November 29, 2008

A Drop of Blood, Saves a Life :)

Maryam and I reached OU's new wing at 8.55am. Xiu Jong (St John Sri Aman Division Chairperson) and Margaret Tan gave us directions to where they were, which was the 2nd floor of the rainforest just outside Paddington Pancake House (well I think that was it). But Maryam and I, being complete blur cases went outside and walked all the way to the main road between old wing and the new wing -.-


We found them, eventually. All of us then went with Corporal Kwang Yong Wei to the loading bay to get the floor mat (and its huuuuge) and some other stuff needed for the blood donation. Corporal Kwang Yong Wei was my group leader in last year's NCO camp. NCO camp is where you can train and take exams to move a rank higher. 

If I'm not mistaken, it was during last years NCO when Corporal Kwang was going for the Corporal rank, he was Lance Corporal back then. I was going for the Cadet Leader rank, but didn't succeed in doing so :( I didn't qualify to go for the camp this year as I wasn't active in St John.

The loading bay didn't smell pleasant, and just cos I covered my nose (in attempt to not pick up the smell, lol yeah sure that worked), Xiu Jong started to tell Natashyia, Maryam and Margaret how during camp I was such a baby, couldn't stand getting my hands dirty. Pfft :P I was a tough cookie during camp. Natashyia and I got lost going back to the rainforest from the loading bay. :\ Unlucky for us Natashyia was carrying a huge floor mat and I had a carton of bottles of water. And it, was, heavy

:) If you've been to the rainforest, you'd see these little wooden huts, I suppose placed as a sitting area for shoppers. Yeah, it took all the st john members and 2 officers to lift the thing up. We had to move all three huts to a corner for space to prep the area for the donation. And I'm telling you, despite the man power, the hut was still very very very heavy to lift up. I stepped on Maryam's shoe quite a lot :) lol we were walking in very tiny but quick baby steps and I couldn't keep up.

After we've placed the mats we had to tape them down. :\ Silly me I volunteered myself to get on the floor and tape the mats. Dah lah my uniform made me look like a mushroom, now I'm risking tearing my uniform.  

I found out today that Margaret had just took her A Levels examination. :) You have no idea how relieved I felt now that I know someone that has the A Levels experience. She shared with me a little of what she knew about colleges and A Levels. I think if she told me everything we knew I would've been too blurred out by the end. I know now where I can get the O Levels and A Levels text books, thanks to her. Hoorah.

The blood drive went fine. Natashyia and I were assigned the organ donor registration table but later was assigned to distribute fliers. Distributing fliers is not an easy thing to do, believe me. Everytime you approach someone, you'll have to prep yourself for the reaction they give you. Personally I didn't like how a few people 'politely' declined a flier. I know, it may disturb your day out but a polite and courteous 'no thank you' would do. 

It's not like we're promoting perfume (although I have nothing against people promoting perfume (: In fact I like walking by perfume promotions, smells nice) or any other products you might or might not purchase. A blood donation is going on only a few meters away, you could save a persons life just by registering and wait for about 5 minutes in a chair. The needle part might be a little scary, but it's for a good cause.

We, distributing the fliers, might be a disturbance to your outing but all I care is that we're doing someone else out there, someone in need of blood, a favor. :) So smirk if you want, as long as it's for a good cause, I'd stand in a mall all day long just to promote an ongoing blood donation.

But ofcourse there were other people who politely declined, I'm not saying everyone in the mall reacted rudely (if the word rude isn't too dramatic). Most of them smiled and accepted, some smiled and declined. :) One man in particular actually came up to use and asked for a flier, haha you have no idea how it made us feel so relieved. It's times like this when you understand how the smallest gesture could lighten up someone's day. Even a smile.

After the blood donation, XiuJong, Margaret, Natashyia, Maryam, Sir Hao (a St John officer) and myself were walking in the mall and when we were at the escalator moving from G to LG was where we were going to part ways. Margaret, Xiu Jong and Sir Hao one way, and Natashyia, Maryam and myself another.  We said our goodbyes and Sir Hao reminded us to change into something other than our st john uniform if we were going to stay on longer.

We (Maryam, Nat, and I) went down the escalator while the others made their way to the other side of the oval. lol, when we got off the escalator we realized we were on the wrong floor so we went up the escalator again. Making our way to the other side of the oval we saw Margaret, XJ and Sir Hao walking towards us. XP lol they were walking the wrong way as well. When I looked back they were going down the escalator. 

Talk about a swap of direction. 

Maryam and I went to MPH for a little bit. She had to go home soon after she bought a book she wanted, leaving me at the General History section in MPH :) I bought myself a California Temayaki (is that right?) and pretzels for my siblings. 

Visited our grandma in Kg Subang on our way home, who told me I absolutely had to try the peaches in BeiJing. She says they're amazing. :) lol she asked me to bring home some for her. lol that good, huh, nek? 

My flight leaves at 8am tomorrow morning so I'll have to leave home by 4.30am. I'm excited. I'm very excited :D

0 comments: