Reached the meeting point early in the morning and were given red tshirts to change into and a card that tells you wat games are happening on what dates...
The APGET is not bad.. they put you in an aircon bus and bring us to either the sports hub or the marina bay sands area to watch the games. We opted to go with the Sports Hub bus as we were doing volunteer cheering that day as well ;)
When the bus arrived, they gave out snacks, took a group photo and then brought us to watch some matches.
The first match that we went to watch was Table Tennis...
Anyway, while watching the games, I realized that there are different classes for the matches.
According to Wikipedia.. there are classes for sitting athletes or standing ones...
Class 1:
No sitting balance with severe reduction of function in the playing arm.
Class 2:
No sitting balance with reduction of function in the playing arm.
Class 3:
No sitting balance, although the upper part of the trunk may show activity.
Normal arms, although some slight motor losses can be found in the playing hand without significant effect on table tennis skills. The non-playing arm keeps the trunk in position.
Class 4:
Existing sitting balance although not optimal because of non-existing anchorage (stabilisation) of the pelvis.
Class 5:
Normal function of trunk muscles.
Standing classes
Class 6:
Severe impairments of legs and arms.
Class 7:
Very severe impairments of legs (poor static and dynamic balance), or
severe to moderate impairments of playing arm, or
combination of arms and legs impairments less severe than in class 6.
Class 8:
Moderate impairments of the legs, or
moderate impairments of playing arm (considering that elbow and shoulder control is very important), or moderate cerebral palsy, hemiplegia or diplegia with good playing arm.
Class 9:
Mild impairments of the leg(s), or
mild impairments of playing arm, or
severe impairments of non-playing arm, or
mild cerebral palsy with hemiparesis or monoplegia.
Class 10:
Very mild impairments in legs, or
very mild impairment of playing arm, or
severe to moderate impairment of non-playing arm, or
moderate impairment of the trunk.
Class 11:
For players with an intellectual disability.
Comparatively, this game is mild cos both of them are seated on the wheel chair and just putting the ball over the net in a somewhat elegant manner...
After we were done with table tennis.. the next game we watched was Boccia. It was a new game to me and I was unsure what it was about...
Apparently, there is a white ball called JACK and then the aim of the game is to throw your ball as close to JACK as possible...
The queue was super long but lucky for us, this group of 10 uncles and aunties before us complained about the warm weather and decided to proceed to the games that were held in the library in aircon :) So we had a shorter queue..
But still, it was rather warm and a long queue... lucky someone came and sprayed mist over us to keep us cool.. and it was then Ace started to niam niam niam about why I didnt buy him a mist fan which would have been so useful here...
In case you dunno wat tat is.. itis this fan ta t also has a water spray... something like this:
After we queued for a really long time, we finally got to play some sort of shooting game using nerf guns... we paired up with another mother and son pair and had fun just anyhowly shooting at each other :) hahahaha.. never follow the rules! hahahahaha...
Then leh, I told Ace we had to try all the short queue items to get more chops... And so we went to do this sign language thingy where they showed you a video of four words and you have to figure them out and write it out... The four words are WHAT IS YOUR NAME.. but Ace took quite some time to figure it out ;) hahaha...
After that, I told Ace that I wanted to do more easy stuff and he said he insisted on going into aircon. I told him we should do the badminton one as there is only a short queue and he threw a tantrum.. I told him then tat he can go rest in the air con while I queue.. when it was finally our turn, we had to play with our less dominant hand.. and I cant even serve the ball!
Once we are done, Ace said that he wanted to go and redeem the goodies cos he already had 5 chops while I was still short of two.. and so he went and I went to look for more short queues to join... till I found the photo booth!:)
When I was finally done, Ace came to me and told me he got lucky and while exchanging for gifts, he did a lucky did and got a smiley face and so he got a chance to play GRAB A PRIZE draw... and he won sooooooooooooooooo many notebooks... but he was most interested in the samsung phone hidden in one corner he told me..
