6D!

My last eyebrow embroidery was about 2 years back. It was done by some PRC shop in JP that had since closed down. I went bcos my SIL did hers with the shop and it looked good. Now that I  think back, I wonder what kind of MIC ink was used to make it lasted so long. Lol. Would I still go back if the shop is still around? Hmmmm... maybe not. Hehe.

I needed to redo my eyebrow since months back. The fading was fortunately quite uniform and it was reddish brown. For those months, I had to go over my brow easily with an eyebrow pencil, nothing too difficult but I still missed those fuss free days. Hehe.

Google tells me that there are a few salons in Jurong that are pretty popular.  Hehe, I am lazy and didn't want to venture too far to do my brow. I made my appointment, the Friday before CNY, since months back.

On Friday, I was on leave and left the house with Daddy Lim after sending Lil Shauna for school. I had her hair all nicely bun up but she didn't appreciate and yanked it off. Chey. Look how u appreciated she was. Zzzzz.

I then made my way to Mac after bfast with Daddy Lim and spent precious quiet time with my coffee and book. Ah, what luxury.

I wore a cap, thinking that it would help hide my fresh brow after the procedures. All prepared!

I had my eyebrow done at Beauty Recipe at JE. It was one of the small neighbourhood beauty salons and I was quite worried when I saw the shop. It doesnt look professional but i needed to get my brows done. My beautician speaks funny mandarin. I think she is a Mynmese.

It started with brow trimming and then drawing. I have difficult brow, one of the bone bones is higher than the other. After drawing and redrawing, I was finally satisfied. Is it the best? I can't tell and my beautician didn't recommend the best brow that suits my face but drew long thin ones bcos that was what I like.

Numbing cream was applied and then about 30 mins wait.

It was probably another MIC numbing cream bcos it was super powerful! For the last 2 embroideries, it still hurt after the numbing cream. The pain was gone only after the initial cuts and a splash of the duno what numbing lotion.  This time, the numbing cream is super good. There was no pain at all. I only heard the grrr... grrr.. grrr.. sound while the beautician worked on my eyebrow.

The end result? Hello la bi xiao xin. I would desire to be away from people for the next 1 week. I tried to wear the cap but it was difficult to not hurt my brow and it brought attention to my freshly dine brows. Chey.

I was told that the brow made me look fierce, probably bcos of the arch. I hope it will look better when the color fades and when my real brow grows a little. I hate looking like la bi xiao xin.

This is supposed to be 6D eyebrow embroidery wor. What is 6D? I don't know. But salons everywhere are advertising for 6D and I didn't feel it was much different from the 3D brows that I had 2 years back. Lol. The package came with a free touch up. I hate touching up. It will make me look again like la bi xiao xin after all the fading. Zzzzz.

Day 3 looking like la bi xiao xin.

Mummy Lim

Reunion Dinner Round 1

I like CNY bcos I love steamboat. Haha.  It is not that we can't have steamboat on normal days but the spread is usually wonderfully better during CNY. This year, reunion dinner took place a lot earlier.

Ah yee was supposed to be back on Saturday. We were "ordered" to stay in Singapore to spend CNY together. Then 2 weeks before she was due to fly back, she said that her trip had to be postponed bcos of her visa. We frantically tried to find short getaway holidays only to find that air tickets are freaking expensive. We eventually decided to drive up to Port Dickson Malaysia tomorrow morning. Hehe. Then ah yee told us that her visa problem was resolved and she can now fly again. Zzzzzz. Anyway, we are proceeding with the trip and thus had to bring forward reunion dinner with my brother's family.

Reunion dinner was last Sunday at their place. The kids, especially Lil Shauna was so happy to see the 3Fs. We had steamboat of course and the spread is marvelously good. Hohoho. Maybe Santa Clause came with a big bag of food.

After dinner, the kids spent a long time playing. There were what sounded like fights coming from the bedroom but we were all cool. So long as nobody cries, no blood, we pretended not to hear anything. The adults chatted after dinner and I realised that it had been a long while since we came to my brother's place. Life is just so busy.

The kids had so much fun. At times like that, it struck me what blessing it is for my kids to be able to grow up with their cousins. Happy Chinese New Year, people!

