WWF with Kids and Ice Skating 188: Dead

Somebody asked if anybody knew how to ride to Coney island and back via PCN. Upon hearing that the next ride would be via the PCN, Daddy Lim got very excited (much, much more than I was) and asked if we could bring the kids.

We did bring the kids but we didn't go to Coney Island bcos it is a freaking 90km route and our kids are not trained for that kind of distant. It was decided that we would head to the Bukit Brown cemetery instead via mainly pavement and PCN. Spooky!

PCN = slower speed and with kids = crawling speed. Other than our kids, the ride leader also brought his son and the other riders joining the ride were reminded that we would be crawling on this ride. To make up for the "long' ride, we started at 6am, 30 mins earlier than usual

The kids were very excited and it was easy to get them out of bed. I was hoping that their excitement would last throughout the ride. Yes, I was worried, particularly Zaky. We know how he can whine when he is hungry and tired. Not fun.

We were up at 5am and kids at 5.30am so that we would be on time. We were slightly early and the kids ran off to the nearby playground. Ya, at barely 6am in the morning.

While the intention was to use the PCN, we had to 1st find a way to get to the PCN and ended up riding on the road.. all the way until Chevron!

The kids had rode on the road before but usually on isolated roads and for short distant. We did that in Sunshine Coast too and their poor mother almost lost her heart. This time, it was very different. The kids were very well protected with adults in front, behind and beside them and they the totally enjoyed the experience. By the way, the ride leader son is a teenager at 15 YO and used to road riding having done RI with his Dad on several occasions.

The other riders were so patient and nicely rode at 15 to 18km/hr. I was so surprised that nobody fell off their bike due to the slow pace. Haha.

The PCNs were much welcome and were fairly empty in the early morning. We came across a whole family of otters crossing the cannel!

We hit back the road after the PNC at Buona Vista. Soon after we got on the road, it was up and down slope + hit repeat. At the initial steeper slope, Zaky finally gave up and stopped midway. It took a lot of encouragement before he began riding again up the slope and we eventually caught up bcos the rest nicely slowed down to wait for us. It didn't help that he has a kiddy mountain bike.

With each upslope that we encountered, I heard more and more of Zaky's whine and I was so worried that he would really give up. Lil Shauna was a champ and was riding in sync with the group. Fortunately, Zaky pressed on and we eventually arrived at Bukit Brown.

It was another fortunate that the sun was shining brightly and there was nothing spooky about Bukit Brown.

Until we saw what appeared like a horse appearing from one of the misty lanes. Seriously, a rider and horse in the cemetery? I got reminded of the jack'OLantern.

It turned out to be real and the lady kindly stopped for us to admire the horse. It was beautiful.

We did a quick tour of Bukit Brown before the most favorite activity - bfast, at the Adams Road Hawker Center. Zaky insisted on the nasi lemak. There were several stalls selling nasi lemak but were all awkfully slow. Zzzzzz.

The ride back was uneventful but Zaky's energy was also draining and I had to keep reminding him to pedal harder and not hold up the whole group.

We made it home safe and sound - 41.6km, completed in about 4 hours with bfast break. Not too bad.

It was indeed tiring for the kids. The moment they were home, they went for calories loading.

That was not the end for Lil Shauna. Not long after we were home, she had to go for round 2 - her ice skating class. Even before we arrived at the ice, I heard her grumble about how tired her arms and legs were. Ohoh.. never a good sign.

As expected, lesson was lousy. She claimed that she was tired and there were too many people. Zzzzz.

I know that it was indeed tired but I really need to grumble - she had been stuck at her axle jump, camel and broken leg spins for like months! Yawn.

Mummy Lim

Kena Thrashed

The ActiveSg basketball program is so interesting - inter sports hall competition was organised as part of the program. There was a game on Saturday morning but it was at the Pasir Ris Sports hall and nobody wanted to send Zaky to the other end of Singapore for a game. Seriously, why so far? The Sunday morning game was at Clementi and he was really excited to go.

