National Roller Freestyle Championship 2023

Back in May 2021, out of the blue, Zaky tried aggro skating. Bcos of covid, the 4 private aggro skate lessons that I booked for him with Exis (Coach Justin) progressed very slowly. We finished them only in December 2021.

Zaky started under Coach Nizam in February 2022 and it had been almost 1.5 year. I must say that Zaky has progressed very nicely under Coach Nizam's guidance. Zaky is into big airs and jumps bcos these are more exciting and fun. If given a choice, he wouldnt work on his grinds bcos they are so much harder. I got reminded of Nana - she is also more of a jumper than a spinner. 

A few months back, Coach N shared that the skating competition is finally coming back, after the long covid break. Zaky was very excited. 

Only Zaky signed up under Junior category. The cut off age was 13 and he is still 12 before his bday. These are the times that one celebrates over a late birthdate. Oh, and qualifying for cheaper child price attraction entry tickets too. Given that he is almost 13, we are guessing that he would have age advantage over the other competitors.

Nana didn't join bcos she is paika. Daddy Lim and M aren't confident enough. Again, I was reminded of Nana, who was never quite keen in her ice skating competitions. On the other hand, Zaky falls into the group who is always super keen to compete. Same parents ah? 

The Junior Qualifying commenced at 11am. Registration started at 10am while the skatepark opened at 8am for all. Having spent an entire day in USS the day before, Zaky had trouble waking up. We finally made it to the skatepark at 9ish. The weather wasn't too bad, slightly cooled by the pre-dawn downpour. 

Nana came to support Zaky before meeting with her friends. 

I went for a jog, coming back at 10ish to Zaky who was already soaked through in sweat and the kids telling me how advance and 厉害 the other Junior participants are. Out of the 14 participants, there is the IG famous 6 YO skaterchloe, who is well-known of her ability to do a 520 jump. Zaky's confident plummeted flat. 

Nana was hoping to see Zaky competes in the qualifying rounds before leaving. Just when the Juniors were gathering for briefing, it started drizzling. ZZzzzzz..  We had to wait for the rain to stop and the floor to dry. We also realised (when the Juniors gathered) that Zaky wasn't the only "big Junior". There were quite a few similar size to him. 

Nana had to leave and I wheeled her to the MRT. 

Can walk and stand already. I hope that means that her bone has healed nicely and she could soon joined us for activities. 

Just then, the drizzle turned into a downpour. I was trapped at the MRT station and it was almost 12pm when I walked back, just in time to buy snacks from Starbucks to feed the hungry boys. 

The weather was so bizarre. One moment, it was pouring, the next, the sun was out full force. Everybody started sunning their skates, socks and guards. Smelly siol.

I don't know what did Zaky do to his socks. I think the artificial grass patch at the bench area was wet and he stepped on it with only his socks. He ended up with soaking wet socks, like water can be squeezed out kind of wet. He was busy trying to dry them and was still at it when warm up started for the Juniors. Zzzzz. 

Ended up, he wore Daddy Lim's ankle socks and Daddy Lim had to help him wear his skates. Double Zzzzzz... I stand one side and take pictures only. Hoho. 

There were 3 heats and Zaky was in heats 2.

The competition format was in the form of a "jamming" session for a total duration of 2mins x no. of participants in each heat. They take turns to show off their stuff and each was allowed to do about 3 tricks per run. Then repeat until the time is up. 

If his competitors were good during the warmup, they were suddenly superb during the actual heats! Our jaw dropped. The kids were like grinding on all ledges, changing grind positions, 360, 520 and one of them did a back flip! How can?!!?

When it was Zaky's turn to warm up for his heats, he suddenly started missing all his grinds. He was obviously very anxious. There were 5 (or 4?) in his heats, with 2 very small girls who probably started aggro skate not long ago and were happy doing simple stuff. That was very helpful in slowly down the tempo of the heats and lessen his pressure. Heats 1 was so aggressive with the skaters like flying everywhere. Even my blood pressure was pumped up a notch just by watching them. 

Zaky did well in his 1st 2 runs and got his grinds. Nice! We had been asking him if he thought of what he had wanted to showcase before the heats and he was like "I think...". When the heats started, he just had to think on the spot, and think very quickly. As the mins progressed, exhaustion sunk in. He didn't land his 360 after 2 tries but got his front side grind at his 3rd attempt and the crowd cheering for him when he did it. Such motivating spectators. 

