Mission Batam Day 1

For a couple of years, we had been taking a short holiday during the PSLE marking days; it was to celebrate Zaky's bday and the school break was too wasted to be missed. This year, we delayed it slightly bcos Ah yee was coming home and we thought that it would be nice for a family holiday.

We had to make some logistics arrangement bcos our car couldnt take so many. Lil Shauna had to head over to the 3Fs' place for a sleepover on Friday night. She was more thrilled than anything and took my brother's car to the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. Ya, her belongings were all in that white plastic bag - Popo's style.

Athena took the car seat. Yes, this same one that we bought for Lil Shauna and was passed down to Zaky, then to Lollipop and finally back for awhile. So much memories.

We arrived at the ferry terminal at about 7.45am for out 8.55am ferry. We thought that we were early and were thinking of what to have for bfast only to be advised by the ferry sales to clear immigration asap bcos of the crowd. My bfast bubble burst.

There was a seriously understaffed food stall inside the immigration. We ended up queuing for a good half an hour for some desperately needed coffee and fishballs. Then survived on the bread that Popo and ah kim brought.

Nevertheless, everyone was in good mood.

Even the baby.

Finally time to board!

Athena was very managable. We even brought her to the upper deck to enjoy the sea breeze.

Unfortunately, she didnt enjoy the breeze as much as we thought she would. She ended up hiding in the ergo. Lol.

The other kids had a much better time.

The ferry was a short 30 mins and the sea was largely calm. We arrived at the Nongsapura Ferry Terminal and had to wait for the free hotel shuttle and the kids bought so much bubble gum from the only mama shop. The baby was passed from one adult to another.

And there was so much bubble blowing.

Lil Shauna is getting really good. I can imagine the bubble bursting and the gum sticking to her hair. Zzzzz. Didnt we all had that in our growing up years?

We convinced the gang to stay in Batam View Resort bcos of their mini private beach. Unfortunately, a company was having their Family Day in the same resort and the beach was very crowded. They were largely on land though and our kids were happily waddling in the waters while ah kim sorted out the checking in. I was disappointed to find that they no longer had the water playground.

In the name of the baby, we requested to have at least 1 of the 4 rooms and got it. Though it wasnt pleasant to squeeze all 12 of us in one tiny room, we had a place to put our belongings and change for swimming! Athena "swam" as well.

She was very much given the princess treatment.

We were all peckish from bfast and fought over the little snacks.

One cons of the hotel is its location and there wasnt much food selections. Ah kim had foresight and bought a lot of snacks and cup noodles, which was further topped up at the mama shop shopping. We ordered room service but it took 45 mins to serve and we survived on our food supply.

The girls had their little own picnic at the balcony.

The Batam afternoon sun was merciless. The kids were happy to play in the hotel room. I even dozed off and stole a cat nap. It felt like a good holiday already. Lol.

We had intended to go back to the beach for sea sports in the afternoon when the heat was less intense only to realise that it was low tide. While we cant have sea sports, it didnt stop us from exploring.

There were so many sea snails and hermit crabs! The sea bed was filled with them and the surprising disappeared in high tide.

We returned to the room soon after to wash up. It was nearing dinner time and we had an early dinner at the seafood resturant. Before that, a walk at the jetty is a must, with beautiful sunset in the background. The kids were mesmerised by a fishing uncle. Zaky was even "interviewing" uncle, asking him about his fishing credentials. Lol.

Dinner was decent, just a little too salty.

We didnt need much entertainment after dinner. We self entertained in the lounge before adjoining to the rooms.

We were all tired from the early morning and the activities. It was bliss to watch TV in bed and fall asleep.. at least that was what Zaky and I did.

Lil Shauna was happy to squeeze in with the girls. Good night world.

Mummy Lim

When Old Age Beckons....

It was one of the weekday mornings. A sew was needed in one of the cardigans but the needles were not threaded. I have decided to do some threading at 6.15am, with sleepy eyes and somewhat poor lighting.

It must be the sleepy eyes and the poor lightning; I can see the eye of the needle and then I cant really see it. It was playing hide and seek with me at 6.15am in the morning. Not funny. I was purely relying on luck. I even tried the threading hack found on youtube and it didnt work.

Then, it strikes me to move the needle and thread further away from the eyes. Viola! Suddenly, things become clearer! My sleepy eyes must be awake! I was able to thread quite a few needles easily; Popo always complained that she needed help threading bcos her eyes are so bad now with advancing age. Luckily me, only an issue of sleepy eyes.

Right after I was done threading, I found this at the bottom on the container.

Haiz, I should have opened my eyes to check and saved all the troubles.

