Every boy a wonder :)

We're so pleased to learn that Yang made the school team for track and field :)

Yang, however, was less pleased. He said he had seen the school team train and it was challenging! He regretted doing well in the selection test last year... So we agreed that he should go for the training first and see how from there instead of rejecting it from the outset.

Since 13 January when we told him after seeing the notice on PG, he would say on and off that he didn't want to be on the school team. We got him running shoes anyway before our Chinatown trip. Then CCA started on Monday, 9 February. He came back from Evans Stadium very tired...

Then after his second training session on Wednesday that same week, he came back with a slip of paper informing parents of an upcoming track and field meet in March, before the National School Games later in term 2/3. He kept whining about not wanting to go for it. He doesn't want to go for any competitions. But he could not tell me what exactly he was afraid of.

Actually, I find that Yang is just like me at this age so I could completely understand. I was very self conscious and I didn't want to be seen by anyone coz I thought I was ugly 🤷🏻‍♀️ So I told Yang that there would be many things happening at the same time so attention wouldn't be on him alone. In fact, only people who love him would look at him and cheer him on. But of course he didn't buy it. 

Last time, we supported him when he wanted to learn piano. We also didn't force him to continue when he lost interest. But this time, we wanted to push him more since it's part of his CCA anyway

Then Sito talked to him at length about it. He went to fetch him from Evans on that first day of CCA to familiarise him with the route to the bus stop so he could come home directly instead of going back to school with the rest. And he saw that Yang was the biggest boy there in terms of height and build. His size is already a natural advantage. Even the coach said Yang was suitable for throwing events. 

In the end, it looked like Sito managed to convince Yang. When I tucked him in, he said Papa's "inspirational speech" made him feel better about going for the competition. Phew! So Sito signed him up for shot put.

On the other hand, Yu was envious and couldn't understand Yang; he wanted to be in the school team for robotics! In week 1 of school, he even coded a game for Kai who was lazy to do it! (In the end, Kai also did it himself.) But we didn't get any notification for Yu. 

After the first day of CCA, he confirmed he isn't in the school team. He said he didn't do well in the test last year - he scored full marks for the coding but didn't build the thing in time, or something like that. We told him to ask the coach what he should do to get into the school team but he went, nah, he would do better for the next test..

Even though chess is not a CCA in his school, Kai is effectively in the school team for chess since he represents the school when he plays at national schools games. 

So both Yang and Kai would be taking part in competitions in their respective fields in March. Jia you! 💪💪💪

Horses everywhere

For our annual pilgrimage to Chinatown for festive snacks in the past few years, we always picked a weekday afternoon - whisked the kids off after they came back from school and dropped their bags. But this year, there isn't a day when all three come home at the same time. I don't wish to stagger meal and shower times etc so in the end, we went on a Saturday this year.

With more time to work with, we worked in two on-the-way excursions.

Had our lunch early and set off about noon for Decathlon at Centrepoint to get running shoes for Yang - more on that next time.. I thought we would just randomly picked a size for him to try but wait! There's a foot scanner!

His feet are a couple of mm shorter than mine but he was recommended size 41 while I was recommended 39, probably coz his feet are much meatier. I didn't try shoes but 41 didn't work for him. In the end, he found 43 just nice. Kai didn't try shoes but I think he's would be 46 or so, bigger than the recommended 43 since his feet are meaty too. Sito also bought running shoes - size 43, he'll be dwarfed by all his sons soon!

Then we ran for the bus to Chinatown with a bag of shoes dangling from Sito's arm! We were at a bus stop waiting for a bus but that bus would take 15min to arrive while another bus to Chinatown was arriving at the next stop just a short walk away so we ran! And with this little exercise, we also made the 45-min connection and saved some money, yay!

The boys were getting hungry so we made a stop at good old Old Chang Kee before the second excursion - Chinatown Heritage Centre.

Annual shot outside Chinatown Point

This cartoon horse looks like a pig at first glance... There are many like-real horses along the road outside but oops, forgot to take photos.

