Our First Archifest: ArKIDecture X Exhale | Children Workshop

Have you ever correlate the human body system with the complex building system? Such as circulation and respiration systems in our body versus a building structure and... if it breaths. This morning, the girls and I attended an arKIDecture workshop to learn the concept of a breathable building. We were lucky to be able get the ticket for this event in Archifest, as there was very limited tickets up for grab. Here, must thank Sarah for the alert!

ArKIDecture X Exhale | Children Workshop: The Breathable City Design : Breathable Buildings.

Love that we were in the space that was walled and sheltered with rainbow-scaffolding.

Pezzo and Club Rainbow Children Broke Record of the Largest Dessert Pizza for Good Cause

Last week, Pezzo Pizza and 70 children from Club Rainbow (Singapore) came together to create the largest yummylicious dessert pizza in Singapore at NUS Sheares Hall, which have made them earned an entry in the Singapore Book of Records. I was late, due to work, missed the historical moment. However, I felt the jolly atmosphere from the event. I think the kids were not just had fun, they were proud of achieving the local record-breaking pizza.

And this is to give a shout-out for a good cause.

Named Club Rainbow pizza, the pizza is topped with everyone’s favourite cocoa spread, Nutella chocolate as well as caramelised bananas and marshmallows, and then finished with heart-shaped sprinkles. In support of Club Rainbow Charity, Pezzo Pizza is making this pizza available for sale as well. One slice of the Club Rainbow Pizza goes at S$4.90; three slices at S$12.90 and a full pan at S$24.90. Part of the sales proceeds of the Club Rainbow Pizza will be donated to Club Rainbow, offsetting expenses it incurs from helping children with various chronic and life-threatening illnesses.

Titans of the Past @ Science Centre Singapore

Have you been to Titans of the Past? If you are interested into dinosaurs and creatures through pre-historic times, you should.

Ever since the girls hook on Dinosaur Train, I learn along with them, bit by bit. As a young child, I learnt that dinosaurs are large, scaly, dangerous lizards that went extinct millions of years ago. But I didn't really catch their names. Not until Jiejie tells me about Pteranodon, Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Maiasaurus, Brachiosaurus and some other names that I need more time to grip. 

Sept 2013: Turning Eight

Together with her hair triggered temper, my first born is entering into her Eight, getting very close to Tween. I decided to make her work harder on the day we celebrate her birthday.

To activate PLAY and optimum the joy level of the birthday child, we went back to The Polliwogs @ Robinson Walk.

Making Props for Voyage of Dreams: Only Believe.

When I thought I lost the ability to play with colours,
Sarah of The Playful Parents assigned me to make some props.

Making props, by using recycled cardboards. Specifically mentioned by Sarah

I interpreted as, "Do painting with cardboard, aunty!"

Life, should call back those colours to befriend with me once again!

I took it up without much thought of my packed schedule. 

It was only two months later (like somewhere three weeks ago?), I started to paint.

Of course, how can I miss the opportunity to let the girls have some fun too?

Play. Love. Bond., below is one of their joint-effort of work.
I did the final touch-up. Little here, and little there.

Surprisingly, Little Bomber has a good sense of brushing and mixing colour.
Jiejie, on the other hand, learnt dipping her coloured brush for the first time from her mum.

All the fun was done in between time. (I don't really have time)

Layer by layer. Sign after sign.

Play. Love. Bond. One of my favourite here.

The more I do, the more I get hang of it.

Something extraordinary happened last night.

The welcome mat in MamaJ's Natural History Museum popped into my mind.

All the sudden, I had a strong urge to try out her's way of painting.

I shaped the letters with washi tape, double checked the spelling.
Then held the brush and ran wild with rainbow colours over the words.

In the end, the rainbow sign put a smile on my face.

'Cause it is very much telling myself that, the skill of playing with colour is back. 

So is the ability of stirring brain juice for new attempt!

We're the Playful Parents, inspired by MamaJ.

