Zaky is Ice Skating too: Core 3 Lesson 1

Ever since Zaky stopped his TKD and ActiveSG basketball, he has been super free during the weekend while jiejie spent a lot of her time at the rink. The inactivity is also not helping with his weight. He is getting chubbier and chubbier, a far cry from his scrawny younger self. 

I took the opportunity to encourage Zaky to take up the ice skating core classes again. He passed his Core 3 a couple of years back and it had been a long time since he stepped back onto the ice. He must be bored and happily agreed to the classes. 

In preparation, we sent him ice skating with Lil Shauna a couple of times before the classes. Last Sunday morning, he started his very 1st class. 

Coach Raymond saw him before class and asked me what happened to him. Ya, what happened, how come he is a balloon now? Lol. Coach said that ice skating is not enough and he should join the off ice class. Zaky immediately backed out. Zzzzz.

It is so rare for Lil Shauna to be sitting and looking from the bench. She said that it was so weird. 

The 30 mins' class went fine. The pre-practices have done him well and I think it is easier for him to take instructions and control his body now that he is older. He happily came back and tell me how good he is. Ya, right. Lol. 

The class came with 2-hour free ice practice and he has a choice to practice at any time so long as he keeps his waist band. We went back during Lil Shauna's usually practice time so that she can help me watch over Zaky.

It all went went. The boy is looking forward to his next class. He said that he wants to do figure skating after that. Hmmm... Let's see. 

Mummy Lim

No More Play

I think the shelf life of the mp3 headphone is generally about 1+ year. My last pair was waterproof and that is by changing on the waterproofing earbuds. I swam in them a few times. Waterproof or not, I think they are just not meant to be swam in. I couldnt charge the earphones towards the end and suspect that water could have corroded the charging points. 

I took extra care and didn't swim with my current pair. Ok, I didn't swim much to begin with. Haha. Just a few weeks ago, it wouldn't charge and I thought it was gone case already only to have it suddenly come alive again. Yippy! Save money. 

Just when I was super thrilled about it coming alive, the "play" button suddenly dropped off. Zzzzzzz. 

It still works; I can still power it on and off, change the volume and tracks, provided that I can get it to play. How leh? The super old school way: use a ballpoint pen tip to poke it. Lol. The only problem is that I cannot off it during rides, which usually are a couple of hours, unless I brought along The Pen. Hohoho. 

That was what I did the last ride. I kept the mp3 off until the ride was about to begin and had to secretively poke it using The Pen to start the mp3 before riding off. It all worked well until I accidentally pressed on the toggle album/ folder, repeat/ shuffle/ normal mode button and the tracks stopped.

At one of the traffic lights, I tried to discreetly get it to start using The Pen but of course I wasn't discreet enough. I mean, how discreet can I be at the traffic light? Lol. Before I could poke it with The Pen, the light turned green. Zzzzzzzz. The Pen also caught a fellow cyclist's attention and he was asking why did I bring a pen on a ride. Hohoho. It was damn hilarious. 

I eventually did get the mp3 to work and yes, I managed to poke it with The Pen without drawing too much attention. Lol. I duno how long I am going to continue using this primitive method but I dont want to spend money leh. Hahaha. 

Mummy Lim

Updates: I just realised that I can get the mp3 to play by poking into the hollow using my pinky finger! That means that I must keep my pink nail to a certain length but that beats bringing The Pen out every time. Hahaha.

Take Leave to... Eat

Bcos of the Covid-19, overseas holiday becomes non-existent. I ended up with leave to clear, particularly childcare leave that cannot be brought forward. 

Apparently I am not the only one; Aunty S and SL were on a mission to clear leave too. What better opportunity than to meet up. 

They met for bfast and I took half day's leave to join them for lunch. I only figured out that we would be having HDL for lunch. I have given my 1st HDL experience to the 2 aunties. Hohoho. 

By the time I arrived, the table had just been set up and they were about to start. Perfect timing for the rumbling tummy. 

