RI Again, RI no. 2

I still remembered our 1st half RI with WWF in mid 2018. We were still on our MTB and uturn at Seletar airport while the rest continue with the RI ride. I also clearly remembered how cui I was at the Seletar Airport break point, to the extent to want to throw my bike anyhow so that I could sit down and rest my poor legs.

Fast forward to 2019 and one of my resolutions was to complete an RI. By then, we were on our roadies and I think I completed 2 RIs in that year. One extra for bonus.

In January 2020, we did our 1st RI. Very good, can check off the resolution list already. Daddy Lim siao on and said that he wanted to do one RI every month... I don't think I am with him on this one. Hohoho.

We didn't do any RI in February. Phew. But Daddy Lim was quick to suggest to the group to do one in March. Come, come, who 怕 who.

We had a big group last night and decided to have 2 rolling trains, with the slower riders starting off 30 mins earlier. We were definitely in the slower train. We wanted to do an RI and not to kill ourselves with an RI.

It was an uneventful ride, though my toes started to cramp up even before we started riding. That is usually what I get in the night when I am in my work shoes and walked too much in the day. Nevertheless, it wasn't too bad especially with the help of the muscle rub. The pace was also comfortable and we were aided by the tailwind at some point.

The faster group caught us with us at Marina Barrage.

I probably had overexert at the long TMCR stretch. There was tailwind and I was drafting a fellow cyclist closely. By Barrage, I was generously smearing the heat rub on my calf. For the remaining ride, my calves and thighs were threatening to cramp up anytime.

Fortunately, other than the usual toe cramp, my leg muscles didn't go into some major spatism and throw me off the bike. It was strange; I wasn't that tired mentally or feel tired other than the very 酸 legs. The supper break at WCP MacD was very much welcome.

We made it home safe and sound.

Woohoo! 102km! It had been a long 6.5 hours ride.

The kids were so nice and allowed us to sleep in until 10am this morning. At times like that, it is so nice to have older kids. Hoho.

Mummy Lim

To the Dentist

I dont like to bring the kids to the dentist. There are dentists in school and the kids should make use of that free service, right?

Every now and then, Zaky would complain about some toothache and I would 敷衍 him a bit and then encourage him to go to the school dentist. Sometimes he does, sometimes, the pain dissolved on its own.

He has super bad oral hygiene. The number of times that he brushes his teeth per day is dependent on how often we remember to yell/ nag at him to do so, which also explains why he needs to visit the dentist so much more frequently than jiejie needs to. Tooth decay, baby root canal, gum infection. You named it, he had it. Zzzzz.

On Wednesday evening, he complained and whined about pain in one of his premolars. Haiz, again?!? The tooth was shaky, hurting and irritating him. Fortunately it was nearing bedtime and I managed to convince him to sleep over it.

The kids spent the whole of y'day afternoon at my brother's place. The tooth didnt cause problem the entire day but for some magical reason, the pain and irritation intensified by 200 folds the moment I stepped into my brother's home. The pain intensity is confirmed directly proportional to my proximity.

Zaky whined so much that we decided to bring him to the nearest dentist after dinner. I am so glad that my current company's insurance plan includes dental coverage and that nearest dentist clinic is on the panel list.
 Hohoho.

We arrived at the clinic shortly before closing. The clinic assistant actually wanted to turn us away but took pity on the suffering boy.. actually the suffering mummy who was trying her best to endure the endless whining. While I was busy filling up the form, the numbing gel was applied and the boy was soon urshered to the dentist chair. Before I even had time to pop into the treatment room, the problem causing tooth had been yanked out. Hooray! 

Bcos it was fully covered by insurance, it didn't cost us a cent. I even booked him for a regular cleaning and scaling session. Haha.

Mummy Lim

Ice Skating 201: So Many Changes

When I first heard that the National Competition is coming up in mid April and Lil Shauna is keen to join, I went on Taobao to order her leggings and costume. The last costume has become too small and has fuzzballs all over after several wears. Ya, they only last that many wears.

That was in January before CNY. The CNY delayed the package and the legging eventually came about a month later. Then the virus came along and the costume that is usually produced upon ordered, never arrive. I was told that the vendor couldn't advise the delivery date and it all depends on the virus situation. Die le. Fortunately, I was allowed to cancel the order and had a refund.

Then, I went on a mad frenzy to try to find another source to buy her costume. I didn't find a local vendor (unless I want to pay through my nose to get a tailored made one that could easily cost a few hundred bucks) and eventually ordered from Light in the Box. The shop is based in US and I have no idea if it is trustworthy but I have little choices. After the order was placed, it was daily tracking of the package delivery. Lo and behold, the package was mailed out from China. Chey, the US company also ordered from China leh.

After 2 weeks of antagonizing wait, we finally received the package yday. Hohoho.

