Skating, Skating and More Skating

It is the weekend! I should be out cycling with the WWF but I thought I should be a nice mother and ferry Zaky to his aggro skating class instead as he had missed for 2 weeks for various reasons. 

Then, Daddy Lim didn't have to work on Saturday morning and there was no lesson bcos Coach was going to KL. Chey! 

We still headed to the ECP skatepark and Zaky had fun skating with M. I earned a MacD bfast. 

Never too old for fun. Daddy Lim wanted to try too. I had to stop him. Hohoho.

I ended up skating along ECP and clocked my morning exercise. 

That was not all for my Saturday. I dated Nana for the once a month Saturday late night disco skating at the rink. We were late bcos we needed to pick Zaky, who went prawn fishing with B. Amazingly, they managed to spend 3 hours prawning and caught 23 prawns!

We gave them all the B bcos I have no idea how to kill them and cook them. B said that the prawns were super fresh. Zaky had an absolute fun time and super proud of the haul. Hmmmm... we would have gotten a lot more prawns if we spent the same amount in NTUC. Hoho. Fun is expensive. 

Nana was super excited about the disco skating. It had been a long while since I saw her so enthusiastic about skating. Hoho. She looks so big on her zuca now. She usually lugs her skates in a backpack now.

Compared to this. 

Same zuca, same Nana, different size.

The rink was crowded. The crowd was a lot more 杂 than the usual skating crowd. There were a lot more skaters on hockey skates and majority of the crowd could skate properly/ very well. The hockey skaters were going super fast and the ice super bad. Hoho.

Fortunately, her senior was at the disco night too bcos I didn't enjoy the skating. I was wearing her old skates and the boots have heels, making me lean forward and then accidentally poke the toe pick into the ice so many times and almost fell. Not fun. I was better off drinking hot milo. Hoho.

Nana said that she had a lot of fun and we didn't leave until the session ended at 11.45pm. Her "fun" was like standing with her senior and friend on the ice like half the time, chit chatting and then leisurely stroking the ice the other half time. OK lah, so long as she enjoys lah. The ice was too lousy to do much too. 

The lights were turned on in the last 15 mins, much to the crowd's disappointment. I was reminded that this was exactly how I used to feel when the clubs' light was turned on years back, signifying the time to go supper!

That was not the end to the skating we had. This morning, Coach N invited the boys to a skating event organised by the Woodlands CSC. It was a basketball court with makeshift ramps and grinding rails. The event is intended to raise skateboarding and skating awareness. I have never seen such a big community of aggro skaters. Daddy Lim didn't skate bcos his right hand ring finger had swelled to the size of potatoe when he finger jammed during Saturday practice.

We arrived when the event started at 11am. Zaky was exhausted by lunch and very happy to tuck in, as if we starved him. 

There were games and challenges as well. Zaky was very pleased to earn his Mars bar with his life, attempting his 1st 180 grab jump. Lol. Very precious. 

The nice thing being a kid is that the adults will naturally look after you. Zaky got advices and encouragements from the adult aggro skaters. 

We left at 2ish. Zaky was so exhausted at that point and willingly left. Finally, that marked the end of our alot of skating for the weekend. 

Mummy Lim

Netball

Nana has a love-hate relationship with netball. With covid restrictions easing up, she finally got a taste of what it is like to play a decent netball game. She trained hard but being new at the game, she made plenty of mistakes and got scolded harder by the Coach. Getting scolded is hard for Nana. I think her ears are too soft and skin too thin. I probably didn't scold her enough when she was younger. It got to such a point that she got super stress at training and a scolding at training would spoil the rest of her evenings.

I know her Coach is fierce. We hear him over zoom all the time during the previous zoom online 脚步 practices. I had been trying to tell her to focus on rectifying her errors and not focus on why he scolded her and not somebody else. Didn't work. Haiz. 

The zonal games started a few weeks ago. Right when the games started, she sprained her ankle 2x, then kena covid and was involved in some other school activities. As a result, she missed many training sessions and was told that she would be pulled out of the main team. Was she upset? Yes, bcos she really wanted to play but at the same time, she was glad to be relieved of the stress. 