Mummy Lim

Rain Rain Go Away

The end of the year is also when the rain comes. While the rain helps to cool off our hot weather and the plants strive, it isnt good for our cycling. Sob.

Bcos cycling requires mileage to be effective, it is super time consuming. Our only opportunties are the weekend mornings and we look forward to the weekly WWF ride on Saturday mornings, even if it means sacrificing sleep. Yday was no different. The WWF route was to climb Mount Faber (MF). I chickened out and was intending to break off and ride down to LPS with Daddy Lim. A Paris Baguette coffee and muffin sounded like the perfect way to start the morning.

The gang met at 6.30am only to see rain app threatening about rain coming from the south of Singapore. The sky was too dark to see the rain clouds but we concluded that MF was no go, so is my coffee. The route was amended to LCK and on OTOT mode, so that cyclists can break away at the 1st encounter of rain. Seriously, being caught in the rain is no joke.

The ride soon started. It wasnt long after that the sky started to brighten and we saw how dark and huge the rain cloud was. We didnt ride far when we felt the 1st drops of rain. One of the cyclists broke off to head home and we followed suit. The risk was too big to take.

The rain was merciless. It didnt give us any time to take shelter and came pouring down almost immediately. While racing home, I also pitied the other cyclists who didnt manage to turn back in time. They were probably stuck and had to take shelter somewhere.

Not only was the rain heavy, the wind was howling. At one point, I was almost blown off course while on the bike. I was so glad to make it home without being totally drenched. Total distant rode: 1.4km. Zzzzzzz.

Wet bikes also means the need to clean up. Zzzzz. At the same time, it was due time to lub the bikes. Daddy Lim had that honor; I quickly ran off to the gym. I needed to fulfil my Saturday morning workout.

At the gym, it was apparent how bad the storm was. The tables and chairs were blown off!

Oh well, I was happy to sweat it out under the safe and aircon environment.

We made plans to cycle with the WWF on Sunday mornings; we arent the only ones dying to ride. And it had to rain again on Sunday morning. Zzzzzzzz. Why like that? Haiz. Rain, rain, go away!

Mummy Lim

Ah Yee and Athena in the House

We had been looking forward and counting down to the day the Ah Yee and Athena would be back. This will be Athena's 1st even trip to sunny Singapore; a total constrast to cold, cold France now.

Ah yee had been a gan cheong spider before the trip, asking if we have this or that. Hello, we are in Centris, right above JP and with a 24hr supermarket! Then she started worrying that Athena will be a terror on the 13 hr flight. Well, it all turned out well. While she demanded to be in the arms for most part of the flight, she was largely an angel otherwise and they arrived safe and sound late Friday afternoon.

Given the heavy traffic, ah yee took a long time to arrive home; we are at the other end of Singapore.

The kids were asking for them every other minute. When they finally arrived, Athena proved to be the more popular one. Lol.

She generally didnt mind who was carrying her and was basking in the attention.

It took some time for Athena to get used to the new environment and new routine. Ah yee said that she is a baby that dislike sleeping and there was a lot of yelling and screaming at bedtime. No baby was harmed; just a screaming overtired baby who refused to sleep.

Athena was in a better mood after slightly settling into the new environment. You can tell that she is totally the limelight. Lil Shauna and Zaky were busy helping with Athena too.

She was shinning even more when my brother's family came over for dinner yday. Everybody wanted a picture with her.

Finally, a family picture.

Look at the steamboat spread! Slurp. I know right.

We are all looking for more family time before ah yee and Athena head home in 3 weeks' time.

Mummy Lim

School is Out!

*Drumroll*
The kids' long awaited day - the last day of the school year! Bcos bedtime has been so conveniently pushed back in the last week of school, we had kids who have problems trying to wake up.

For 3 days in a row, we missed the school bus. Zzzzz.

The kids were looking forward to playing with their friends in the evening with school out. It is a pity that one of the usual gang is shifting out of Centris and they will now be short of one regular playmate.

I had a different goal. Tadah!

I cleared out so many workbooks and worksheets. This pile is the last one. Woohoo! I have earlier thrown out 1 big stack of workbooks and another pile of worksheets. Happy! Happy! The bookshelf looks gratefully at me.

It is a 1.5 month long school holidays and the kids protested violently to attending student care during the holidays. I must think of things to entertain the kids and lure them from constantly hawking at the gadgets.

Outdoor will be good. The kids had been bugging us to bring thsm for "training". Just last Wednesday, we brought the kids to join us for our maiden WWF core training at the JW stadium. We were early and the kids and I went for a little 1.6km run. Real running is so much more tiring than the treadmill.

