Tennis...

Have been going through a renaissance of sorts lately. I have always been an avid tennis player, but have pretty much laid down my racket over the last 5 years, and even before that was playing sporadically. It's a bit of a pain to find players considering the popularity (or lack thereof). I can name 3 or 4 groups I can join for badminton, but not one for tennis.

And face it, good though playing with my friend SC, it gets pretty boring after a while, which both of us acknowledge...

So it was quite a boon when we got to know one group who plays regularly on weekend mornings, through an introduction from someone we play badminton with on Saturdays! That coupled with regular access to courts by my joining the club meant I was ready to rejoin the tennis world, woohoo!

Some of my gear needed updating though, particularly my racket bag which had pretty much began falling apart. Wifey bought me a Wilson Super Six bag as a present (thanks wifey!) so that's sorted out. Moving on to rackets I got rid of a few old ones including an Estusa and a Head.

I've been a fan of Wilson stuff over the last few years, playing mostly with a Wilson Pro Staff 6.0 (not the classic one, but the extremely rare Dual Taper Beam version) so I gravitated to the KSix.One 95. Last week I also got the KSix.One Tour 90, so as of last week you could say I was in possesion of both rackets used at the 2009 US Open finals. Sold off the K90 within a few days to SC though as I really couldn't comfortably use rackets like that anymore.

Mandarin Songs...

The gals’ Grandma bought a CD of childrens’ songs in Mandarin a while back. They really like it a lot and always ask to listen to it (saying "ni wawa" meaning clay doll, one of the songs in the CD...) especially during the day when they are in their play room. By now it has become habitual for them to want to listen to it when they take their nap in the afternoon.

Lately, we realise that Jun Lee can sing to a few of the songs, well, not the whole song but quite a few verses. We would sing a few words and she would be able to sing the words of the remaining verses and also the next verse. Today, she sang ‘Shi Sang Ji You Ma Ma Hao’ translated as ‘Mother is good' in English.

Toy Shop...

There is a picture of a toy shop in one of the Peter and Jane books which are among those books the girls look at pretty often. I placed some toys on the shelf in our bedroom for easy access to keep them occupied in the morning while we wash up before bringing them downstairs, which they call the toy shop. I figured that to them, having a lot of toys lined up in one place makes up a toy shop.

We had lunch as usual after the weekly swim at the club at Plaza Damas this time, and strolled around after lunch. I saw ToysRUs and went in there intending to buy shoes. I told them that THIS is toy shop and they were pretty mesmerized with the sheer amount of toys there. I think before this they never even realised there were this manay toys in the whole world... hehe...

When they showed signs of starting to get a bit attached to the toyshop we made a hasty exit for fear of encouraging future toy shop visits...

The Pool Experience...

Took the girls to the pool yesterday at the club. It was their first time in a pool, so before we even took that first dip, had a few considerations...

Firstly, public pools are not ideal, what with the amount and variety of people. Furthermore public pools are usually of the "for serious swimming" variety with no wading pool to speak of, which is what they really need for now anyway, not an Olympic-sized monstrosity.
Secondly, do we need bathing suits for them??? Decided not to for the first few times as it's neither easy nor cheap to get a suitably sized suit for them. So for now, it's a pair of cotton shorts for them to go a dipping...

My membership duly processed (after a bit of prodding the club...) they finally took their first steps into the pool yesterday.

The obligatory shower before entering bothered them a bit, with both proclaiming that it was cold. It wasn't really cold as it was around 10am, but still for them it was colder than the usual tub of lukewarm water.

After they stepped into the wading pool, we progressively brought them from knee deep to chest deep. They were quite scared at first and didn't dare to move, and Jun Yen quietly saying "Keng keng" meaning "afraid" in Cantonese, which she began using some time back, and which I have no idea where she picked it up from.

But after a minute or so, both were quite happy, and after a while we even brought them over to the jacuzzi pool. We put the girls to stand in front of the bubble-jets to let them experience it, and at one point when Jun Yen's buttock was facing a jet, she said to us, "ta piku" meaning "beat backside" in Mandarin. It was hilarious!