Another JB Trip: Day 1 Part 1, Mall Crawl

Why? Bcos:

- PSLE is over and we can pontan school

- Nana has started her school holidays

- The Melbourne holiday is still over 3 weeks away and we needed a distraction.

What beats a short getaway across the causeway? Ya, nothing and thus we are on our way. Hohoho. 

Daddy Lim and I took leave in case of crazy traffic at the immigration. We decided to head over in the late morning, just in time to arrive in Malaysia for lunch. 

Where is Nana? Hiding behind me and busy with her phone. 

The immigration was very smooth and there was almost no wait. The drive to the Southkey Mall took about 30 mins and voila! Our holiday has started. All holidays make me happy. Hoho.

What do we do when we are in a Malaysia Mall? The 1st thing is to buy and chew gum, then to practice the long forgotten bubble blowing skill. 

Zaky was very proud to show us his 1st ever bubble.

Of course there must be lunch. 

Then shopping and definitely arcade. The boy was whinning so much over the shopping that I was so glad to find an arcade. 

The games are lousy. It was literally just to burn time and $$. Nana and Zaky both wanted to try this baby game. 

It is meant for kids below 130cm lor. They are like giants in that small chamber. Lol. 

Then more monkeying around before we drove to our Airbnb for checkin. 

See how strong Zaky now is. Actually, it is bcos Nana is light. Hoho. 

Mummy Lim

Porvida Indoor Skatepark

Daddy Lim and the kids had missed aggro  classes for the past few weeks bcos of Daddy Lim's work. Yes, they can always skate on their own but no, they have not been doing so. Daddy Lim had finally decided that we would visit the new indoor skatepark at Selegie. The good news is that there are more and more decent skateparks coming up. While the big outdoor skatepark right outside our house had been delayed and again for months, there would be another  new indoor skatepark coming up at JE. 

Daddy Lim is excited about Porvida bcos it is indoor, air-conditioned and they have mini ramps. Nothing too intimidating or threatening to his ego. Hohoho. The charges are $15 for every 2 hours slot and Daddy Lim gladly pay to try out how good they are. My job was to tag along and be the photo and videographer at times. 

Porvida is in one of the malls at Selegie. That mall is totally revamped and very hip, unlike the sleazy place that I remembered the stretch of malls to be. We were hungry at arrival and chose to have dinner at this western fast food alike place. Then, I found out how many other food options there are in that area. Wasted. 

Their session started at about 6pm and the staff were very relaxed about the timing. No indemnity needs to be signed, just read the house rules and you are on your way. The place is not huge but the crowd is limited and thus good amount of space for everybody. 

My job as a photographer. 

Nana took a while to warm up and had Zaky hold her hand as they conquered the ramps. So sweet! Once she warmed up, she improved so quickly and did so much. I saw her fakey (aka backwards) down a ramp somemore. Then Daddy Lim sheepishly told me that he also. Lol.

We left at 8pm. They were tired and I was freezing cold. Daddy Lim was saying that it wouldn't be as cold as the rink. Nonsense, I was literally freezing at the skatepark. Would we come back? I don't know but if we do, I would choose the more interesting food options the next time. Hoho. 

Mummy Lim

A Day@SST

The day is almost coming. MOE has emailed, to remind us that we have 31 Oct to 4 Nov to decide if we wanted to accept the DSA CO and to rank if more than 1 CO received. Ya, while we felt that this DSA journey isn't as easy as we thought, there are students who received multiple COs. They must be super good, hotcakes!

I wasn't 100% sure if we should take SST CO. I am jaded by the high % (45%) of their graduating cohort heading to Poly. Every now and then, out of the blue, I would ask Zaky/ Daddy Lim if we should accept it. Zaky is sure bcos he isn't confident of his PSLE result. I think he took things alot more relaxed the moment he heard that he had the CO. Hoho. 

SST must have known that many parents are like me and have arranged an open house for all students (and family) who have received a CO or is on the WL. The event is from 8am to 11.30am on Saturday. The 1st item listed on  the itinerary is to try out bfast at the SST canteen. Sounds great!

There is a straight bus from our place but about 10 mins walk away. Otherwise, to take the MRT to Clementi, then bus for 3 busstops. We opted for the latter and left the house at 7ish, earlier than my normal work day. 

