Finally Met Up with the Chan Family

Long long time ago, we met up with the Chan family so very often, whether a visit to their place or a run in the park. These meet ups are usually fairly impromptu. 

Then Covid came, then Lil Shauna became very busy such that impromptu no longer works. The Chan family had tried to date us several times in the past months. If it is not bcos Lil Shauna has something, it is bcos we are meeting my brother's family. 

Finally after so many months, we met up with the Chan family again. We dated Boo to Stingray but both girls eventually decided not to do it. Companion or not, Zaky was happy with what again turned out to be an individual session/ lesson. 

He learnt another few more tricks and already asked to go back again next week. Kallang very far leh. 

We met the Chan family for dinner. The girls had so much 悄悄话 and didn't want us to join them at the table. 

The kids happily ran around in the open space outside popeye after dinner. It is so funny that running around can be so fun. Lol. 

The parents eye power only. In fact, Daddy Lim and I don't even need to eye power our kids anymore. Hoho. 

Before long, it was already 9.30pm and time to go home. I wonder when we will be able to find time to meet up again. Secretly, the aunties had been meeting more regularly than the kids. Muahahaha. Shhhh...

Mummy Lim

Learning to be a Parent (of a Teenager)

I thought that I was "there" when Lil Shauna started displaying teenager traits last year. One of the main adaptions is her busy social life. We have started getting used to not seeing her on Saturdays bcos she is so busy. If we have anything that we intend to plan on Saturday, we have to check with her and date her in advance. #大忙人

As we approach 2021 and Lil Shauna starts her new secondary school journey, I realised that last year was only the tip of the ice berg. Being a teenager is a hard thing and living with a teenager is equally hard. 

Lil Shauna is starting to embrace her new-found independence, from shuttling to school via public transport, to taking the train to town to meet her youth group friends, to spending a lot of time in her room, to vocalizing her opinions, to taking on social media... We are learning to let go as she is learning to embrace her new identify.  

The differences didn't particularly hit me until the recent cruise trip where we got to spend so much time together again. It was hard to accept that she wasn't as enthusiastic as I thought she would be when just before Covid, the kids embraces all kinds of trips and holidays passionately. She rolled eyes at so many of the cruise activities and suggestions that I brought up that I think she could see her brain multiple times. I am even worried that her eyes wouldn't roll back. Lol. 真的长大了.

Just a few days back, she was upset when a boy classmate found our blog and started sharing her pictures around. While I didn't think it was a big deal bcos I blog about good stuff and post QC approved pictures, it wasnt the case for her. Well, I supposed her reaction is understandable if I stand in her shoe. As such, our blog is now locked up. Not that we have thousands of followers to begin with but I just enjoy using the blog as a diary and I find it so useful to trace back which hotel we stayed, when who started what classes, how bad were their eyesight at which time... the trouble of giving accesses to family and friends are particularly painful though.

Alright, let's continue to embrace and grow together as our precious 1st born treads through these challenging but also exciting teenager years. For one, she is totally enjoying her school, her CCA and her youth groups. PTL.

Taken from her IG. Is she going to kill me?!!?

Mummy Lim

Stingray @ Kallang Wave

I think the kids' 1st taste of the flow ride was back at Sunway lagoon a long time ago. Zaky fell in love with it but there aren't many places in Singapore with the facility. After procrastinating for so long, so much so that the Flow Rider in Sentosa has closed down, I finally signed Zaky up for the lesson at Stingray @ Kallang Wave. That was in February 20, right before we went into the lock down. 

We signed Zaky up for a 2nd lesson right after and Lil Shauna was also keen to try but the lesson never take place. Every now and then, Zaky would remind me to check but the lesson never resumed. 

His interest for the Flow Rider was re-ignited during the cruise. I like it too when Zaky goes for physical activities. Hoho. I was reminded to check the Stingray classes and while the classes are still suspended, the Stingray is opened for public booking at $35 per pax per hour. Let's go! 

We booked Zaky a 6.30pm slot last Saturday. It was a single kid Saturday bcos jiejie was fully packed with her youth group activities. Zaky didn't mind all the attention that he recieved from the parents. Fortunately the afternoon thunderstorm also passed right on time and we arrived to no sights of lightning warning. Yay! 

Only 1 parent/ guardian is allowed and I had the honor to accompany the boy. Daddy Lim found himself a spot to watch Netflix while he waited. Zaky was the only 1 booked for the slot though it allowed up to 5. 

Though it was a public session, there was a dedicated lifeguard and another staff manning the station. I remembered the staff to be the same instructor who coached Zaky in his last lesson. Neither of them recognize each other. Mummy knows best. Haha.  