I do hear about the fantastic services provided by HDL and I am impressed. I tot that the last buffet steamboat that I had with the ladies was still better. That one buffet, can whacked all the meat without much thought. Hoho. 

With a rounded tum, tum, we shopped a little. They each got something. I didn't have any to buy; WFH means T-shirt and shorts and shoeless. In fact, I was very worried the last time I wore my office flats, that the shoe glue wouldn't hold. 

After a short round of shopping, we decided that it was more relaxing to just sit, chill and chit chat. This called about another round of eating. Seriously?!!? Hohoho. 

We headed for the aunties' favorite jiggly, jiggly pancakes. Tadah!

The milk tea is good; just the right sweetness.

I didn't know the agenda of the meet-up was eating and eating. Hoho. But the catching up and fellowship were definitely worth it. 

Mummy Lim

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Our family is one that generally isn't too bothered with lizards. We found one recently moving into our house. I dont fear them, though I got scared a couple of times by its sudden movement. The kids are very excited about lizards and always attempt to catch the big fat ones downstairs. They even thought of keeping a lizard has a house pet and attempted once a long time back. I had to secretly let it go. Zzzzzzz. 

We had been living at peace with the above mentioned lizard. All is good but the lizard crossed the boundary and shitted on Daddy Lim's work laptop. Wrong move. This resulted in the purchase of those lizard traps from NTUC last week. 

Daddy Lim said that he would set it up. Day one passed, then two, three, four, five and the lizard trap hasn't been set up. Is he waiting for some auspicious date? 

Just then, I saw the lizard trap, still in its packaging, being "displayed" in our bedroom. 

I am not sure what that is supposed to mean. My guess is that Daddy Lim is threatening the lizard to behave. Be afraid, be very afraid. Behave yourself or.... 

Mummy Lim

Updates: We did trap one lizard. It was still trying to wiggle free when we retrieved the trap. We had to heartlessly throw it into the bin. However, that was not the one that we intended to trap; that one was much fatter and bigger. It must be an experience one too bcos Popo said that one day, it saw the fat one enroute the trap to get to the other side. 高lizard一等. 

Ice Skating 206: Also Skating

We haven't been to SISA ice since the CB. For crowd control, SISA ice new format is to divide the ice into 6 sections and have max 5 skaters to share each plot. I can imagine that it is very restrictive and Lil Shauna is better off with her 1/3 JCube ice. 

On National Day PH, Coach informed that there was full ice JCube ice and asked if we wanted to do an hour lesson. Confirm plus chop and we were not the only ones. The ice was so crowded mainly with skaters practicing on full ice. There were so many of them zooming past Lil Shauna, spinning complicated spins here, jumping crazy jumps there. Luckily I insisted for Lil Shauna to wear her contact lens. She was already trying to avoid left and right and imagine her half blind, she would probably be immobilised. 

Lil Shauna said that she had 2 successful attempts of back sitspin. On good days, she also manages a good 3 proper rounds of camels and can even complete with sit spin though a tad struggling. Her axel jumps are quite decent now. Coach has also started her on an assorted double jumps, none of which she can accomplish yet. She just have to start any of the jumps and then turned it into somewhat like an axel in the air. Sounds easy right? Hahaha. 

Zaky's weekend had been really empty now that he has stopped his TKD and basketball. It is not good, while jiejie spent a lot of time in the rink, he spent all his time on his gadget and fontnite. We wanted to sign him up on something again to keep him occupy during the weekends. 

The CB is not helping and there is limited activities. He eventually decided that he would take Core 3 again. He had done Core 3 like 2 years back and have long forgotten how to skate properly. I have signed him up for the Sunday classes starting end August. 

To ensure that he can still skate, he went skating with jiejie. He was very enthusiastic in the beginning and Lil Shauna did a good job taking care of him. Spectators are not allowed in the rink. 

Of course it didn't last long bcos he started whinning about being tired and all. Zzzzz. 

They lasted almost the full session. Not bad.

The session was completed with waffle and ice cream. Yummy! 

I think he should be able to handle Core 3. I probably will bring him back for another session before his lessons start. 

