PSLE D-Day -2

Seriously, I can't remember much about Nana's PSLE journey. I do remember signing her up for Science tuition after SA1 bcos she had asked for help, as well as her pushing back when I ask her to do practice papers. Checking back my blog posts, she did do papers for me and didn't push back as much as I remembered, except for Maths. Back then, she had a very on the ball Maths teacher, who already helped to grill her very hard. 

Zaky had 3 days of study week before his 1st PSLE paper tomorrow. Looking back, I realised that Nana had that too. The difference is that Zaky attended none of the school zoom sessions. He insisted that those are for students who have questions for the teachers and he had none. He generously offered the time to others who needed help. Zzzzz. Now that I saw Nana attending the zoom classes, I think I kena smoked by Zaky.

I had intentionally WFH on Monday so that I  could watch over him. Without any control, I wouldn't be surprised if his "sturdy week" is spent on studying computer games and YouTubes. 

Monday was so difficult bcos I am so right. While he obliged to work on some papers, he kept sneaking breaks in between bcos I was busy at work. Once he started on his games and videos, he got lethargic and only wanted to "finish" the assigned papers ASAP, which usually means rubbish work. He even forgot to attend the zoom class that his Chinese tutor offered. Of course I got upset. I had to ban him from his phone and laptop in the afternoon. It wasn't a good start. 

Yday, the Chinese tutor asked for last minute f2f Chinese tuition from 8.30am to 11.30am. Go, pls go. I don't think I can control my blood pressure if I face him another day at home. I took the chance to go to the office too and sent him to his tutor's house enroute. 

This was him finishing the homework on the train. 

Fortunately, it was only a few pages remaining. 

Tomorrow is D day. Is Zaky prepared? Well, he has worked hard but not as hard bcos there is the SST CO dangling in the air. Even I pushed him less hard. I had told him that he still needed good grades to get into SST even if we accepted the CO. He found out from his peers, that he only needed an AL20 and below PSLE grade, which he knows he is totally (and probably easily) capacable of. I have switched my pitch to self-challenge but that is a difficult angle to sell. 

Obviously he isn't the only one working hard (well, he said he did). The other 3 tigers are also working hard (and so are their mummy). The school's parents chat group is also buzzing with Maths questions, asking for help. I didn't bother but occasionally asked Zaky if he could attempt one or 2 of the questions. 

Let's hope that we have an easy day today. Zaky is already up and the 1st thing is to ask to play game until bfast at 9am. He agreed that he will abstain from the phone and laptop until lunch at 12pm. I wonder why the Singapore education system puts us through all these stress. Haiya!

Fighting!

Mummy Lim

Cat Adoption Plan Re-starting

Early this year, I was ready for the kids to adopt a cat. We visited SPCA 2x and was about to adopt one when we decided to get Zaky test for cat allergy. The plan was shelved bcos he indeed is moderately allergic to cats and we cannot afford for his allergies to stand in the way for PSLE. 

We promised the kids that we would adopt after Zaky's PSLE. He can sneeze all he needs and tries to slowly overcome his allergy then. Time flew by and PSLE is literally around the corner. The kids didn't forget about the adoption plan and had been talking about it so frequently. 

Plans are underway. I have reconnected with the cat netting vendor and am trying to get the cat netting done in the balcony before our holidays. Every now and then, we would be browsing SPCA website, checking out the cats available for adoption. 

Yday, I saw a free spot for visitation at SPCA. It is very difficult to get a slot during the weekend and I grabbed it. Everybody is excited about the visit and worked their schedule around for the visit, even Nana, who is usually super busy during the weekend. 

We are familiar with the drill. The cat, whom we wanted to adopt months back is no longer in SPCA. We hope that she has gone to a great home. 

We spent the next hour looking, touching, playing with the kids. 

There were a couple of special breed cats but we were told that these cats usually didn't like to be disturbed. I like actually. Hahahaha. We have to stay away from the longer fur cats. Not only do we need to comb their fur every day, Zaky's nose probably wouldn't withstand the shedding. I don't want a cat that look just like those strays downstairs. I told Daddy Lim that we probably wouldn't be able to recognise and find it if it goes missing bcos it will look like any of the strays downstairs. Haha. 

We saw an affectionate cat with tiger-strips lookalike and rubs against our legs. So sweet. There is another ginger cat who is so tamed and just lets us carry him. We were told that he is easy for nail cutting and bathing too. Sounds good. 