It started with a safety briefing by the instructor. He was calling for Zaky, who didn't hear him. Thinking that Zaky is probably some Chinese kid, he ended up calling (again) and speaking to Zaky in Chinese. What ensued was a funny conversation in Chinese until Zaky had to ask if they can converse in English instead bcos his Chinese is so poor. Lol. 

Before they start the session, I was asking if there is a difference between the Stingray and Flow Rider. There is and the instructor went on to explain a ton that went over my head. Lol. Yay, lesson start!

We didn't know what to expect. Given that it was a public session, I had thought that Zaky would be left to do whatever. To our pleasant surprise, the instructor ended up coaching him and bcos he was the only person, Zaky ended up with an hour of private lesson. Hoho.

Zaky was taught various poses and even standing up, which he said was so straining on a particular knee. He also some barrow tricks that looked like him rolling around at the edge. Lol.

All these while, yours truly was busy taking pictures, videos and playing my sudoku. The time slot was perfect with the setting sun, unlike how it was on the crusie. Hoho. I didn't expect Zaky to last the entire hour, I can imagine how tiring it can be, but he did. Of course he was exhausted after the session and was telling me how more difficult the Stingray is bcos the FR is bouncy and this is not. Huh? Never mind, exercise is good for you. Hoho.

Mummy Lim

Quantum of the Seas Day 4

All good things come to an end. Though it was a short holidays, it was a decent length one to kick start after a year of hiatus. 

I had been wondering about the disembarkation procedure. What had been made known to us via the Royal app was that the disembarkation would be at 6am but no what or how. 

Information was provided on Day 3 via hard copy pamphlet and luggage tags were also provided. We could check in the luggage or lug them off the cruise ourselves. The luggage tags are numbered from 1 to 34 and disembarkation starts as early as 7am to 10.15am accordingly to the number on the luggage tag. Given that we only have 1 medium size luggage, we opted to move it ourselves. Easy peasy. 

Auntie S and kids were in the forward of the ship and given number 1 luggage tags. They were scheduled to leave at 7am. We were at the middle of the ship and our luggage tags were numbered 16, scheduled for 8am. 

Bcos it was too early for them, they decided to skip bfast. We didn't bcos I know that we will have hungry morning people. 

It was initially difficult to wake the kids until I reminded them that we are in Singapore and their data plan works. The next moment... So easy...

The windjammer was opened as early as 6am and was crowded when we arrived. Back in the cabin after bfast was a waiting game but nobody complains when there is aircon and gadget. The disembarkation announcement was made over the PA system as well as on Channel 24 on the TV. 

It was our turn shortly after 8am. By then, Auntie S and kids were already home. Disembarkation was easy and clear. There wasn't much of a crowd as well. 

Of course social distancing via the familiar "footprint" labels that we constantly saw throughout the cruise. 

Everything else was just as smooth and we were home before 9am. That marked the end of our cruise holiday. 

While the teenager had complained a fair bit and rolled her eyeballs probably enough to circle the earth, we all had fun. Zaky loves the boogie boarding. Lil Shauna enjoyed a few of the activities and we all had a great time with the bumper car. I particularly enjoyed the time with the kids. It had been so long. It is a pity that Daddy Lim can't join us this time. 

In my opinion, the cruise was particularly good bcos of the 50% capacity such that the line for the the activities were much reasonable. I think we must make full use of this privilege such that I jioed Auntie S to book the cruise again during the June holidays. Hohoho. 

Ya, cruise booked already. We are fast hands, fast legs. This time, Popo will not be tagging along. She finds the casino too tiny and would rather go to her Genting Dream cruise instead and had already planned on in end April. This time, we also jioed Auntie J and kids. Hoho. Daddy Lim isn't sure if he would be able to make it for the cruise and will see how his work schedule goes. 

This time, we will make sure to arrive as early as possible and book as many bumper car sessions as possible. Hoho. Oh, we need to stay away from late night performances too; we are not as strong as what we think we are. 

We are lao jiaos already and very much looking forward to June 21. Hoho.

Mummy Lim

Quantum of the Seas Day 3

C said that she wanted to jog on day 3 morning. 

While jogging is not my thing, I was glad to have companion. In fact, I had the whole gang with me. The girls ran ahead followed by the boys, then me. Auntie S' poor knees don't agree with jogging and she took on the all important sweeper role. Soon, I caught up with the boys, who decided that they would rest on the beach chair instead after 2 rounds. 

The map says that one round of track = 553m. I don't think so. The girls stopped after what they say was 5 rounds. I should have ran 6 and only took 18+mins. I can't have ran 3+km in 18+mins. My Garmin best, it recorded 4.5km and exclaimed that it is the fastest ever recorded run that I have. Lol. 

Obviously GPS and Garmin don't work very well in the middle of the sea. 

