Tip Toe Through the Tulips..

Hey hey~

My Uncle Michael is a photographer in his spare time and recently he sent me this gorgeous photo that I simply had to upload.

It reminds me a photo I have of me when I was little, standing next to similar red tulips at the botanical gardens in Wellington.

Ah, that's a happy thought right there. ^__^

*hugz*

MelMel

Eid Mubarak

Hey hey~

Today I received a sms from Eshad in Bangladesh who I met at APXLDS in the Philippines earlier this year.

The message said "Eid mubarak", which is a traditional Muslim greeting used during Eid ul-Fitr. It translates into English as "blessed festival", and can be paraphrased as "may you enjoy a blessed festival."

According to Wikipedia:

"Eid ul-Fitr (Arabic عيد الفطر, Persian: عید فطر), often abbreviated as simply Eid, sometimes spelled Eid al-Fitr, is an Islamic holiday that marks the end of Raman, the month of fasting. Fitr means "to break the fast" and therefore symbolizes the breaking of the fasting period.

Eid is a time to come together as a community and to renew friendship and family ties. This is a time for peace for all Muslims in the world to devote to prayers and mutual well-being.

It is a joyous occasion with important religious significance. Happiness is observed as attaining spiritual uplift after a month of fasting. Muslims normally dress in holiday attire.

For Muslims, Eid ul-Fitr is a joyful celebration of the achievement of enhanced piety. It is a day of forgiveness, moral victory, peace of congregation, fellowship, brotherhood and unity. Muslims here are not only celebrating the end of fasting, but thanking God for the help and strength that they believe He gave them throughout the previous month to help them practice self-control."

Thank you Eshad for sending me such a thoughtful greeting - I hope you enjoy your celebrations! ^__^

*hugz*

MelMel

All Signs Point to... Fat?!

Hey hey~

It's funny how some habits never change. I'm currently writing up my SnA report and I've noticed the similiarities between my habits when writing regional reports in comparison to writing univeristy essays.

I'm thinking about all of the uni students around Australia who are currently studying hard for their final semester exams, and I am remembering how for me snacking was always something that went hand in hand with studying or writing long assignments. It's no different here, right now, over the past two days for me in the office.

This is not good.

And to think now that I am coaching two regions there will be a second SnA report (along with snacking) that will need to be written!!


In other news, I've also realised the predicament I have put myself in with regards to the new AIESEC New South Wales VP legacy shirt. I was so excited when Jakey came into the office for me to sign the New South Wales rubgy league shirt - it looks great with our names written on the back of the shirt in order of our VP terms.

It's actually a pretty massive shirt (men's extra large I believe) because we wanted to make sure that NSW VPs of any shape and size in the future would be able to wear it.

It all makes sense right? Well I thought so too until I had a bit of a think about it... 10 years from now, or how many ever years in the future, when members around the region no longer know me, or Kana or Jakey... do you know what they are going to think??

"Woah! That Mel, the one who first signed that NSW VP shirt, she must have been HUGE!!"

Oh gosh... what have I done? =P

*hugz*

MelMel

A Good Day in the Office

Hey hey~

After an extremely busy first quarter, heck make that a very hectic 5 months since transition started in May, I am really happy to be back in the office! ^__^

It's funny, it's not until you reflect upon things that you realise how fast time has flown. Looking back, I discovered that I have not been in the office for more than 3 weeks at one time since I started my term. These next 2 months will be wonderful - a time where I can knuckle down and get some solid work done before heading off to Singapore for Christmas - yay!

Today was a good example of that actually - an effective Monday Morning Meeting followed by an opportunity to reply to a million and one emails and yet still actually manage to have time to spare to get some other work done - wow!

I'm reminded of a quote that Patrice from GU shared with me during my SnA visit in Brisbane:

"Every moment of our life can be the beginning of great things" - Juan Mascaro

I think that's what I'm feeling right now. Sure, I bet something will go wrong during the week that will frustrate me to no end, but for now I want to remember this moment as being content, busy, but content nonetheless.

For those of you who haven't seen where I work above is a photo of my desk at the MC office. Yes it is a mess - I could have cleaned everything up before I took the photo, but those who know me well would know that it would look fake and totally unlike me!

Ausra mentioned to me that you guys should count the number of purple things in the photo. Hehehe. There aren't that many purple things, are there? By my count so far I can only spot 5 purple items.

*hugz*

MelMel

Purple Things That Amuse MelMel #4

Hey hey~

It's been a while since I've posted under this heading, but recently while I've been trying to confirm my Christmas flights I was reminded of one of the reasons why I'm looking to heading back to Singapore: Purple Yakult!

What is it?

Purple (or rather grape flavoured) Yakult is a yoghurt drink that I first started drinking when I lived in Hong Kong. I remember when Robert was a toddler he used to drink these by the gallon. My mum tried to teach him the importance of pacing himself by writing 'T's, 'M's and 'R's (standing for Thomas, Melissa and Robert) on different lids so he wouldn't drink the entire 6 pack when we bought them.