I had thought that SST is very new and am surprised to learn that they have started since 2009. 

There are several activities ongoing at 8am, including bfast. Zaky insisted that we should start with bfast. There are a total of 6 stalls and 5 were opened. He decided on fried rice. 

Look how pleased he was. The stall auntie still asked if he has enough fried rice. He must have looked like a hungry boy. 

This fried rice and chicken cutlet cost $3.50. Zaky says that he needs more allowance. Even Nana says that this is more expensive than her usual canteen food, priced usually between $2.60 to $2.80. Their parents need to work harder to earn more $$. 

Zaky was very pleased when we spotted a "cafe" across the canteen. They sell sandwiches, ice cream and even ice chocolate. Zaky is very excited about the food choices and I am very worried about his waist line. Hohoho.

We finally started our "tour" after bfast and visited the exhibition area to see some projects. Then, to the labs to see what the students will learn when they take up one of the 4 (?) compulsory applied subjects in upper secondary. 

This is biotechnology and I think it is the most popular applied subject. I can see why. Even I was interested. 

There were 2 talks, one with current SST students and parents and the other one, a formal briefing with the school. 

I like what I heard and seen. Maybe all secondary schools have such great project work to showcase or this is the only physical open house that I have attended and thus I am impressed. This is probably one of the more important slides from the talk. 

There is an IDP (not sure what it means), which is a through-train program with Ngee Ann poly starting for the selected Sec 3 next year. About 50 out of the 200 cohort will be selected and these 50 would not need to take the O levels. The criteria ranged from interests, to academic results to teachers' recommendations. While I am not a fan of poly then university, the Principal puts in very appropriately - this is only for students who are already very sure of what they wanted to do next and most of them do well in the poly course. Thus, the diploma is definitely not the end of the road for them.

My key takeback (from what I hear and read from kiasu parents forum):

- if the kid has received a CO from SST, it is already a good indication that he/ she has a good inclination for the SST's curriculum;

- most of their students do well enough to qualify for JC (parents don't even have to worry about thus) though the % heading to JC after O levels only made up about 55%;

- the SST students are trained to question and are prepped for the future world beyond just academic; and

- the mindset of poly being the 2nd class sibling to JC needs to be changed and it is also not a longer route to university. 

The last stop was to explore the CCAs. Zaky had wanted to do basketball, just like J (Nana's ice skating mate). I second that bcos I need him to be active with all the good food served in the canteen and cafe. Lol. We were just nice for the TKD demonstration. 

I don't mind Zaky joining that too and his Junior Black Belt would come in handy. He isn't keen and the TKD troops didn't seem to work very hard too; we need something that work Zaky harder physically. Lol. 

The most popular CCA in SST has to be the robotic club and I have to say that the stuff that they produce is indeed impressive. Zaky says he knows nuts about robotic. Good lah, let all the others opt for robotics and thus not much competition to get into the basketball team. Lol. 

With that, it marked the end of our visit. 

I am now with Zaky and think that he would enjoy himself in SST. Did I tell you that their school uniform, particularly their school jacket is quite chio? Even Nana says that we must buy their school jacket and she would love to wear it. Lol. Ya! Let's opt in on Monday. 

I snapped this picture to show the family the SST uniform, only for Nana to exclaim that this is her ex-primary school friend. Small world. 

Mummy Lim

The Secret Sleepover

I alsmot forgot to blog about it bcos it was so secretive. Lol.

Popo went for another cruise on the 21 Oct weekend. The exams are over and of course we made plans. The kids were given the permission to invite their friends over for a Friday sleepover. They know how crazy Popo would be if she caught wind and were all tiptoeing around the planning. 

Popo left the house at 2ish and soon after, the friends appeared. Well planned. Nana invited 2 of her netball batch mates and Zaky had B over. 

The girls asked to bake cookies and Nana promised to clean up after, then proceeded with a 4-hour long baking session with long indefinite breaks in between. Did she clean up? I helped lah. Expected. 

