3 Weeks Now

It has been such a packed 3 weeks that it's tough to now recall and put everything down in words.

1st week

During the 1st week of June, I brought the boys to the World Book Fair. And as expected, we didn't go away empty-handed. Fortunately, though, we didn't spend beyond our budget for that day - WY got 3-4 books while WF got 2-3; I only managed to find 1 book that I liked.

The Fair was held at Suntec City, so we got on the MRT train in the late afternoon and walked all the way there from the City Hall station. Along the way, WF tried to cajoule WY and I into dropping by MPH and HMV in the City Link Mall but we managed to coax him to hurry to Suntec City instead.

Although we all became so exhausted after our 3-over hour visit to the Fair, it was a good trip.

Supplementary lessons

WY spent a total of 3 full days in the 1st-2nd week attending supplementary lessons at KHS. On the 3rd day, his sympathetic teacher bought pizzas for the children who were elated at the treat. WY was no exception.

WF did not have any supplementary lesson during this June break. What a relief it was for him as well as for me.

2nd-3rd week

We signed WF up for a Maths course at Toa Payoh. And as he had missed half a year of the course, we decided to arrange for the 'missed' lessons to be attended during the June holiday on a sort of 'intensive' basis.

Hence, WF and I had been taking the bus to Toa Payoh and spending 4 afternoons there each week. On some days, WY joined us. By now, WF has come to learn that Bus 155 is, more often than not, a 'snail bus' trundling along the road in the scorching hot afternoon sun and the ride on these snail buses is no fun at all, especially when the roads get a little jammed in the evening peak hours.

There were 2 occasions when we were a little hard-pressed for time (I had to rush back to cook dinner) and we had to take the taxi. The pockets hurt more although the rides were a little more bearable than the stuffy snail bus.

WY has gotten used to the lessons. He is now less intimidated by the sums in the workbooks even though the more challenging ones remain tougher and take more time to complete. In a way, I think he also gets to practise the discipline to sit down to finish his work all at one go.

Cooking + washing

M's contractors moved in to start the renovation works at her place right from 1 June. And henceforth, I have been resuming all the cooking and washing chores. M has been shuttling up and down to take her breaks etc. We have told her to take things at an easier pace or she might risk getting into her dizzy-problem again. The works have been completed by now.

Actually, the cooking and washing are much easier stuff than anything else that needs to be done. Menu planning is, contrary to popular belief, easy and quite fun. My rule is to keep things simple - mostly steaming and blanching, minimal frying - so everything from preparation to washing-up can be kept easy.

The stove area is much less greasy now because my habit is to clean the place immeidately after each use. But the accumulated layer of disgusting grease stains on the walls and fittings etc remain to be scrubbed and cleaned.

News?

As with my past experience, the minute I went on long leave, I became out of touch with the world. No more STOnline, no TV, no getting around except to TP for lessons and for quickie pick-ups from the supermarket.

All 'leisure' time is spent poring over the schedule and making sure that everything that needs to be taken care of has been fitted in and seen to. Think an over-worked secretary - knitted brows, perpetual frown and unkempt hair, telephone calls and smses - that's how it roughly is.

So it was no surprise (to myself) that I hadn't known that the number of H1N1 cases in Sg had hit the 60+ figure before last Saturday! And what North Korean vessel carrying WMD approaching Sg?! Ha?!?!!

Sigh, I guess it will be only after the boys return to school that I will be able to get connected again to the world. Don't ask why this must be so - it's just difficult to manage everything while seated in front of a laptop that has been switched on. And we are not even talking yet about the immense distraction such a machine will create.

Badminton

One of the biggest step that I had taken with the boys these 3 weeks so far, has been playing badminton. WY and WF tried for the 1st time some time last week to play the game. I brought them to the little wind-sheltered corner behind the lift lobby in B121 opposite our block for the game. By now, we have come to refer to this corner as 'behind the glass tiles'.

WY was a complete novice when we started. But he is now better able to serve and to receive the shuttlecock even though he is still nowhere compared to the level CP and I used to play at during my primary school and secondary school days. One thing, though, is that there is fortunately no risk of us hitting the shuttlecock onto the roof (like we used to do in the kampong where we had to resort to getting the bamboo poles/slippers to try to retrieve the stranded shuttlecock!).

WF is still a newbie to the game. But he has remained very positive in the few sessions we had had so far and he is now able to serve the ball albeit to the side (not to the opponent in front). The only thing now with WF is that he still insists on bringing a pack of biscuits or some light snack along whenever we go about our badminton game. And he would be asking to eat these at the earliest opportunity, by claiming that his 'stomach level is so down, down, down already!' (with his hand marking the level below the belly).

There is a newly installed vending machine outside the RC. It dispenses fizzy drinks. And both WY and WF would try to convince me that we should give each drink a try so we know its taste. Much to their delight, I had given in to their pleas once but other times, we had managed to stick to only the plain water we had brought from home.

We have placed bookings for the badminton hall in the CC for 2 mornings this week. Hopefully, we will then be better able to try the game since the wind will not be an issue in the hall. But I think there are about 3-4 vending machines in the CC.