Mummy Lim

 

The Big PSLE

Finally, the big day is here, the start of the most important exam of her 12 years' life.  Lil Shauna is having her PSLE EL Oral examination tomorrow and CL Oral on Friday. 

She had been screaming about how stress she is since I can't remember when. She doesn't look as stress as what she claimed to be. Lol. Just this evening, I asked her to start revising her CL oral before I went for grocery shopping and by the time I came up, she was back on her phone and claimed that she had finished revising. Nope, I didn't take forever at the grocery shopping. If she really can finish so fast, why stress? Then, she has the cheek to tell me that she cannot find her 6A CL textbook, 2 days before PSLE CL Oral and revision is completed. Zzzzz. 

All mummies have magical sight and can find things that nobody can. Of course I found the 6A CL textbook. 

Anyway, I am not so concerned about her EL Oral. I have kang dang kids anyway. What she needed is probably more calmness and peacefulness before and during the oral exam. 

I am worried about her CL Oral on Friday. So much so that I jumped at the opportunity when her CL tutor asked if she needed last minute help. Hopefully, she can use her short term memory to remember whatever useful phrases and sentences and use them on Friday. Finger crossed. All prayers are much welcome!

Fighting!

Mummy Lim

My Cycling Journey

It was started back in August 2017 when I bought my beloved Giant MTB. It was such an easy and comfortable ride. 

We found WWF in February 2018 and also the joy of group rides. Since then, we had been riding weekly with them. While they are a fantastic bunch with the "no one gets left behind" motto, we huff and puff while trying to chase them on our MTBs. I still remember our 1st half RI with them. By the time we arrived at Seletar Airport for the water break, I no longer have strength left in my jelly legs. I can't remember how I made it home. Painfully definitely. 

Until one day, I refused to chase like mad no more. Tadah! That is when my Langma came about in August 2018, one year after the MTB and 6 months after trying to keep up with the WWFs. 

It had been 2 years and I still enjoyed my Langma very much, just like how I used to enjoy my Giant MTB. While the bike remained the same, there had been upgrades. Biking is an expensive sports and upgrades are expensive. I conveniently get upgraded when Daddy Lim upgraded his bike. 1st, it was the aero Hunt wheels with the noisy hub in February 2020. It isn't too bad considering that the 1st upgrade only come after 1.5 years since I got the bike. I probably would have just faithfully rode it as it is if it wasn't for Daddy Lim who wanted to get aero-wheels for himself. Haha. 

Pro-cyclists are on cleat shoes. I want to at least look pro too. Haha. My next upgrade was to move on to cleat shoes. My chio chio pair was a farewell gift that I received in Dec 19 but I was too scardy cat to wear them. It wasnt until June 2020 that I finally summoned the courage to don them for rides. In the past 2 months, I had done multiple rides in my cleat shoes, including 2 RIs. Hehehe. While there were 2 occasions of near misses, I haven't fall down so far. On one of the occasions, I was trying to Uturn and forgotten that I was clipped in. I was falling and everything was suddenly in slow motion. I was already preparing to fall and was falling towards my left, which is the foot that I learnt how to unclip. By God's grace, the falling motion helped me to unclip at the very last moment. Heng ah! 

The latest "upgrade" was a bike fit. After a few of the usual gang went for a bike fit and swore by it, Daddy Lim was very tempted and encouraging that I should attempt to do a bike fit too so as to resolve my right elbow pain, a pain that started since I started road biking. Ok lor. With that, he also got himself a bike fit. Haha. 

Ooo... I looked good in the picture. Haha.

After the expert observed how I cycle on the trainer and a series of questions (butt position ok? Hand pressure ok?) there were really hard to answer, I was told that my position is largely ok. Chey. I eventually have one chair ring removed and that bloody cost me $220! Did I feel different after the bike fit? Bo leh. My right elbow continued to hurt on long or stressful rides. 