Just when I thought that everything is on track, Coach Raymond informed that the National Competition has been postponed until further notice due to the virus situation. Zzzzzzz. Ok lor, we just have to take it as having more time to practice. 

With the postponement of the competition, we also paced out the SISA ice practice. Lil Shauna had her 1st SISA ice after 2 weeks' break; Coach Raymond just came back from his 2 weeks' Japan holiday. No, he doesn't have any flu symptom and is healthy and well. 

Her lesson was at 7.30am this morning and all thanks to flexibility in working hours, I could watch her before rushing off for work. She was.. or at least looked lethargic as I looked at the other strong skaters zoomed by. Errr.... skate faster leh. Also bcos of the competition postponement, Coach didn't make her do her program today. It was the usual footwork, jumps and spins. Well, at least there were a few proper Axel jumps. 

She tried Axel + loop jump but wasn't successful. 

The last part was on the spins. I thought there was a couple of decent camel spins where she held on to 3 rounds. 

Her camel + sit spin failed badly though. Fighting!

Coach had decided that he would be including an Axel jump in her program! Woohoo! While Lil Shauna is anxious about it, I think she isn't too intimidated. Like I always say, it is like a switch; once she gets it, it is like the switch turned on and it becomes so easy thereafter. I hope she finds the "switch" to her camel and broken leg spin soon. 

Mummy Lim

More Fishy Business

It all started with a Kdrama that I just completed watching. Long story short, the drama was set in a hospice setting where people died like throughout the drama.  The point is - life can be short and vulnerable and we should live life to the fullest and happily. So, the kids had been bugging to add on their fishy friends and kdrama helped them this time. Yay!

We were told that somewhere in Clementi neighbourhood, there is a whole row of fish shops with good selection. The kids were told that they could each select 1 fish. Lil Shauna was super keen on a puffer fish. Surprisingly, puffer fish could survive in fresh water but we were told that it has teeth and would attack the other fishes. Zaky wanted shrimps but those require super clean water... errrr... we confirm have sub-standard water.

In the end, Zaky ended up with 2 male guppies bcos 1 is too lonely. Lil Shauna got 3 dont know what fishes that need at least 3 for companion. What strange fishes. Then Daddy Lim brought a plant to calm the fishes. The fishes have such good life.

The kids excitedly do the needful to acclimatize the fishes before they are finally added to their new home.

We now have a total of 12 fishes and had killed 9 from the longkang fishing. Let's hope the rest survive.

Mummy Lim

Fishy Business

Our kids, like most kids yearn for pets. Their dream pet is of course some 4-legged fluffy, furry thing but they are desperate enough to settle for anything else including house lizards and spiders. No!

They once had fishes that surprisingly lasted a couple of months. While the kids, particularly Zaky was very responsible in caring for the fishes, the cleaning tasks fall more and more on Popo towards the end. Don't look at me. I cannot stand fishes or plants. They fall in the same yucky zone for me.

The kids branded us as the evilest parents when my brother got a puppy for the 3Fs. I stood my ground; I am not going for a "3rd kid" that never grow up. I continued to dangle my carrots for the kids to work hard for their SAs before we talked about any 4-legged pets.

Last Sunday, we finally relented and allowed the kids to go longkang fishing with the Fs. We have officially re-secured the best parents title again. Hoho.

Like the last time, the kids were allowed to pick and choose 5 of the most prized fishes to bring home after they had fun torturing and hauling the poor fishes. Zaky was upset that he accidentally released one that he wanted to bring home. Lil Shauna took such a long time that I gave up and she ended up bringing 11 of them home. We got a bigger tank, new food and air pump for the fishes. Hopefully they live longer.

The fishes survived the journey home alright. Only one didn't make it. Daddy Lim and the kids then happily set up the new home for the kids. The kids dug out the old ornaments that we brought for the last batch and were mega happy.

Tadah!

The water turned murky overnight such that the kids were insistent to change the water last night. The kids orchestrated the whole water changing mission. I was eye-powering and giving instructions at the side. Ya, I do not like fishes or their smelly water. Hoho.

Mummy Lim

Kissed by a Bee

What are the odds of being stung by a bee? Daddy Lim said that he had never gotten a bee sting. I am not too sure if I had been too lucky or unlucky but yours truly had been stung 3 times, 3 bloody times.

The 1st was a long time ago. I was on the way to Bukit Gombat for work and was riding on my beloved Phantom. The bee got stuck at my watch and stung me. Come on, I wasnt even at fault. Anyway, that was the time that I realised that I am not allergic to bee stings; they just hurt big time.

The 2nd time was in one of Thailand theme parks and that was my indeed my bad. I big fat sat on a poor little bee and squashed it dead. Before it died, it took revenge and stung me on my thunder thigh. That was bloody painful too.

