Love

When the kids were in the kindergarten, they each have their special “partner”.

There was this boy, J, who likes Lil Shauna and it was well known in their little school. He was braver in the earlier years in expressing his “love” but shy away in the later years.

Zaky has his fair share as well and has his E. They were another well-known couple in school. I don't know who likes who more but we were invited to E’s bday party when they were in K2 and I was so surprised that even E’s mummy openly admitted the pair’s chemistry. Additionally, Zaky was treated like a VIP at E’s party and E was constantly tagging along with the boy. I didn't know Zaky has that kind of lure.

Come Primary school, neither J nor E is in the same primary school as the kids. I had been asking Lil Shauna if any of the boys had confessed their love to her; she is afterall so pretty and likable. Sorry for selling my own yok-ko but I really feel this way. The boys are definitely losing out bcos none of them had done so. Bleh.

I didn't bother asking the boy. I thought he was much cuter and handsome when he was younger.

Earlier this week, I came home and saw this.

Who on earth is Ayana? Lol. She was from the same kindergarten as Zaky but she was in the morning session. She is now in a different class but the same student care center as Zaky. Same kindergarten… hasn't she heard about the Zaky-E couple? Hmmm, tsk, tsk.

I asked if Zaky likes her too and he nodded his head. I reminded him about his beloved E, which he matter of fact replied that E is now in a different school. My heart just bled for E. Lol. Lil Shauna is my spy and told me that she has saw Ayana holding on to Zaky’s hand tightly in the student care on several occasions. Roar, I must inform this Ayana to fill up application form and sit through interview 1st. Lol. Well, to be on the safe side, I did remind the boy that he is too young to really do anything serious.

Such things do start young now huh? This was from yday. I had to tell the boy to tell Ayana that he appreciates but stop giving him such bcos they are just taking up space at home. Lol.

Mummy Lim

Trampoline Fun

Lil Shauna and I headed back to church after a long break. This will be the arrangement for the coming weeks until Zaky complete his 6-week basketball training. Right after church, we Grab down to JCube to squeeze in an hour of practice before her Chinese made-up class at 2pm. It was hard work.

The girl didn't complain bcos she wanted the extra ice time too. She practiced her program at the public ice, which was initially empty until the bday party kids soon crowded the ice and she had trouble finding space. We then headed back to the 1/3 ice to work on her spiral and eagle. Her spiral still CMI and I hope all the daily stretching would help. Speaking of which, she has been fairly disciplined and sometimes worked on her stretching without having me to nag at her.

The kids had been asking to do something “fun”. School must have made them miserable. In the afternoon, we found ourselves at the Amped Trampoline park with the 3Fs. There is one right in Jurong East.

We arrived early and the kids were so excited. They had to hoard the stairways so that they could step in immediately when it was time. They so nicely obliged for pictures. Hohoho.

Right on time, the briefing started.

And the jumping started. Seriously, I cannot understand what is so exciting about trampoline jumping. I only know that it is very tiring. No thanks for old bones. The kids did attempt a few tricks but spent most of the time bouncing up and down.

They stopped only for water and soon disappeared back on the trampoline. They were sweatier each time they came back for drinks.

It was a super good workout for the kids. An hour passed quickly and I was surprised that nobody took breaks in between. The kids could have gone on if we allowed them. Zaky even found a young adult to spar on front flips. Lol. I also took the opportunity to make Lil Shauna do her stretching as she was all warmed up and met the quota for the day. Yeah!

Mummy Lim

Ice Skating 88

We sneaked in an extra hour of practice on Thursday evening after phonics class. Lil Shauna had no complaints bcos she knew that she needed it. It was full ice and though not crowded, there were quite some skaters who were standing around on the ice and CHATTING. They also seemed to be intentionally not giving way to Lil Shauna who needed to practice her program.

Was Lil Shauna any better from last weekend? Not exactly and she definitely lost the fantastic scratch spin. Sob. At times, it was so fustrating that I wanted to grab her and shake her by the shoulders. Arrghhh. She did have the chance to practice the positioning though and had a good sense of it by the end of the hour.