Anyway... I remember going to the CHC many years back and found it interesting. But it was closed for some time. When I saw that it was open when I passed by it with Na during our - also annual - trip in late January, I thought it would be fun to bring the kids there.

Best part? Can use cultural pass so no money out of pocket! I used up my cultural pass for my date with Kai but Sito hadn't used his yet. As we weren't sure what time we would reach there, we didn't buy the timed tickets online. It was quite fast to buy on the spot anyway.

The CHC is not a big museum. But it has a lot to see. I figure we spent just over an hour exploring it and a good 20min playing with AI at the end.. Could have taken more time to explore if we scanned every single QR code for more info but you know, the kids aren't the type to stay still for long...

Papa explaining how a mechanical sewing machine works

The first floor is a tailor shop out front with a working area and a yard/kitchen behind. Yang really liked the sewing machines! Told him to ask WaiPo to demo when we next go there since she has a working one.

Playing with what I think is a tracing wheel

This shop brought back memories coz Mother sews quite a bit. When we were kids, she made dresses and quilted blankets for us. Now, I don't know what she sews apart from five stones! But the machine is still there.

She also has at least one of those wooden rulers and tracing wheel - I just called her to confirm! I remember the tracing wheel is quite fun - put tracing paper on cloth and roll over. Oh there's also this flat blue chalk for marking. Anyway, this Sunday, we'll go over to explore and hopefully not destroy things...

Old phones are always fun - we saw this at the National Museum before

Yang fiddling with an old iron

Goodness, a sarong cradle! Yu is pointing to a bamboo baby chair

Lots of altars in the shophouse

This is probably not a room for one or two...

I think my paternal grandmother had a big bed with drapes like the above. It was when she was living in a clan association house as a housekeeper. It must be before primary school coz it's hazy but I remember the whole family sleeping there and a big cockroach on the floor *.*

Anyway, the above was a big room in the shophouse. The rooms on the second floor were smaller and housed as many as 10 pax each! Appalling conditions, as I reminded Yang and Yu that night when they were in the comfort of their bed in a bedroom for one that is bigger than a room for a family of 10..

Heh heh!

Sito drew their attention to the pail to collect excretion in the toilet. I think the old clan association house also had such toilets. I really didn't like to go to the toilets there...

He found a palm leaf fan!

The boys flipped every single light switch in the shophouse!

Sito tried too *.* One boy - forgot which - asked if they were old light switches. Yes, light switches used to be like that. My house used to have them, I think. Or maybe it was at the grands'. I can't remember.

Btw, these switches are all decor. Very safe. I think they spent a lot of time on the details, even what people would like to touch and try!

Rat. Also a detail and common back in the day

Yu's face is so funny! He very gamely posed for his trigger happy Mama so there're many photos of him while the rest ran about.

The third floor of the shophouse is more like a museum, telling the stories of people moving to Singapore, their lives and contributions, and old names in Chinatown.

Cher, are you teaching Chemistry - in Chinese?!

Two scales - one real, one fake

There's at least one of such a set of scales (the real one) in Grams' old provision shop, next to the dried goods and biscuits, easy to weigh in front of customers.

What a date would be like in the old days - watch opera together!

While the kids had fun at a cinema on wheels!

There's a girl in front of Kai. I blocked most of her from this angle but her shoulder is still visible. Writing this down so this doesn't feel scary years down the road :p

Told him to pretend to flip bah kwa but he preferred to flip the mesh

The boys found two AI machines at the end which captures our options using finger gestures, and we had such fun seeing ourselves transported 50y back. 

Kai the trishaw rider - so handsome!

Yang - is this a naughty or creepy smile? Haha!

Also Yang the street hawker - the forehead proportion a bit off...

Looks like some evil concubine plotting against fellow concubines :p

Yu - looks like an innocent concubine happy with her life, haha!

Yu again - somehow the system cannot capture his finger gestures well

This is, um, no system error!