Coming Sunday, 13 October 2013,

come join the fun of Voyage of Dreams: Only Believe at Central Library (Bugis)
(click for more detail)

It is FREE Event.

And PLEASE, take one or two signs from the Photo Booth to snap away!
(Even if you don't like it, give some face, ok?) 

Aug 2013: Doctor for a Day

This is my firstborn, dressed up in scrubs, paying attention to an explanation in the "Emergency" station of one programme called "Doctor for a Day" in Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital. Each and every session was taken up fast. But thanks to Jean of Wee Stories' for getting extra slots for SMBs, I managed to sign her up for it in the end.

The programme is part of the hospital's community outreach effort, where children can role-play as doctor in the hospital setting, and have a taste of being a General Practitioner, a Surgeon, as well as bathe, clean and diaper a baby in a nursing room. Brilliant idea to inspire young generation to be doctor in future.

However, it didn't conjure her to be One immediately. She may consider to be a nurse though. 

Overall, she had an amazingly good time there. Once she reached home, she made Bomber a patient and they had few rounds of role-play with the stethoscope given in the goodie bag.

Looks like she learnt to be a doctor to her baby sister. 

Credits: Michelle Coleman's Lucky in Love; Sahlin Studio's Art & Soul, Wild Blueberry Ink; Studio Romy, and the paper medallions from here.

Exclusive Baking Class at Munch Ministry

Saturdays are usually family day and supposedly a day to be chauffeur and maid fully attend to the kiddos' needs. They have swimming and wushu classes. Thereafter we would proceed to park (or library/mall if it rains) till the sun down. Bumper to bumper, exhaustion.

Photo Credit: Adeline of The Accidental Mom Blogger

But one Saturday, I sneaked out early and quietly (Bomber would not let me to leave her behind) to attend a baking class at Civil Service Club, hosted by Munch Ministry. This is another event in conjunction of SMB's One Celebration. We were to learn to make Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes.

I love the opportunity given here: learn baking from a seasoned baker, one who I admire at- Pauline. I known her when I chanced upon the playgroup that was led by her back in 2008. Jiejie and I have many fond memory of being part of the playgroup. Few of us mums even learnt sewing from her previously.

Yes, she is an amazing women with tons of inspirations!

Maybe that's why I came out a big idea to lug a stranger-to-me and heavy DSLR, just so I could made friendly connection between the two of us. By trying and errorring on the aperture and the shutter of the camera, I would be a better photographer, well, better than the day before. A tad bit?

Sure enough, it was a lousy idea. One third of the time I was busy adjusting the setting, another one third was monkeying around like a naughty student in the class (like I was once behaved such), the remaining one third on the lesson. Greedy me!

[Photo Credits (L-R): Liza of Mother of Xander and Munch Ministry]

But then again, as you can see, bloggers work pretty hard and I am just catching up.

The class started with Pauline demonstrate the very first part of making the cake: How egg yolk mixture are done. Pauline delightfully told us that Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes is not originally from Hokkaido, Japan. It's merely because the recipe using the milk from Hokkaido. Nonetheless, during the class, we used ordinary milk from New Zealand.

One of the mom blogger was quick enough to try baking another batch of cakes with the milk from Hokkaido(after the baking class), and she said,

"The chiffon cakes were extra milky and creamy and after baking the chiffon cakes, the milky scent was present with every bite."   - Jasmine from scissorspaperstoneblog.com

That is surely entice me to try this recipe with Hokkaido milk!

Back to the class, Pauline shared few other great tips in the class besides walking us through the recipe. For example, the egg white used for making meringue, which is the main foundation of a chiffon cake, is not supposedly have any drop of egg yolk. Another great reminder I got from Pauline is that, once all the batter are scooped into liners/tray, before putting it into the oven, knock it to get rid of the bubble trapped inside the batter.

Lastly, Louisa taught us making the filling and piping into the cupcakes.