She still got to play in the initial games against the weaker teams. In the very last game that she got to play, she didn't perform well, got scolded so badly and came home to cry so bitterly. What to do? I cannot talk sense into her, she was so fixated with the fact that Coach scolded her so badly in front of so many people. Hopefully time will heal.

NH got into the West Zone finals. They fought against MGS, last year's champion, and won, earning them the rights to face NYGS for the champion spot. Family was invited. The game would be held at Tampines Sports Hub. Wah, very far. Knowing that Nana may not get to play, I wasn't keen to go watch the game until she said that all her mates' parents are all going. OK lor. 

路途遥远... I got the car and slowly drove to faraway Tampines. I counted, 30ish km one way. The game just started when I entered the hall. 

As expected, Nana didn't get to play but was helping to tabulate some statistics.

The game was very intense. Both teams are very good but the NH team drove harder and their GS is so super good. She was so calm and controlled the semi circle. She ended up scoring every single point for NH and her shoots were like 99% accurate. NH's defence put up a good fight too and didn't give chance to their opponent. Every point that the opponent scored was like so hard earned. 

We couldn't see the score from our side but I think NH was already leading in the 1st quarter. 

In the 3rd quarters, NH players were exhausted and started losing points to mistakes. Fortunately, they held up and won the West Zone championship at 44-31. Yip, yip, hooray!

The NYGS netballers were mostly tall and slender, very much like netballers. They don a pretty dress attire too. Very chio. The NH girls lost out on appearance but that doesn't matter when they eventually got the game.

I totally enjoyed the game and didn't at all regret  coming. Throughout the game, I was so awed by the GS and I also heard how hard the Coach scolded the team. Very loud and clear, 中气十足. The GK got scolded badly and I was thinking that if Nana got to play (she plays the GK), she would have died on the court by the scolding. I also understand why the GK got scolded so badly, bcos the GK is the last line of defence. 

Nana earned herself a medal too. It doesn't matter that she didn't get to play in the final games, she trained just as hard as the rest of her mates. 

Hopefully she gets better at the game and gets opportunity to play next year. 

She also earned for herself the 1st appearance in Straits Times leh. 

She 准准 position so nicely. Hoho.

Mummy Lim

Dental Done!

Visiting the dentist made it to my new year resolution list every year. Yes, it is a big deal making myself to go to the dentist. Forget about 6 monthly visit, I will be very glad if I made it once a year. 

This year had been difficult. I went to the dentist when the last upper left molar hurts. I was hoping for a tooth decay but it turned out to be another cracked tooth. I survived the 1st crown of my life. 

This morning, I went back to replace the 2 old metal filling with the new porcelain looking one. To do so, the dentist had to drill to remove the old filling. He warned that there will be some sensitivity. Zzzzz.. sensitivity and discomfort are the nicer way to say that it will be painful. 

I am very glad to survive the ordeal. I was curious on why only these 2 needed replacement when I have other metal filling. The dentist said that those 2 teeth are already chipping and showed signs of fatigue and must be dealt with before the worst happen. So, the time will come when the others need replacement too. 

Ok, worry about those later. I have met my limit for dentist visits for the year. I still have that cracked tooth in the metal band. I told the dentist that I cannot le. I will just wait for it to hurt again and by then, the only option would be extraction. 

When leaving the clinic, the receptionist asked if I wanted to fix the next 6 monthly visit. I cannot again. Lol. Too much, too much! 

Next on my list is the health screening. 

Mummy Lim

One Skate

Daddy Lim had to work 3 Saturdays in a row and they had to take classes on Sundays instead. They missed class last Sunday bcos Teacher S gave Zaky intensive CL oral as last min prep. I am not sure how effective that was but at least we all tried our best to hug the "佛脚". 

Teacher S had wanted to do round 2 of the intensive prep for Zaky's prelim that is taking place on Wednesday. She had asked Zaky to be at her place from 8am and had intended to lock him up until she is satisfied. We asked to go at 11am instead bcos Zaky was dying to go for skate class. We got our wish but.... 

The silly boy didn't get to skate. Why? He brought only ONE skate! Yes, the other one dropped out of his bag and he didn't check and only brought one skate with him to the skatepark. It was too late when he discovered it at the ECP carpark. 

So, Daddy Lim had 1 full hour lesson to himself today. Yes, it was super tiring as Coach's full focus was on him.

