Week 5 - Vday, playing catch, Mikes bday and Black Panthers movie
This week was busy and fun so much going on...Lino has really learned to ride his bike which is great because he was totally not interested before we left Ireland and now he’s like a super pro. Shaun has also been perfecting his bike skills which is great. Both bikes need to be serviced to get the brakes tightened and all of that stuff but for now we will manage with what we have.
Wednesday was a pretty fun day after a morning of trying to get a few things sorted with my bank account and my cell phone and something for Vday. Normally for Valentine’s Day I try to do some baking from Mike but this year it’s just wasn’t happening so instead I let the shops do the baking for me. I was half tempted to go to the famous amos cookie shop because I love that place but instead I tried a bakery and got us a selection of cupcakes. After that I met up with Mike at the boys school in order to see Lino’s 2nd grade art project. Apparently it was all of the 2nd graders who did some sort of art project and today was the day to display them. There appeared to be 6 or 7 different art activities that the kids could pick from for the event. So we wanted to see what it was all about! When we got to the 2nd grade wing it was complete mayhem! There were freaking kids everywhere...all excited and loud and looking for their parents. It was great! We found Lino and asked where his art was and he had no idea...of course. But one of his little buddies saw him and showed him where his art was at. Lino picked the photo art and had taken some pictures over the past few days and the teacher put them together in a sort of montage which was really cute. The show only lasted about 10minutes then Mrs Brooks was intent on getting her students back int class. It was a quick visit but still nice to see
Lino so excited about his work. Mike had to go back to work after that but I had to stay because there’d wasn’t enough time to go back to the apartment and make it back for the end of school so I had a little time to catch up on some reading. When they finally finished school I got the good report from Mrs Brooks that Lino was doing really well for the week...which I figured based on the 3 emails she sent me this week about Lino (for the most part all good). Like I said, I guess it works, her strange demeanour and Lino’s crazy wild personality...how it works I will never know. Seeing as though this is basically a Friday because the boys don’t have school on Thursday & Friday I took the lazy route for dinner which meant the boys had more time to play outside. They are really into the bikes which is great and they are actually not to bad as compromising between riding bikes and going to the playground. After a while at the playground I tried to convince them to go in to eat but they saw one of the kids we had met on the bus, Holly, and they wanted to play with him. Actually I kind of tried to encourage them to play soccer with him and his friends...a way to make to new friends. So they did! It wasn’t very much of a match but it was fun to watch. While I was watching I was just putting a few notes in my phone about the day (for the blog) when Lino goes and called me out!!!! This is where my day really gets interesting. Here I am minding my own business and enjoying watching the boys play and some how I get roped into joining the game? WTF??? Seriously! I’m a 27ish year old mother of 2 what business do I have running around with these boys. And I mean literally RUNNING AROUND! I was running!!!!!! So the story goes:
Lino - “Mommy why don’t you play with us?”
Me - “You play with your friends and I’ll watch. Why do you need me to play with you anyway?”
Lino - “Come on...have some fun”
Me - “I’m having fun already”
Lino - “Come on and play with us. Just put your phone down and play with us. Come on...put it down now and play! What are you scared to play with a few kids???”
Me - 😤
Lino - “Just come on mom you know you want to so let’s GO!”