After the first part of demonstration, we began the hands-on. We were to team-up in two. Double the ingredients, double the joy of working together for our cupcakes. Liza was my partner. And, together with Jennifer, we had more than baking fun. 

In the class, most of us encountered problem with the separation of egg yolk and egg white. So were Liza and I. Firstly we had more than 1 messy egg yolks, Then we got confused with number of remaining eggs we needed to crack to match the total number of egg yolks and egg whites. Remember double the ingredients? We needed 6 eggs for making the right among of cupcakes for two mothers to bring home individually. Apparently 6 is a big number and easily to lost count.
Thank goodness there were cracked egg shells laying on our table to count on. We were convinced that one of us added extra egg when one of the egg yolks found its way to to mess with the egg white. Obviously, Liza and I had too much laughs.

You have gotto to read the best way to separate egg yolk and egg white from my partner, Liza:

"You can buy the fanciest egg separating gadget available but nothing beats using your hands to wiggle the yolk in your palm while the whites ooze away through your finger tips."

We then pay more attention into our cake-making. It was great to learn and work with a partner. You get to discuss, analyse and execute about the recipe, humorously.   

Inevitably, I had a great time, laughing, battering, piping, photographing. Though, most of the photos I took were pretty poor quality. Rachel of Catch 40 Winks gave me some quick tips, apparently try and error is not  the only way to learn photography. ^^|

But at least the cupcakes were perfectly done! It is light and delectable, I gulped down not just one but two at the end of the class. Yum yum!

Well, I'm a cake person.

I let my girl try the cake as supper that night. Judging from my fussy eater's response, I am encouraged to bake these cakes again.

Hopefully, I find the milk from Hokkaido too;).

For similar recipes, hop over to Munch Ministry's link. More of our SMB's individual's story can be found here. If you have intention to host a party or team building event over baking/cooking class like ours, ask Munch Minstry at munchministrylwp@gmail.com.

Thank you Louisa and Pauline for hosting this for us, SMB.

Style Essence Grooming Session

Time flies, the Singapore Mom Bloggers that I joined last year has turn one, last month. 

The founder, Rachel, took an initiative to plan physical events for all busy mom bloggers to get together for some enriching and fun activities. The first event was a grooming session, just for the mothers, In collaborated with Florinda from Style Essence.

Thanks to sponsors Style Essence and dinner by The Shepherd’s pie.

It was timely, I needed some few hours of me-time. Meeting friends, learning things as well as giving the girls and the hubby some "happy hours".

The workshop was mainly cover overall grooming and skincare. Florinda began the session by measuring our body to determine body types: hour glass, pear, apple or column. We then given an useful card to remind ourselves of the clothing styles that suites one's shape. (I held my breath and managed to get 'hourglass', otherwise I'll be column;p). She shared with us on colour analysis of our skin tone, so that we know if we are more suitable to 'warm' or 'cool' undertones. Well, this one can not cheat, I'm warm;). She also touched on the comparison on how pattern of stripes, big or small polka dot, even big or small flowery print of the clothing has a visual impact on oneself.

Me, before makeover.

R to L: Adora, Pamela, Adeline, Regina, Susan & Florinda.

We then moved on to skincare part. Flo highlighted the important of good skincare. I was happy to learn everything about it all over again and  got to get my hands worked on the face: from removing make-up, to cleansing, to put on the mask half of our face, up to putting the moisturiser and later make-up our face.

Most tips and information shared were basic and helpful, but I forgot about it over the years, especially after motherhood, like I was asking what is the eyeliner for? Eyebrow or eyes? So confusing! But truly laughed out loud. I am one of those frumpy mum during weekends. If not because of work, I continue the rhythm of t-shirt, shorts and slippers walk out of the house. Not surprise, right? My face was yellowish once, according to my mum. I conveniently forget about my self when kids are around me, I have hundred and one things to do for the day, see?

