We had a bad start to Vesak Day - Kai was injured on the escalator up from Bishan MRT platform. I was behind Sito and didn't see it happen. Only heard a loud noise and peeked from behind Sito to see Kai fallen on Yu and Yu fallen on Sito!
I realised I couldn't help Kai up unless the woman who fell on him got up so I pushed her up with the help of another passenger. The first thing she said was, "Where's my phone?" Wa, pissed off man..
When we got off the escalator, we stopped a bit ahead to examine Kai's leg. There was one streak of blood but it wasn't flowing. The woman came over to say sorry and that she lost her balance. She sounded like a foreign domestic worker. I didn't want to look at her at all. She left. On retrospect, we should have asked her to stay until we got things sorted out in case we needed to make a report.
An MRT staff came over very quickly and brought us to the first aid room. By then, Kai's abrasion was more visible - besides the streak, there was a patch of redness around it. The staff kindly cleaned up the area. I took the leftover to clean up Yu who had a slight abrasion but no blood. We rejected plasters as the area was too big for the plasters; the tape might hurt the abrasion instead.
Kai's abrasion
Poor Kai. But he was quite collected throughout the incident. Thankfully, he's big enough else that woman might have caused more damage.
Later, I learnt from Yang who was standing in front of Kai, that she also knocked into him. But he managed to steady himself and dodge her full weight. He couldn't remember but he probably was holding on to the handrail.
So the first lesson, when we got down to a debrief, was that we must always hold on to the handrail on escalators. We may be standing well but other people may fall. We can minimise injury to ourselves if we hold on tight. Rather be the domino that breaks the fall than a fallen domino.
And the second lesson started with questioning why the woman fell. Yang guessed that she was probably looking at her phone and hence lost her balance coz she was looking for her phone after that. Yes, my dear boy! We must not stare at our phones when walking, much less on a moving escalator! Yang said very wisely that the best place to play phone games was at home :)
We made it to Ah Yee's place, thinking we were late. Turned out we were not the latest! But lunch was delayed. The boys played with Sito's phone while waiting. But after lunch, no more phone - they played hide-and-seek etc and were very noisy. Papa took up the job of managing them while I chatted with the extended family, oops...
Discovering the joy of speaking into a fan :)
All on Papa!!
Lunch was yummy! But the kids didn't like or eat much except for chicken cutlet and siew mai. I sneaked in some fried sweet potato coz the beehoon this time was spicy tom yum.
Left with Mother's png kueh, lots of biscuits that Ah Yee bought for the praying session (I think she just wanted to give the kids :)) and some leftover tau sar piah. But we didn't go home straight away.
Strolling in Toa Payoh
Wa, Kai is so handsome!!!
Ok, distracted... Yang and Yu went to TPY for one of their social studies learning journeys in P2. Kai probably missed out due to his P2 being COVID outbreak year. So we asked the two to show us where they'd been. They remembered only bits and pieces. So we just anyhow walked.
Yu was hungry so bought him a char siew bun. After the stroll, we went to Macs for an early dinner. Settled down early as the next day was still a school day.
We managed to score PTM slots on Thursday so Friday could be freed up totally. Anyway, PTM has changed to PCTC - Parent-Child-Teacher Conference. The format is for the child to share his review of the year with us.
But first, lunch at Subway
Yu couldn't finish his drink and gave it to Papa. Yang wanted it so Yu told him that he had slobbered all over it! Then he gave it to Papa?! Poor Papa!
Kai decided to start on his holiday homework. He continued to do his work while waiting for his turn in school. So conscientious - I like!
Waiting for Yang's turn outside his classroom
Yang was first. It was clear that the form teachers - science and maths - did not prepare the kids for the session. They were also not terribly good at prompting Yang. Yang also didn't answer questions very well - we have to work on this. We asked about his academics, and the teachers said we could ask the subject teachers any time during the year - which was fine but this session was not going anywhere. The teachers even said this was MOE directive. What rubbish.
But we learnt that Yang talks the same way at home and in school. That isn't the case for his brothers...
Yu was next. This time, it was clear that the teachers prepared the kids - Yu's first line was, "I like Founders' Day because it lets me learn more about ACS." He even spread out his arms as he finished this line, hilarious! But that was all. The rest of the time, he just answered his teachers' questions, and quite well. When a teacher paraphrased wrongly, he corrected her - so cute.
But the cutest was how he spoke. So soft-spoken, so unlike at home! His teachers also said he was soft-spoken but he would participate in class. It was clear that his teacher know him well, even the one who takes him for only FTGP; the other takes him for English and maths as well.
Now Kai. He was very... 敷衍 about it. Everything was oh ya, yes yes yes. His teachers - Chinese and FTGP - were two chill guys who would prompt Kai. Quite different from Yu's but it was also clear that they know Kai well. Chinese teacher reassured us his Chinese was ok. The other knew him since P3 and that he doesn't like to read after all these years, and advised him to pick up reading! Both also shared they got their kids to write 300-500 Chinese words a day! *.*
Sito said if he were the HOD, he would also assign the weakest teachers to P3 and P4. Sighs. But it also depends on the individual teachers. Yang's P3 form teacher who also took Kai for P3, was very good and could share a lot about both of them at PTM.
Since we scored the PCTC sessions on Thursday, Friday was totally free, yeah! We went to the Science Centre. But this time, we were there less than four hours. Yang and Yu were hungry despite Macs breakfast, which was more than their usual toast. And my nose was dripping madly - not sure if it was the heat from Thursday or the rain on the way to Science Centre - so just as well that we left early.
A rare moment that Kai and Yu smiled at each other :)
Fascinated by dry ice, especially Yang
These two went for the laser maze; Yu didn't want to be alone in the dark
I had always thought it was like laser tag. But it was more like, avoid the laser beams. Each player gets two rounds for $5. Yang tried easy and expert while Kai chose expert twice. Seemed quite fun and a good replacement for the free escape room on level 2 which was "closed until further notice".
Our planned early dinner became a late lunch. We had our usual at Ikea. Sito left us once he was done to go to the bank for the second time that day. The bank refused to waive his credit card fee as he had spent on the card after the fee was issued - what nonsense?!
Also ridiculous is that the bank couldn't waive or even cancel his card on his first trip. They called later to ask him to go to the bank again to do it. So Sito spent time waiting quite a bit that day but as he put it - waiting at the bank is less painful than having his leg kicked (by Kai), being sung to (Punjabi song by Kai) and having his ears pulled (by Yu) at the same time, as had happened at Macs that morning!!!
What about Yang? He couldn't decide what to have when he was still not full after his egg McMuffin. But that was fine and Sito couldn't nag him coz that was just like him, haha!
Anyway, we packed hotdog buns home for their light dinner. Sito caught up with us when we were going to Donki. Bought some snacks and stocked up on curry roux and mayonnaise.
I went to sleep while Sito settled their dinner and packed soup noodles for me. The boys enjoyed their Friday TV and snacks before going to bed. And that's it - end of term 2.
Today, we started holiday schedule - school work after breakfast, reading, lunch, news on TV, Nintendo and phone games, dinner. Last four months for Kai and last five months for Yang before exams! Yu has to do work too - no escape, heh!
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