“I don’t believe in regrets and parallel universes. I made the best decision I did at any point in time.”
- Jo Soh, founder of Hansel
*****
I really really did it! Ok la, actually nothing very impressive anyway. I signed up and participated in my first SDU (now re-named SDN) event after a 5 years dry spell! Actually come to think of it, I really don’t remember what was the last event I attended. This one’s a rather last minute decision which I tried to interest Spy P, but she didn’t seem too keen cos she did not reply me leh. Hur hur. I had wanted to do more charity work in 2012, and this one’s a cleaning project for the old folks staying in one-room flats in Blk 31 Toa Payoh. Previously, I mostly went for activities-based programmes such as skating, tap-dancing and those wine-and-dine SDN events. I think recently, SDN has expanded their array of activities quite a bit, and even if one is not really aiming to find a prospective partner through such events, the available variety reads much like a country club programme list, but at a much more reasonable price range. And best part…we no longer need to pay for membership anymore! Woah ho!
Well anyway, there were about 8 of us who came last Sat and although most were guys…..all were so young lah!! I don’t even need to ask for their ages manz…to know that I’m easily the oldest of the lot. But ok lar, I had signed up mainly for the charity activity, and all of them were quite chatty and easy to engage with. I was quite surprised to note that there were at least 2 scholars in this group! Which had me wondering…you mean they also find difficulty looking for partner meh!? Really strange. But maybe they are also like me, coming mainly to help the elderly.
We were splitted into 2 groups of 4, and my group managed to only clean 2 units in one Sat morning. I had initially thought it would be relatively easy…one-room flat only mah. The first unit was easy peasy, the occupant was an old lady who kept her flat clean and neat, and didn’t have too many belongings with her (she doesn’t even have a TV lor). We basically divided the tasks between cleaning the toilet, wiping windows, sweeping and mopping the floor (we didn’t have to think of having 2 persons to clean the toilet at one time cos it was so small that 2 persons wouldn’t be able to fit into it). She was very appreciative and we got it done by 40 minutes.
The second unit hor, was a whole new story lo. There were 3 men staying in the unit (obviously illegal one lor) and hence they had so many items in their small flat!!! When I was sweeping the floor, he made me dig out all those items hiding at one corner, so that I could go in and clean up the accumulated filth. The stove top was horrible, and the fridge exterior was so sticky. We really tried our best lar, and I could only thank my lucky stars that the guys offered to clean the toilet (the white walls were stained a yucky yellow). And the old man so good lo, even went around doing inspection after we finished our tasks. What the. But we all agreed that the 满足感 we had from cleaning this unit was the best. And it felt like we had cleaned 3 units in total lor.
All in all, I think I still had fun meeting new YOUNG people and doing volunteer work at the same time, on a Sat morning. It’s definitely so much more meaningful than just meeting people over posh dinners / KTV sessions. And I was also quite impressed that some of the guys actually stay quite far away (one in Boon Lay – wah lau), but still made time to wake up early and attend this activity. Well, so I’m glad to report that this event went rather well and I’ll likely be going for more SDN activities this year bah.
If anyone’s keen to join me, just drop me a note ok! =)