By the end of it, he was so exhausted and the midday scorching sun didn't help. If he made it into the finals, he would need to be back for it later in the day. I wasn't so confident of him making into the finals. I coaxed him home for a nice shower and Caoch agreed that he would message us if he made it. 

Not only did Zaky have his cool shower, he got to lie in bed and aircon too. Then at 3ish, Coach whatsapped that Zaky got into the Junior Finals! He made it to the Top 10. Before long, we repacked and made our way back to the skatepark and got to watch the Masters (aka old but still good) and the Open (aka very good and very young). I didn't realise that the aggro skate community is so big in Singapore. 

The Junior Finals was to commence after the Open Qualifying. There was again another long wait after the Open Qualifying. I think they were tabulating the results for the Qualifying rounds and the referees were taking a break or something. Just when they announced for the Juniors to gather, it started to drizzle AGAIN! 

Daddy Lim had to leave for a dinner appointment. I stayed on with Zaky. The drizzle turned to downpour and the crowd started chanting "Plaza", which is the sheltered part of the skatepark. The venue was indeed changed to the Plaza for the Finals. The skaters started warming up and Zaky started planning his run. 

The rain was relentless and the wind was howling. The rain wet one side of the Plaza, making 1/3 of the Plaza unskateable. The host started gathering the finalists, trying to decide through voting if the Finals should continue or move to Sunday. 

It was a 50/50, some of the foreign skaters were flying out and others probably had plans/ work. 

As they were deciding, the wind changed direction and now the other 1/3 of the Plaza was wet. Zzzzzz. I don't see how ant of the skaters can skate safely. 

It was eventually decided by the host that the Finals would be canceled and results would be based on the heats. Zaky was nowhere in the tops and in fact placed 9th. He didn't mind. It had been a long and tiring day. 

We waited until the downpour reduced to a drizzle and walked home. Nana was waiting for us to do dinner. She said that Zaky had successfully competed in his 1st aggro competition and that called for a celebration and good food. Lol. 

It all ended well. 

Zaky was happy with his performance and the competition exposure. He is so motivated and wanted to skate again the next day. He also recognised that it is the grinding that gets the top scores and is now committed to train his grinds. The skaterchloe didn't make it into the top 10 with her "almost got it" 520 as she didn't do many grinds. They were saying that she is probably not familiar with the JLG skatepark. 

I was also told that majority of the Juniors (like 10 out of the 14) are foreigners. Zaky thinks that he was the only SGP who made it into the finals. Obviously Singapore lacks aggro skating young blood. The weather is too hot, aggro skating is too dangerous and studies are too important for young skaters to hone the skill. 

It is OK. I hope the kids (and Daddy Lim) continue to enjoy the game and please, do not break any more bones. Zzzzz.  

Mummy Lim 

Kids' Day Out

I shared a life long friendship with the SHSS ladies. I remembered the countless times where we wondered and discussed if our kids would become pals like us. Many of them knew each other literally from birth. AN, C, Nana and Boo are about the same age and bonded naturally. ER, V, T and Zaky are the same age and it is even easier for the boys to build relationship over gaming. 

Thankfully, their friendship blossoms. As they grow, they may have decreased the frequency of joining the aunties' monthly gatherings but increased the times that they met up on their own. 

Last Friday, they had planned and successfully executed the outing to the USS. It was a huge group - AN, ER, V, S, C, T and Zaky. Nana couldn't join bcos she is a paika. Boo opted to meet Nana for lunch and movie instead. They all met for dinner at Vivo in the evening. 

Boo's family just returned from BKK too. She gifted a twinning oversized T to Nana. 

Nana did likewise when she was in BKK and bought Boo also a twinning oversized T and keychair. New trend ah. 

The kids had fun. They are planning to meet again during Youth Day. Keep it up!

Mummy Lim

Post Bangkok with Kids

Like I mentioned, I was too tired and opted to wfh, allowing me to steal 1 more hour of sleep. Daddy Lim only had 3ish hours of sleep and had to go to work. I barely opened my eyes and saw him all dressed and ready. The next moment, it was 8am on my phone. Hoho. 

It was pay back time, trying to clear the mounted emails and work. I also got to spend time with the kids at home and Nana had the honor to "unbox" the cup and plates. 

The colours didn't turn out as vibrant as I had hoped. 

Nana's name was also spelled wrongly. Lol. 