Whatever the case, she worked hard. I hope she would get better with practice and would be ready for the competition.

This morning, we intentionally arrived at the rink later bcos we knew that the public ice would be crowded. After a short warm-up, she headed back to the 1/3 Ice where she worked on her elements.

Lil Shauna was back in her little skirt bcos the colors on her cheapo pants ran and stained her skates. I thought she looked great but she complained that she was girly. Girly good what. She took a while to get used to her "new" attire but was good thereafter.

At the start of the class, Teacher Raymond brought her back to the public ice and ran through the positioning, which he changed slightly. It was definitely better, giving her more space for the different elements.

Then they went back to the 1/3 ice and he worked on her spirals, eagle and spent quite some time on her salchow jump, refining her movements. The last part of the class was on her loop and flip jumps. I think she found her flip jumps. Hehe.

Lil Shauna willingly went back to the public ice after the ice resurfacing. She practiced on her new positioning and wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, there were too many people and she had to stop a few times. It was the least frustrating practice since she started practicing for the competition.

When we were leaving the ice, she asked if we can come back on Thursday next week. Haha. I like that she is so earnest.

Mummy Lim

Extra Practice

While Zaky was doing his basketball, Lil Shauna was sweating it out on the ice. She was in tears on Saturday bcos I pushed her so hard and she gave up practicing. Fortunately, she knew that she had no time to waste to get ready for the upcoming competition. She went back on Sunday and we were lucky that the public ice was fairly empty. She could do most of the elements (except spiral that are banned on the public ice) and the foot work and positioning. She couldn't quite remember the spiral and eagle footwork though.

When she was on public ice, my job was the videographer. Then, we would review the video together to see which are the areas that she could improve on. It was again very frustrating for the both of us; I felt that she wasn't trying hard enough and could do better while she felt that she had done her best. Bleh…

The remaining time was back at the 1/3 ice. We saw Coach Sally working with her students on the exact program and knew who some of her competitors are. I asked Lil Shauna to observe what they were doing and how to tackle the footwork for spiral and eagle that she has forgotten. It was good copycat moments that rescued us. She then went on to practice with the full elements on reduced scale but the concept was the same.

While she was at it, Teacher Raymond was peeping at her telling her that it was the wrong direction for spiral. Lil Shauna had no clue what he meant until Teacher Raymond had to come tell me that it should be outside spiral and not inside. Ahhh…. I am the tuition teacher and enlightened Lil Shauna immediately that she is spiraling and curving the wrong direction. The eagles and particularly the spirals are a lot of hard work. I made Lil Shauna kept going and going at the spirals.

The last 10 mins was back at the public ice on the positioning. She still didn't get where she is supposed to do the spiral and curve which way. At the end of the session, I had to take a picture of the rink and tell her to make use of the big circles on the rink to do her spiral. See, how useful I am as the tuition teacher.

Lil Shauna practiced really hard on the ice. She was at it for the 2 full hours. Usually, she would be squirming to escape. I really saw her work hard and was impressed by a few of the scratch spins that she has managed. They were really fast and pivoted, better than any of the scratch spins that I have seen her done so far. She said that she had no idea what she had done right. I hope she keeps at it; she has the tendency to lose her spins/ jumps.  She still had a lot of hard work to do to perfect the elements and I am expecting some midweek practice too, which I haven’t told her. Haha.

After the hard work, she went for her off ice practice. We had missed it for a while in June bcos of the holidays and Skate Japan. She was panting so hard after the long break. Well, the hard work doesn't end there. We have started stretching again at home and told her that we have to do this every day. She is adding on lunges and spirals as well as her ballet jumps especially the other direction that she is not familiar with. She needs to get those into her muscle memory off ice so that she gets them automatically in action when she is on ice.

I hope with all the hard work, she would perform well on ice during the competition. That is the magic moment where she will be alone on the ice and nobody can help her. Seriously, I don't need her to win. I just want to enjoy her magic moment with her and know that she had tried her best and shown her best after all the hard work.