I didn't quite figured out how this whole thing worked but only 6 of his mates turned up in his usual class of over 20 kids. I am half guessing that it is SA2 period or the sports hall is out of the way. Anyway, the 6 who turned up were also not the strongest. On the other hand, the Clementi team has a good 10 players.

We arrived at 10.45am thinking that we were early for the 11am session but realised that we were supposed to report at 10.30am. Fortunately, the game was delayed and didn't start until 11ish. Zaky was uber irritating when he is anxious. I was so glad when the Coach finally called all the kids together for warm up. Soon after, the game started.

Surprising, it was a full court game; the practices had always been on half court.

While he is one of the "bigger" kids during his practices, he totally lost the advantage at the games. In addition, he lacks agility and his ball handling skill needed so much more polishing. In a more blunt way, he was lousy. Hahaha. Well, he had only be "trained" for a couple of weeks so far.

They played 4 quarters (or whatever you called it). Their team kena thrashed until.... Lol. It was honestly totally fustrating to watch the games. To be fair, the other team was much stronger in skills and strength. As they had 10, they were able to switch the entire team while Zaky's team only had 1 to sub each time. This means that the opponents were much more rested and had a lot more physics than Zaky's team. Then, Zaky's team made it worse by not thinking. 四肢不发达，头脑又简单. Die. Haha. Even the girls in the Clementi team were stronger; Zaky got intercepted a few times by this particular girl. Haha.

They are probably too young to do positioning, which also meant that unless there is a strong leader to command the team, the team was running around like a pack of loose cannons. That was exactly what happened and it wasn't long before the team got tired. For the entire game, we watched painfully as the entire team ran after the ball or whoever was holding the ball (team mates or not), up and down the court. The other team cleverly had one or two who move quickly to the other side or go into total defence mode. We had been telling Zaky the importance of running to open space and asked for the ball. He simply stood in the embrace of his opponent and raised his hand for the ball. Who the hell will pass to him?

It was really antagonising to watch. In the last quarter, Zaky took a tumble and said that he sprained his ankle. I was guessing that he needed a rest than a real sprain. Lol. When I went to him, he needed no comforting; he just needed to rest. Haha. If there was any sprain, it is probably a really minor one. It wasn't long before the game ended. His team scored 4 points while the opponent had over 30 points. Haha.

On the way home, Zaky got upset and defensive when we tried to tell him how he could have played better. Well, the truth is always painful. I hope at least he could remember what he could have done better next time. There is another game the next weekend. Despite getting thrashed, he is still very keen to go. Haha.

Mummy Lim

Happy Bday Not So Little Boy

Zaky turned 9 y'day. Woohoo! My kids are so old already; the days that they no longer "mummy this, mummy that" will be coming soon right? Hehehe. I know I will miss that when it is gone.

Daddy Lim and I were all late y'day and didn't get a chance to dine with the kids but did so on Sunday. When I was back at JP, Zaky was trying to pick a toy for his bday; a gift from Popo. He took a long time to find something that he likes bcos he seriously has outgrown that phase. I had to stop him from getting another expensive and useless remote car. He has so many of them lying at home. He usually lost interest after playing it a couple of times and then the batteries died and the remote car sit in some corners collecting dust.

Eventually, he decided to save the $$ for occasions/ something that he really wanted. Good choice. Lil Shauna also offered to gift him something of his choice up to $40. The kids had good amount of savings from their recess allowance. I thought that was so generous of her until she told Zaky that he MUST reciprocate the same amount on her bday. Chey, that is like using her own money now for future. Lol.

While there was no gifts bcos Zaky couldn't decide, Zaky got a cake as requested.

I thought that the cake was nicely decorated.

Daddy Lim was just in time for candle blowing.

Happy bday to the not-no-little-anymore boy.

After all the excitement, it was back to mugging for SA2. Hohoho. Zaky sat for his English paper 1 on his bday and then had to mug his Chinese paper 1 still on his bday. Yesh, we are in full fledge SA2 mode now. Roooaaarrr..