Mochi also got his gifts. He didn't quite like them though. They immobilised him, thus we could take pictures. Lol. 

Did we enjoy the Bangkok holidays? Absolutely! We shopped and bought a lot. We also eat alot. We went with 16kg and came back with 24kg of luggage. Everyone also put on weight. Lol. The remaining week was diet week. Pay back time in another form. 

We enjoyed the family time and bonding. The kids did alot more shopping than expected, something that we now get to witness as part of their growing milestone. 

The holiday has re-ignited our wanderlust. We are now discussing the September school holiday destination and very much hoping that Nana will be offcast. So exciting. 

Mummy Lim

Bangkok with Kids, Day 6, Home Sweet Home

The most common phrase that I heard in the last 2 days was "I don't want to go home!". Me too but at times, I flipped to not minding going home bcos I was tired. 玩够了. 

We were all obviously tired bcos I overslept for gym and when I was back at 8am, none of them had awaken. It is Bfast time! Wakey! Nothing stops us from enjoying our last bfast for the trip. 

We took time to enjoy bfast bcos there was no planned itinerary for the day. 

Daddy Lim and the kids headed to the pool so that I had time to pack. Nana told me that she too went down the slide 2x, dont ask me how she did it with 1 foot. I was hoping to score a late checkout but was told that the hotel was full. We had to checkout at 12pm.

That's what we did. We didn't rush or squeeze anything after the swim. We checked out on the dot and went for lunch. 

We had MacD, I would opt for Thai food anytime but lost to the majority. 

After lunch was more roaming of Platinum Mall bcos there was too little time to go anywhere else. Then we got bored of Platinum Mall. Hmmm.. I think we walked here already.. here too.. here too. Zzzzzz. 

We were back in the hotel at 2pm for the transfer to the airport and ordered a big Taxi for THB700. We decided that it would be prudent to be at the airport early with the paika. 

Bye Bangkok! 

The traffic was reasonable and we arrived in 45 mins. The check in took a long time, requiring Nana to declare that her injury was sustained before the flight. This time, we were allowed to check in her wheelchair at the gate and to bring the crutches onto the flight. 

Nana had earned us another priority Q. 

We joked that we should keep her aircast and take turns to wear the cast for future travels. Lol. Idea. 

Dinner is a must bcos I didn't purchase inflight meals. Daddy Lim wanted Taco Bell. This was also my 1st Taco Bell experience. 

It was alright. Nothing to shout about. 

I had to have my last mango sticky rice. I asked if anybody would want to share with me and nobody raised their hands. I went ahead and then everybody wanted to have some. Zzzzz. The mango sticky rice was so much better. Hoho. 

We did some monkeying around, before heading to the gate early. 

We waited and didn't see our plane. I had expected a turnaround flight and slight delay like my last Scoot flight from Jakarta. 

My heart skipped a little when we finally saw the plane turned in. Strangely, we didn't see anybody disembarked. So it wasn't a turnaround flight? 

We waited and waited and it was nearing flight time without hearing announcements for boarding. Then, we saw passengers exiting the gate, possibly to look for food. It was afterall dinner time. The number attempting to leave the gate increased by the minute and soon a crowd had formed at the gate, asking for an update. We were seated right beside the action, allowing for eavesdropping. It was then that I heard about some technical issues and the flight will be delayed for AT LEAST 2 hours. 

News spread so quickly despite the absence of a formal announcement. Soon, everybody was leaving the gate and each passenger was given a meal voucher of THB 300 (about S$12). We had more food and spent the remaining $$ on snacks. Instead of the vouchers, we rather go home. Delayed!

When we went back to the gate at about 8pm and we saw that the estimated departure was updated to 8.30pm. Just when we were entering the gate, we were told that the departure time had been adjusted to 9.30pm. Kena cheated. We roamed somemore before joining the rest of the passengers in the "we really hope it would be 9 30pm" wait. 

Imagined how excited we all were when we saw the staff preparing for boarding! Again, the paika got us priority access though not for long bcos we needed to take a bus to the plane, that had been parked in some ulu part of the airport. As expected, the bus load of people hoard the plane upon arrival. Who cares about the paikas? I counted 3 paikas on the flight. Lol.

The flight didn't take off until about 10.15pm. We all slept. We touched down at 1ish when we were supposed to have been back at 9pm. It was already 3am when we got home, unpacked and settled down. Daddy Lim and I had to work the next day. I could at least steal a couple more hours of sleep by working from home but poor Daddy Lim had to go to the yard.

