Finally Bangkok Day 5: Home Sweet Home

I felt bad towards Lil Shauna after "talking" about how I felt over watsapp with the SHSS girls. I spent the last half hour before bed playing ipad games with the girl. Zaky was already fast asleep, I made him read the storybook as a punishment bcos he misplaced the book. He read the book until he fell asleep!

On the final morning, the heartache from the competition seemed to dissipate. I was glad; I was feeling much better too.

We had to wake up early to be in time for the 11am flight. There was filming at the hotel and we had to tiptoe out of the lobby. The actress was very pretty and very skinny but somehow looks good. She makes a skinny person look fat.

We were all tired after the 4 hectic days and I was secretly worried about the traffic. Fortunately, it was smooth traffic once we hit the expressway and arrived at the airport in less than 30 mins.

The immigration took some time though. They made all of us take out our shoes and we had a girl sitting on the floor wearing her shoes and blocking the way. Haha.

The flight was alright. Daddy Lim sat on his own again. Nobody nap but it wasn't too bad; everybody survived.

This marks the end of our trip. I did check again if Lil Shauna enjoyed the competition. Interestingly and thankfully, she said that it was actually exciting. I can't help smiling.

Mummy Lim

Finally Bangkok Day 4: Freestyle 2

I think I was just as nervous as Lil Shauna or more anxious than she is bcos I didn't sleep well.  I think this should be what it feels like when she finally takes her PSLE. I woke up many times, in between, I vaguely remembered that I was dreaming about reminding her what to do and not to do for the competition, urging her and encouraging her. Seriously? Even in the dream??!!!

We decided that we would leave the Bangna area bcos the journey going to town is way too painful. We had bfast and met the other group of skaters with the Coach CY. The parents were very knitted. I saw them having bfast together 2 days in a roll. Or maybe we are the hermit parents. Lol.

We finally had chance to swim in the pool. I was worried that Lil Shauna would swim so much and overtired herself. There was no need to worry bcos the water was icy cold. No joke! After dipping in the water, baking in the sun was actually more comfortable. We barely lasted 30 mins. The kids were happier soaking in the room's bathtub.

We headed to the mall for lunch and burnt 3 hours. It was quite easy. Meanwhile, I spent almost the entire day reminding her this and that for the competition.

An hour before her event, she got changed and had her makeup touched up. The old school hair spray was working very well and holding her hair up. She spent the rest of the time warming up.

Lil Shauna said that she was more confident bcos it was the 2nd time competing and she got a medal even when she didn't try very hard the 1st time. Zzzz.. I had to remind her that there were 6 competitors this time and only 5 medals. I was hopeful that she would do better.

Soon, it was her turn to compete. She was the 2nd out of the 6. The 1st was impressive and did stretch spin nicely. Wasn't the item only requiring 1-foot spin?

The moment Lil Shauna hit the ice, she was on her own and nobody could help her. I thought she was rushing through her program. All that I reminded her was not done. Arrgghhhh. In fact, she rushed through so much that she forgot her steps and did a jump with a wrong foot. Dead. Ended up, she was faster than her song; she forgot everything about telling her to stretch her program, along with asking her to go further to the other side of the rink and not so near the wall. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.. I was very upset.

Teacher Raymond was much nicer, telling us that she was nervous as it was her 1st competition. We saw some of the other competitions and saw how confident and good they were. I already know the results.

Lil Shauna actually didn't think that she did so badly. This time, I was unkind and told her off, pointing out all her mistakes and showing her the video. I also made her read her own results. I didn't want to hide the truth anymore. She got 6th of course but still took pic with Teacher Raymond nonetheless.

She was upset bcos I was so upset with her. I made her cry. I think she should be upset bcos she didn't do her best. Things did cool down after the competition, after bowling and dinner.

We even went to the arcade again and the kids took an interesting 4D ride.

Back at the hotel and now that Lil Shauna and I had cooled down, we discussed about the competition again. I told her that I was upset bcos she worked so hard over these 2 months and so had I. However, all those hard work had gone to waste when she didn't perform in that 1.5 min on ice. I think there were times that she did her item much better during practice. I reminded her the importance of doing the right thing and the ability to overcome that anxiousness and masked it with confidence.  It is really about whoever appear stronger will win.

Remember the skater who went before her and I said was impressive? I checked the result when we were leaving and saw that she was 5th! In other words, the other skaters were really much stronger than her. With that, my anger with her not winning also disolved and remains in her not performing her best with all the hard work.

I don't know if this competiton encouraged her or did the opposite. I hope she finds more passion to train after we go back to Singapore. Meanwhile, she is still happy with her medal. Oh, they also gave a medal for the 6th place. Lil Shauna said that they were very nice to do so.

Mummy Lim

Finally Bangkok Day 3: Kidzania

We had a free day and I had to find something not too dangerous and not too tiring but yet interesting to entertain the kids. We cannot afford to injure Lil Shauna or tired her out. She has the all important event the next day. It was weird timing. A mummy was telling me that her girl's event was all on day 1 and they would be moving to a hotel nearer to town. I also want.