Mummy Lim

Karaoke Fever

A few weeks back, Auntie J, Auntie S and I brought the kids together for a play date. While the kids self-entertained, the idea of bringing the kids to a Karaoke session struck. It was only 3 weeks later that it really did materialise.

The initial idea was to bring them to a commercial joint only to realise that it cost a lot even for the small people and there are so many small people. We eventually ended up at the KTV room in NUSS, all thanks to Auntie H. It was the perfect venue. We had dinner before the session and the play room serves as a perfect escape for the boys who aren't too interested (or at least not very long) in singing. It was a relief for us too without the full of energy, running and crawling around boys in the room.

The session was perfect. I was the appointed song keying master, operating the system. It wasn't too difficult to guess what songs the kids wanted. Katy Perry and Bruno Mars were the top choices. Maroon 5, One Direction, Taylor Swift and even One Republic songs were picked. At the end, I finally found "Let it Go" and it was definitely a favourite.

I had a headache at the end of the session from trying to sing very loud to help the kids and jumping around to fast songs. Haha. All the kids enjoyed themselves, whether from singing or monkeying in the playroom.

Would we do it again? Probably. Start young leh. Lol.

Mummy Lim

Pride!

When I picked Lil Shauna from student care yday, she proudly showed me her badge.

Wah... class representative wor. She said that her form teacher selected her, together with 3 other classmates. Two of them would perform their duties for the 1st half of the year while she and another classmate will start their duties in the 2nd half of the year. Despite so, the badge will stay with her until she starts her duties.

She is to wear her badge everyday and she needed no prompting this morning. Looks like she is uber proud of it as well.

I don't know what did the teacher see in her... leadership?? Hmm.... but I am sure that she will be the perfect role model for her classmates. She's an excellent student for sure.  I hope this appointment makes her braver and open her golden mouth more. Haha.

Mummy Lim

Ice Skating 38

I had been worrying about Lil Shauna's ice skating lesson. The past weeks had been lousy and misery. I was hoping that her new skates wouldn't give her problem - she's totally handicapped when her skates hurt her. How come her skates take so long to season? Sigh.

I prep talked her before we hit the ice and her waltz jump didn't look too bad. Maybe the off ice practice is helping. We proceeded to spins and was stopped by the rink crew. Apparently, there are some new rubbish management orders to stop skaters from spinning "too much" to prevent accidents. I don't know how much is too much. We were stopped anyway and the only solution is to continue practicing in the 1/3 ice reserved for classes. I bet the rink earns tons of money from skaters like Lil Shauna, yet there are so many constraints too. It is super irritating.

Things went downhill from there. Lil Shauna complained that her feet hurt and couldn't correct her mistake. I insisted that we would rest when she got it right. It got to a point that we were both frustrated and we stopped for a 15 mins break, right before class.

Surprisingly, her class turned out much better this time. I had told her to tell Teacher Raymond if her feet hurt too much and for a break to adjust her skates. There wasn't a need too. She appeared more interested during class and acknowledged Teacher Raymond's comments during class. She also managed to do a turn that she had problem with. At the end of the class, she was surprised that time passed so quickly. I told her it was bcos she enjoyed the class and shared with her what I noticed. Her feet do hurt but was bearable.

I don't know what did we do right this time. Is it bcos she was on better form? Or the 15 mins break works miracle? Did I get the right tightness on her skates this time? Or the in-sole and the double layer socks on that problematic foot helps? Maybe she is really getting used to the skates? Whatever it is, the next class is 2 weeks later due to CNY and I really hope And pray that the magic stays.

On a side note, we forgot her skates and left in the Nike shop. Those are new, expensive skates! I panic trying to recall if we left them on the bus. Luckily, we got them back. My heart cannot take these kinds of stress ah.

Mummy Lim

Off-ice Training

Two weeks back, Teacher Raymond asked if Lil Shauna is free on Sunday afternoon. I had thought that he wanted to shift her lessons to Sunday afternoon. It wasn't the case. He had asked if we are free to attend the off-ice training. I had heard about the off-ice training from C a long time back. She is a friendly teenager who is also learning figure skater but much more advance and had given me plenty of ice skating advices for Lil Shauna. Lil Shauna adores her too, though we seldom meet her in the rink now.