Zaky wanted a kitten bcos kittens are active and playful. I am not keen on kittens bcos once the novelty wears off, the taking care only goes to yours truly. Let's just get a lazy cat. Hohoho. 

We left in less than an hour. Zaky was complaining of starving and his eyes and nose have started acting up. Apparently, his allergy didn't go away. 

There are plenty to be done before the adoption. We have to mesh up the window too, on top of the balcony. I totally forgot about that and am thinking of DIY-ing that with 3M tape and cable tie. Then, the cat will need to be confined in the initial weeks. How ah? We also need to buy the basic necessities for the cat and an air purifier for Zaky's room. That sneezing and teary eyes are no joke, really. 

The cat will come after our Melbourne holidays. By then, most of the cats that we have seen today would probably gone to a good home. We will see who touches our heart then.

Mummy Lim

Chomp Chomp Chomp

We had an eating Saturday! Hohoho. 

Daddy Lim was off and brought Zaky to ECP skatepark in the morning. I went for my regular WWF ride and had arranged to meet up with some of the aunties at Suntec in the afternoon. 

Nana was nice to tag along before her youth. As a result, we fed her nice food. Hoho. 

Then it was mall crawling before we met up with Auntie S and the kids. I can't remember the last time we did that. 

We seriously have teenager kids now. 

How and when did they suddenly grew so tall? Fyi, I am still taller than Nana. Hahaha.

Daddy Lim left when we met up with Auntie S. The boys were sent shortly to Superpark to burn some calories. Nana stayed awhile before heading back for youth. We exchanged the kids for 2 more aunties and then there was more drinks and eating. Aiya, forgot to take pictures.

I didn't stay for dinner bcos I had been craving for juicy bbq beef steak, to the extent that I bought this. 

I was very excited when I bought it from Lazada only to receive the real thing and realised that it is much smaller than I had imagined it to be. No, I didn't pay attention to the demonstration video or the dimensions. Hahahaha. 

The plan was to have a BBQ grill dinner. The ladies were very "encouraging". They didn't think that my hungry family would wait long enough for the mini grill to slowly cook the meat. One of them even asked me to "enjoy". So nice of them. Lol. 

While we have the grill, we have no meat and headed to the West Coast Cold Storage to grab some. We got bulgogi pork, bulgogi pork belly, spicy bulgogi chicken, marinated beef steak and bacon. Why so many bulgogi? Bcos there is all they sold. 

I know that I have hungry family and bought the honey glazed chicken to hold off the hungry people. We set up the grill, putting aluminium foil for easy cleaning, only to realise that it was cooking too slowly. 

Did it work? It did! Especially after the foil was removed and I was reminded to "enjoy" the cleaning. Lol. The grill comes with a bottom layer of 4 mini pan. They are so mini that they looked like toys. Lol.

The mini grill was actually just the right size for our family. 

I didn't really enjoy the BBQ meat though bcos there was too much bulgogi everything. After a while, they all tasted the same. Lol. Then, there was meat overdosed. We didn't even start on the chicken or the beef. However, it was a nice experience overall, grilling meat at the balcony. 

It had been so long since we had a meal at the balcony. The dining table was covered in a layer of dust. The balcony wasn't any less dusty, which called for a good scrub and wash after dinner. Nana helped and earned for herself $5. It is the middle of the month and she has started to tell me how broke she is, thus her enthusiasm to help and earn some extra pocket money. Lol. 

Yay! Success! Looking forward to the next BBQ session. 

Mummy Lim

Mid Autumn Festival

The Mid Autumn Festival has definitely lost its charms as the kids grow older. They aren't interested in lanterns anymore.

Did we eat mooncake? Barely. With the covid restrictions easing, there are so many gifts of mooncakes in the office. At one point, I saw a mountain of mooncakes and brought one leftover home. That was the only mooncake that we had. I took a little slice but had 2 balls of pineapple tarts instead. Ya, I also duno why there are pineapple tarts in the office during the Mid Autumn Festival. 

NH is a SAP school and the Mid Autumn Festival is a big thing. The school holds a carnival and invites the students' family and friends to the school. Nana was raving about the carnival, telling me how great her seniors said they are but it was unfortunately canceled last year. 

This year, Nana finally got to participate in the carnival and is so super excited. She had been talking about it for weeks, reminding us to attend. The carnival was held yday from 4pm to 8pm. 