What did Zaky do? 

He ended up gaming and playing with B instead, who also came and didn't skateboard bcos Zaky wasn't skating. Why like that? 

What did I do? I of course didn't sit around. I went for a long forgotten jog. I got lazy and didnt jog for a long time. I managed to do 5km and it wasn't as bad as I imagined it to be!

We left the skatepark at 9.30am and sent Zaky for Chinese tuition. We came home and found the lonely skate on the shelf in the storeroom.

It must have fallen out of his bag and popo then kept it on the shelf. He had missed out of his chance to skate bcos of his stupidity. Too sad, too bad. 

Mummy Lim

PSLE Starto

It is finally D-Day. 

The PSLE Chinese and English oral took place on Monday and Tuesday morning. I seriously didn't remember much about Nana's PSLE oral but worked so hard for Zaky's. Strangely, I am so much more anxious and stressed over Zaky's PSLE. Why ah?

Chinese has always been Zaky's weakest link. We started him on 天下 since he was 4 yo (or 5?) but his results only slide downwards. We had to take him out bcos he was going to class to stone and I felt that I was burning my $$ away. We went on one to one tuition and by God's grace, eventually managed to persuade Teacher S to take Zaky. Teacher S was Nana's tutor. I can imagine her hestiation in taking Zaky. If I am a tutor, I would want to take an easy student too. Hoho. 

Teacher S is really dedicated and cares for Zaky. On Sunday, she got all her 5 P6 kids together for an intensive Chinese oral prep from 11am to 3pm. My job is to go through P4 to P6 生词 with Zaky and to revise the oral topics too. Teacher S provided us with loads of material, so much so that Zaky cannot remember.

She is really worried for Zaky and told me that she can zoom with him for round 2 at 8.30pm but Zaky rejected her flatly. Lol. What we did instead is to read aloud a few passages that she sent over. It was then that I realised that Zaky never read aloud the oral passages during the preparation stage! He reads them in his head and in the end, the 声调 all go haywire when he finally read out loud (for the 1st time) in front of the examiner. 

Then Teacher S said that there were speculations among the tutors that the topic could be on 家庭和谐. She said that she had already gone through that with Zaky and had given him notes. As an added protection, she asked me to go through with Zaky one more time. I tried and Zaky only gave me blank looks. Wah lah eh, I wonder how much really stuck in his head after all these hard work. 

That was really the last bit and Zaky told me, "mummy, enough le, I think we tried our best le". Thank you for recognising my effort ah. I also think I have tried hard.

I was super gan cheong when Zaky left for school on Monday morning. Before he even came home, I heard about the topic and then saw it in the parents' chat group. 

As for Zaky, I think he hit the "delete" button the moment he left the examination room. He cannot remember anything. Zzzzz. But he said that he could read the passage and understood the questions much better than prelim. I hope man, he scrapped through prelim oral, scoring 27/50. If it is any worse than prelim, I don't know how le. 

Then for the rest of Monday, he said that he needed to rest. We barely prepped for English oral. 

This is the topic today.

I was eagerly to find out how he performed for the English oral. Again, he hit the "delete" button. 一问三不知... haiz. 

Prelims start next week and then PSLE in another month. So fast, so fast! I am not sure if I am wishing for more time before PSLE or for it to quickly come and us to be done with. I think I got more white hair le.

Mummy Lim

Achievement Unlocked with Puffy

We bought a new hamster, Cheesepuff Lim Youtiao. I asked to get him bcos I was feeling so empty whenever I looked at that empty space that Cookie used to occupy

Puffy is a yellow blue pudding hamster. While I wanted to get a hamster, Daddy Lim chose him, selecting the smallest hamster of the lot. I was actually eyeing the other big fat lazy one. Hoho. 

I haven't blogged about Puffy bcos we haven't had much bonding with him. One of our worries was that he wouldn't match up to Cooks and unfortunately it is the case. Cooks was so loving and so willing to be carried while Puffy is totally jumpy and he bites, so much and so hard. We should have gotten the fat lazy one lah.