We decided to go to Kidzania. It can easily keep the kids busy the entire day. We know how tiring Kidzania can be  (for the adults) and opted to have a slow bfast and only left the room at about 10am.

Our hotel location really sucks. We took a cab to Siam Paragon and opted for the expressway, which is supposed to be faster but we can barely tell the difference. The cab fare was only THB 200 but it took us a bloody hour. At some point, the cab was not moving in the traffic jam and we were baking in the sun. The kids were impatient and quarrelsome. Why like that? I wonder if this is the faster route by expressway, how would it be with the normal way. It is ok, I wouldn't want to find out.

We finally arrived at Siam Paragon and spotted an ice cream stall. Immediately we had to buy some ice cream to cool down. So cute, right?

Siam Paragon is huge and it took us a while to find Kidzania. On the way, Lil Shauna was hesitant about Kidzania; she said that Kidzania is for small kids and she is a big girl already. Ok, didn't the big girl just went to the same Kidzania with Zaky and 2Fs in June? She must have grew up tremendously in 6 months.

There must be certain lure but she suddenly changed her mind when we were at the door. Lol. We were determined to work on jobs that we didn't do the last time, which is quite some actually.

The 1st job - courier and the kids had fun running around sending packages.

It was a good thing that it was a school day and Kidzania wasn't too crowded. We walked past the hospital and joined the Q.

The kids went into a room and we can only view them via the CCTV. It was a constant routine; send kids to work, parents self-entertain. I wish this was real life. Lol.

The other jobs that the kids worked, some only 1 pax bcos the other kid wasn't interested.

Lil Shauna said that she loves CSI best while Zaky loves to be a soccer player. Well, he was playing with much older boys and barely touched the ball. Lol.

We spent 5.5hrs in Kidzania. The parents were beat. Lol. The Kidzos that the kids earned barely could buy anything and they decided to keep the money. We had thrown away previous Kidzos earned, thinking that the kids would never be keen to do Kidzania again. I made a mental note to keep the Kidzos just earned.. you never know.

I had wanted to do shopping. We are in Bangkok! We walked to MBK, which was nearby, thinking that we could do dinner and then shopping. We got dinner gone but nobody was keep on shopping. As compared to Platinum mall, MBK was a lot messier and too touristy. The sales are rude and the things pricier. After 30 mins with no success, we left. The taxi Q was horrible but luckily moved quickly.

On the taxi, I started getting anxious about the competition the next day and started telling Lil Shauna about how she should be more confident, open her eyes to see where she is going so that she can improvise and so much more. She is indeed complacent and said that she won a medal when she didn't skate very well for solo compulsory.  I had to break the news to her but told her that there were 5 skaters (instead of 4) and she got 4th. For FS2, there are more skaters and she might not get a medal. I hope it wakes her up.

We were all glad to be back in the hotel and watching TV felt so good.

Mummy Lim

Finally Bangkok Day 2 Part 2: Imaginia and Dinosaur Plantet

We had to do something interesting; the boy was bored and grumpy, Lil Shauna had done her stuff. We headed back to the hotel to drop the stuff and changed then took a cab to the nearest BTS and took the BTS to The Emporium. The 1st stop: Imagina.

It is an indoor playground. The kids, especially Lil Shauna, had outgrown indoor playgrounds but the novelty effect did help a little. The kids had 3 hours to get crazy.

Imagina is definitely built for little people.

The moment we got it, we were greeted by this big web that got the kids very excited.

The parents got very excited over coffee and free wifi. Haha. I was mentally tired after the stressful morning. Lil Shauna must had felt very relief and was full of energy.

The kids came excitedly after a short exploration and tugged me along. There is this mega slide.

Some other electronic play stuff to entertain the older kids.

The kids then met some other Singaporean kids and made friends and went crazy. They left and then they made friends with a pair of ang mo siblings. They went wild again.

There were various art and craft workshops but they opted for a sandwich making one at THB 100 each.

The sandwiches were gone in a while bcos we didn't have a proper lunch.

I had thought that they would be bored but friends made all the difference.

We took a walk to the Dinosaur Plantet. It was a mini outdoor Dinosuar themepark that is overpriced. I read reviews that it was tiny and would at most entertain us for 3 hours. We still opted to go, bcos we had time to burn yet not too much time. The entrance fees were THB 2,000, which is almost S$80.

We were just in time for a "live" show at 6pm. I was dead hungry and we gobbled down dinner in 15 mins. The live show was not too real looking dinosaurs walking around and fighting each other in a Thai storyline. I think the ones in USS looked alot more realistic.

I thought Zaky would love the show but he was totally scardy pants. There were other attractions.

Like the reviews said, they aren't the most interesting. Our last stop was the Dino Farm, where the kids paid THB100 each to ride baby dinosuars. The ride was a snail crawl and each step comes with a jerk. Lil Shauna said that her butt hurts.

I think we stayed less than 2 hours in the park. It was definitely overpriced. Well, for the experience and we will never come back.

We took the BTS and then cab back. We had very tiring small and big people. Sleep was easy. We complained about the aircon and the cartoon channel and I think it was fixed up.

Mummy Lim