Daddy Lim wasn't too interested and joked that we will turn up at 8pm. Lol. But with work, we really weren't much earlier and left the house at almost 7pm in search of dinner. Daddy Lim was insistent that he would not go to the carnival to find overpriced finger food/ snack as dinner. Smart choice bcos he is absolutely right about the overpricing and only finger food/ snacks part. Nana started texting us and rushing us bcos the carnival was ending soon. Haha.

This is the 1st time that I am physically in the school compound unless I count the last time where we dropped her. Daddy Lim was the one who accompanied her for Sec 1 orientation.

We had a shock when we moved to the parade square, where the actions were. 人山人海.. all the girls in similar uniform and braided hair. How to find Nana? 

It took a while for Nana to find us. We told her that we were under the "moon". Please come find us. The school did up the decor so nicely. Got full moon somemore. 

We didn't stay long, we were not hungry, there were too many people, it was very hot. We stayed 30 mins before heading to the kopitiam to wait for Nana. Haha. What I did find amusing is the NH Bear, who appeared to be in a meeting with the teachers. 

Poor thing to whoever is in that costume. 

Nana absolutely enjoyed herself, helping her class and the council stall to sell keychains. Every student in her class contributed $10 for the keychain raw material. She also spent a lot of $$ in support of the carnival. The best part? She has totally no idea where do the proceeds go to. Win lah. 出钱又出力 but duno what is it for. Lol. Never mind, 开心就好.

While walking in the crowd, I was lamenting that Zaky wouldn't be part of this culture. I think he has made up his mind to opt for SST. I shall not complained; I am benefitting from the relieve of PSLE stress too. All good, except for a Nana who would be soon be telling me that she is very broke. 

Mummy Lim

The Last Push for PSLE

I was just updating my calendar and saw that we are 3 weeks from PSLE. Regardless of the Confirmed Offer from SST, we continue to work hard for PSLE. 

Zaky is definitely feeling the toil. He was absent from school the last week before the school holidays due to viral fever and didn't know what homework was given to be completed during the holidays. He found out (and received the worksheets) when he went back for study camp on Thursday and Friday. He complained that he has lesser time (than his peers) to complete the work before school reopens tomorrow. 

Yday, he had his makeup Maths tuition in the morning and then his makeup Chinese tuition in the afternoon. It is his pay back time for the Malaysia holidays. He was obviously tired and whining that he didn't want to go Chinese tuition but obviously didn't have a choice. Then in the night, he was struggling to complete his school maths homework. He still has his Science and Chinese school homework to go. 

This morning, he went for his intensive Chinese tuition again. We are so blessed to have Teacher S, who truly cares for her P6 students. She has initiated to give her P6 kids extra intensive classes, though Zaky obviously isn't very thrilled with her proactiveness.

Zaky went for his Chinese tuition at 8am and that is supposed to last till 1pm. Daddy Lim had to cancel his aggro skating class, which will also take a break nearer PSLE bcos we need to keep him safe from injury. As a compensation for Daddy Lim, we got to eat this lor mee for bfast at the market near to Teacher S' house. Hohoho. All lor mee taste nice to me. I like lor mee.

Zaky said that Teacher S has wanted to do this intensive Chinese tuition for the rest of the Sundays until PSLE. I can see the "sianness" in his face. We can only keep encouraging and reminding him that it is only 3 more weeks to go before he has his freedom. He had asked if he can go to his friend's house for sleepover, or go prawning, or some other play dates after PSLE. Go, go, go. Fighting!

On a different note, the closed Terrarium that had been the lead in Zaky's SST 1-min show and tell has finally given up and died. 

We now gave a closed Terrarium without a plant. Hohoho. The other opened Terrarium isn't looking too good either. 

它们死的不明不白. The girls said to ignore them and they will thrive. That was what I did but I duno what happened still. Meanwhile, let's just keep to the plastic ones. See, these look so healthy. Lol.

I told the girls that we should go make something non-living in the future, like paint a painting or bake a cake. 

We are really thankful to the closed Terrarium. It had done great contributions in sending Zaky to SST. Yes, we have passed the theory test 100% but apparently failed the practical test miserably. 

Dear Terrarium, you will be missed. 

3 more weeks! Fighting!

Mummy Lim

DSA Result

The SST DSA result would be released by 12 Sep 22. That didn't stop me from checking my email daily (and several times a day on many other days) in hope of seeing the results earlier. I is gan cheong. 

I have told Daddy Lim that I was actually confident that Zaky would be accepted into SST bcos round 2 is on talking and Zaky can talk. Then again, nobody can predict and I didnt want to be overly disappointed if he didnt get accepted. So I was preparing myself for the worse and anxiously hoping for the best.