And that was the beginning of the end. The game we and I use the word we very loosely because we was actually with and upside down W marking it ME was playing was go chase and tag all the kids. The rules, again very loose definition of this term, was the I (only me mind you no one else was even considered...no vote no volunteers no way to plead your case just straight up dictatorshit...and I mean shit) had to chase some 9 or 10 boys aged between 5-10yrs old all the freak around the courtyard area and when they were tagged by ME they were “suppose” to freeze until one of their teammates unfreezes them. Well I couldn’t understand the rules because I had no team so how were “my team” suppose to tag their team (i.e all the damn kids) and the if you are suppose to freeze then why are all the kids laughing every time you say freeze???? I was pretty sure those kids were not very keen on this freeze idea so I kept asking questions for clarification and getting absolutely no clarification what’s so ever so I say I’m not playing because I don’t understand and they were like just play don’t be ridiculous just tag us it will be fun. So that’s what I did but I am pretty sure it wasn’t as much fun for me as it was for them. I chased these little shots all over the flipping place. The boundaries that we established in the beginning must have only been suggestions. The 6 or so kids who were involved in the terms of my punishment some how multiplied into around 10 or more...but miraculously my “team” stayed at only 1 person, ME! Then to add insult to injury, when I would tag one of these little rascals somehow one of the frozen kids would mysteriously become unfrozen all on their own and they would go and unfreeze their teammates. So after a few minutes of this madness I realized this was a complete conspiracy to kill me! I was running all over that courtyard like a mad women! Some of the nanny’s who where out with their small kids were ducking around corners and doing this quick shuffle move to keep out of my way! At one point they even realized the madness of unfairness that was this trap of a game and started helping me by trying to distract or misdirect the boys in another direction so that I might have a chance to catch them. After a while I gave up and told them I wasn’t playing anymore because no one was following the rules and I was tired. I was more than tired I was dripping with sweat!!!! So I got about 30sec to sit while they...THEY, not we, discussed the terms of my next sentence. They decided that I needed a helper so they gave me the most pathetic and one of the smallest little pudge of a kid to be on my team...I guess 2 people make a team...just barely. To be honest he was a good kid an he was as helpful as he could be but I wouldn’t say he was the top of his PE class or anything...anyway my new team were basically to follow the same rules but the other team said they would freeze this time. Yeah right. I know I’m not a very bright person and I’m ok won’t they but seriously Renee how much of boo boo the fool can you really be believing these terrorist (One of my colleagues at work in Ireland told me about kids being terrorist and it was the one of the most enlightening comments I have ever heard...”kids are like little terrorist and you never negotiate with a terrorists.”) that they are actually going to follow the rules because they are simply not going to Jalapenos… Point blank! And that is exactly what happened. I kept playing with my new teammate and they kept playing the same rules. I let this continue on for a while because it was a little fun and I figured I was getting some exercise out of it in the process but this to had to end. I must’ve chased down and tagged all of those kids at least two or three times page and still could not win and I just couldn’t figure it out. I even asked the head kid what the deal was and he couldn’t give me a straight answer. The biggest joy that I got from this experience was the look of pure terror on the faces of these boys as I track them down and tag them. I couldn’t tell if they were just excited about a have of catch or completely dumbfounded by me being a mother/adult/girl/oldish, fast and still more than able to catch them??? Who knows but it was that look that kept me running after them for a full hour!!! Now this is where I have to go back to me being a dummy in the situation… Why would I keep running after these boys knowing that my ass is too old for this crap? Things that make you go hummmm. Finally I gave up and seriously was over it so I made my complaints to the man (who happen to be the black kid of the group) and told him I was out...seriously out. At this point the pedal on Lino’s bike has fell off and in The middle of me trying to catch these boys with my one teammate I was also trying to fix his poor pedal because he was in tears about it being broken. So I was done and couldn’t focus properly on my attack because my son needed my attention. Then Mike came and I thought he might join my “team” but he didn’t...he went to help Lino with his bike so “the man” made me one last negotiation and because I couldn’t walk away a complete failure and because I was able to forcefully add specific rules to the game I had one last round with only 4 boys (Lino was sort of in the 4 bit sort of handicapped due to his pedal). So they all promised to freeze when tagged and stay within the perimeter and no new kids could be added so I said what the heck. And the first on my kill list was the head of this torturous game...I got him first and his little buddy was trying to stick close to him because he knew the head of the snake had been eluding me all evening but not now so I got him only a few strides later. And I was rewarded with a serious sigh of confusion and a “man she is too fast...how is she so fast?” Then I got Lino but it was too easy but it had to be done because my son is one of the biggest cheaters around so I had to shut him down quick before this game lasted any longer than necessary. Then it was down to 1....he was harder because I had to guard my other catches and get him too. Lino, as expected claimed to have not been tagged and tried to unfreeze one of the kids but I squashed that quick...after a good 2-3 min of sizing my last prey up I spun my web and trapped him! I got you you little rascal!!! Finally I won!!! With all the odds against me I finally won! And I was done!!!! They had the nerves to ask me to do it again...crazy kids. No way in hell.
My feet hurt my knees were in jeopardy of hurting and I was a ball of sweat...I wasn’t about to get involved with more of that madness. The next challenge was getting the boys to come in!!!! I was to tired for patience so it was straight up threats at that point. Thankfully dinner was delivered so I just had to portion it out and we could eat. The food was good but the damn butter chicken was like super spicy so the boys were on fire for dinner and I made them keep eating it anyway...such a bad mom. By the time I got everything cleaned up it was time for a treat...I had got the boys some cupcakes for V-day so we had that before bath. It’s funny because in Ireland I would have baked up a huge cake or big batch of cookies or brownies or something...enough for work and home but not here. I had jut bought flour sugar and baking ingredients but didn’t have the mindset to test out baking...buying was much easier. Anyway dinner, cupcakes then a glass of wine to reward me for my days efforts.
