Wardrobe and Service

3a.m. the magical hour for blogging.
Just got back from the Wardrobe Room. Was fixing the detailing on our outfits today. The costumes are so pretty (: Very fairy-butterfly-esque.

The dress is of white satin with narrow straps, fitted high waist, and fluttery leaflet edged skirt.
The detailings are in violet-blue hued organza, wings, wings, fluttery wings. Not as pictured.
In fact, as HsinYi pointed out, our wings are in front heehee.

It took me a good half hour to get the wings to sit just so and stitch them in place. Dare say that Sister Gertrude would have approved of the hand stitching. We also had to melt the edges of the dress and the inner seams to prevent fraying. The wings were also edged to define them better. Argh! Never knew that the dancers did most of the detailings on their costumes themselves. The wardrobers helped us tighten costumes, lengthen/ shorten and fix the velcro and straps though.

Anyhoo, today was another day at the Salvation Army. Our hall Voluntary Corps teaches there every Tuesday and Wednesday. I always end up with students who are weak at math. Sessions are a mix of cajoling, coercion, and a whole lot of bargaining. The kids can be naughty but at the bottom of it all, they are sweeties.
The kid I taught last year, A, consistently failed Math. Very bangga, after one sem of tutoring, she actually did quite well for her finals. She was deffo a good child, very conscientious and hardworking. It was pretty easy to teach her.
This year, they assigned me Y. Y is definitely more interesting than A simply because she's 1000 times naughtier. She candidly told me that she hated Math and that I was a nerd for preferring it to English. For every few pages of Math that she does, she expects a ghost story. I told her a few terribly boring ones, but that hasn't worked as a deterrent.
Last week, I got K, a small, scrawny little thing with close cropped curls. K is Y's younger sister. I was shocked to find that she could barely read and write. She couldn't figure out words that were more than 3 syllables long. Scaaaaary... we worked on basic phonetics tha day.
Wishful thinking, but I really hope that we are able to help these kids out. I really enjoy my sessions, though I do come back terribly drained. It's also highly gratifying when the kids want you as their tutor. They often approach me to request for them as students... but I end up telling them that these matters are out of my hands. After all, it wouldn't be too fair to the other kids that I teach and more than 2 have already made the request. *gloats* They like me haha. Sometimes I wonder why... From the record books, I make them do the most work. In fact, I have been accused of slave-driving (though they laugh/ pout as they say this). That said, maybe they actually want their time occupied and more often than not, they don't seem to realize that they did as much work as they did. I guess it's all about firm handling but showing them that you really care about them too.
This has seriously been one of my most fulfilling CCA's here in Singapore.