Anyway, through the hands on session with Mary Kay product, I learnt and re-learnt. Flo shared that when I do cleaning, my fingers movement should be moving upwards on the face, to open up the pores; when applying moisturiser, sun-block and what not, the fingers should be in a circular downwards movement, just to close the pores.

We went (almost) wild during hands-on. Learning from each other and laughing at each other at the same time. I was (almost) lost in the middle of following the instruction from Flo, thank goodness Adora was sitting next to me, I basically followed her, until the end of the workshop, even took a fire-red lipstick. On the other hand, Liza was pretty fun to be next with.

Needless to say, the product of Mary Kay is fabulous! You can see how did I transform after the session. I practically love both the cleanser and the mask which helps to clean, pamper my skin and leave it brighter and refreshing.

It is probably a habit for us to take out the camera and snap away for some highlight.
In the end, we were being snapped this time!

The workshop was ending with few beautiful shots of us. You can tell, we had a wonderful session!

Clockwise from top left: Trainer Bernadette, Susan, Sandra, Regina, Adeline, Madeline, me, Trainer Florinda, Adora, Pamela, Liza, Estella and Jiahui.

Seriously, it is good to have a me-time once in a while. This is sure one that I am highly recommending, you get to learn so much more about your self, at the same time finding some sanity, for being away from child(ren). 

Some of the mom bloggers are doing GiveawayS as Style Essence is offering complimentary workshop passes worth $150. All you need to do is simply follow the instruction stated in the blog post (terms and conditions apply):
- Mummy Moo: until 12 Apr 2013
- The Accidental Mom Blogger: until 12 Apr 2013
- The Whimsical Mommy Adventures: until 13 Apr 2013
- Mum's the Word:  until 14 Apr 2013
- Sanses: until 14 Apr 2013

- So Oddly Dream Like: until 14 Apr 2013

- Mummy Ed: until 14 Apr 2013

- Evespiration: until 14 Apr 2013

- Quirky Affairs: until 14 Apr 2013
- Our Journey with AJ: until 15 Apr 2013

- MadPsychMum: until 15 Apr 2013

- The Gingerbread Mum: until 15 Apr 2013.

Hop over! You may be the lucky winner for the pass. Good Luck!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Disclaimer: This is an event by invitation and I received no monetary compensation for this post. All opinions are entirely my own.

Science in the Mall

Have you been to any Science in the Mall?

We did, thanks to a media invitation organised by Parkway Parade and the Singapore Science Centre. The girls had a blast! I enjoyed it too, not only got to meet some wonderful mom bloggers, I re-learnt Science, I re-learnt Energy! AND got to see how One instructor led little Bomber to focus and completed a task at the hands-on workshop. I was beaming from ear to ear; I witnessed how she learnt through a task, attentively.

I didn't expect her sat through the instruction and completed a task.

There are several fun activities in the interactive exhibits. The above making "Shaking Gorilla" is just one of them. For more information about this 20th series of Science in the Mall, click here. This event is held in Basement Atrium, Parkway Parade, from 16 March to 24 March 2013, 11am - 9pm daily.

Science in the Mall has been running successfully for 10 years now and it provides a platform for the Science Centre and its partners to reach out to the masses with science discoveries and activities that are fun for all ages, even the short attention span toddler of mine. So I think you shouldn't miss this;)!

Nov 2012: 弟子规

There is an event organised by Xin Ying WuYi, with an intention to gather all wushu practitioners to exhibit their skills.

But I believe, letting the kids to have the most fun of it and build confident of their skills. 

If you or your child(ren) are interested in wushu, and if you will be somewhere near Singapore Republic Polytechnic this coming Saturday, 1 Dec, come and see these kids perform at 11am, Competition Hall, Republic Poly.

Admission is free for the opening ceremony. Say hello if you see us there!

