Business Trip No. 2 Part 2: India!

I have decided to visit India during the Ganpati festival. It is the festival to celebrate the Elephant God and family and friends come together. No, it is not bcos I wanted to celebrate the festival, but I had to chose the travel dates properly so that it is after Zaky's prelim and before his PSLE, buffering enough time to help him revised before PSLE. This happens to be the only week that works. 

Bcos it is the Ganpati, we were invited to colleagues' house. They had very elaborated decorations. 

The trip is very tiring actually. Of the 4 nights that we were there, there were 3 dinners. 

For this trip, my colleague was very worried that my stomach couldn't take the food in India and had asked me and again to be careful with food and to bring plenty of medicine. Don't worry I am not adventurous with food anyway and wouldn't anyhow eat. In fact, I was super worried about the Indian food that I would have to eat.

The Indian food is really too exotic for my liking. Bcos it is the Ganpati, many people are vegetarian during this period. I don't know how to describe the cuisine. It is either very spicy, like the spiciness radiate in your mouth after a few seconds kind of spicy, or very bland. Then, there are different types of sweets. Some of them are sweet and very milky, others are sweet with exotic spice taste. I cannot, really cannot. 

At one of the colleagues' house, we were served this plate of different dough/ flour. That was bland. Even the sweet was bland. 

It was OK in the beginning but I started to get really sick of the carbs after a while and craved for something savory. I was thinking of the cup noodle sitting in my luggage. I don't understand how my other colleagues can ask for 2nd and 3rd helping. 

My happiest food moments must be the bfast at the hotel. Even though the selection is similar every morning, I was chomping down the western cuisine like I starved. The only dinner that I really enjoyed was the in-room dining that I ordered. Chicken burger, mushroom soup and coke. Heaven. 

My days were really long bcos there were some morning calls in Singapore morning time, we had to spend long hours traveling to and back from the site and add on the dinners. Then, I woke up extra early for the gym. 

The gym is good, no complaints. 

By Friday, I was hoping that the time would fly by bcos I am tired. My flight home is at 11.40pm. Unfortunately, this is the only "afternoon" flight available. I was told that I should go to the airport early and buffer enough time for immigration, which is at least 3 hours. I took a cab from the hotel at 6.30pm and that took an hour. 

As I go through the procedure, I understood my colleague's advice. The check-in was taking longer than what it would have in Singapore but still tolerable. Then it is the luggage check that goes in a very messy way. I had to send my bags for the Xray in one lane, then go to another lane for body scan. Then to quickly go back to look for the scanned bags taht were in a queue. I felt very vulnerable to be without any belongings. Luckily they cleared the xray after a short wait. 

The next hurdle is the immigration. The Qs were snaking and moving very slowly. 

I am so glad that my colleague had pre-empted me though I still isn't mentally prepped for the sight. It would be a long wait... I want to go home. 

Mummy Lim

Business Trip No. 2 Part 1: India!

After spending a busy weekend with the family, I am on my 2nd business trip (since covid). India! But before that, there were work to be done. 

These are the work that Zaky has to complete while I am away. Hohoho. *evil grin* Well, PSLE is around the corner and it will come regardless if mummy is on business trip. 

Then, there is Nana. Who will braid her hair? We asked that she gets her school mates to help but she insisted that anybody who gets on the bus from Clementi interchange without braided hair will be judged. I didn't know that the NHians are so judegmental. As a result, she gets a full week "staycation" at my bro's place. My SIL will braid her hair in the morning; she is well trained with all 3 girls in NHPS. Nana benefits too bcos they literally live a stone throw from NH. 

Nana was packing for her staycation while I did mine, just that hers is less glamorous and in an Ikea bag. Hoho. 

Daddy Lim sent her over on Sunday night. We reminded her times and again to bring everything needed. 

She obviously took the nagging so lightly bcos she left her uniforms hanging in the closet and a textbook on the table. Daddy Lim had to make another trip and angrily. 

My flight was at 7.40am on Monday. So I was up at 4.30am and out waiting for grab at 5am. 

The best part of the trip? It is SQ this time! Woohoo!

Food and entertain were good, flight was smooth and we cleared immigration quickly too. Happy! 

