The Big Draw-Lakeside Landscape

A fully occupied, tiring but really fun and fulfilling day later, I'm back in front of my com. My very first SCA project, and I'm all ready to sign up for more, time and energy permitting, of course. In the end, only 3 volunteers turned up, so we really had our hands full. But it was certainly an unforgettable day I had, so much laughter and creativity flowing around the room! Liqin and I, together with this guy from leicester, Nehal, met the SCA rep, Lucy at the Djangoly theatre (There was supposed to be a couple more volunteers but they didn't turn up) at about 9am, and together with the person i/c, Rachel, and the workshop artist, Tracy, we set up the stations for the public and there we go!

Felt very artist-y with our old paint-splattered shirts, aprons and gloves on, and I'm glad that any apprehension about language or racial barriers were unfounded after all. The main members which came were mostly family-based, from grannies to parents..and certainly, the young kids! Of several different races and all ages. Some highlight(s) of the day:

I went around the stations at one point in time with this little girl, 22months old according to her dad, and tried to guide her along. It was quite challenging..from trying to get her puny body frame into the comparatively bigger old shirt and apron, and her little hands into the smallest (albeit still too big) pair of plastic gloves available, to keeping her occupied while her dad did the printing model for her painting, involving her in little parts like pasting the shapes on the foam etc...it all proved to be a really fun experience! At the end of their stations (after a completion of two to three paintings for the mural), I was just helping her to get out of her apron or smth when her dad kind of surprised me by saying : "Go on, Jessica, give her a kiss"...I initially went like "wha....." 'coz I just wasn't expecting that! Then I just gamely gave her my cheek to plant a small little kiss on. Haha...so cute! So unforgettable too was the farewell scene, when her dad again encouraged her to give a little wave as they left...aww...

There were a few other memorable little scenes too which would take too long to have them all written down. But just want to say, while it had been a really taxing day being on our feet, moving about, getting dirty, constantly talking to ppl and being enthusiastic about the kids' and the adults' pieces of work...it had been nonetheless fun and fulfilling. And the other ppl on the project were really good company!

So yup.. That marks the day for me. Shall move on to the next part of the weekend now. I've got quite a bit of work to do, like everybody else around really. But there's going to be a potluck at this place tonight, so that's part two of the day I suppose. Hope I dun doze off in the middle of the dinner haha.

Hee.. just a side-note: being light-hearted is kind of like an elixir on its own, for while I woke up to a drizzling day with a pretty bad sore throat, the full day of talking and moving about actually didn't worsen it like I had feared, but made it somewhat better instead.

A matter of mind over matter? Perhaps!