A Mother's Pride and Joy

My young man, after his warm up

"Great job! I am proud of you", I was smiling and beaming from ear to ear. The feeling of pride of a Mother towards their child is so precious that its kinda difficult to describe. It probably feels greater seeing him accomplishing it than having achieved it myself.

Joel is standing on platform No. 8

Just like I rather experience the pain, disappointment and sickness myself than to see my children having to go through it.


Sigh.


A mother's love knows no bounds. I wonder how evolution managed to design that into a women. No way!


The late morning heat was getting to me, actually all of us. Ethaniel, Hubby and I was sweating. Trying to brush off the heat, I spoke to a Mother and later read the Sunday Times. Everybody waits. Patiently. Nobody complains, anxious or fidgety. Except Ethaniel and Joel. First timers.

The stadium packed with parents

What do you do while waiting for your turn to swim? Wait. That's all you can do, really. Anyway, now we know what to bring.... some books, MP4, maybe laptop, paper to draw, a paper fan and preferably a TV too! The parents wait around, chatting.

Do you see the mussels? I mean, muscles?

It's all worth it, anything for our children.


Joel clocked 47 seconds compared to his training time of 53 seconds for the freestyle 50m.


Good job!

Ethaniel In Action

I took a video of Ethaniel doing lead climbing.


Read my earlier post about The Youngest Lead Climber in Asia. My Son?




We are so proud of you, Ethaniel!!!

Youngest Lead Climber in Asia, My Son?

Today, Coach Majid trained Ethaniel (6 yrs 9 mths) to Lead Climb and he did it! Twice!!


According to Majid, he is the youngest lead climber in Asia. The normal age for children to lead climb is 15 years onwards. But his unconventional coaching has trained many children to lead climb. He has children who are gold medalist in Asia.

Ethaniel climbing a boulder

Ethaniel can climb this wall easily at Camp 5 in Malaysia

We are so proud of you, Ethaniel!!!

Badminton On A Saturday, again...

We played badminton again this Saturday. I am proud to say that my hands and thigh did not ache as badly as it did last week. Hooray! Please note that Sean and Ong. Ahem.. Ahem..

I still need time to get fit but I believe I am going towards it, hopefully.

As expected, we had a great time.

Ong, as usual, torturing my son or is it the other way round ...hmm..

Joel in action. Wah, "ada gaya" (got style)

CY & the sweaty family

Sean & a new addition to our group, Khun Oh

Ethaniel Is Rock Climbing!

When Joel started Rock Climbing last year, I encouraged Ethaniel to join along. He climbed around the rock but not up. He was a little afraid of the heights.

On one occasion, I told him that I will reward him if he makes a climb. Overzealous Joel and Coach Majid, forced him to climb higher than he wanted. As a result, he has REFUSED to climb. He stopped for a long time...The most he will do is around the rock. That's it.

I didn't force the issue but asked him from time to time, if he wanted to climb. He said, "No" and I will leave it at that. I understood Ethaniel. He is extremely bold and adventurous. So, when he said, "No", it really means "No". Not ready.

As usual, we went for our weekly climb and Ethaniel will normally play around the area, swinging on the ropes, running around and just hang out.

My cute little baby is climbing!!!

Today, he agreed to climb higher but not all the way! He was also keen to pick up Rock Climbing!

I told him that if he climb continuously for a period of 1 month, I will purchase him the harness and shoe. A brand new harness will cost THB1,700 (RM170 / USD50) and shoe is THB2,000 (RM200 / USD57). Coach Majid mentioned that he has some 2nd hand ones which he could sell it to us at THB2,000 for both the harness and shoe plus a free chalk bag (RM200 / USD57). That sounds a little more reasonable. But Ethaniel has to prove he is serious.

We'll just have to wait and see...

Putting on the shoes on his small little feet ;-)

Badminton On A Saturday

I have not played badminton for a long ... long time.. Ages. I suck at it. Unlike me, my older Brother and Sister are really great at the game. In fact, my older Sister was a real sportswoman during her school days. She was such a popular girl in school that the other girls 'worshipped' her... Not literally kneeling down kind of thing. You know what I mean. A popular girl.

Anyway, CY & family, my family, Ong & girlfriend and Sean came together to play badminton. Sean is a good player and coach. So, I have specially requested him to coach Joel, Ethaniel and Jason (CY's son). In turn, he gets to play and eat for free. Must dangle the right "carrot". The tall order is for him to make champions out of our boys ;-)

We had a great time playing and I must admit that I had lots of fun and we are going to make it a regular thingy. We need the exercise anyway.

Today waking up was a painful thing. Arms and thigh ache from the strain. Hopefully as time goes by, I will be a little more fit...

Joel and Ethaniel picked up the game quickly and really enjoyed it too!

Rock climbing

Initially upon arrival in Bangkok, we bumped into a group of rock climbing enthusiast. This group, under the company of Proclimbers has groomed a few gold medalist in Asia for the 10 years old category. When Joel (my elder son) had been very interested in this sport since his first encounter in Awana Genting Highlands. So, he decided to pick up the sport. He seriously started training in March 07.

Bangkok is a huge city. From one end of the city to another, its takes hours. Sometimes not inclusive of traffic jam. Coming from Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, it is uncommon for us to travel far. In Malaysia, we were 5 min from Giant Supermarket, 7 min from local banks, 10 mins from church, 15 mins from One Utama shopping mall, etc. Now, we had to travel an average of 30-45 mins to the nearest indoor rock climbing gym in Lad Phrao, Big C. It is a weekly affair. During competition training, like now, we have to go for an average of twice a week. This really takes a lot of adjustment.

Rock climbing is not a popular sport amongst children in Thailand, according to Majid, the rock climbing Coach. Majid is an Iranian who has married a local Thai woman. He has been in Thailand for 6 years. The Thai children, especially boys, prefers to play internet games, electronic games e.g. gameboy, PSP rather than sweat it out.

Majid is very dedicated. He makes a lot of effort to train the children and I am impressed with his commitment.