But what was his response to this? He would often sneak into the fridge, write over and replace the 'T's and 'M's with 'R's using black marker - and to think he was only 3 years old at the time! Talk about being cheeky! ^__^

*hugz*

MelMel

The Net Addict

Hey hey~

The fact that I was so distraught without internet is enough justification for this posting.

As of Tuesday, the Internet was officially back up in the MC office yay!

Unfortunately I am currently in BrisVegas until the Thursday 19th and can not take advantage of said internet - boo!

*hugz*

MelMel

Your Time in AIESEC is Like a Speech… An EB Application Speech to be Precise

Hey hey~

One of the pleasures of this second round of SnA visits is being on the EB selection panels that are happening across Queensland at the moment.

Looking back at my previous election experiences in AIESEC I can honestly say that it is one of the most challenging things you can do; to open yourself up completely and put yourself out there to be scrutinized and questioned by others. But at the same time it is probably one of the most rewarding things you can do simply because you learn so much about yourself and what you are actually capable of going through the process.

At the UQ EB elections last night, one individual truly shined for me amongst all the candidates. Aleks (a.k.a Little Aleks) simply sparkled, not only in her performance on the night but also through how far she has come in her AIESEC Experience since I first met her way back in January. Little Aleks is someone who I have had pleasure the of frequently meeting throughout 2006: WanCon in Perth, APXLDS in the Philippines, YLC in Sydney, State and July National Conference in Brisbane and now on my second SnA visit!

At SPMs there was a session run on authentic leadership and looking at Aleks I truly see her as someone who is using their AIESEC Experience to truly find out who they are and who they want to be.

Aleks, thank you for inspiring me last night during EB elections and demonstrating the impact of an AIESEC Experience. Thank you for also letting me post up your speech. You are truly someone I respect. ^__^

*hugz*

MelMel

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My EB speech

I’ve always wanted to start a speech with an analogy, so here goes…

Your time in AIESEC is like a speech…an EB application speech to be precise.

So you start off a little nervous with shaky hands and shaky knees… you feel you can’t stand on your own two feet because you’re a newbie and you think you haven’t got the appropriate AIESEC knowledge yet and nor have you grasped the AIESEC big picture yet.

However the people around you are very supportive and welcoming. They don’t know much about you so you tell them a little about yourself…

Ok, I’ve been in AIESEC since March last year and in that time I have been a kick-ass finance director and more recently part of the OGX team. I’ve also been to quite a number of conferences.

So after your little intro spiel, you’re ready to start the main body of the speech, with a little more confidence in yourself. Through a vast diversity of challenges, opportunities and experience you have, such as being up-skilled by experienced members and being able to work on projects, attending conferences, having a couple of win-on’s, going through successes and failures, good times, bad times and sometimes embarrassing times like having a photo of your first win-on sledged on a PowerPoint slide to a whole national conference delegation, and not just one, not two, but three photos.

These kinds of experiences only make you stronger and in AIESEC your encouraged to learn and reflect on your mistakes…like making sure next time you win-on there is no one around with a camera. Luckily no one knew it was my first kiss.

So as I was saying you start to gain confidence in your speech’s delivery by making the crowd laugh and lightening the mood.

And as your speech progresses, so do you, you’ve contributed to a team and learnt the core work processes of AIESEC and now you want to take the next step, you’re ready for the next challenge: you’re ready for a leadership position that will provide you with greater challenges than what you’ve faced before, that will be an amazing learning experience and that will ultimately develop yourself, the LC and lets not forget the people who’ll make it all worthwhile; the team members!

Finally you’ve become comfortable with how you’ve delivered your speech, either that or you’ve realized you’re nearly at the end and you can’t start again, or you realize that your time in AIESEC is short and your have to make the most of it.

Well I’m at that stage of my AIESEC experience where if feel that I am ready to take the next challenge and take on a leadership position. All I can say is that I’m going to take that leap if you feel I can do a good job at it. Let’s build upon 2006 for a growing and motivated 2007.

And finally you finish the speech off by putting your faith in the hands of the voting members.

And all you can do is finish off the speech with a smile.

I Warned Her She Had Set a Precedent...

Hey hey~

I've been out from the blogging world for what feels like ages because the internet in the MC office went down mysteriously 3 weeks ago (another posting shall follow later with more details). It's typical that the internet would go back up the day before I went up to Brisbane for SnAQ2 (read: snack two - yum yum ^__^), but while I'm on a quick break here in the QUT office I thought I would take the time to upload a quick photo of Kana and Jakey from SPMs 2006.

This blurb is quite fitting considering the content of my last post. Last year as outgoing VP of NSW 2005, the SuperRB (read:superb) team decided to turn me into a chocolate cake as a parting gift.

At the time when it happened I told Kana that by being involved she had indeed set a precedence for next year... and even though she shrugged it off.. in the end... I was right.

Sure enough, this year, our beloved Kana was turned into a banana split.

Yes this bizzare concept is still something I haven't really gotten my head around...

Jakey be warned now though... now it's a tradition!

*hugz*

MelMel