Nana's skating buddies - R and J were in the exact situation a few years back. R is Nana's senior in NH and J is Sec 2 in SST now. They had both applied for SST. I spoke to their parents (and R and J) before deciding to apply for SST. R said that if she can reverse time and had gotten an offer from SST, she would still have taken the SST offer. Why wasn't she offered? Her mummy said that R is the quieter one and would probably have lost out on the group discussion and presentation. 

I attended the SST e-open house back in May. One thing that bothers me is the high entry rate to poly - 45% of their graduating cohort goes to poly and that is a high %. The school shares that the average PSLE COP is 10 to 11, which sounded great but is actually very different from a good school with a COP of 10 (i.e. NH). The school was also evasive of the average L1R5 score of their graduating students, reminding parents times and again that students should be opting for SST for their unique curriculum and not solely focused on the students' O levels score. I wish I could say the same but I am all for my kids doing well and heading to JC after O levels. SST even have a new special IP not not A levels but poly. Not keen. 

I still couldn't figure out if the high % (to poly) is bcos the O level results are not meeting the cut or the more hands-on curriculum approach influences the students to opt for diploma after O levels. Adding on peer pressure, it increases the % headed towards poly. Like in Nana's case, she has set her eyes on JC bcos majority of her peers has the same vision. Either way, the high % to poly didn't sit well with me and I wasn't sure if SST is the way to go.

However, as the PSLE pressure mounts, Zaky and I both caved. He said that we should just take the SST's offer if the school is willing to accept him. I started feeling the same way too as I pulled hair over each bad practice paper that he completes. I don't remember stressing the same way with Nana. I also realised that the new grading system contributed to it. In the past, no one can really tell the eventual PSLE score due to the complicated calculation methodology. Now, we stressed over the possibility of a 0.5 mark (rounding rule) that could move up 1 precious AL. Haiz. Why MOE wants to stress parents this way? 

While I was in India, I was still checking my email daily. One day, my eyes popped on an email subject that mentioned DSA. Then I realised it is ACSI finally officially informing us that Zaky didn't make the cut. Chey, I also know. 

On Friday, I received another email with the DSA subject. This time, it is the REAL thing - Zaky has a confirmed offer (CO) from SST!!! Woohoo! I wanted to say "Mummy knows best" and "I told you so". Lol. The news was quickly shared with the family. We were all very happy for Zaky except for Nana, who still thinks that Zaky should go to NH. 

The preference submission period is from 31 Oct to 4 Nov 22. That will be after PSLE but before the results are released. If we opted to accept the CO, it is likely that Zaky would get into SST. Zaky has made up his mind to take the SST offer. He says that he likes the way he would be studying in SST, with plenty of hands-on and project work. I don't believe him, he sucks at group project work. Hoho. I think he is just happy to be relived of the PSLE stress. I started to feel the same way as well, especially when we started to take back the prelims results. I asked him to improve but apparently the opposite has happened. He then went on to argue that prelims is always more difficult than PSLE and everybody drops grade during prelim. 

The moment we decided that he would take up the CO, the PSLE stress is immediately lifted. I like. I find myself not wanting to push Zaky but still had to bcos he might change his mind about SST. Even if he is to take up SST CO, it is a challenge against himself to do his very best. 

3 more weeks!

Mummy Lim

Hello JB: Day 3, Paradigm Mall

Bcos we agreed to "sleep later", I got to do so as well. I also get to visit the gym that opens at only 8am.

I was obviously the 1st guest and had to turn on the lights and aircon. I had a good 30 mins and ended when Daddy Lim came with the kids. I was quite surprised that he was able to wake them and meet me on time at 8.30am. I can imagine how hard it would be to wake the sleepy heads but I guessed nothing can stand in the way of a hungry man's way for bfast. 

After bfast, it was final packing up and loading into the car's boot. I really enjoy how we can just lug things (shoes, tidbits, new purchases) that cannot fit into the luggage in plastic bags and dump them into the car boot. This way of traveling is so convenient. Hoho. 

Goodbye to the comfortable hotel for 2 nights. 

Our destination for the morning was Paradigm Mall. It is a new mall that is again nearer to Austin Heights than where we stayed. Lol. It took us half an hour by car and the mall is huge! I think it is 7 levels high and while not fully occupied, is still good to keep us entertained for the morning. There is even an ice skating rink that is the size of the Kallang rink. 