Mummy Lim

Junior NBA

Zaky has a special love for basketball and Daddy Lim must have influenced him to a certain extent. It is a great thing that we have a basketball court in Centris and we have THREE basketballs at home. I don't know why we need so many but it must be a boys’ thing. On good days, Daddy Lim will play basketball with Zaky at the court and most of what Zaky knows about basketball comes from Daddy Lim.

We have tried looking for basketball classes for Zaky only to realize that they are always at the other end of Singapore. Why?!!? His school also doesn't have a basketball CCA. Zzzzzz. We didn't pursue given that Zaky is still busy with his TKD. He is already a red belt and probably needs another ½ year before he attains his junior black belt. He has told us that he would like to stop then. He doesn't have the same passion as Lil Shauna towards ice skating and had asked to do basketball instead. Maybe we would be more serious about looking for basketball classes then.

Recently, it was advertised in FB that there are free basketball classes by the Junior NBA jointly with Active SG Basketball Academy. Daddy Lim jumped at the chance and signed the little boy up. It is a 6-weekly class program and Zaky was thrilled.

On the 1st class’ morning, it was so easy to ask him to wash up, take his bfast and get dressed while he would usually slow motion through. They were supposed to report at 10am for registration and the class was at 11am.

He had wanted to don the basketball jersey that we bought in Bali, only to realise that it was a tad too big.

He eventually opted for a singlet instead and his atas basketball shoes, which he has problem tying laces. Lol.

Daddy Lim whatsapp later in the day to share that they were way too early and the registration only took 2 mins. Lol. They were given a T-shirt too. So smart. They spent the next hour waiting for the earlier session to end.

Daddy Lim said that the whole 1.5 hrs session was somewhat like a longer PE session with basketball. The kids move from station to station to practice different basics. The coach shared that the intent is to expose the kids to the sports and the 6 weeks will give them different basics. At some point, Zaky looks bored probably bcos the stuff are way too easy. Lol.

Overall, he said that the session was good and he is looking to go back this week.

Mummy Lim

Ice Skating 87

Skate Japan has just ended. We skipped it this time considering how much it would cost us. More importantly, it is summer in Japan! I only want to go Japan in the cooler months. Haha.

Teacher Raymond previously mentioned that there is another skating competition coming up in August in Jakarta but would only bring us if there are enough kids to join. Till now, there is no news.

Just then, he messaged that there is the inter school competition coming up in mid July and he wanted Lil Shauna to join if she is available! I actually saw the advertisement in FB.

Lil Shauna was hovering between excitement and fear. Lol. She laments that she didn't at least 3 months to prepare! Lol.

She would be competing in the Future Stars and have to complete the elements on 1/2 ice without music. The elements are:

- Lunges (both sides)

- Waltz jump

- Ballet jump (both sides) 

- Salchow jump

- Spiral (both sides)

- Eagle spread (both sides)

- One-foot spin

The moment she saw the elements, she exclaimed that they are stuff she had learnt when she started figure skating and eagerly agreed. 

We had lesson yday. Before class, I made Lil Shauna practice on the "easy stuff" that she had learnt in the past and realised that the lack of practice made them not so easy. She couldn't go down on her lunge on her left leg; she didn't know how to do ballet jump the other direction and spirals are always her enemy. Bleh. 

Class was very much focused on these elements. Teacher Raymond taught her the ballet jump in other direction and also corrected some of the minor movements for her jumps.

The other half was on the public ice to go through the legwork and positioning for the competition. 

We went back to the ice after class; giving her the opportunity to be familiarise the footwork and positioning. We also worked on some of the elements. Was it Ok? It was frustrating. It wasn't as easy as she had thought it would be. There was even tears bcos we were both frustrated with each other. We need more practice for sure and she only has 2 weeks left. Good luck. Haha.

Mummy Lim

End of School Week 1

Hooray! We are all alive! It was a short week but it felt just as torturous for the kids. They were lamenting and whining on Tuesday morning. It is normal, afterall, their fun-filled month-long school holidays has just "died". They didn't even realise until I broke the terrible news to me on Monday afternoon, after we came back from Batam. I totally feel them.