I bet it was about 2.5km at most. With that little burnt, I made the kids do HIIT with me. Hoho. Only C tried to entertain me, Lil Shauna hates HIIT and didn't do much. Zaky was worse. He was just playing dead on the beach chair. Lol. 

We didn't complete the session, probably just 2/3 of the 30 mins session bcos the kids were whinning too much. What's next was bfast and bfast obviously was a better option. 

Remembered that we couldn't rebook one of the shows? We were told by the staff that we could approach the guest service to see if they could help. While we still didn't get slots for the show, the staff managed to help us book ONE precious bumper car slot for ONE person on day 3 morning. We didn't share this with the kids bcos it sounded like the perfect trigger for murder plot. 

Anyway, we wanted to do the boogie board after bfast only to realise that the q was bloody long under the freaking hot sun. The kids agreed to go for a dip instead and after some game, Zaky snagged the single slot for the bumper car. At the door, we found out that people can still go for bumper car even if they didn't manage to make a reservation; they just have to q. With that, we got the whole gang to do the bumper car again. The q was definitely longer than the 1st day but moved quickly.

Nobody take photo for me, I take myself. Hoho. 

The boogie board q was much manageable after that. The boys went several times until the q started lengthening and we decided that it was time for lunch. As a result, lunch was later than usual. 

In the afternoon, we took part on some guess the lyrics activities and we realised how bad we all are except for Lil Shauna. 

Of the 20 songs, we made 8 guesses and 7 were by her. We got 歌神! The rest of us just looked at the screen blankly. Only when the answers were revealed and the songs played, we went "ahhhh" and "orhhhh" and happily sang along. Lol. 

By Day 3, we were a lot more tired and spent more time resting in the cabin. Many of our plans were also not going according to plan, like the dancing classes. The kids were probably pleased with that. There were line dancing, morning fitness dance, k pop music dance and we did NONE of those. I was adamant about the last pop music dance at 4pm and make sure that nothing goes in my way to attend that session. Hoho. 

None of the kids were keen. Only Zaky hold true to his words and went to the pop music dance class with the 2 aunties. Haha. It was an easy dance to 2 songs but much enjoyable. In return for his companion, I brought him to boogie board right after that and it was the last opportunity given that the session closed at 5.30pm. 

There was a Q and a fairly long wait. Zaky was the last few in the Q and they opened up the entire surf pool. We waited for about 45 mins before his turn but he thinks that it was totally worth it. Fyi, while he was waiting in the sun for his turn, so did yours truly in the no shade, direct sunlight spectator area. I can literally feel sweat rolling off my back and wrapped myself in beach towels. 

Zaky was exhausted after boogie board and didn't even want to swim with T. We heard that Auntie S donned her biniki *cat whistles*. We retreated to the room and didn't have dinner with them too bcos we were still full from lunch. In the end, dinner was at the complimentary pizza and snack place. 

We took a long break after dinner. The next and last program was a performance at 10pm. But the long day of activities, sun and sea wasn't helping. Zaky fell asleep at 8+pm and asked me to wake him up for the performance. Lil Shauna outright declared at 9+pm that she wanted to skip the performance and go to bed. Lol. 

The kids on the other side weren't doing any much better. In the end, we decided that we should just skip the show and go to bed. Soon after, the kids were both in lala land and I headed down to the casino to look for Popo. She had spent more time in the casino than anywhere else on the cruise. Lol. 

I had thought that she would be spending the last hours in the casino but declared that the limited jackpot machines were no fun, which basically means that she wasn't winning. She too decided that she would turn in for the night. 好吧, let's all sleep. 

Good night to the last night on cruise. 

Mummy Lim

Quantum of the Seas Day 2

There is a gym on the cruise but the earliest appointment starts at 8am and that clashes with bfast. I did my HIIT on the open deck instead. I am not the only healthy nut but the deck was busy with people doing their morning run. 

Good morning Tuesday!

Hello Mr Sun!

The kids were still sleeping when I was back. It was very difficult to wake sleepy heads. 

The plan was to have bfast at 8am and then the boogie boarding at 9am. We went for boogie boarding a few times on day 2 and 3 that I lost track of the actual number of times. We all tried except for Auntie S bcos she didn't want to get "wash away" unglamorously.

I got do ok, just that nobody take my photo. I do have videos of me screaming bloody murder, which isn't the wisest thing to do bcos I took 2 gigantic gulps of water when I got washed away. Oh ya, it is chlorine water and not sea water like the last cruise. 

The boys love this and they have learnt the different patterns during the few short sessions - kneeling, one foot up, sitting down. I did manage to kneel eventually but got washed off. The 1st time was when I took the gigantic gulps and the 2nd, I whacked my head on the cushion. While I don't think I have a concussion, I had a sore neck muscle after that. Old already ah. 

