Taekwondo grading

It's Sunday morning and I am at Toa Payoh Sports Hall. It's 8am and I'm here with many other parents who accompany their kids to grading tests every 3 months.

Xavier has been learning Taekwondo for almost a year. He had to go for grading, which hopefully sees him attain a green belt. He attends weekly classes with this club called the Raiders.

The letter from his club states we must be at the sports hall by 8am. We arrived at about 7.45am, which is a good thing because the car park was full by 8am. I learnt this from previous experience. I used to have to park at the Toa Payoh Hub because the car park at the sports hall was full.

I take my hat off to the numerous black belt instructors who take time off their relaxing weekends to accompanying a group of mostly kids for their grading. I don't think these instructors get paid. Maybe a small allowance or just drinks. They do it out of their passion for the sport. I have not found a passion for any sport after I left school. The only sport I do is to go to the gym and that is for personal vanity.
The Raiders club conducts classes at several locations, including Sembawang and Sengkang. It is quite a big group compared to the other clubs at the same grading. You can see the size of the group in this picture. It took up virtually half the length of the hall while other clubs take up only one quarter or one fourth.


The thing about grading is that the "junior" belts go first. So it is white belts, yellow tips, yellow belts, green tips, green belts, blue tips, blue belts, etc. I think blue is followed by brown then black. So I have to wait for longer periods as we go for more gradings. I upgraded myself in the process, moving from a book to a laptop for the wait.


The grading went smoothly for Xavier but there was a girl in his group who had to do her routine twice after the group completed the routine. I think she didn't kick correctly. But I had to give it to her for not giving up! Hope she passes!!

After the grading, it was off to Ang Mo Kio Hub for a nice sushi lunch at Ichiban Sushi. Then we went home for a rest before heading off to Sembawang Shopping Center, our weekend haunt. Jolly good weekend I must say. At least I did more than bum around.

Mega Angry Bird

The boys like to build things with Lego blocks. Rockets, aeroplanes, Beyblade tops and angry birds being the popular ones.

Ryan decided to combine 3 angry birds into 1 Mega angry bird. There are 2 birds on the side, 1 red and 1 yellow. The yellow one is Keane's and the red, Xavier's. The colorful one right on top is Ryan's. He said he wanted to be king.

Early Sunday morning run........and walk

I woke up at 4.30am today. This is not usual for me. Sunday mornings are usually lie in mornings. I signed up for the Shape Run 2012 with some colleagues. Shape is a fitness magazine. I took part in the 5km category.

It was a good thing I made some provisions for driving time required in the event I got lost. I did. I missed the car park entrance to Golden Mile Complex and had to make a long detour. Fortunately I made it at the end. I have never seen so many ladies in pink tank tops at one place before.

This is the first time I am taking part in a public running event. The last time I did a 5km walk was in March. It was a charitable event organized by my company. That time I could manage to brisk walk with a couple of minuscule attempts at jogging towards the end of the 5km. I was looking forward to a different journey today.

The weather promised to be good today. Check out the rising sun. The clouds formed a pretty nice pattern.

 

There were male pacers who were wearing yellow t-shirts and orange balloons for the 5km runners. The pacers were targeting to complete the 5km in 30mins. Some of them were supposed to be hot....I didn't notice. None can compare to Baby Goose.....ha ha.

I was not exaggerating when I said there were a lot of ladies in pink.








After the warm up we began running. I felt pretty good about jogging. Ran past quite a number of ladies. It was regular breathing for a nice distance. I reached the first water point at 1.8km faster than I anticipated. The orange balloons were still in sight. It was very encouraging. But the next water point took forever to appear. The balloons got further and further away. After the second water point I felt hungry. Then my legs started getting heavier. At 4km, I had to walk. So I brisked walked as fast as I could. Ladies whom I overtook earlier started to run past me! I just couldn't bring myself to run anymore. I know it's shameful. What's one more kilometer? I am not the kind who thrives on encouragement from bystanders. I need my trainer or Gabriel to scold me. To add to my problem, I felt the urge to go to the toilet! Apparently drank too much water earlier and the toilet break before the race didn't help the cause much. It was weird because I was perspiring like nobody's business!

Nonetheless it was a relief when I saw the finish line and passed it. Then it was straight to the porta-loo. I regret making the decision to hit the porta-loo first. It was a super long queue for the goodie bag after I was done. Throngs of ladies were just trying to squeeze their way to the head of the queue. I made it eventually. There was a pink (again) bag with some stuff in there. I took the bag, walked a little bit around the grounds and decided to call it a day. There were not many freebies at the stalls, just a lot of photo taking. It was still a good day. The weather held and I was glad I wasn't last.


The end of the day for me. A nice sunny day......and some runners still trying to complete their run while I made my way to my car.

I reached home and Xavier asked me if I came in first. I was sorry to disappoint. Then he asked, "You finished 10?". Sorry again. But all 3 kids were pretty impressed when I showed them my finisher's medal. Ooooh.....mummy's got a medal.

I'm going to try to improve my time for the next run. Who knows, I might join the 10km category next year......if I survive till then. I'm sure I will. I just need to get the right fellas to continue scolding me till I get fit.