We all bought something. Not new slippers for Nana and I but didn't stop us from taking pictures. Hoho. 

Zaky didnt at all want to shop but I bought him new clothes nevertheless. He was whining throughout and is at that awkward age where he doesn't shop yet and is too old to be interested in toys or fit into playgrounds and bouncing castles. He was actually very interested to try jumping into one if allowed but too embarrassed to try. Haha. 

He is crazy over claw machines but I had to stop him. Wasting $$ is one thing but what do we do with all the soft toys??!! They will just end up in the storeroom and be thrown away after a period of time. Zzzzz. 

We eventually found an arcade and the kids were entertained for a while before we look for lunch and headed home. The kids were so awkward on the dance machine, they were more like stomping giants. Lol.

It was a simple KFC lunch before heading home. The custom looked manageable. 

All Singaporeans topped up their gas tank before leaving Malaysia, except us. Zzzzzz. Daddy Lim set the final destination as "home" and we missed the last petrol kisok and drove straight to the custom. 

The immigration at Malaysia side was fast but slow moving on the Singapore side. The wait is always not fun and made worse after lunch. 

We made it home safely. Puff didn't seem to notice our absence though. 

It was definitely a great trip. Every holiday is a good one. I like to 买东西，吃东西. Hohoho. Even Daddy Lim thinks that we should drive in more often. That is of course bcos there was almost no jam at the custom. Let's hope for more opportunities for such travel or my neck would have grown longer by the time the Melborne trip is here. 

I need more holidays.

Mummy Lim

Hello JB: Day 2 Part 2, Claw Machines, Escape Room

We decided to head back to Austin Heights to check out the Escape Room. We were lucky to get a slot but only at 6.30pm. We had one over hour to burn but it wasn't that tough. Firstly, the kids went crazy over the claw machines and spent some time but more $$ there.

Then we had bubble tea bcos Zaky needed the toilet. 

Bcos it was too early for dinner and we had been eating non-stop to be hungry enough for early dinner, we decided on waffle and ice cream instead. I had intended for that to be dinner, much to Daddy Lim's disbelief. 

It was a nice place for picture taking. 

We burnt all the time needed before we headed to the Escape Room.

Poor Nana got caught. 

Escape Room rarely disappoints the kids. I thought this one was OK only but the kids had a great time. The room and equipment are a little used and old. A few times, we got the "solution" but couldn't move on to get the next clue bcos the sensors weren't working properly. Then, most of the clues that make sense were in Chinese and were lost on Daddy Lim and the kids. The English version sounded so weird. Lol. 

We made it out with extra time and plenty of hints. Lol. I think our theme was for Christmas bcos there were plenty of Christmas related stuff. At the very last part, it was spraying fake snow to Christmas music. Lol. We exited the room with fake snow on our hair. We had a great time monkeying to the fake snow and music and must have looked super comical to anyone watching us on the cameras.

It was good time spent as a family nevertheless. 

After "escaping", we walked in search of the mobile cart that we saw earlier selling 冰糖葫芦. Nana was just telling me a few weeks earlier that she was craving for it but I don't think we can find them in Singapore. She was super excited to see it in JB. Super lucky.

We walked back to the car, ready to head back to the hotel. We bought cup noodles in case somebody was hungry; I was serious about the waffle and ice cream as dinner. The kids were OK but not Daddy Lim. We eventually headed to an eatery near to the car and the kids were lured to the claw machine shop beside. This one has other game machines too. 

The plan was for Daddy Lim to have dinner and we will join him when he is done. We sent him to the restaurant but he came back with a tantrum bcos nobody wanted to serve him. He continued sulking and was rushing us to leave until I bth and walked him to the restaurant, found him a table and got him served. Lol. A hungry man is an angry man. 

Bcos the food was served so slowly or probably bcos the kids were so quick to spend the $$ given on the machines, we ended up joining Daddy Lim and eating dinner again. I am sure we are adding on to the waistlines but Daddy Lim insisted that this is what holidays are about. Hoho.

The drive back to the hotel was alright and we called it another night. On the way home, we were trying to discuss and agree on the agenda for the next and last day. This was super hard bcos we had no idea what was there to do and kept digressing. Lol. Nana at one point even asked if we can sleep in until like 10am. No way..... lol. I think she would suffer when we go on our next long holiday, when her mother would make her wake up early every morning. Lol. 

We eventually agreed to do mall crawl and a later start to the morning. Later = 8am. Hahahaha. 

Mummy Lim