Sleep! Sleep!

Mummy Lim

Bangkok with Kids, Day 5, Platinum Mall and Jodd Fair Market

While the bed was comfy, I didn't sleep well. Maybe it was the pillows. They were not flat enough. 

What's nice about the hotel other than the big room is the gym. Hohoho. Finally, a gym!

The gym was empty except for another lady, who was lifting scary weights. I kept to my treadmill and it was a fairly easy run after missing cardio for several days. Done! 5km in for the day. 

Like every day, the kids had to be lured off the bed with the buffet bfast. 

There were 3 coffee machines! The last hotel had the guests queued up for coffee. 

The spread was much nicer and wider. We get what we pay. I only remembered to take pictures at the end. Hoho. 

The original plan was to visit the Rabbito Cafe, aka a rabbit cafe. The kids weren't that keen and we decided to skip. Nana asked to head directly to the Platinum Mall for more shopping and finally found her jibbits. It is crazy trying to find a (same) stall in Platinum Mall. 

Zaky got very bored of shopping. It made shopping less enjoyable for all of us. Zzzzz. We ended up heading to MBK bcos there is an arcade. 

I had imagined a huge arcade but it was quite miserable. It didn't keep the kids entertained for long. 

Then we saw a cinema and the movies were thankfully screened in English. "Flash" was screening the very next minute and we got our tickets.. and the popcorn.. and Starbucks. They don't care what the patrons bring into the cinema. The cinema was quite empty, no surprisingly for a mid Monday show. The tickets cost us about S$6 each. A steal!

The movie was surprisingly much better than what I had expected. I rarely watch movie nowadays and this is one that I didn't regret watching. I was bored at Transformer. Yawnz. 

We took a grab back and Zaky was bugging Daddy Lim to bring him swimming. Why? This!

He never grew too old for playground. 

Daddy Lim was just happily soaking one side while the boy self entertained for a while. 

We wore room slippers to the pool and Daddy Lim's were way too small. 

The plates and cup were delivered to the hotel lobby too. 

Oooo... very fragil. 

We didn't open up to check, just in case we couldn't put back the bubble wrap. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon nuahing in the hotel until the tummies said that it was time for dinner. We were heading to Jodd Fair. The last time Daddy Lim and I went, there was too much good food but too little tummy space. This time, we brought backups. 

I had wanted to allow the kids to take a Tuk Tuk at least once bcos it is such a novelty. Just then, one stopped right outside our hotel. It would cost us slightly more than THB 200 via grab and the Tuk Tuk driver asked for THB 300. Deal. 

Photo 1st. 

It was a crazy hell of a ride. The tuk tuk was blazing some deafening Thai techno music. The driver was zip zapping in and out of traffic. We were bobbing and bumping along.

The driver constantly turned back to check if we were OK, whether one of us got bumped out of the Tuk Tuk. Lol. 

There was a bad jam despite squeezing on road shoulders and in between lanes. The driver had to change course and checked Google a couple of times to find the fastest way to get to Jodd Fair. We apparently didnt pay just for the fun but also the speed; we would been caught so bad in the jam if we had taken a grab. At some point, the tuk tuk fun diminished and I just wanted to get off. I was getting pukey and Zaky was getting deaf in his ear next to the speaker. Lol. 

The driver dropped us opposite Jodd Fair bcos the traffic was so bad, even on a Monday evening. We attempted the "wheel Nana and jaywalk across the busy road" stunt. Actually, the drivers were quite nice when they see a paika, either slowing down or stopping for us to cross. The paika was very useful. 

Finally, to Jodd Fair. 

Zaky was reluctant to visit another night market but obliged when I told him that there would be plenty of food and eat was what we did. 

There were obviously more food that we ate but I still think we didn't do the Jodd Fair trip justice. We had been eating almost non-stop throughout the day to fail to create a tummy hungry enough for the good food. 

We left Jodd Fair when we knew that we could eat no more. Trying to get a grab in these crazily crowded areas was always the challenge. We decided to take an evening stroll, thinking to get the grab at some less crowded area. We ended up at some Central Rama Mall but the traffic continued to be crazy. We gave up bcos the legs could carry us no more and grab. 

No supper for the night and no massage bcos we were way too tired. Our loot for the day. 

This time, I won bcos the kids had already bought all the T-shirts the last few days. Hoho. 

Mummy Lim