Other than school, the extra classes, student care have all kicked in at the same time. Obviously they needed extra grace to survive and they did with increasing difficulty with each passing day of the week.

Lil Shauna has always been easy and automatic. It gets a little more tough to wake the boy with the passing week.

Rejoice for the weekend. Long live the weekend!

Even Lil Shauna is not spared.

Ok, I staged this. I brought the kids to the movie last night. I insisted for her to wear her glasses after the movie for the shot. Haha.

Mummy Lim

MRT Pains

With the new office in Kent Ridge, I now take the MRT 2x a week. I remember how I used to dread taking the MRT bcos it was so freaking squeezy. If seated, there was somebody right in front of your knees and giving your knees undesirable rubs frequently. Arrggghhh. If standing, there was no need to worry about falling bcos there wasn't space to. I even promised myself that I would quit if I had to take the peak hour train to work everyday. Lol.

Maybe the situation had improved or the fact that I board at Joo Koon helps. The morning train isnt as crowded as I remembered it to be. Heading home may be a challenge at times but the squeeze is worth it if it gets me home asap.

I was also motivated to taking the train bcos I had to do some walking, which helps me to achieve my daily 8k steps target. I heart my fitbit. Unfortunately, the motivation died as quickly as it comes.

The Tuas extension line opened in mid June. I knew that it had opened but didn't register how it would affect me. Apparently the grey matter isnt activated until the daily dose of caffeine. In my morning stupor, I boarded a very crowded train and was wondering why the unusually high number of commuters until the broadcast informed me that I am heading to Tuas. Great.... Fortunately, solving the issue was as easy as crossing the platform. I do look stupid and very obvious to be taking the wrong direction train though.

I was counting my lucky stars to not experience the notorious train delays and breakdowns. Luck does run out and I met my fate last week. It was the usual commute from Joo Koon and I do keep my eyes open now to avoid the unnecessary journey to the further West. It was the usual empty train at Joo Koon but it started traveling very slowly coupled with intermittent stops. The announcements weren't very accurate leaving the commuters to second guess what was the real issue. After a painful 40 mins, I was only at Lakeside, 4 stops from my start point.

I made the decision to abort the journey and head back to the Tuas office. There were huge crowds on the platforms and long lines queuing to enter the station. I pride myself for the swift decision until I saw the long q at the taxi stand. Zzzzzz. I tried uber and grab but to abandon bcos of exorbitant fares. Soon, every single taxi that came by so infrequently was a booked cab. The taxi q only shortened bcos people were finding other means and dropping out of the q. The MRT situation appeared to have clear up as well. What the....

Just when I was contemplating to head home and work from home amidst the noisy kids (the infamous school holidays were still in), I got a Grab hitch. It must be the silver lining! The only pain was the forever wait bcos the driver seemed to be driving around the whole Jurong West picking up the other hitch passengers before heading for me. Sob.

Finally, at 9am, I stepped foot in the office. It usually took Daddy Lim 15 mins to send me to work and the commute that day was 2 hrs plus a lot of heartache.

I shouldn't complain that much; I only have to take the train 2x a week and have the avenue to escape back to Tuas in the event of train faults.

I am still a noob to taking train outside of Singapore West. Last week, I had to take the train to Orchard and felt like a dinosaur visiting Orchard road. Today, I am on my way to TPY and have checked the Google map a few times to make sure I am on the right way. Haha.

Mummy Lim

Squeezed in Batam: Day 3

Bcos Bali was super action packed and exhausting, Batam must be to help us catch up on sleep. We had been sleeping super well every night.

The Batam sun was up bright and early at 6am. Daddy Lim woke up and I heard him asking me something about if I wanted to go for a run. I flopped back on the bed. An hour later, I woke up to a sweaty Daddy Lim, who just came back from a run. I was super impressed! I brought my exercise gear but their gym only opened late and it was a super tiny gym.