Credits: Angelica, Akizo, RuthMelody and Michelle Coleman

This post is linking up with Wordless Wednesday by Sakura Haruka.

and 

Wordful Wednesday by Dominique's Desk

Cardboard Challenge

I have been tied down very badly with work. But seeing so much sharing about Caine's Arcade in Facebook, I couldn't get off my mind from those cardboard. It was contagious and I was tempted to bring the girls to attend Cardboard Dreams, to learn about the fun of so-called "Minimum resources, maximum sense of achievement". It was our mantra back in University days, where we always given limited funding to run a project. And we made wonders!

But I can't. Works are piling and the boss' voice is stern, incredibly. While considering to go or not to go, I showed Jiejie about Caine's Arcade. At the same time, I found out that my very nice friend, Evelyn and her daughter, Layla were attending, I thicken my face and asked her to bring Jiejie along with them too. She responded with green light! We were thrilled!

And so our very short journey of building a game with cardboard had began from there.

The ball is meant to be hit and target to fall at the toilet paper roll on the bottom right.

Frankly, my elder daughter isn't a dreamer, she is a little lazy to be a builder. She watched the video of Caine's Arcade over and over again, pointing at different thing each time and declaring it as the object she would attempt to do. She then picked a simple plan to execute: make a hole at two opposite side of the box and let meimei to crawl in and out. The actual cardboard was only given to her on Monday afternoon, four days before the event. I taught her to sketch her plan, but she was rather cut-the-box-and-see-how-first. By Wednesday, I got anxious and tried to influence her and she gently agreed my 'suggestion' by nodding her head and accepted few adjustment to her creation. I thought, ahem! It's done! 

However, at the very last minute, as in Thursday night, less than 20 hours before the event, she watched the video again, finally set her mind and changed the idea. She wanted to build a Pinball machine! Or something equivalent. This time I suppressed my eagerness (after reading some sharing in SMB), head over to kitchen and got my self busy with dish-washing, left her with the father to re-birth her games. You know, guys are better in guiding rather than interfering. 

I reminded my self that my very simple thought was wanting her to enjoy the process of discovering numerous possibilities through the building of the game and giggles to the maximum level when she gets to play with other creations. It would be bonus if other kids enjoy her game too.

SC and I only helped out the taping and mending the box when she went into her dreamland.

Photo credits: Rachel @ MalMal Our Inspiration

On the actual day itself, she was jolly brought to E's place, together with her creation. I had planned to leave office early, asked permission a day before and the boss generously agreed. It would be great if I could at least join them for lunch at Botanic Garden, peek at everyone's satisfactory, or something like E suggested me to take a couple hours of "Me-time".

But things don't always go according to plan. It was a long haul, not just one matter but few kept me in my cubicle till 3pm! I didn't even have lunch and straight head back to E's place. 

When I picked her up, the first thing she told me was that no one played her game during the event. I can hear the voice with a bit of disappointment. She sounded more cheerful very soon when I asked her more about the day. Bit by bit about Angry Bird, story-telling session by Aunty Sarah, Aunty Jasmine's games, play with Dot, Poppy, and many other kids that she can't tell me the names (I'm sure she met Malcolm) . She highlighted that the Submarine was too fun to play with! I was beaming while listening. I reckon she enjoyed her self very much in playing other games and the pain for 'being unwanted' was healed unknowingly. Or rather like what SC was saying, being playful her, she probably too busy to run around to explore other games and left hers unattended. 

Either version, we are glad that she shows positive attitude and didn't grumble about it to us.

Photo credits: Jayne 

Toward the end of the day, Evelyn and other mums in SMB started to share more and more of the pictures and stories about the event. It got me hooked into the mood of cardboard again. They were so kind to tell me little bit more about her in the event and made me felt extremely heartwarming. I began to put pieces of info together and imagined my self travel back in time and this time, I was there with my girl and witness the fun! I giggled from ear to ear.

Didn't I say I meet great people in Mommyland?  