The hotel (Trident) is near to the office at BKC and about an hour's drive from the airport due to the traffic. The room was nice, alot smaller than the last one in Jakarta but still very good. What happened next was windwhirl bcos there were so many things and so little time. The day ended with a Company dinner. It was 8pm, which was 10.30pm Singapore time. By the time we were back in the hotel, it was 1ish Singapore time. I was very much zombified. 

My very 1st sunset in India. 

My 1st impression of India? The roads are horribly rough with portholes everywhere. Nobody observes the lane marking and who dares, wins. At times, there are 5 vehicles in a 3 lane road. There is rarely any traffic lights and everybody honks. The intensity of the honk totally shows the driver's level of irritation. 

The city is... messy, I think it is the lack of city planning. There are super old buildings and then new buildings intermixed. 

Then, there are unfinished buildings bur already occupied for a long time. 

I is confused. 

Mummy Lim

Skating, Skating and More Skating

It is the weekend! I should be out cycling with the WWF but I thought I should be a nice mother and ferry Zaky to his aggro skating class instead as he had missed for 2 weeks for various reasons. 

Then, Daddy Lim didn't have to work on Saturday morning and there was no lesson bcos Coach was going to KL. Chey! 

We still headed to the ECP skatepark and Zaky had fun skating with M. I earned a MacD bfast. 

Never too old for fun. Daddy Lim wanted to try too. I had to stop him. Hohoho.

I ended up skating along ECP and clocked my morning exercise. 

That was not all for my Saturday. I dated Nana for the once a month Saturday late night disco skating at the rink. We were late bcos we needed to pick Zaky, who went prawn fishing with B. Amazingly, they managed to spend 3 hours prawning and caught 23 prawns!

We gave them all the B bcos I have no idea how to kill them and cook them. B said that the prawns were super fresh. Zaky had an absolute fun time and super proud of the haul. Hmmmm... we would have gotten a lot more prawns if we spent the same amount in NTUC. Hoho. Fun is expensive. 

Nana was super excited about the disco skating. It had been a long while since I saw her so enthusiastic about skating. Hoho. She looks so big on her zuca now. She usually lugs her skates in a backpack now.

Compared to this. 

Same zuca, same Nana, different size.

The rink was crowded. The crowd was a lot more 杂 than the usual skating crowd. There were a lot more skaters on hockey skates and majority of the crowd could skate properly/ very well. The hockey skaters were going super fast and the ice super bad. Hoho.

Fortunately, her senior was at the disco night too bcos I didn't enjoy the skating. I was wearing her old skates and the boots have heels, making me lean forward and then accidentally poke the toe pick into the ice so many times and almost fell. Not fun. I was better off drinking hot milo. Hoho.

Nana said that she had a lot of fun and we didn't leave until the session ended at 11.45pm. Her "fun" was like standing with her senior and friend on the ice like half the time, chit chatting and then leisurely stroking the ice the other half time. OK lah, so long as she enjoys lah. The ice was too lousy to do much too. 

The lights were turned on in the last 15 mins, much to the crowd's disappointment. I was reminded that this was exactly how I used to feel when the clubs' light was turned on years back, signifying the time to go supper!

That was not the end to the skating we had. This morning, Coach N invited the boys to a skating event organised by the Woodlands CSC. It was a basketball court with makeshift ramps and grinding rails. The event is intended to raise skateboarding and skating awareness. I have never seen such a big community of aggro skaters. Daddy Lim didn't skate bcos his right hand ring finger had swelled to the size of potatoe when he finger jammed during Saturday practice.

We arrived when the event started at 11am. Zaky was exhausted by lunch and very happy to tuck in, as if we starved him. 

There were games and challenges as well. Zaky was very pleased to earn his Mars bar with his life, attempting his 1st 180 grab jump. Lol. Very precious. 

The nice thing being a kid is that the adults will naturally look after you. Zaky got advices and encouragements from the adult aggro skaters. 

We left at 2ish. Zaky was so exhausted at that point and willingly left. Finally, that marked the end of our alot of skating for the weekend. 