The kids refused to wake up even when the sun was shining in their face.

They were dragged for bfast; we didn't have much time before it was time to head home.

The kids didn't have much appetite bcos it was the same old food. After bfast, we went to the beach. It was super low tide and we walked far out on the seabed. See, the motor boat was on the seabed!

We had to wear slippers bcos the seabed was filled with sea snails!

Lil Shauna was super squirmy, yelling "sea snails invasion!". Lol. There were so many of them!

Bcos of the low tide, we could waddle to the water playground. It was so much easier to climb the structure now. 

We had 1 hour before we needed to catch the bus to the ferry terminal and of course we headed to the pool!

The hotel loaned us huge floats and we had so much fun swimming and competing on the floats. I laughed so much until the other hotel guests were staring at us as if we were crazy.

The sun was crazily scorching and we had to leave the pool. I think I got sunburnt!

We had just enough time to shower and packed up and ordered chicken wings to full the hungry tummies. 

The hotel shuttle picked us up at 11.20am for our 12noon ferry. I was worried that we would miss the ferry but the hotel assured that it was the only bus and we would be fine. He was right!

The Batam trip was alright. I heart the beach but the hotel is seriously ulu and one of the lousier Batam hotel if you ask me. Would we go back? Maybe if we are so dying for a beach holiday over another long weekend.

Mummy Lim

Squeezed in Batam: Day 2

The sun was out early in the morning. We had a good sleep. Given that it was Hari Raya and we didn't know if the malls would be opened, we opted to stay in the hotel.

We had bfast and the bfast was kind of lousy. The spread was exactly the same as the day before. The crowd was huge and they were running out of food at first, then running out of cups and bowls. Zzzzzz.

After bfast, we hit the pool, followed by the hotel's mini private beach. The beach was also the reason why we chose this hotel.

They have a new water playground!

It didn't look tough but it was super tough according to Daddy Lim. Zaky was grumpy and refused to enter the sea so Daddy Lim went ahead with Lil Shauna. The platform was super slippery. At one point, I saw Daddy Lim slipped into the water and I was laughing at him only to realise later that he took huge gulps of water bcos the fall was sudden and it was so deep. He came back and vomited his bfast. Poor thing.

Lil Shauna bugged for banana boating. We didn't have the chance to do water sports in Bali and actually did banana boating in Batam. It cost us INR180k per pax for 30 mins but I was sure that the ride was shorter than that. It was fun, none of us dropped into the water. I am sure they went easy on us bcos we had a kid. The sea was quite polluted though. Sad.

Zaky warmed up subsequently and waded in the sea with Lil Shauna. Lil Shauna pestered to do the water playground again and we finally had a go again but only upon loaning of life vests from the sea sports owner.

It was tons of fun and very exhausting. We dropped into the sea quite a few times. Thank goodness for the life vests! I even bummed Lil Shauna into the sea once, literally bummed. Lol. We had to work together to get from one structure to another. The floats were very sharp and we sustained quite a few cuts but all worth the fun.

After soaking in the sea, we hopped back to soak in the pool to wash off the salt and sand. It was already afternoon by the time we were back in the room. We ordered room service for lunch.

Zaky was bugging to try motorcycling again.

We fully utilised the 30 mins this time bcos the scardy cat went so slowly. I think I can walk faster than him. Lol. When he took a rest, I hijacked his ride and went a couple of rounds on the mini bike. It was liberating. I must look really silly on the mini bike but I felt so cool. Lol.

The sun was merciless. While waiting, we hid in the shade.

We just had to hide in the aircon lounge after that.

We spent the late afternoon in the comfort of our room. The little boy took a nap. We woke him up for dinner in the evening only to realise that they only had expensive BBQ dinner by the pool. We weren't so hungry and opted for room service plus more instant noodles and snacks. We did take a walk at the beach before going back bcos the boy was so whiny. Oh, the pesky mosquitoes helped too. They were buzzing past our ears threateningly.

After the exhausting play at the beach and all the soaking in the pool, night time was again early. 

Mummy Lim