Off-ice training is to help the skaters grasp proper jumping technics so that they could replicate the technics back on ice. I don't know why Teacher Raymond would ask Lil Shauna to join now. Maybe it is the right time or maybe she’s getting all her jumps wrong on ice. Haha.

The off-ice training is not free. Teacher Raymond charges $20 each for an one-hour session. There were 3 other kids when we headed for the 1st off-ice training last Sunday. Teacher Raymond must have a very fat pocket.

The 3 other kids are probably about 6 to 10 years old. They were very chatty and very energetic and obviously attended the training previously. They knew exactly what they had to do. The training started with warm up and core exercises – stretches, tummy crunches, 2-feet and single foot jumps. These took up more than half of the session. Then, the kids went into figure skating jumps. 

It was obvious that Lil Shauna lacks the core muscle strength and stamina as compared to the rest. One girl had such obvious calf muscle and therefore powerful jumps. The other was super flexible and demonstrated fantastic spiral. Lil Shauna had none and was instead red-faced and panting, trying to catch up. Haha. 

While Lil Shauna sweat it out, Lil Isaac found a left behind paper areoplane and we had fun too. Next time, we will bring a Frisbee. Hehe. Daddy Lim brought him shopping and coffee after awhile. I would opt for shopping and coffee top if I have the choice... anytime.

At the end of the one-hour training, she was totally exhausted while the rest of the kids went skipping and hopping away. Teacher Raymond asked if Lil Shauna exercised and went on to tell her that her muscles might be sore the next day but no need for alarm. Lil Shauna also flopped after the training and obviously didn't want to do them anymore. I encouraged her, telling her that it would get much better as she build up her strength and stamina. The good news, she didn't get muscle ache after the training. Haha.

I think we have a lot of work to do at home. We did more jumps the every evening and it was actually quite enjoyable though just jumping around. On Monday, Lil Shauna practiced her spin using her skate spinner. Yday, we did some stretching. Hopefully, these would help and boost her confident and get her out of the drought and makes ice skating more enjoyable. 

By the way, there was a report on You Young in the newspaper some days back. The 11-YO Korean is the new ice skating prodigy who has won major international competition. She started ice skating at 6 YO in Singapore and Teacher Raymond coached her briefly then. I cut the newspaper article specifically to encourage Lil Shauna – same coach!

http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/south-koreas-new-skate-star-recalls-her-singapore-roots

 She read the article, though unable to fully comprehend, but recognizes that You Young now train 7 hours a day. Yes, it all voice down to hard work, even the very talented ones.

Mummy Lim  

"New" Pickup Time

Since school starts, we never miss the school bus. I think it is a great achievement bcos it meant that we had been faithfully waking up on time.. ok, almost on time. The snooze button is just too tempting.

After more than 3 weeks, the bus had never arrive early and not even on time. It normally comes at 6.20ish am. That is more than 10 mins later than the designated pickup time. While there are some buses at the nearby pickup points waiting for kids, we are always waiting for the bus.

We were earlier than the pickup time in the 1st week. It was an awful long wait each morning and I was secretly cursing. Lil Shauna could have slept a little bit longer or I could have rush her less.

In the second week, we left the house only at 6.10am and leisurely strolled to the pickup point.  The additional time means less rushing and less stress. The other family with 3 kids always arrived before us. If one day, we arrived to find them missing, it would probably mean that the bus have left. Then we would send Lil Shauna to school. No big deal.

Last week and counting, we pushed our luck even more and left the house after 6.10am and still didn't miss the bus! This means 5 precious more mins snooze for the girl. The bus continues to come after 6.20am. I wonder why wouldn't they officially shift the pickup time if they are never on time. I think it is super irresponsible of the bus company but I am not intending to complain. Bcos I wouldn't want them to buck up. I rather stick to our "new" pickup time.

Mummy Lim

The 2nd Misses

It was Auntie S' bday. I shall not reveal how old she is and therefore I am. Lol. It was decided that we would head back to Velvet, Zouk, given how great our last trip had been.