I got stung for the 3rd time y'day while riding with the WWF pack. We were on the way home on Mandai and on the downslope when I felt a buzzing something flying into my face. It flew itself right into my lips and almost into my mouth. I half tried to swipe it away with my hand and half trying to spit it off, along with my half-eaten fisherman mint.

I did but the damage was done. Boohoo. I didn't even do anything to do it. It was the one who decided to fly into my face when there was so much open space.

The sting was still stuck on my lips when we stopped for regroup. Daddy Lim helped me take a pic for memory sake. I mean, how rare is that?

He tried to remove the sting by hand but wasn't successful. The removal wasn't painful. We kept the sting all the way until we were home and had to use a tweezer.

There wasn't any pain other than the initial sting. The pain was also less intense than previous ones.

This morning, I woke up to 香肠嘴.

Oooo.. so sexy. No need to spend money on fillers. Lol.

Mummy Lim

Contact Lenses

The Hoya lenses are ready, much to our surprise. We were told that they could take up to 6 weeks but we got ours in 1. We collected the new glasses and at the same time, have Lil Shauna learn how to wear contact lenses. Yes, we bought her contact lenses, largely to wear during ice skating.

The lenses on the glasses had visible "honeycomb" patterns. Lil Shauna said that the initial sensation is weird. The honeycomb design causes sharp and blur vision. I am not sure how that helps but we will know if they work after 6 months. The optician said that these glasses are not meant for sports and the kids should change back to their single vision glasses like during PE. So 麻烦 right? The kids didn't believe me when I told them that wearing glasses is troublesome. Mummy knows best!

Lil Shauna doesn't wear her glasses on ice despite being very blind in 1 eye. The glasses would probably fly when she spins and jumps on the ice. When we asked if she would like to try contact lenses instead, she jumped at the opportunity.

We were told that the "learning" would take about half an hour. We headed down on Sunday morning in hope that she would be able to wear the trial pair for ice skating.

She took longer than 30 mins. The 1st attempt was tough. She kept thinking that she would poke herself blind. Zzzzzzz. The left eye was easier. She attempted to wear it for 3x and removed them twice during the session. Throughout, the optician patiently helped her to clean and reclean the lenses and put them in position (on her finger). Who would help her do that next time? She also killed 1 pair, dropping them onto the floor.

The contact lenses gave her headache in the beginning but she persisted. She wore them to ice skating and for the 1st time in a long time, she was skating with clear vision. What is more comforting is that she still remembers her Axel jump. Hohoho.
We also took time to try to be graceful and dramatic to her competition routine and I have to say that we are making progress.

She wanted to remove the contact and fortunately successfully did so. If she didn't, I wouldn't be able to help and would have to bring her back to the optical shop.

She said that it was easier to take them out than to wear them.

Her new glasses look.

I am glad that she didn't react adversely to the contact lenses. Lil Shauna said that she has classmates who started contact lenses since last year. The kids really do start young now.

Mummy Lim

Ice Skating 200: Music and Axel

Lil Shauna has learnt her competition routine about 2 weeks back. It basically means that she remembers the footwork and when to do her jumps and spins. However, doing them with music is a totally different business.

For the very 1st time, she got to do her routine with music on SISA ice last Wednesday. Her 1st attempt saw her chasing after the music. It got *slightly* better in subsequent attempts but she was far from ready. This time, she is skating to Despocito volin cover, which is unlike the pop songs that she is used to in the past. It basically needed her to be graceful and expressive, something that she totally cannot relate to. Drama lah, drama.

While she was mega proud that she had managed her routine, I was less than pleased. This resulted in an argument on the way home. She thought that I was criticising her and not recognizing her efforts and was defensive to all that I said. I ended up repeating the same thing and got more agitated as I speak bcos I didn't know if she was listening. Anyway, she heard and we spent time in the following week working on trying to look grateful and then trying them out on Saturday ice. 

On Saturday ice, we also spent time on her camel and broken leg spins and her Axel jumps. It had been too long, stale already. She would never be able to land her Axel if she doesn't correct landing on the correct leg.

She surprised me. Apparently, she had been watching some youtubes to try to nail the Axel. She attempted mini jumps and successfully landed on the correct leg. Yay! Finally! Then moved on to try to do her Axel. There was one or 2 that Coach caught and said that it wasn't too bad, just slightly short of the 1.5 revolutions required. 

Last Wednesday, we were back on SISA ice. Lil Shauna got to try her program with music. Our hard work pretending to be drama paid off and her 1st attempt was so much better than the previous week. She got tired and the subsequent attempts were less ideal. There are still a lot to be done to try to pretend to be graceful.

She did her program a couple of times and as she got more tired, it became less ideal. I thought Coach was trying to murder her. Lol. Then they went on to work on her Axel with the remaining time.