Mummy Lim

October Babies Gathering @ T Junction

Coincidentally, we have 4 October babies. Having tasted the good of T Junction, we were lured back for round 2 - there were plenty to entertain the kids.

We arrived at 4ish to find QQ watching DVD on a mega screen. It would be a nice idea if  all the kids can watch a movie quietly. Fat hope. It wasn't long before the others arrived and the kids were off playing pool, playing boardgame or simply running around and making a lot of noise. The parents busied catching the kids and feeding them before all hell breaks loose.

The last gathering, we taught the kids how to play nerds - a crazy card games that we ourselves played when we were teenagers. While it was fun pairing and playing with the kids, it would be even more fun playing on our own. Our eyes sparkled at the notion and we chased off the kids after making sure that they were well entertained to start our "battle". The stakes were high - the last was to mop and vacuum the floor. Muahahaha.

Trust me when I said that we were very serious about the game. Even the little ones (read: pop, MM and Gracie) climbing and jumping off the sofa didn't stop the 3 mothers - our reputation and the penalty were too much to consider to stop the game and man the kids.

While the kids didn't get into our way, the aching backs did from the prolong sitting on the floor. Then, there was the painful knee from the constant knocking onto the floor as we attempted to fly across the floor to place that card. We only completed 5 games but that was enough to put the little people, our poor back and knee in extreme danger.

Auntie T 宝刀未老 and came in top, saving her from the penalty. Auntie H and R took the last spots. See lah, never practice the last gathering. Hohoho.

We stopped for the cake cutting. It was a delicious chocolate cake, which the kids approved for - they came back for 2nd helping and there was no wastage.

That marked the end of the gathering.

We are all very nice and helped with the cleaning up, never bully the 2 mummies. Haha.

Mummy Lim

Austin Heights Again?!!

Oh yes. Lol. Bcos it was the PSLE marking week. But it was just the weekend bcos my brother's family had planned earlier to crash just for the weekend and we followed. They had entered on Thursday night, deciding to skip school for all 3 girls bcos exams are either over or non-existent. We didn't have the luxury with SA2 lurking in the corner.

We decided to pull the "after midnight" stunt again. The kids understood the drill and willingly go to bed for a "nap" at 10ishpm until the custom jam let up. It was slightly better this time and the "red line" disappeared at midnight. We started our journey at 12.30am and there was no traffic at all at both immigrations. Zaky merely moved his bed from the house to the car.

We were staying beside the KSL mall this time bcos my brother's family was already parked there.

The drive was very smooth and we arrived within an hour since we started our journey. Daddy Lim's tummy was rumbling upon arrival and we were lucky to find Ramli burger right at the apartment doorstep. Zaky was so tired that but he gave up the Ramli burger for sleep. What big sacrifice! We were all happily in the lala land's embrace shortly.

The apartment is clean and decent with 2 double beds and a small kitchen.

It came with a bathtub too but nobody was interested. We had too little time and too much stuff to do.

The view from the balcony before the hustle and bustle.

Soon, we were on the way to bfast before heading to the 1st activity of the day - laser tag.

It was a lot of fun and a good workout particularly for Zaky. He was pouring sweat after each game (we had 3) but the rest of us came out decent looking leh. Lol. I wonder what he did on top of laser tag.

We were too early for the VR at 3pm and the kids had a go at the drift cart as well as yummy finger food. We had too much at bfast to have a proper lunch.

The VR games were great just a tad too expensive even though it is already in RM. I though we advanced further in the games with more experience under our belt.

Right after the VR, we had to rush off to the Escape Room. See, our program was so packed!

We opted for some martial arts theme and were shacked together. We already failed the 1st mission where we had to unlock the chain and had to call for help.

We almost escaped; they gave us extra time and we made it out of the room in the extra few mins.

We had an early dinner as we didn't have a proper lunch from the heavy bfast. The late night, VR and escape room took a toll on me and I started developing a headache and was queasy. We had tasty lok lok but I couldn't stomach any bcos it was too oily.