What I did heed is the need for me to start wearing bib (padded) shorts. I have been relying on a gel padded seat cover since I started MTB. I do have these shorts but they are super tight and I hate how the cycling shorts stick to the body. Daddy Lim would say that it is aero dynamic. Moreover, they are thigh length and the tan lines in the sun!!! 

I also though that I look so musculine in them unlike the other pro lady cyclists that I see. Why like that? I need to get a new pair of comfortable padded shorts, one that is much shorter so that it wouldn't give me horrible tan lines. Boohoo!

Mummy Lim

Goodbye Oreo

Oreo was the last surviving fish from our QianHu Longkang haul in early March. It even survived the 2 other batches of new fishes that we got to keep it company. The new fishes slowly died whenever we changed water; we must have done something wrong and tried to rectify. Instead of changing the entire tank of water, we now use the dropper to tediously suck up the poo and then changed part of the water, like what we read from the internet. But it still didn't work. More fishes died. Sob. 

Every morning, I will go to the tank to see if Oreo was still alive. I was secretly happy to see Oreo still swimming in the tank.

A few days ago, we found Oreo shimmy. It is like wiggling in the same spot. It can't be for fun. We googled and found that Oreo was in stress probably bcos the water condition wasn't optimum. I know that, but don't know how to rectify. Daddy Lim said that we have to slowly change 10% of the water everyday for a few days. We did just that but I guessed it was too late...

This morning, Oreo finally gave up. Maybe bcos it wasn't so much a novelty anymore, the kids are not as upset. Daddy Lim said that we will not have another fish pet for a long time. 

Thank you Oreo, you have given us good times.  Goodbye. 

Mummy Lim

Messy Hair No More

The last I touched up my hair was in the beginning of March. It was even longer,  more than half year ago that I last cut my hair. Then the CB came and we were all stuck at home. I was "Fatpunzia" in the making. Hoho.

Bcos there is no need to go to the office, my grey hair grew freely. Even when Phase 2 come about, I was still working from home and didn't want to "waste" my hair coloring session. I make do with wearing a cap during the weekends to hide my greys. I am always in a ponytail during weekdays anyway. 

I tahan-ed and tahan-ed until I can tahan no more. My hair grew longer and longer, messier and messier. They started getting into the way during my HIIT and cycling sessions.  I am also so sick of wearing a cap. It is finally time to visit the salon.

The hairdresser started trimming a large chunk of my hair. My head suddenly felt so light. Hohoho.  

Look at the amount of hair!

I then spent the next few hours enduring for my beautiful hair color. I like this particular hair stylist who always give me the nicest brown. However, she always try to persuade me to buy another this and that. The brown doesn't fully covers my grey but it is so nice and the new grey doesn't look so obvious with the brown. The other hair stylists tend to add black or red into my color and while it covers my grey, it just doesn't give the same feel. 

Finally, my new color. Yay! I am alive once more and "young" again!

Mummy Lim 

Ice Skating 204: Learning New Stuff

Lil Shauna didn't lose much of her jumps and spins over the CB. Heng ah. 

While revising on the learnt stuff, Coach Raymond also started teaching her new stuff. On the 1st lesson, he started on her double salchow. Lil Shauna was told that it is a salchow combined with an axel jump, sound easy right? Hohoho. She is still falling left, right, center and so much so that whenever she attempts her double salchow now, she gets ready to fall than to land. It will be a long time. 

On her 2nd lesson, Coach Raymond started on her backward sit spin. She flops on the ice every time she attempts, just like what she did when she started on her sit spin. Deja Vu. She is still working on her camel and broken leg spin. Coach Raymond said that she is getting there for her camel spin, she is able to hold at the correct angle and just needed to enter strongly and spin faster. Again sound easy hor. 

Last lesson was still on her double salchow jump? Got it? Bo leh. 

 

It is getting harder and harder to get into the rink. The Rink is still restricting 50 skaters per session and has implemented a new system with a register for people to put their names for future session. We arrived at 12pm on Saturday for the 12.45pm session only to be told that the session had been fully booked! Why like that? Let's hope things go back to normalcy soon. 

Mummy Lim