We met only at 11pm. Party doesn't start until midnight anyway and we all had our errands to complete, kids to tuck into bed. Lil Shauna went to bed at 9ish after a long day. The boy didn't go to lala land until 10.15pm, followed by a mad rush to be on time.

Auntie H joined us this time! She couldn't take alcohol unless we wanted a drunk baby subsequently. She still turned up nevertheless to spend the precious night with us. Just when we met up, we were all complaining about how tired we were. What a way to start the night. Haha.

Velvet was seriously empty and we thought we were early. So we chit chat and took more pictures! The disco lights gave us extra effect.

The little crowd was much younger this time and I was disappointed that we looked like the most matured group. Auntie R joined us a while later and more pictures!

The crowd still didn't come in and the music was lousy too. We had a great time catching up though. We did peek at Zouk and Phuture. Those 2 were super crowded but the crowd was so super young. If I had married and gave birth early, those kids can be my children. No kidding, the crowd was that young.

So, we opted to stay in Velvet despite the almost no crowd. Uncle C's emergency call came at 1.10am and Auntie H had to leave to rescue him from Lollipop. Lol. We didn't stay too late too and left at 1.30am. We were all super willing to leave given how tired we were and the long Saturday ahead. Let's paint the town again the next time!

Mummy Lim

Ice Skating 37

I realised that I missed blogging about Lil Shauna's last ice skating lesson. The reason is simple - it was insignificant. Yes, we are not out of the drought.

Yday's lesson was equally bad. As I looked at her uninterestingly move through her lesson, I wonder if it is time to call it quits. It had been weeks since she learnt something new in class. We have new skates, new skating attire but nothing seems to motivate her out of the plateau.  In fact, she had been complaining about her skates, it was pins and needles at the sole at one time and pain at the ankle at another. We took rest in between, adjusting the skates and I even ran off to buy her super expensive insoles from the skate shop before class but nothing seems to help much. I am not sure if the skates were too tight or loose. The trial and error hasn't produce concrete success. It is just downright irritating that the girl has zero pain tolerance. Just slight pain and discomfort and she would struggle through her class. I had suspected that her skates were giving her problems during class and irked me even more that she didn't dare tell Teacher Raymond so that she could adjust her skates a little.  I would rather that she wastes 5 mins of the precious (and very expensive) 30-min class to rest then to struggle through and waste the entire 30-min lesson.

During class, it was so painful to watch. She couldn't do her the jumps properly when they were learnt so long ago. Wasn't they ok just some time back? She had to do them over and over again and didn't correct the mistakes when pointed out. She just kept doing the same wring moves over and over again until Teacher Raymond gave up and move on to another something that she had learnt previously and the cycle repeats itself. Arrrrggghhhhhh.

After class, I sat her down and asked how we should proceed. In my heart, I was "slightly" ready to give up if she wanted to. I told her that it would be super wasted since she had put in so much effort for so long. She kept thinking that she is Figure 1 standard but I told her that she had very likely progressed beyond that. I also told her that she had to want to do it bcos there is only so much that mummy could push her. The conclusion?

She choose to stay on, to continue trying. This is so tiring and I hope we can get out of this drought soon. She will be joining Teacher Raymond's off ice training today. I hope it will help her to correct her bad habits. I have also started to help her to do her waltz jump properly off ice yday. I hope it would help. Fighting!

Oh, an encouraging note.  For her school weekly journal that she had done on Friday, she was asked to compete "I am proud of myself for..." and she wrote "knowing how to figure skate".

Mummy Lim

Bathroom Skating

Long, long time ago, before soap bar was replaced by shower foam, have you tried lathering the entire bathroom floor, transforming it instantly into a skating rink? I did! And had plenty of fun attempting to skate.

Many years later, the kids found the same joy. We often found them taking a long time in the bathroom only to realise how soapy the floor was thereafter.  Aha, they have inherited my genes. At least it is much easier and convenient to soap the floor now with shower foam. Hehe.

Just yday, I found out that the kids had progressed! They found the improved version - hair conditioner, how it makes the floor much more slippery as compared to shower foam. The new bottle of hair condition suddenly felt so much lighter! Arrggghhh kids! 

Mummy Lim