My laogong very funny :p I'm less funny..

Just want to be 花旦！

Yep, so we had a lot of fun in CHC! But it didn't seem to be a popular spot; we saw only one other family who came in right after us. Such a pity. Maybe the cost turns people off? After all, it's free to visit the National Museum for Singaporeans. 

And I think it's very educational for the kids. Secondary school history covers some historical figures related to the Chinese community but nothing beats seeing for your own eyes how people used to live. Such a replica is as close as we get, I suppose. 

But of course our kids didn't look at everything in detail and were fooling around a lot. At first I thought they might not remember much but all managed to say something when Sito asked them to tell the grands the next day 👍

Got the kids some snacks - mantou biscuits and binoculars chocolate - at the ticketing area before we left. It was drizzling so we decided to have dessert at Mei Heong Yuen on the parallel street. By the time we needed to get out of the shelter, the drizzle was gone, yeah!

This year, we had the kids share one ice dessert as they couldn't finish two last year. Sito was hungry and had chee cheong fun while I had orh nee - my second in a week! First was at Curry Times on Tuesday. Similar except that this one also had sweet potato cubes.

Finally, it was time for shopping! We reached the jelly store first. This year, it's $2 per 100g. We saw $1.80 per 100g in Clementi but didn't get then =( It sounds cheap but I still remember spending over $30 the first time I bought them over 10y ago! Got the boys to choose three flavours each. By the time we were done with choosing and weighing (1kg) and paying, Yang had seven jellies from the sampling counter!

Next was the main event - traditional LNY snacks! Bought $45 worth of pineapple tarts and friends, less than last year coz (1) we already bought one can from Sheng Siong and a kuah lapis from Ikea, (2) it's iffy if the kids will eat much (Yu insisted on love letters again so we got a small bottle this year as the big one went soft after he stopped eating), and (3) I'm getting fat, must control. Lucky coz the next day, AhYee gave us a can of love letters too.

With that, it was time for dinner. Saizeriya made the kids happy with the free flow drinks bar. But I reserved my belly for Chinese pancakes :) Went to a different store this time to try different things. I ate some when we got home and heated the rest up to eat after showering. So good.

Unfortunately, Sito fell ill along the way. Late nights, haze, kiddy virus or all of the above. The kids were also tired since we were out for way longer than usual. So that night, everyone slept early.

It's now one week to LNY, woohoo!

Mysterious thing, time

I learnt a few things about ancient time when I read a web novel last month. The novel was《知否知否应是绿肥红瘦》, set in a fictional state, based loosely on Ming/Qing dynasty customs. We watched the drama based on this novel some years back and I finally got down to reading the novel - happy!

Anyway, this is the first novel that made me open another tab just to understand when the characters were doing things! 

1) How people told time before watches

They used a contraption called 漏壶。Imagine a pot filled with water but there's a hole through which water leaks out. There's a scale on the inside of the pot to tell time as water leaks. Or another version where water drips into a pot with a scale inside. So water level goes either down or up with time. 

Apparently, one scale was based on 100 units or 刻 per day, maybe coz it's carved (刻) into the pot surface? Anyway, that means one 刻 = 24h / 100 = 14.4 min. Or approx 15min which is what we understand by 一刻 today, woohoo! 

I still remember a comprehension question in secondary school asking what was meant by a time with some 刻 in it. *Clear throat, straighten up* Ahem, I got it right, ok... Maybe coz in period dramas, they always behead people at 午时三刻 and I had never heard of 四刻、五刻?!

There is so much to read on this topic, like how they compensated for wind and evaporation and winter etc, but I haven't got to how the ancients decide how fast the flow of water should be to tell time accurately. Maybe no one was, or could be, punctual back then...?!

I highly appreciate my MiBand, which allows me to tell time to the minute, day and night, regardless of season and lighting available!

2) Name of the hours

Actually, name of the double-hours coz they went by 时辰. Since long, long time ago, maybe I was a kid then, I realised that one 时辰 refers to two hours. I used to wonder why the unit of time is so wide. 

