah-mas…Our Waiter & Waitresses-Jin Xiong, SK, Uncle Sam, Mei Kuen, Desmond, Hui Hsien, Poh Yan and also Poh Yan’s colleagues (Frank, Fiona, Tock Siong and Hwee Peng – A BIG thank you for coming to help out). Without u all, our elderly will be left hungry at the table and drooling over the aroma of the toasted bread…Our Moral Angel idol, Uncle Loi also provided some “cafe lounge music” while our Ah-gong Ah-mas enjoy their afternoon tea…Last but not least, as “a picture says a thousand words” we have Stuart to capture all these invaluable candid moments for us to reminisce in the future…

Is that all for the day!?…… Of course not!!! Cos the day is still young!…its only 2.30pm!

So, the all time-favourite moral gambling den resume its business…with the usual mahjong game and an underaged banker, Brenden manning the blackjack game (lucky no police around =p)…Mei Kuen took on the challenge with Uncle John in the checkers games. Not sure what’s the outcome?!…Maybe I should try one day? =) Sam, Uncle Song and Rico also resume their roles of befriending the elderly and running errands for them.

Meanwhile, the other Ah-gong Ah-mas were entertained by Stuart, Uncle Loi and PohYan’s colleagues’ melodious medley of romantic oldies and pop songs while

JinXiong, Hui Quan, Rina, Doris, SK, Ah Xian and I were having fun in the volunteers’ room painting and decorating the dragon boats with toy figurines as the rowers, for the dumpling festival’s game this sat… By the way, one of our angel turned “gila” and he proudly disfigured one of the toy figurine’s expression into something that look like SK! …What a nightmare!!…Luckily we got our “plastic surgeon” Doris to perform a major surgery to restore the cute expression back! What a relief!! Else our Ah Gong Ah Mas will probably be scared off to play the game after seeing it! =)

At 4pm, we had a special guest performance by Hui Quan’s sweet cousin, Rina who mesmerised our Ah-gong Ah-Mas and the angels with her beautiful singing, accompanied by Hui Quan’s dashing guitar playing.. . This harmonious recital made our Mrs Lee so “green with envy” that she can’t wait to get up the stage to sing with her honey! =)… Soon after, dinner was served while the angels (Jo, Stuart, Doris and finally Mrs Lee?) continued their singing happily with the live guitar accompaniment by Hui Quan…

Postscript:

31 May is also a very special day for me… (For those who don’t know, it was my birthday.) A BIG thank you from the bottom of my heart to VL Sharon (the “mastermind”), Hui Quan (for buying me the birthday cake…I still don’t understand why you bought 3?!), JinXiong (for the coffee), Jojo and Ah Xian for the surprise belated birthday celebration on Sunday, after our ESN course, to add to my birthday memories…

Though one may feel what a boring birthday weekend I had, all revolving volunteer work.. But I don’t feel so, as I felt that this is the first birthday that I spent so meaningfully…As Confucius said, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” - I’m really happy to have taken this step to become a volunteer. You may not have realized, but some of you angels have really influenced me. It is the first time I felt like… to really sit back and think of what I really want to do rather than what I need to do… Volunteering has given me a new perspective of life and gets me out of the trivialities and routines of everyday life which I’m so sick of now. Now my favourite day of the week is SATURDAY! =p … Last but DEFINITELY NOT least, it’s also through volunteering that I get the chance to meet and make such priceless true friendship with you angels!…Love you all, Moral Angels!

Thanks for enduring my long-winded & emotional birthday entry,

With xx & oo, Ah Hua

Suggestions to improve our kopi roti corner

1) Unfortunately, our café corner‘s “feng shui” isn’t very ideal so we gotta shift to another prime location that is more spacious and with a smoother workflow layout next time.

2) To number the dining tables and the order chit correspondingly for easier identification and to minimize confusion in the orders.

3) To assign a person to be overall-in-charge to oversee the event. He/She may also do some quality check the food.

4) For the food, it is recommended to cut up the tuna sandwich as the filling is too hot and our ah gong ah mas may get burned from eating it.

Last but not least,

All angels are reminded to reach Moral Home by 2pm this Saturday, 7th June 2008 for our dumpling festival celebration (Program as follows). Remember to wear your YELLOW T-SHIRT. See you guys then!!!

The Dumpling Festival Program :-

14.30-15.00: Mobilization

15.00-15.30: Welcome Address and serving of dumplings & tea

15.30-15.45: Part 1 Performance :- 1. shio bak zhang, 2. song by charlie yong, 3. semi indian dance by Jo

15.45-16.00: Game 1: Dragon boat by HQ

16.00-16.15: Part 2 Performance :- Musical instruments by Alexandra and friends

16.15-16.30: Game 2: Bingo by HQ

16.30-16.45: Sing-a-long session by Moral Angels (Jo to think of 3 songs, HQ to play the guitar)

16.45:            Dinner Time (we will add watermelon and almond jelly cocktail for the dinner)

 

Cheers,

Shu Hua