We headed back to the Airbnb for a rest and had wanted to hit the KTV. I popped 2 panadols to nurse the headache away before round 2 but never got to continue with part 2. I literally concussed despite the din created by the kids. I woke up intermittently to screaming and dancing kids, then to my brother asking who wanted Ramli burger, to unwilling kid being asked to go back to her room. I only woke up at 11ish to kids who were going into lala land. My headache was finally gone but it was bedtime again. Haha. I heard Zaky fought hard for the Ramli burger and Daddy Lim went for a massage while I was quite dead.

The next morning, I woke up before the rest did. The apartment comes with a huge pool and a gym. Yes, a gym. Hehehe. I packed my gym gear and the glorious sun greeted me on the way to the gym.

It was a decent gym with 2 treadmill and some other equipment. Though non-aircon, there was good air circulation. I sweared that the treadmill was not leveled bcos I huffed and puffed and had to reduce speed so that my poor heart could take it. I did complete my usual 30 mins and returned triumphantly to the sleeping apartment.

It wasn't long before we proceeded to check out. Checking out was self service and was just as convenient as checking in - drop the card key into the mail box and go! To another sumptuous bfast!

We headed to the mall for the kids to burn some energy at the Rocky Basecamp.

The adults took turns to supervise the kids.

We were too full for proper lunch and snacked before the final activity of the trip - KTV. This time we sang for 2 hours and it was just nice with so many people sharing the mic.

The day was finally done at about 5pm and we didn't feel hungry after all the snacking. With that, we started our way home.

The custom at the Malaysia side was a breeze; there was almost no Q. But we were stuck at a bloody 2.5 hrs at the Singapore immigration. Sob! Towards the end, we were all irritated and frustrated. At least the boy felt asleep and there was much peace.

Mummy Lim

ActiveSG Basketball: Improvement or ??

We haven't been very regular with the basketball classes and only managed once a week for the thrice weekly classes. We would usually attend the Wednesday or the Saturday class. Well, life just gets a little crazy busy some times.

We had been attending the Wednesday classes bcos we couldn't make it for the weekend classes. This entails me taking time off from work, rushing home to pick the boy then to CCK sports hall by 5pm. Phew.

His basketball class will start with warm up followed by drills. He hated this part most - they are tiring without the most fun. I will have the boy coming back during water break asking me how much time of the lesson is left. Haha.

I think the workout is totally doing him good. He seriously needs the running and jumping to lose some weight. His weight is on a speed train upwards and his height slow gain is not helping to stretch the fats. Lol.

Fortunately, the boring drills didn't last that long before the interesting ones take over. The coaches cleverly infuse games and competition in some of the drills and the kids all get very excited to try to win.

As the season progresses, the kids get more time to do more basketball games in half court. At the start of the season, the games were more scary than fun with the ENTIRE pack running after whoever is holding on to the basketball. Now, some of the kids are cleverer, running clear instead of following the pack. Zaky is learning how to do that after we pointed that out to him. He enjoyed doing so too bcos that meant a lot less running. Hohoho. He has side motive leh.

Zaky enjoyed the games a lot bcos he is also one of the bigger players. The kids are between 8 to 10 YO and being a BIG 9 YO has its advantage. He blocked a few shoots, caught some bounce off but still needed to work on his shooting. He cock eye lah. We are constantly in this dilemma of whether he should wear his glasses for lessons. Just the last lesson, the ball fell on his face and broke his nose piece. Besides the need to repair the glasses, it must hurt really badly.

After class, we took a grab to Jcube to meet up with Lil Shauna, who was starting her SISA ice.

Zaky is in the in-between stage right now. He has been asking and wondering what he should learn after this basketball season. Well, I will totally encourage him to continue the next season; the lessons are afterall so cheap. He mentioned ice skating. Hmmmm.. that is a lot of $$ and I am not sure if he is really interested. Maybe we can ask him to complete the core 4 group lessons 1st.

Mummy Lim