Volunteered at the Special Olympics over the weekend, organised by the Shanghai Patriotic School.

It started at the (painful!) time of 8am on a Saturday morning.. so it took much effort to drag myself out of bed – even earlier than I normally get up to go to work! The day needed to start early because it is HOT HOT HOT in Shanghai. However, we still didn’t beat the heat, because it was boiling. You know when you sit in a sauna? Yep, it was just like that. Even standing completely still in the shade didn’t stop sweat pouring from… well, everywhere. Glamourous, it was not 😉

So the bunch of us volunteers were there to help out the mentally-disabled folk there and help them have fun during the event. What I didn’t anticipate was that WE had to participate too! So we had to run about in the hot sun – I certainly got my exercise for the week 😉 It was a lot of fun being outdoors though, and just hanging out with the people there.

The sticker us volunteers had on. I think it says “Special Olympics” somewhere??

Milling around in the early morning as more and more people arrive

Opening Ceremony. We even sang the China national anthem!

Singing the China national anthem (and that’s me asking if they are!)
(China-residents’ version here)

And a photo of me whilst I was filming the above 😛

Performance

A musical performance

And so we begin with….. tug of war!

Us volunteers. We sucked!

And a mini version of football

Me (in red) RACING away like a crazy person

Shooting hoops

Colourful balloons galore

Hot, sweaty and completely pooped!

Group shot 🙂

Unfortunately I’ll be on a charity hiatus for at least a month, a huge shame ‘cos I really wanted to do the Orphanage one next week. It’s cos next weekend is our last weekend in Shanghai, before we fly off to Singapore.

Then we have ONE WEEK to do everything that hasn’t already been sorted for the wedding…. namely, for me to try on my wedding gown for the first time. Pray pray pray that I haven’t gained weight or I’ll be stuck with no dress to wear! And I hope the gown fits and looks nice *crosses fingers*.

I wanted to lose weight until I got to my pre-Shanghai weight of 44kg, which I was before moving earlier this year. It was my goal for the wedding and ummm, I failed miserably! So will unfortunately be that fat bride, because whilst most people are their SMALLEST weight on their wedding day, I’m at my LARGEST, heaviest weight I have ever been in my ENTIRE life… on my wedding day. So sad it’s almost funny. Blahhhhhhhhhhh!