Thursday and Friday were the Chinese New Year holiday break for the boys… See my Happy Chinese New Years post for details. TT won a huge prize at work for all the drugs that she sold for 2017 and we are super excited for her. She was hustling big time last year so it is great that her efforts didn't go un-rewarded.
Saturday was Mikes birthday and Lino got up and made daddy his traditional birthday breakfast which was a fried egg on toast. I haven’t been able to find a card shop so I had the boys make up a card for Mike which they did... begrudgingly. After a lot of discussion about what we would do for the day we finally made a plan and headed out but as soon as we were putting on our shoes we got a buzz from downstairs… friends coming to play! While at first this was annoying because we had only just made a plan and were starting to implement it it actually worked out. We ended up going to the maul to get ice cream for daddy and a doughnut for Shaun because Shaun is it really into ice cream that much like me then got lunch and headed back to the apartment. We had planned to stay at them mall for awhile so that the boys could play but since their friends were waiting on them to come back which meant we could go home and chill instead of dealing with the overcrowded mess of the mall. Which I must say... the mall was mobbed with people. Most likely due to it being the day after CNY when everything was closed. More specifically there were like bus loads of Indian people there. It’s not like it’s a rare sight or anything but you could really tell the massive shift in diversity compared to other days. In addition to this and all the people who are normally there the places was banana so it was good we were not staying. Oh and the escalators kept breaking...it was funny.
There were so many people there that they had escalator guards on duty. The people were telling the customers when they can go on the escalators and at some point they wouldn’t let people get on until the escalator was completely empty at the top… I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen anything like that but those escalators sure did get a workout. Anyway, short trip to the mall then home...boys played outside with their new buddies for pretty much all day. For dinner Mike wanted to have Indian so we headed down to boat Quay to a restaurant that Ha Eun had recommended to us. It was pretty yummy and unfortunately the butter chicken was spicy again!!! The poor boys can’t catch a break. I promised them that it wouldn’t be spicy and I asked the waiter like 3x to make sure it wasn’t spicy and he said it wasn’t but it was. I must say that the boys were troopers and suffered through the spice. I think Mike had a good bday but he was disappointed that he didn’t have a cake so I told him I would make one for him the next day...that didn’t happen either 😖
Sunday we relaxed in the morning (ie iPad time for the boys) then went to Holland Village to order meat at a butcher that Mikes boss suggested we check out. Before that we stopped in this Japanese Ramen place for lunch. It was good but not as good as the place we went to in the mall on Orchard and Lino was not impressed by it at all. Shaun was happy to have noodle soup and seaweed which he ate as soon as it came to the table...that kid. Then we went to see Black Panther with Deanna & Eric. We actually go there before them so we had some time to walk around the fancy theatre...fancy. When I bought the tickets I nearly fainted because of the price. Now at the theatre I sort of understood. Mike had no idea how much the tickets were but kept asking me because the place was to fancy...I was somehow able to dodge answering him even though at that point it was to late to turn back I still didn’t think it was a good idea to discuss the price then. Anyway, the fancy theatre was so cool with the lazy boy chairs and you could order food and booze too which was cool. The popcorn was reasonably priced which was great, $7 for a large and it wasn’t to salty like Ireland but not as good as AMC. The boys seemed to really enjoy the movie and we did too. It was late when it finished and I tried to chat with Deanna for a while after but it was late and the boys were so hungry because we didn’t eat before going so we ended up getting them burger king which they devoured in like 5 min because they didn't have much for lunch...specifically Lino. Mike and I grabbed wingstop to go...wingstop...in Singapore...so exciting and crazy...and we hurried to get the boys home and in bed so that we could binge watch the rest of Scandal as a way to end the birthday weekend.