The teenagers self-entertained. All I needed to do was to help with the cleaning and feeding. But there was indeed a lot of cleaning and feeding to do. I felt very much like a maid. I washed like 3 machine loads of laundry that weekend, scrubbed the balcony and vacuumed and mopped the floor. 

At one point, they decided that it was perfect opportunity for water balloon. B came well prepared.

I almost fainted when the battle started in the toilet and had to chase them out of the house. 

The kids had fun. The girls left on Saturday afternoon. 

B stayed until 10pm on Saturday night and had dinner with us. 

On Sunday morning, I reminded the kids to make sure that no evidences was left behind. We failed. Popo asked if we had somebody over bcos the foldable mattress' position shifted. Zaky said mummy used it and slept in his room. One of the girls left the toothbrush in the toilet. Nana said that it was an old toothbrush and she had used it to clean the toilet. Lol. I bet Popo knows but there is nothing she can do and we will continue with our acts when she is out of the house. 

That concluded our maybe not so secretive sleepover. Lol.

Mummy Lim

HBD Zaky!

My kids are born at the wrong time of the year. Nana would be mugging for the mid year exams during her bday and Zaky would kena the final year exams. Suay sia.

This year is finally different. PSLE is over! For once, since formal school started, Zaky has no exams on his bday. Hooray! It looks like this would be the case until O levels. 赚到

We had an early celebration with my brother's family bcos on his actual day, Popo is going on another cruise. Ya, Popo is celebrating his bday with a cruise holiday but without him. Hohoho. 

Old pictures kept popping up on my memories, of his previous bday parties/ celebrations. 

Awwww... where did that cute boy go? He is obviously nothing like this tiny cute thing anymore and is almost catching up with jiejie. 

Before the picture was taken, Nana kept pressing down his hair and telling me that his puffy hair is giving him unfair advantage. Lol. For the record, I am still taller than Nana. Hohoho. 

He seems to have shot up suddenly. We needed that, we needed the height to stretch the fats. Hohoho. He is outgrowing his shoes too. I am asking him to tahan a little bit more for his school shoes; I really don't want to buy new shoes for the remaining 1 month. He is also outgrowing his running shoes. These are like so infrequently worn. Soon, I will inherit them, I am not outwearing the shoes faster than the kids passing them down to me. 

We at least got him a birthday cake on his actual day. 

It was such a big cake bcos it was on promotion and the cake shop auntie talked me into buying it. 3/4 of it went into the fridge. 

Happy Bday Zaky! You are officially a teenager and the exciting secondary school life awaits you. May you grow taller soon. Hoho. We love you to the moon and back. 

Mummy Lim

More Post PSLE Fun - Bounce and USS

It is the PSLE marking week and Primary School kids are off school for 4 days while markers sealed the fate of the P6-ers. Obviously the P6-ers didn't care and are only rejoicing over no school. That is exactly how Zaky is reacting. 

I am a very nice mummy. It was prawning on Saturday and Bounce playdate on Monday. I was on leave and while the tigers bounced around on the trampoline, the mummies had a nice catch up over coffee. 

We met at 12pm for lunch and the boys were so excited and kept asking why time was passing so slowly. Their session was at 2pm. 

The tigers had so much fun. 

I have tried the trampoline park once and it is crazily tiring. I am totally unable to appreciate the "fun" in the jumping around. I did have my kind of post PSLE fun though.

This is always one of the best times of the year for me. That satisfaction when I can finally collate and throw away the worksheets and workbooks that had accumulated and piled up over the months. It is especially liberating after PSLE year. 

Nana was invited to partake in Zaky's ceremonial worksheets recycling event. 

Throw, throw, throw!

With so much gusto!

Zaky dated 2 of his school mates to go to USS yday. He said that I should pay for him bcos I paid for Jiejie to go to the Halloween night. Sounds fair. Once upon the time, we roamed the grounds of USS on lazy weekends when we had no other programs. Gone were the days (and our season passes) and it had been 2 long covid years since the kids visited USS. I used to love thrilling rides but I think age is disagreeing with me. Hoho. I would gladly pay for the kids to enjoy the park with their friends. 

I was waiting for pictures to complete the post. He said that they were the 1st in Q and didn't leave until the park closed but no pictures... not even a single one. Zzzzzz. 

Mummy Lim