The core training (I hate core training) started at 8pm.

It is a continuous series of crunches and planking. I just realised how much I hated planking.

The short run + core exercise = pouring sweat. The position where I was, I could perfectly see the stadium clock and how painfully slow the minute hand was moving. Why like that?

I didnt last the entire session. Zaky got tired and bored; my perfect excuse to bring him to buy a drink from the vending machine. By the time we were done, the session has ended. Daddy Lim said that they finished soon after we left. It was a 45 mins instead of the 1 hour that I thought but 45 mins was enough to put me through hell and back. The kids enthusiastically asked to come back the next week. Nooooooooo!

The muscule aches are starting to set in yday. My tummy, my sides, my arms.. I know.. I am weak. The kids barely complained of any muscle aches. Ya, Daddy Lim is not much better than I am. Muahahaha.

See, I got abrasion on both elbows from planking! I hate you!

Mummy Lim

Results In and School Almost Out!

As per last year, the hamster's carrot was put up for grab. While the targets for the hamster are super stretched, they are achievable. Zaky even made a deal with Daddy Lim - to buy him a real pet dog if the kids achieve 95 for all subjects. Daddy Lim was quick to promise; Lil Shauna just rolled eyes bcos it was mission impossible. At least my hamster targets for the kids were more realistic. Lol. Zaky then went on to make a side deal with me - he would stop his 天下 enrichment if he scores at least 90 for chinese. Deal!

The results came out last week. Lil Shauna did exceptionally well for her SA2. It was a vast improvement from her SA1 results, exceeding expectations for Maths and Science. Her English was on point and she was 1 mark short of her Chinese target but I was already super pleased. She is afterall a kang tang kia.

I had high hopes for Zaky too. He did very well for his P1 and also his P2 SA1. Then again, he had always been inconsistent, depending on how much efforts and concentration he has for the day. In the end, only his Maths met the target, his English wasnt too far off and let's forget about his Chinese. While I didnt expect him to ace in his Chinese, the result was a disgrace. No dog, no hamster and pls continue with your 天下 classes. Zzzzz. In fact, it was so bad that I can see the money that we had thrown into 天下 burning up. Yes, my fumes and blood pressure went up too. Aaarrggghhhh. At least he knew and was guilty (for a very little while) about how bad he had done.

The end of the year is also the time to gan cheong over class allocation. The kids are streamed into different classes based on their results starting from P3. I was super anxious for Zaky. While the Chinese results are always taken separately, I didnt think he did well enough to gaurantee a place in the top 2 classes.

*Drumroll.....*
Lil Shauna remained in the top class for the 3rd year in a roll! She was mega pleased with herself and so was I. While her Chinese was ok, she was eventually offered higher Chinese bcos she did so well for the other subjects. She hestitated for a while and eventually decided to try out higher Chinese. I left the choice entirely to her bcos I can only expect that much when it comes to Chinese. Haha. More importantly, a couple of her good friends are staying on in the same class as her. Phew.

Zaky made it into the 2nd top class! While he was slightly (so very slightly) disappointed, he was happily telling me which other BFFs are joining him in the new class. I am so relieved that at least he squeezed into the better class. Double phew.

With the results in and school almost out, I was so eager to start packing their own books and throwing away the accumulated worksheets and books. They are stacked so high on the shelf that I thought I wad playing Jenga. The booklist is also out and I was busy last night texting to see if anybody wanted hand me downs.

This morning, I had mega satisfaction when I threw a whole stack of workbooks into the recycle bin. With just 2 days to school closing, I doubt they do decent work in school and was sure that I could start throwing. I am so thrilled at the thought of ripping worksheets out of the files and into the recycle bins. Hohoho.

Bye books, bye worksheets! I am happy with the end of the school year but strangely for a reason so different from the kids. Lol.

Mummy Lim

Happy 62th Bday Popo

If Popo had been in the corporate race, she would have officially retired. Hehe. Even then, she couldnt get to retire from the grandkids; they are leeches. Lol.

Once a year on this special occasion, we headed to a vegetarian resturant. While I was not particularly looking forward to vegetarian food, I was quick to remind my brother to look for a decently priced one. Vegetarian food all taste about the same to us and we went to super expensive one last year. After the meal, both our tummies and pockets felt very unsatisfied. Lol.

This year, all thanks to my sil, we found one right at JE.

Zaky was so funny. He protested the moment he heard that we were heading to a vegetarian resturant; he exclaimed that he doesnt eat vegetables! Even when we tried to assure that there are non vegetable options, he was adamant about eating meat. Zzzzz... KFC after vegetarian meal, ok?