Wednesday was a pretty fun day after a morning of trying to get a few things sorted with my bank account and my cell phone and something for Vday. Normally for Valentine’s Day I try to do some baking from Mike but this year it’s just wasn’t happening so instead I let the shops do the baking for me. I was half tempted to go to the famous amos cookie shop because I love that place but instead I tried a bakery and got us a selection of cupcakes. After that I met up with Mike at the boys school in order to see Lino’s 2nd grade art project. Apparently it was all of the 2nd graders who did some sort of art project and today was the day to display them. There appeared to be 6 or 7 different art activities that the kids could pick from for the event. So we wanted to see what it was all about! When we got to the 2nd grade wing it was complete mayhem! There were freaking kids everywhere...all excited and loud and looking for their parents. It was great! We found Lino and asked where his art was and he had no idea...of course. But one of his little buddies saw him and showed him where his art was at. Lino picked the photo art and had taken some pictures over the past few days and the teacher put them together in a sort of montage which was really cute. The show only lasted about 10minutes then Mrs Brooks was intent on getting her students back int class. It was a quick visit but still nice to see
Lino so excited about his work. Mike had to go back to work after that but I had to stay because there’d wasn’t enough time to go back to the apartment and make it back for the end of school so I had a little time to catch up on some reading. When they finally finished school I got the good report from Mrs Brooks that Lino was doing really well for the week...which I figured based on the 3 emails she sent me this week about Lino (for the most part all good). Like I said, I guess it works, her strange demeanour and Lino’s crazy wild personality...how it works I will never know. Seeing as though this is basically a Friday because the boys don’t have school on Thursday & Friday I took the lazy route for dinner which meant the boys had more time to play outside. They are really into the bikes which is great and they are actually not to bad as compromising between riding bikes and going to the playground. After a while at the playground I tried to convince them to go in to eat but they saw one of the kids we had met on the bus, Holly, and they wanted to play with him. Actually I kind of tried to encourage them to play soccer with him and his friends...a way to make to new friends. So they did! It wasn’t very much of a match but it was fun to watch. While I was watching I was just putting a few notes in my phone about the day (for the blog) when Lino goes and called me out!!!! This is where my day really gets interesting. Here I am minding my own business and enjoying watching the boys play and some how I get roped into joining the game? WTF??? Seriously! I’m a 27ish year old mother of 2 what business do I have running around with these boys. And I mean literally RUNNING AROUND! I was running!!!!!! So the story goes:
Lino - “Mommy why don’t you play with us?”
Me - “You play with your friends and I’ll watch. Why do you need me to play with you anyway?”
Lino - “Come on...have some fun”
Me - “I’m having fun already”
Lino - “Come on and play with us. Just put your phone down and play with us. Come on...put it down now and play! What are you scared to play with a few kids???”
Me - 😤
Lino - “Just come on mom you know you want to so let’s GO!”
And that was the beginning of the end. The game we and I use the word we very loosely because we was actually with and upside down W marking it ME was playing was go chase and tag all the kids. The rules, again very loose definition of this term, was the I (only me mind you no one else was even considered...no vote no volunteers no way to plead your case just straight up dictatorshit...and I mean shit) had to chase some 9 or 10 boys aged between 5-10yrs old all the freak around the courtyard area and when they were tagged by ME they were “suppose” to freeze until one of their teammates unfreezes them. Well I couldn’t understand the rules because I had no team so how were “my team” suppose to tag their team (i.e all the damn kids) and the if you are suppose to freeze then why are all the kids laughing every time you say freeze???? I was pretty sure those kids were not very keen on this freeze idea so I kept asking questions for clarification and getting absolutely no clarification what’s so ever so I say I’m not playing because I don’t understand and they were like just play don’t be ridiculous just tag us it will be fun. So that’s what I did but I am pretty sure it wasn’t as much fun for me as it was for them. I chased these little shots all over the flipping place. The boundaries that we established in the beginning must have only been suggestions. The 6 or so kids who were involved in the terms of my punishment some how multiplied into around 10 or more...but miraculously my “team” stayed at only 1 person, ME! Then to add insult to injury, when I would tag one of these little rascals somehow one of the frozen kids would mysteriously become unfrozen all on their own and they would go and unfreeze their teammates. So after a few minutes of this madness I realized this was a complete conspiracy to kill me! I was running all over that courtyard like a mad women! Some of the nanny’s who where out with their small kids were ducking around corners and doing this quick shuffle move to keep out of my way! At one point they even realized the madness of unfairness that was this trap of a game and started helping me by trying to distract or misdirect the boys in another direction so that I might have a chance to catch them. After a while I gave up and told them I wasn’t playing anymore because no one was following the rules and I was tired. I was more than tired I was dripping with sweat!!!! So I got about 30sec to sit while they...THEY, not we, discussed the terms of my next sentence. They decided that I