12 time periods:

• 子时 = 11pm to 1am
• 丑时 = 1am to 3am
• 寅 yín 时 = 3am to 5am
• 卯时 = 5am to 7am
• 辰时 = 7am to 9am
• 巳时 = 9am to 11am 
• 午时 11am to 1pm 
• 未时 = 1pm to 3pm 
• 申时 3pm to 5pm 
• 酉 yǒu 时 5pm to 7pm
• 戌 xū 时 = 7pm to 9pm - this is when 打更人 starts telling night time hours (1-5更) for the public
• 亥 hài 时 = 9pm to 11pm 

Digression: Not bad, I could read eight of the 12 :p

Some years back, I came across a reel explaining the duration meant by 一盏茶 (15min) and 一炷香 (30min). But it still doesn't tell me how ancient Chinese said things like 10.15 am. Yes, I mentioned 午时三刻 above but 午时 refers to 11am to 1pm. So does 午时三刻 mean 11.45am or 12.45pm? Are we having an early lunch or normal lunch?!

Firstly, 午时 on its own or 午时初 refers to 11am while 午时正 refers to 12nn. Next, based on #1 above, one 刻 is about 15min. So 10.15am should be 巳正一刻 while 9.15am is simply 巳时一刻。

Hence 午时三刻 means 11.45am. Why behead at this time? Coz that time is so 阳 that the horrible criminal cannot even become a ghost, haha!

For someone (like me) who tells time to the minute, this system will drive me mad! But then again, if I had lived in ancient China, I wouldn't know one minute from the next until I hit a 刻！

Actually there is a lot of info on this, like how the 12 names reflect nature. You may have noticed already that they are also the 12地支 often used with the 12 zodiac signs. These aren't the only names but are the most widely used - that's what I gathered from my research...

3) Ancient Chinese woke really early!

Now this is really interesting. I knew government officials had to 点卯 or clock in for work. Since there's 卯时，it's natural - and correct - to assume they clock in at 5am. Or that's the usual time for most people.

Since not everyone stayed right outside their workplace, they had to wake way earlier to wash up and travel - by foot, sedan or carriage. This means that the servants of the bigger officials had to wake way earlier to dress themselves and prepare hot water etc for their bosses.

Lucky thing is that with no electricity or internet, everyone could end their day early. 

*** *** ***

Ok, end of learning. Now, time for talking.

I was just telling C the other day that I find it difficult to get up before daybreak; she was asking me to go walk walk at the Botanic Gardens at 6 am. Indeed, over seven years after first kid entered primary school, I still find it hard to wake up when it's still dark outside. In the same vein, I get drowsy when the sun sets, unless I'm in a brightly lit office tricking my senses into continuing to work *roll eyes*

Have you seen students having breakfast in bright daylight in Channel 8 dramas? Fake. Even for me who could step out of my block right onto an overhead bridge that led right into my primary school, breakfast was at most lit with faint first light. 

And why? Coz Singapore time is off by an hour. Geographically, we should be GMT +7. So when my clock says 7am, it should really be 6.00am. No wonder it's dark!

But ok, time, as in the number, is quite arbitrary. Who is to say we should wake at what time? But it seems reasonable to say we should wake with the sun?? Then what should change should be school and work hours. Let (most of) us wake with the sun!!!

Anyway, Singapore has had a number of changes of time zones. Check out this archived write-up - very cool reading. I was born in GMT +7.5. The current GMT +8 happened from 1982. Check out this archived news article about the switch at 11.30pm on 31 Dec 1981. 

Then I wondered about all our 八字 calculations - would the timing be off? The 时辰 is based on the position of the sun at place of birth, not the man-decided time zones. 

Only Yu's 时辰 changed after accounting for the one hour. But the time is not as important as the day, says the hub aka our in-house fengshui master. Ok, then let's not make my wee brain think too much about it.. Going bonkers thinking about adding/subtracting the 30min/1h...!