In between the boogie board sessions were swimming and more rock climbing. 

Long time ago during the Phuket holidays, I had a pact with Auntie S that we would wear bikini on the next beach holiday. Hoho. The beach holiday didn't come but the cruise swimming pool holiday did. We did both wore out bikini to parade the swimming pool but at didn't time. Hahaha. Lil Shauna just rolled eyes at me. Her poor eyes must be very tired for the constant rolling. 

Other than the boogie board, the highlight of the day must be the magic show. My kids never grew out of magic shows. While we lament that there aren't much stuff to do after dinner (except for another swim), we were all tired after dinner. The dinner took exceptionally long bcos of the crowd and we were all tired by the end of it. 

Good night cruise. 

Mummy Lim

Quantum of the Seas Day 1

While the teenager was a huge pail of cold water, the aunties self hyped. There is this Royal app. I am not sure if this is new due to covid-19 or we old school and relied on the good old paper program the last round. On top of the app, there is another cruise account allowing us to purchase paid services before the cruise. I bought the daily drink package as well as wifi to stay connected. 

The Royal Caribbean cruise also did their part to hype; every other day, I am receiving some email to remind me of the upcoming cruise. Woohoo! We started counting down and got all the more excited when the swab test come out negative about 12 hours after the swab. Hohoho. 

Then we found out how informative the Royal app is. By selecting a cruise that is currently sailing, we were able to see the itinerary that is an exact replicate of our cruise. With that, we were able to plan in advance though we know that something will definitely throw the plan off. Hoho. At certain point, it did feel a little information overload - which app? Which email? Which PDF? Just whack only.

Thinking that there wasn't much to do onboard during the day, we opted for arrival at 3.30pm. By the time we realised that the boogie boarding and rock climbing start as early as 3pm, there were no other earlier slots for arrival. Auntie S' colleague who just took the cruise shared that the reservations (for shows and bumper cars) can be made the moment we board, which also means that the slots could be fully taken up by people who boarded early. Gan cheong. Luckily no reservation is not needed for boogie boarding, rock climbing and other activities. 

I had to run some errands at JP and dragged the kids along also to feed them. We ended up with 2 humongous drinks. Why so big? My teh was tiny in comparison.

Then the boy kept rushing me as he was so worried that we would be late. He was apparently much more excited that I was. 

We met up at 3pm and though 30 mins earlier than stipulated arrival time, we were allowed to begin the checkin process. There was the drop off luggage, wellness screening, more checking and screening. While the process was efficient, it was not something that we are used to and my hands were so full from the passports, the papers, the phone (for scan entry). 救命啊.

Finally! The familiar gangway. 

Strangely, there is no need to "hand-in" the passports this time. 

The cabins were ready when we arrived though the luggage will take some time. The 1st thing that was required was to go to the muster point and upon confirmation that we had watched the safety videos, we were given this green sticker on the seapass cards, which also act as the room key. "Have you all watched the safety videos?" - YES, secretly hoping that the crew would not test me bcos....

Right next, we found a corner was to station ourselves and book the shows and bumper cars. The kids were told beforehand how important this step was but it didn't stop somebody from coming to ask about this and that. Vomit blood. In the end, we managed to book all the shows but only 2 bumper car sessions on Day 1. There were many, many sessions of bumper car throughout the 3 days but we only snagged 2. Zzzzz. 

We planned to either boogie board or rock climb after we come onboard but the plan was immediately disrupted by hungry tummies. We went for a bite at 4ish. Though it was neither lunch nor dinner, we still eat. Hoho. Our 1st meal on the Royal was the buffet at the Windjmmer Marketplace. 

We visited our cabin to "deposit" Popo before the next outdoor activity. We managed to pay an extra S$100 to an upgraded balcony cabin. Hohoho.

The cabin comes with a double bed and the sofa folded out to form another double bed. 

It was a very sunny and hot day even though it was approaching 5pm. The 1st activity was rock climbing. 

We didn't have time to try out the boogie board. 

Then it was time for bumper car.

It was so fun trying to bump people. Hoho. While queueing, I tried helping the teenager take IG worthy pictures. Duno will pass or not. 

Then we had food again bcos it was dinner time. I remembered that on the last cruise, dinner took forever bcos of the crowd. It was much faster this time but still took over an hour. We had a juggling show at 8pm and were not in time. Thinking that there are other time slots over the next 2 days, we canceled the reservation to rebook. Wrong choice. The other slots were ALL fully booked and we had to miss the show. Sob. 

In the end, we went for a silly game before another prebooked show at 10pm. The show was some singing performance themed "Sequins and Feathers". It wasn't fantastic but one of the 3 featured performances. 

We were all beat by the end of it. It was time to call it a day. Good night to our 1st holiday in a long while.

Mummy Lim