On 27 July, Joel had his 2nd leg of competition which was organised by Milo. This time round, they held it in Seremban. It was nice. I have not been to Seremban since the death of my maternal Grandmother. That was 13 years ago. Yes, that long ago. I was 2 months pregnant with Joel.
It has this bitter sweet memory.
When my maternal Grandmother was alive, our family would visit her in Mantin (30 mins away from Seremban, I think) and then at times come to Seremban to visit other relatives. Incidentally, Grandmother was hospitalised in the General Hospital where she passed away. Sigh. I do love that sweet, gentle and frail woman. Gutsy too!
Let's get a little distracted and talk about Grandmother.... Just recently, my Mother told me that when Grandmother had aches in her body - like most 90+ years old women do, she would ask neighboring children to do a quick 'guasa' (scraping her body using a clay spoon. A traditional Chinese therapy) on her back. When done, she would reward the child with 50 cents. That tells how both innovative and generous she is. That's my Grandmother.
Anyway. Back to topic.
Where was I?Joel's competitions were back stroke 50m, Butterfly 50m, Freestyle 50m & 100m and Breaststroke 50m & 100m. He did pretty well and made better time than during training days. So, he was pretty pleased with himself and I was definitely proud of him.
The water in the swimming pool was freezing. Having to train at 7am in the morning didn't help. On the 2nd day, he might have gotten a chill which gave him a fever but yet, he persevered and didn't pull out from the competition. What a good lesson on perseverance.
I never knew being a parent of a swimmer took so much
more perseverance. From 7am till 6pm, all we do is hang around waiting for your child's turn to swim - which does not last more than 5 minutes in total. So, there is just so much thing one can do... chatting, reading, game boy and some more chatting and some more reading...
After each competition, they are to continue their swim in another pool, so, his fellow swimmers were playing around pushing each other around the pool. I saw that and started taking photos. It was so funny seeing them having some fun amidst some serious competition.
Since Joel was about 10 years old, I had trained him to be able to cope with 'pranks'. After all, we live in a world full of 'jokers' and cruel children. So, he does need to survive and not get offended all the time.
Joel's friend almost pushed him in
Pushing another boy in
This bunch of girls and boys had heaps of fun. Nice to see that young boys and girls can play together and not be shy
Joel looking tired
After the children were playing 'pushing' into the pool for almost 5 mins. Suddenly, one of the parent came over and reprimanded her daughter and told her to stop! I felt a little embarassed. There I was condoning it - so shameful *sheepish smile*. Lighten up, Mum!