We had been trying to overcome his biting issue. How ah? Google says to give him time,  not scare him, let him get familiar with us and trust us. This is attempted via multiple bites and some of them are so hard that Daddy Lim and Nana saw blood. Only the 2 of them are brave enough to try over and over again. Nana got so upset one time after a hard bite that she declares that she hates Puffy. Sob. Then she went back trying a few days later. So brave. I think we are not more scare of him than him of us. 

After many, many attempts, Nana recently says that Puffy seems to not bite her when she puts her hand in his cage. Then soon after, she manages to hold him!! 

After Nana tried, Zaky and I did too but were quickly giving him back to Nana in case Puffy changes his mind. 

He did. Soon after, he bit Nana that she dropped him. Then when placing him back into his cage, he bit Nana so hard that he was hanging from her finger while Nana when "ouch, ouch, ouch". Heng not me. Haha

 

Nana is so brave.

Mummy Lim

Cycling, Cycling

I usually don't spend extra on bike accessories. I got plenty of "hand-me-down" from Daddy Lim - the light that doesn't fit his bike, the bike monitor that he is underutilising, the helmet that didn't fit his head bcos it gives him pinch points. Give me, give me, all give me. I would have taken over his jerseys and clip shoes if I could fit them. Hoho. 

I inherited his helmet. Though not the perfect fit, it can be tightened and is usable. The only problem is that I always ended up with a slated helmet while riding. Hohoho. After a good period of use, I have decided that it is time to get my "own" helmet. One that fits my head. 

It took a visit to Trek and some helmet fitting. Helmets are like clothes, expensive clothes, and very dangerous to buy online.

I finally got to don my new helmet 2 Sundays ago.

But it ended up raining so hard, like drenching wet kind. What a way to welcome my new helmet. Very new, no need to wash. Hoho. 

Separately, Daddy Lim finally rode his roadie again last Sunday after months of non-usage. I bet he cleared off layers of dust and destroyed several spiders' home before the ride. 

Daddy Lim said that it was the uncles' 从出江湖 ride. Of the 5, 3 of them had not rode in months, another 1 just recovered from covid. 

I just try to look pretty. I thought I look so slim beside Daddy Lim. Hoho. This angle is so right.

Mummy Lim

SST DSA

For the past week, we had been practicing the show and tell. From the original 3.5 mins, we were down to slightly less than 2 mins. I don't see how else we can further cut it down. You really cannot say much in 1 min. 

Daddy Lim happened to be off yday and was able to send Zaky to SST. We did one final practice and were on our way. 

I was surprised to see the number of students for the selection test in all sorts of uniforms. We dropped Zaky and had to leave the school compound. While driving off, I saw this kid with this very impressive and professional looking charts, something about rubber bands. Our material looks so kiddish in comparison. I gan cheong. 

As we drive off, I started babbling to Daddy Lim bcos I was so anxious. Daddy Lim just ignored me. Lol. I was reminded of the time where I was in their primary school, waiting for jiejie's psle results. Not as bad but gan cheong nevertheless.

Daddy Lim and I had some good shopping before turning back for Zaky. The moment he got into the car, I started bombarding him with details of the session. 

Zaky said that the show and tell was done individually in front of 3 examiners. While he overran the 1 min, he wasn't cut off. There were some questions asked but he can't remember what. Zzzz. He did say that the examiners appeared impressed with his interactive cards. When asked who helped him, he said that mummy helped him to print the pictures and he then "helped me" to complete the work. Wah... whatever lah. So long as the examiners are really impressed. 

After the show the tell, it was a 10 mins brain storming session (alone) on the question - "how do we make the kopitiam toilets cleaner and odorless?", before a group discussion. Zaky said that his team only had 3 pax instead of the normal 4 pax. Finally, it was the presentation of their ideas to the examiners. Zaky said that the discussion went well and one of his ideas was adopted by the group. However, the presentation wasn't bcos everybody was stuttering. Nevertheless, he totally enjoyed the session and now tells me that he would love to go to SST if he is selected, if this is how classes are going to be carried out. 

Zaky told me that the show and tell cards were kept by the school. Aiya, I haven't taken proper pictures. I only have our lead actor sitting at home now. I think it is for confidentiality as there is another session next week. 

The results would be out by 12 Sep. The competition is so stiff! 

Meanwhile, let us work hard. Psle Oral is taking place on 15 Aug (bite nails). Fighting!

Mummy Lim