The 1st few ones look quite decent although she landed each one on her butt eventually. At least it was the correct landing leg. 

Daddy Lim was with me and was so appalled that his little girl was falling left, right and center. This one small case; I had seen her falling much more badly, which is also why she is always so resistant in practicing Axel. Pain lah.

After a few tries, she finally got what looked like an Axel! I can't tell actually but she landed on one foot and it looked that she had finally nailed it!

At the end of the lesson, Coach confirmed that she had indeed nailed 2 or 3 Axel jumps. Hohoho. Most of them had the required 1.5 revolutions but only a few saw her landing properly.

Lil Shauna was mega pleased and so was I. We finally moved on! She even asked me to blog about the achievement and couldn't wait to post on IG.

We will be back on the ice to practice her Axel on Saturday. I really, really hope that she doesn't lose it. Fingers and toes crossed.

Mummy Lim

More and More Expensive Bats

Don't worry, the post isn't about real bats. I am talking about the the 2 going-to-be-blind mice at home.

In July last year, we started the kids on the Crizal myopia control lenses bcos their myopia is progressing too rapidly. The lenses are seriously expensive and cost $360 per pair. Now, let the pain hit 2x. We would told that the lenses would help to slow down/ control myopic if used properly. Generally, the users have to use the center of the lenses to look farway and the outer part of the lenses to look near distant. The lenses are designed in such a way that the outer part has a lower degree power and therefore less stressful on the eyes.

Though it had been statistically proven that the lenses control myopic progression, we were still advised to bring the kids back for review in 6 months' time.

We brought the kids back for checks in December. Did the lenses help? Haiz. Lil Shauna's right eye remained at 175 but her left went up by 50 to 400... Blind already or not. Zaky is worse. His right went up by 50 to 225 and his left increased by 25 to 200. No wonder he had complained that his vision has blurred despite the glasses.

The optician then introduced the lastest myopia controlled lenses by Hoya. The Hoya lenses can control myopic up to 65% of the cases and it is designed such that there isn't a need for specific usage. Anyhow see also can.

Whether the Hoya lenses are as good as promoted is a question mark. What remains true is that new and supposedly "better" products always come with a price tag. Ouch. We were quoted $470 per pair if we buy 2 pairs.

I hestitated big time. Maybe we should use back the Crizal lenses or we could delay the change. Maybe I should just let the kids be legi blind bats.....

We didn't go back to the optical shop until last Sunday. I was thrilled to find out that my new company medical insurance includes a $400 Wellness claim per family member. Hoya lenses, here we come.

I didn't know that the degree can go down as well. Lil Shauna was eventually at R 200 and L 375. While not ideal, her progression appeared a lot more well controlled. Zaky is at R 250 and L 225. His eyes deteriorated more from December. Roaaarrr...

The Hoya lenses can take up to 6 weeks to be ready. Meanwhile, the kids were given a free pair of single vision lenses. We used the kids' old frames for the new lenses. Yes, we have so many pair of glasses lying around at home.

Mummy Lim

New Wheels!

Whether is it the car or bike, it is the same to the men- the constant pursue of upgrading - to go faster, even if it is for that few seconds. I had always thought that we had good bikes or at least good enough bikes. They are not cheap afterall.

Just like most of the cars that we had and that I was happy with them, I am happy with my bike. On the other hand, Daddy Lim never stop exploring how the bikes can be improved.

He had been looking at aero-wheels for a while, dropping hints that we should change to them one day. That "day" finally came and he put up a convincing speech, including how we should change to aero-wheels at the same time and he will use the extra cash from his bonus to buy them as some gifts to us.

He caught me when I was off guard. The moment I nodded my head, he went into a super efficient mode and ordered the wheels online, arranging for delivery and fix up and all. His efficiency was impressive.

I didn't have to do anything. One day last week, he told me that the wheels had finally arrived. He then arranged for the bikes to be sent to be fixed and everything was ready for the usual Saturday WWF ride. Woohoo!

Yes, my pink bar tape is up and it totally matches my pink gloves. Hoho.

He picked the bikes up on Friday and then picked me up from the office. He was very excited about them and enthusiastically snapped a pic of me with the bike despite the fact that I was lugging a recycle bag and looking totally auntie.

We rode the bikes with the new wheels on Saturday to NTU. I can only tell that we have very noisy hubs that attracted a lot of attention. Everybody now know that we have upgraded the wheels bcos they are so noisy.

We climbed NTU with them! My very 1st NTU ride and I survived. Did it feel like the wheels helped? Actually I am not sure; I only know that they are very loud. Hoho.

This morning, we went LP1 on them and we went faster than usual on the last stretch. We were very happy and thought that the wheels are doing their job and it is a good investment! However, there was crazy headwind on the way back, which meant that it may not be the wheels but the tailwind afterall. Hahaha.

Mummy Lim