I am in love with Baby Goose

I just turned 39 a couple of hours ago and am in a mid life crisis. I'm beginning to be obsessed with Ryan Gosling. No, it's not a school girl crush like some would call it. And I don't have Ryan Baby Goose on my desktop or my iPhone wall.

I just enjoy watching his movies, listening to Dead Man's Bones and drooling over him. Man, he is such delectable eye candy! Ok, so it's almost like a school girl crush. I know it's totally ridiculous that a mother of 3 would be watching his movies and listening to his songs almost everyday. I google him once in a while. Ok, ok, maybe more than once in a while. I refuse to admit how often. Now you know how seriously silly this is.

I don't even fantasize about this guy. I don't want to marry him. The thought never occurred to me. Honestly! This obsession started after watching his appearance on a couple of talk shows. Before that I was just admiring an actor who was way too easy on the eyes and could act. After the talk shows, he became some what more human. I agree it's a bit hard to understand what goes on in my head some times. I've been struggling with that for at least 30 years, assuming I was lucid at 9.

Truthfully, I would be grateful for a chance to talk to him for an hour. That's all I ask.

Enough of the Baby Goose. Back to my mid life crisis. Here I am at 39. I said I got a hair cut to get over the crisis. I did it but it didn't work.

I saw a lady with a tattoo on her shoulder at the gym today. Yes, I am still persisting with the gym workouts. It was not a drop dead gorgeous or strikingly commanding tattoo. But the fact that she had a tattoo was pretty cool. To me at least. So the competitive part of me said, "Hey, if I were to get a tattoo, it will be one that's way cooler than that." Humph.

So I consulted my conscience in such matters, Gabriel, who totally encouraged me to get a tatt. Yes, I am committing this to words so that he will not forget that he said, "Go on, get one. Make sure it's nice. And throw in a couple of piercings along the way!" Yes, he said that, though not in so many words. And he promised to throw a party where he would totally embarrass me after I get my tatt. What a friend! All he did for his mid life crisis was to get a bike. Or so he says.

I'm 90% sure I'll get a tattoo. But I'm 95% sure I will chicken out. See the conflicts? Sometimes I feel like I have a split personality. Maybe it's just an excuse for myself. I am not going there for fear that I say something politically incorrect and get flamed. If I say anything that is biased, thoughtless, politically wrong or prejudiced, please don't take it that way. I genuinely don't mean to.

Anyway, I have a constant struggle when I am faced with trivial decisions. Where work, the kids, the family are concerned, I have a clear decision tree. Always do what is right and what is good for the family. Where my personal life is concerned, I am always in a dilemma. I don't know if I am the only one with this condition but I sure hope not.

Yes, I went to work today despite it being my birthday. To me a birthday is just a reminder that I am getting old and supposedly more matured. I don't like to be reminded that I am not matured so I try not to make a big deal out of my birthday. The nice thing was some colleagues bought me lunch yesterday and my team bought me lunch today. People do like me. Or I give the impression that I love being sucked up to. I hope it's the former.

I told Gabriel that I should publish our conversations because they are such a blast. One day....some day. But I promised him I will not publish his full name. That being said, the only people who read my blog are my friends and more than half of them know who he is.

I shall let you know when I decide to publish a book. Are they still popular? They are to me. Nothing beats a book......other than a certain baby goose. Yeah, I'm a basket case now.

To give or not to give....to believe or not

Surprise, surprise.....I have been quiet because I've been trying to learn the ropes of my new assignment at work. It has been challenging but fun.

The alleged misuse of church funds by some members of a church committee have been hoarding the headlines recently. I am sure a lot of people have their views of the situation. I am not really fazed by the comments or news. I am adopting a wait and see attitude. That being said I have some opinion on the behavior and reaction of the people towards the news reports.

Honestly it boils down to faith and honesty. I know that the Bible mentions false prophets before the second coming of Christ. But until the day Christ comes again and judgement is passed on one and all, who are we to say who is a true or false prophet?

It doesn't mean we turn a blind eye to what is happening around us. I just feel that we can exercise a bit of common sense and logic to digest what goes on around us.

Jesus said that it doesn't matter how much you give but how you give. Surely the act of giving a substantial sum with ostensible display of sacrifice is less genuine than a discreet contribution of what one can truly afford without going into debt.

Jesus also asked us to be meek as lambs but wise as serpents. I don't think he wants us to chalk up credit card debts in an attempt to contribute to a church that collects a lot of money regularly. Prayers are answered by God's will and not because we give a lot of money to boost the request.

To give is not just about taking cash out of your wallet and giving it to the Church or charities. To give is to genuinely contribute what you can to society, in terms of effort or time, not just money. To give is to treat people with respect, to give a helping hand to a stranger who needs help, to give a smile to brighten someone else's day and to just make things easier on everyone other than yourself.

Blind faith can be a dangerous weapon, especially in the hands of masters of manipulation and deception. I'm not trying to say that people who have blind faith are weak. They are just victims of these masters who use the power and emotional insecurity of the masses to their advantage.

I urge everyone to think about their feelings and consequence of their actions before they act. The future is in our hands, don't destroy it or throw it away.