In the end, our vegetarian meal was full of fried stuff to appease the kids.

Zaky was just very pleased that there was fried kway teow. That is his current favorite these recent months, saving us the need to go KFC. Haha.

We had a small cake cutting ceremony.

Happy bday Popo!

And after Popo has cut the cake...

The kids were also rushing to "murder" the poor cake.

The Fs came over after dinner on Sunday and it was a fun filled and noisy evening.

The Fs had no school yday. While our kids do, bedtime was pushed back so much bcos it is the last week of school and there probably isnt much real work done in school; they can afford to stone in school. Lol. Lil Shauna said that she cant wait for school to close; the results are out and done and she opined school should just close NOW. Haha.

We had another cake cutting yday, on Popo's actual day. The kids were very proud of their creation, telling me that the icing wording is legible!

Happy bday Popo! Stay healthy!

Mummy Lim

Ice Skating 142: Growing Up

Lil Shauna's knee is still hurting but she is definitely so much better. She was even on ice last Sunday and joined the off ice training. It had been so long since she last seen her ice skating peers. While she did complain of pain, her knee held through the training and there was a lot of jumping. Yeah!

We are back on ice yday. The warm up jumps were so much better. On ice, she could now do and land all the jumps properly except for flip. Double yeah!

Lil Shauna is definitely growing rapidly.

See this T-shirt? I bought this from Disneyland HKG about 8 years back. I barely worn it, bcos it was a tad too tight. Hoho. The shirt has now found a new owner.

Her skates are getting way too tight, hurting her pinky toes. Her new skates would take a few more weeks to come. Then, there will be new pain trying to run in her new skates. Zzzz... I didnt want to think about it. Coach Raymond suggested to taking out the insole for an extra space for the last few weeks. Interestingly, it works! Lil Shauna says that the soles were a little hard but it was much comfortable than having super tight skates. We just bought ourselves a little more time.

Lil Shauna went through her lesson with no insoles without a hitch.

It was finally jumping week again. Yeah! It wasnt new jumps but to revise and refresh the jumps that have been left untouched for many, many weeks. Lil Shauna survived the class well though she said that the flip jumps did hurt her knee. Nevertheless, she survived. Hehe.

This morning, she told me how much her landing leg thigh muscle was aching. She is definitely using and training the right muscle for landing.

Mummy Lim

Detox!

If I have a nickname, I will probably be called a "walking bag of shit". Lol. I have struggled with my constipation problem for as long as my weight problem and both problems seem to have worsen with age. Tsk tsk.

At times, my system gets so clogged up that I needed to turn to medicinal relief. I tried to stay away for fear that one day, that would be the only way that the system would flow. Daddy Lim who had the problem of going to the toilet too frequently is actually my secret envy.

Auntie S had several attempts with detox tea/ enzyme and swear how they helped with the toilet routine. The idea of being about to clear the system on a daily basis - I was sold and had been on a lookout for detox tea.

I read some reviews on boo tea and skipped that when I understood that it was largely natural laxatives. It wasnt cheap too. After looking around, I found the Kinohimitsu Detox Enzyme. It appeared to be a new product and I was unable to find any unpaid reviews on it.

There was an offer and I got a box of 30 sachets for $29.90. The instruction is to take for 6 days straight and then 1 to 2 sachets per week or as and when required.

The detox enzyme comes in a delicious berry flavor; one sachet is to be mixed with 150ml of water. It does leave an unpleasant lingering taste and it probably has to do with some kind of artificial sweetener. I am sure the enzyme has a laxative effect bcos the disclaimer asked users not to take the enzyme too late into the evening as it "takes effect" 2 to 4 hours after consumption.

After taking the enzyme, I was very bloated and farted so much that I can probably blow up a big balloon. Hohoho. The bloatedness and farting effect didnt go away until the urge comes to clear the system. Sometimes, it doesnt totally go away until a long time later. I do not think that it would be a good idea to take the enzyme when there is a social or important event to attend.

Before toilet operation is in progress, a tummy ache sets in and the tummy ache doesnt feel natural but the same kind when I took medical relief to ease constipation.

I managed to stick to the routine for 6 days. In that week, I didnt at all lose any weight but gain even when I managed to go to the toilet every day. Interestingly, I did lose some weight after that and suspected that the enzyme leads to water retention. I was losing water after that.

It had been 2 weeks since I stopped and I still have a lot of the detox enzyme left but not looking forward to starting again... the bloatedness and the farting. Zzzzzz. Auntie S said that it takes some time for the body to get used to the detox. Maybe when I am brave enough.. or when I feel like I want to knock out somebody with my farts.

Mummy Lim