Photo taken by E @ The Bottomsup Blog

So she didn't make a sophisticated games to wow people, but she had a blast and very much wanting to go for another Cardboard Dreams again. And I'm think she learnt what I hope she would learn from there.

It was really simple: minimum resources, maximum achievement. In this case, maximum happiness. Often, it comes with creativity and perseverance in the package. You can tell I enjoy the process very much, seeing my girl building her little happiness from scratch. Thanks to Sarah for organised this.

One thing for sure, Little Bomber likes to play the games that her sister made. The girls have been playing with it everyday.

The Opening of The Polliwogs@Robertson Walk

As I was saying my girls have yet to have fun in any indoor playground, The Polliwogs sent me one great invitation for their official opening of the second outlet at Robertson Walk.

Brilliant! I never been to any indoor playground. I mean, the girls never been to any of them. I gotto do a quick Google search to learn more about The Polliwogs *shame, shame*. The thing is, ordinary outdoor playground (like this one here) serves us tremendously well! Either for recharging energy purpose or releasing tension. Not to mention, there are great play areas in most shopping malls, too. I just need to allocate longer shopping time for supervision of the kids at play.

So, yes, we are rare parents for not bringing the children to indoor playground.

Anyway, Now that I have an opportunity to visit and experience the playground myself, I mean for the girls, why not? The 8,500 square feet of space, featuring state of the art play equipment and a comfortable cafe with free wi-fi enough to make me marvel!

Coincidently, The Polliwogs@Robertson Walk's official opening  was a date that I planned to meet my old friend, CS, for meet-up and for our kids to have playdate. SC was away for that entire week, I just have to plan something fun in between the whining and shouting.

So, I thought why not I ask permission to bring CS and her two kids with us for the event. I explained that we are old friends and hard to re-schedule for meet-up (since we are both mothers). Since our elder daughters are same age, playing in The Polliwogs will be more fun. At first I was worry for asking "too much" as the reply didn't come back to me promptly. But, I have luck this time, Maxine, the Marketing Manager, replied with a very positive tone to welcome my friend and her kids!

A climbing wall welcomes all.

I didn't want to make the girls ecstatic over the place prior to our arrival, especially Jiejie. Instead, I kept this very special playdate as a mysterious reward for her if she well-behaved for the entire week without daddy. The final destination was revealing only when she stand in front of the play zone.

She was thrilled! But I was not expecting her to behave so overwhelming. She dashed from one spot to another in such a hurry until I gave up in following her to find out what-so-fun about the playground itself. She must be over the moon and afraid that the fun would lapse very soon. Obviously I can't snap her a picture decently. She can't give me a minute of still, she was always in a hurry!

Little Bomber was following Jiejie everywhere she was. She looked a little lost to me, hence I took her out to the cafe area for a snack. She always need time to settle down in a new place.

Ahem, I think this is the place they call it "Ball Cannon and Shooting Areas". The kids stayed here for the longest. It must be fun to shoot the balls. The giant slides with ball pits fail to attract them, despite I called them over repeatedly. 

Strategizing in shooting?! Very serious instruction, listen carefully!

This was CS and the kids' first experience in The Polliwogs too. She thinks the admission charges are reasonable and she plans to ask her husband to visit Robertson Walk, where her children will have fun in The Polliwogs, while the adults take a break by sipping a glass of wine or two in any restaurant below. 

At the cafe, which is just few steps away from the play zone, CS and I chat and chat and well, we took turns to go into the play area to check the kids. Thank goodness it was an Official Opening! Food was catered, and it was yummy too (we must be starving!) Otherwise, we really don't know how to explain to the kids to stop playing for meal at least an hour?

Finally, Little Bomber soaked herself in the ball pit of the dedicated play arena for smaller children.

Oh, I do have one very decent picture of them (with few rounds of photo-edit) ;).

I thank The Polliwogs for their generosity to have us on their big day. It is not only for family and children entertainment and recreational place, it is an alternative for old friends with children to meet-up. CS and myself enjoyed the event (and the chatting) very much. Not to mention, the kids had a great blast! (We were last to leave the event.)