Mummy Lim

Netball

Nana has a love-hate relationship with netball. With covid restrictions easing up, she finally got a taste of what it is like to play a decent netball game. She trained hard but being new at the game, she made plenty of mistakes and got scolded harder by the Coach. Getting scolded is hard for Nana. I think her ears are too soft and skin too thin. I probably didn't scold her enough when she was younger. It got to such a point that she got super stress at training and a scolding at training would spoil the rest of her evenings.

I know her Coach is fierce. We hear him over zoom all the time during the previous zoom online 脚步 practices. I had been trying to tell her to focus on rectifying her errors and not focus on why he scolded her and not somebody else. Didn't work. Haiz. 

The zonal games started a few weeks ago. Right when the games started, she sprained her ankle 2x, then kena covid and was involved in some other school activities. As a result, she missed many training sessions and was told that she would be pulled out of the main team. Was she upset? Yes, bcos she really wanted to play but at the same time, she was glad to be relieved of the stress. 

She still got to play in the initial games against the weaker teams. In the very last game that she got to play, she didn't perform well, got scolded so badly and came home to cry so bitterly. What to do? I cannot talk sense into her, she was so fixated with the fact that Coach scolded her so badly in front of so many people. Hopefully time will heal.

NH got into the West Zone finals. They fought against MGS, last year's champion, and won, earning them the rights to face NYGS for the champion spot. Family was invited. The game would be held at Tampines Sports Hub. Wah, very far. Knowing that Nana may not get to play, I wasn't keen to go watch the game until she said that all her mates' parents are all going. OK lor. 

路途遥远... I got the car and slowly drove to faraway Tampines. I counted, 30ish km one way. The game just started when I entered the hall. 

As expected, Nana didn't get to play but was helping to tabulate some statistics.

The game was very intense. Both teams are very good but the NH team drove harder and their GS is so super good. She was so calm and controlled the semi circle. She ended up scoring every single point for NH and her shoots were like 99% accurate. NH's defence put up a good fight too and didn't give chance to their opponent. Every point that the opponent scored was like so hard earned. 

We couldn't see the score from our side but I think NH was already leading in the 1st quarter. 

In the 3rd quarters, NH players were exhausted and started losing points to mistakes. Fortunately, they held up and won the West Zone championship at 44-31. Yip, yip, hooray!

The NYGS netballers were mostly tall and slender, very much like netballers. They don a pretty dress attire too. Very chio. The NH girls lost out on appearance but that doesn't matter when they eventually got the game.

I totally enjoyed the game and didn't at all regret  coming. Throughout the game, I was so awed by the GS and I also heard how hard the Coach scolded the team. Very loud and clear, 中气十足. The GK got scolded badly and I was thinking that if Nana got to play (she plays the GK), she would have died on the court by the scolding. I also understand why the GK got scolded so badly, bcos the GK is the last line of defence. 

Nana earned herself a medal too. It doesn't matter that she didn't get to play in the final games, she trained just as hard as the rest of her mates. 

Hopefully she gets better at the game and gets opportunity to play next year. 

She also earned for herself the 1st appearance in Straits Times leh. 

She 准准 position so nicely. Hoho.

Mummy Lim

Dental Done!

Visiting the dentist made it to my new year resolution list every year. Yes, it is a big deal making myself to go to the dentist. Forget about 6 monthly visit, I will be very glad if I made it once a year. 

This year had been difficult. I went to the dentist when the last upper left molar hurts. I was hoping for a tooth decay but it turned out to be another cracked tooth. I survived the 1st crown of my life. 

This morning, I went back to replace the 2 old metal filling with the new porcelain looking one. To do so, the dentist had to drill to remove the old filling. He warned that there will be some sensitivity. Zzzzz.. sensitivity and discomfort are the nicer way to say that it will be painful. 

I am very glad to survive the ordeal. I was curious on why only these 2 needed replacement when I have other metal filling. The dentist said that those 2 teeth are already chipping and showed signs of fatigue and must be dealt with before the worst happen. So, the time will come when the others need replacement too. 

Ok, worry about those later. I have met my limit for dentist visits for the year. I still have that cracked tooth in the metal band. I told the dentist that I cannot le. I will just wait for it to hurt again and by then, the only option would be extraction. 

When leaving the clinic, the receptionist asked if I wanted to fix the next 6 monthly visit. I cannot again. Lol. Too much, too much! 

Next on my list is the health screening. 