needed a helper so they gave me the most pathetic and one of the smallest little pudge of a kid to be on my team...I guess 2 people make a team...just barely. To be honest he was a good kid an he was as helpful as he could be but I wouldn’t say he was the top of his PE class or anything...anyway my new team were basically to follow the same rules but the other team said they would freeze this time. Yeah right. I know I’m not a very bright person and I’m ok won’t they but seriously Renee how much of boo boo the fool can you really be believing these terrorist (One of my colleagues at work in Ireland told me about kids being terrorist and it was the one of the most enlightening comments I have ever heard...”kids are like little terrorist and you never negotiate with a terrorists.”) that they are actually going to follow the rules because they are simply not going to Jalapenos… Point blank! And that is exactly what happened. I kept playing with my new teammate and they kept playing the same rules. I let this continue on for a while because it was a little fun and I figured I was getting some exercise out of it in the process but this to had to end. I must’ve chased down and tagged all of those kids at least two or three times page and still could not win and I just couldn’t figure it out. I even asked the head kid what the deal was and he couldn’t give me a straight answer. The biggest joy that I got from this experience was the look of pure terror on the faces of these boys as I track them down and tag them. I couldn’t tell if they were just excited about a have of catch or completely dumbfounded by me being a mother/adult/girl/oldish, fast and still more than able to catch them??? Who knows but it was that look that kept me running after them for a full hour!!! Now this is where I have to go back to me being a dummy in the situation… Why would I keep running after these boys knowing that my ass is too old for this crap? Things that make you go hummmm. Finally I gave up and seriously was over it so I made my complaints to the man (who happen to be the black kid of the group) and told him I was out...seriously out. At this point the pedal on Lino’s bike has fell off and in The middle of me trying to catch these boys with my one teammate I was also trying to fix his poor pedal because he was in tears about it being broken. So I was done and couldn’t focus properly on my attack because my son needed my attention. Then Mike came and I thought he might join my “team” but he didn’t...he went to help Lino with his bike so “the man” made me one last negotiation and because I couldn’t walk away a complete failure and because I was able to forcefully add specific rules to the game I had one last round with only 4 boys (Lino was sort of in the 4 bit sort of handicapped due to his pedal). So they all promised to freeze when tagged and stay within the perimeter and no new kids could be added so I said what the heck. And the first on my kill list was the head of this torturous game...I got him first and his little buddy was trying to stick close to him because he knew the head of the snake had been eluding me all evening but not now so I got him only a few strides later. And I was rewarded with a serious sigh of confusion and a “man she is too fast...how is she so fast?” Then I got Lino but it was too easy but it had to be done because my son is one of the biggest cheaters around so I had to shut him down quick before this game lasted any longer than necessary. Then it was down to 1....he was harder because I had to guard my other catches and get him too. Lino, as expected claimed to have not been tagged and tried to unfreeze one of the kids but I squashed that quick...after a good 2-3 min of sizing my last prey up I spun my web and trapped him! I got you you little rascal!!! Finally I won!!! With all the odds against me I finally won! And I was done!!!! They had the nerves to ask me to do it again...crazy kids. No way in hell.
Thursday and Friday were the Chinese New Year holiday break for the boys… See my Happy Chinese New Years post for details. TT won a huge prize at work for all the drugs that she sold for 2017 and we are super excited for her. She was hustling big time last year so it is great that her efforts didn't go un-rewarded.
Sunday we relaxed in the morning (ie iPad time for the boys) then went to Holland Village to order meat at a butcher that Mikes boss suggested we check out. Before that we stopped in this Japanese Ramen place for lunch. It was good but not as good as the place we went to in the mall on Orchard and Lino was not impressed by it at all. Shaun was happy to have noodle soup and seaweed which he ate as soon as it came to the table...that kid. Then we went to see Black Panther with Deanna & Eric. We actually go there before them so we had some time to walk around the fancy theatre...fancy. When I bought the tickets I nearly fainted because of the price. Now at the theatre I sort of understood. Mike had no idea how much the tickets were but kept asking me because the place was to fancy...I was somehow able to dodge answering him even though at that point it was to late to turn back I still didn’t think it was a good idea to discuss the price then. Anyway, the fancy theatre was so cool with the lazy boy chairs and you could order food and booze too which was cool. The popcorn was reasonably priced which was great, $7 for a large and it wasn’t to salty like Ireland but not as good as AMC. The boys seemed to really enjoy the movie and we did too. It was late when it finished and I tried to chat with Deanna for a while after but it was late and the boys were so hungry because we didn’t eat before going so we ended up getting them burger king which they devoured in like 5 min because they didn't have much for lunch...specifically Lino. Mike and I grabbed wingstop to go...wingstop...in Singapore...so exciting and crazy...and we hurried to get the boys home and in bed so that we could binge watch the rest of Scandal as a way to end the birthday weekend.
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