Effortlessly, indoor playground wins the heart of the girls! This is surely not the last time for us.

We, Rock Climbing.

Due to a very attractive calling, we went for rock climbing yesterday. All three of us climbed.Unbelievable! 

I don't know what makes me game into rock climbing. I never try it before. I never a sports person. I mean, I like sports, but I took very long time to really play well in badminton, then squash (then someone told me not worth the time for being the best in a game). Anyway, me now? I am 98% being away from rackets and balls these days (the 2% is house chores, don't say it is not counted!). I didn't really ask myself if I can do this or not. I didn't think much after saying yes to Pamela. I was pretty sure of not losing my life (or face) of this. As a mum, the initial thought is really, "Good for the kids to try". Well, I don't mind Bomber try if she was keen. But she wasn't.

Me trying? hmm... maybe not, little Bomber would be clingy to me. 

But hey, what if she shows interest to join jiejie to climb too? 

Ahem, then... no harm trying, isn't that our way of encouraging our children to strive for a challenge? It would definitely great opportunity to participate in first trying rather than cheering them at the side.

Yup, show jiejie her mum is walk the talk. Make her proud too, for once!

There are two voices inside me. Sometime, they talk too loud to each other that I can't ignore them.

So, we reached. Late! Because little Bomber woke up from her nap a little late, the traffic was moving slowly due to an accident. Best is, we missed a few junctions and drove a longer route to reach instead. But the door was widely opened when we reached the destination. It was soon to be 5pm. Didn't Pamela say the event is only opened from 1 to 5 afternoon? 

Sorry, sorry but really glad to see Poppy and Yvonne's husband were in the middle of climbing!   

Jiejie, second attempt to climb up. Proud of her!

Looking at others to climb up is a very exciting thing to do there, in a breezing afternoon, if only there was beer for observers and cheer-mummy( kidding). I was super impressed with Yvonne who climbed all the way up to top. She did so well until I felt... maybe I should sit back, admiring others and play with younger kids. However, Mr Chua, the instructor of Beyond Academics came to me and asked me to give it a try. The little fairy of me came out and reminded me that, "it is not nice to reject an invitation from a nice person." 

Then, Mr Chua taught me on wearing the harness and shoes, the little wizardess of mine came out and tried to persuade me to take it easy. Just a few step up the wall, right hand was finding a climbing hold to grab, "Hey! Enough of climbing! Let's call it a day! You don't need to climb further!!!"

Mr Chua's voice came into my ears in guiding me up. "Left, try grab the yellow hold."

"I thought your intention was just want to show your daughter the spirit of "Good Try!"" Few more steps up the wall, wizardess started to grumble, "Can't believe it! You are not listening! You are going to hurt yourself, do you know that?!"

Sometime, she does sound like my mum.

"You don't need to try so hard! Do you know that? There isn't prize awarding later!?" When I reached middle of the wall. I couldn't get rid of her.

"Come on! You have enough. Bleah, hands are aching!"

"Back off! She is doing well. Her hands are so strong to pull her up, and up again! Leave her alone to finish the climbing!" The fairy of mine finally came out to confront wizardess.

While they were arguing, I followed Mr Chua's instruction, here and there. It was not easy, in finding the right hold and pull myself up one step after another. When I last grabbed and reached the top, saw the horizon of bluish in front of me, for a moment, I asked myself if i had just completed a new challenge?

 It was surreal.

But I was up there. 

And It was amazingly great to stretch my arms and legs, after so long (of idleness)!

Personally, I like what Yvonne said, "It’s nice to do something different and out of our comfort zone. Each time you overcome something you think you can’t achieve, you come out a better person." I totally agree. The great achievement of overcoming something is fabulous! It boosts my confidence level a bit higher(a bit). In many things in life.

I hope to do this, with my family again.

Linking up with