Mummy Lim

One Skate

Daddy Lim had to work 3 Saturdays in a row and they had to take classes on Sundays instead. They missed class last Sunday bcos Teacher S gave Zaky intensive CL oral as last min prep. I am not sure how effective that was but at least we all tried our best to hug the "佛脚". 

Teacher S had wanted to do round 2 of the intensive prep for Zaky's prelim that is taking place on Wednesday. She had asked Zaky to be at her place from 8am and had intended to lock him up until she is satisfied. We asked to go at 11am instead bcos Zaky was dying to go for skate class. We got our wish but.... 

The silly boy didn't get to skate. Why? He brought only ONE skate! Yes, the other one dropped out of his bag and he didn't check and only brought one skate with him to the skatepark. It was too late when he discovered it at the ECP carpark. 

So, Daddy Lim had 1 full hour lesson to himself today. Yes, it was super tiring as Coach's full focus was on him.

What did Zaky do? 

He ended up gaming and playing with B instead, who also came and didn't skateboard bcos Zaky wasn't skating. Why like that? 

What did I do? I of course didn't sit around. I went for a long forgotten jog. I got lazy and didnt jog for a long time. I managed to do 5km and it wasn't as bad as I imagined it to be!

We left the skatepark at 9.30am and sent Zaky for Chinese tuition. We came home and found the lonely skate on the shelf in the storeroom.

It must have fallen out of his bag and popo then kept it on the shelf. He had missed out of his chance to skate bcos of his stupidity. Too sad, too bad. 

Mummy Lim

PSLE Starto

It is finally D-Day. 

The PSLE Chinese and English oral took place on Monday and Tuesday morning. I seriously didn't remember much about Nana's PSLE oral but worked so hard for Zaky's. Strangely, I am so much more anxious and stressed over Zaky's PSLE. Why ah?

Chinese has always been Zaky's weakest link. We started him on 天下 since he was 4 yo (or 5?) but his results only slide downwards. We had to take him out bcos he was going to class to stone and I felt that I was burning my $$ away. We went on one to one tuition and by God's grace, eventually managed to persuade Teacher S to take Zaky. Teacher S was Nana's tutor. I can imagine her hestiation in taking Zaky. If I am a tutor, I would want to take an easy student too. Hoho. 

Teacher S is really dedicated and cares for Zaky. On Sunday, she got all her 5 P6 kids together for an intensive Chinese oral prep from 11am to 3pm. My job is to go through P4 to P6 生词 with Zaky and to revise the oral topics too. Teacher S provided us with loads of material, so much so that Zaky cannot remember.

She is really worried for Zaky and told me that she can zoom with him for round 2 at 8.30pm but Zaky rejected her flatly. Lol. What we did instead is to read aloud a few passages that she sent over. It was then that I realised that Zaky never read aloud the oral passages during the preparation stage! He reads them in his head and in the end, the 声调 all go haywire when he finally read out loud (for the 1st time) in front of the examiner. 

Then Teacher S said that there were speculations among the tutors that the topic could be on 家庭和谐. She said that she had already gone through that with Zaky and had given him notes. As an added protection, she asked me to go through with Zaky one more time. I tried and Zaky only gave me blank looks. Wah lah eh, I wonder how much really stuck in his head after all these hard work. 

That was really the last bit and Zaky told me, "mummy, enough le, I think we tried our best le". Thank you for recognising my effort ah. I also think I have tried hard.

I was super gan cheong when Zaky left for school on Monday morning. Before he even came home, I heard about the topic and then saw it in the parents' chat group. 

As for Zaky, I think he hit the "delete" button the moment he left the examination room. He cannot remember anything. Zzzzz. But he said that he could read the passage and understood the questions much better than prelim. I hope man, he scrapped through prelim oral, scoring 27/50. If it is any worse than prelim, I don't know how le. 

Then for the rest of Monday, he said that he needed to rest. We barely prepped for English oral. 

This is the topic today.

I was eagerly to find out how he performed for the English oral. Again, he hit the "delete" button. 一问三不知... haiz. 

Prelims start next week and then PSLE in another month. So fast, so fast! I am not sure if I am wishing for more time before PSLE or for it to quickly come and us to be done with. I think I got more white hair le.

Mummy Lim