Swimming lessons and nasi lemak

The boys started swimming lessons at Yishun Swimming Complex last Sunday. They had their second this morning. I have not been to a public swimming pool in many years, more than 20 in fact. I'm not being atas....I just don't have a reason to go to a pool unless we were staying at a hotel.

 

The boys have group training with a certain Mr Yeow who is a coach with the Singapore Swimming Academy. $90 a month for each. They get a pair of goggles and a swimming cap. Not too bad. There's a play pool with slides. The boys go to that pool after lesson for about 15minutes. I think they secretly enjoy the play time after swimming lesson more than the lesson itself!!

 

 

We went a bit earlier today and the boys messed around in the pool before lessons started. 

 

 

They have been learning how to kick and get accustomed to being in the water. Xavier can swim by himself with the aid of a board. He is learning how to swim without the board. Keane and Ryan are still learning how to kick the proper way.

 

Swimming is a survival skill which every person should have......

After swimming we went to Sembawang Shopping Center for lunch. There is a new restaurant which sells nasi lemak called My Nasi. It's the second attempt by the Paradise group at the same location. It was previously a Kungfu Paradise restaurant. The food was not nice and much lesser value for money than what is available at the food court or even at Aston's. I can see the nasi lemak heading in the same direction unless they make some changes. The first thing they should do is to train the staff to serve the food faster. There was a long queue although the restaurant was not full because the staff took a long time to serve the food. Secondly the otah should not be served in the tiny leaf it comes in. The otah is not big but it is a relatively decent size. However it is served in a leaf that is not much bigger than the otah itself. This gives the impression that the otah is very small. Better to serve the otah without the leaf or with the traditional sized leaf. Thirdly the chili needs to be improved. It's neither very hot nor very sweet. In other words, it lacks character. The oil from the chili was seeping out to the bottom of the plate, snaking beneath the rice.

The only thing that makes me think that the restaurant has a hope of surviving is that I see someone looking vaguely like Eldwin Chua, the CEO of Paradise Group which owns this restaurant and the Kungfu Paradise, in the restaurant, helping out to clear tables. It is probably someone who looks very much like him but at least it appears to be someone from higher management. The people who own the business must have a hand in the business to make it viable. The good thing is the change in concept without much change in the décor or set up gives the restaurant owners a second chance of getting out of a lose making lease commitment. I wish them the best of luck!