Then he said he was hungry and so I told him we should go find some food and have lunch..
WHile searching for a place to lunch, saw this 3D thingy and decided to take photo with it..
Finally decided on eating indian food and Ace ordered Mee Goreng while I did byrani...
After lunch, he said he wanted to just stay in aircon and so we headed to the library cos someone told us there are three games in the air conditioned library...
Ace saw someone playing table soccer in a corner and wanted to go over. I told him I will queue and he has to come back when it is going to be our turn..
After that, the next game we tried was BOCCIA.. after we watched the game, I was quite excited to try it!
And then I said I was here first mah.. I did queue.. I just went to get my son...
But they blah blah blah.. still the boy volunteer who saw me said "Yeah, she was here first.."
I told Ace he made me extremely embarrassed and so he is not allowed to walk away while I queue from now on cos he never keep his promise and come back...
But the game was fun and guess who won?:P
Actually Ace.. cos I did not know I can touch JACK the white ball and tried to avoid it.. Ace's ball touched JACK and stayed close so his ball was closer to JACK than my ball and won...
Next game we tried is Para Table Tennis. Have to sit down and play lor.. I was a little scared cos hor I cant even play standing up.. much less sitting down!:) hahaha
And then it was about time for us to report for duty for our Volunteer work..
Apparently, I had thought about signing Ace up as a volunteer but someone told me they needed to be 16 and above to do so and cos he had many other activities planned, I did not sign him up.. a friend posted a picture of her son in volunteer uniform and he is Ace's age and we started a conversation about that and so she directed me to this MOTIVATOR GROUP... who were still looking for volunteers...
I asked Ace if he wanted to go and he said OK as long as they are not using pom poms... hahahhaa... so I asked if Jez Meinu and Oracle and Tashi wanted to join us.. Jez and Oracle said OK and so I signed all 4 of us up cos the two kids wouldnt want to go if we to mummies did not go.. hahaha...
When we were walking over to meet them, someone stopped us and said it is a simple 5 minute game they will be playing with us.. since we did have 5 min... I said OK to play the game lor..
Ace is quite brave and he took very fast and big steps when we were blind folded. I think it is cos he trusted me immensely and I never stopped giving instructions and telling him which direction to go...
But when we had to change over, I was the scaredy cat and took baby steps...cos he will say move forward.. and then he will not say anything since he assumed it will be repeat of the same instruction mah.... and he so blur, I really think he will tua me to holland lor! Hahahaha.. But after a while, I decided he is my son leh, I should trust him mah.. so I started to walk faster and take bigger steps:)
The whole game is to allow you to understand how a blind person might feel so that if you ever meet one asking for help, you know to give instructions that are specific and also keep providing information to them...
Anyway, we met up with the motivator group and they are all ginnah! Me and Jez are the only overaged teenagers:) hahahha
As we were seated there, a little boy of about maybe 8 or 9 joined us. He was behaving a little strangely... he will pick things out from the floor and explore them... and he will throw them away when he got tired of it.. I thought he might either be autistic or had ADHD... and there was a gor gor assigned to take care of him.
To me, I always felt that the youths these days especially in their teens are always in a world of their own... but the gor gor was happily chatting with this little boy and when he played with a dangerous sharp stick, gor gor also tried to tease him into passing the stick to him... and then the little boy will take another person's things without permission but these young boys and girls just asked him nicely if he can return....
And then he took a jie jie's phone and played games... and she wanted her phone back.. so I asked him if he could return it to her.. and he returned immediately but told us he downloaded something new.. hahahahaha...
And then that jie jie changed seat with another jie jie.. who asked him if he wanted to play a game.. so she lent him her phone to play.. till he dropped it.. and she took it back..
ANd then he kept asking her to lend him the phone and then a few others turned around and told him to say sorry, say she is very beautiful... etc etc etc... And they did it in good sport and not maliciously... so I was really touched that these young people were so forgiving, so kind and so inclusive of this little boy who was different.
And we chatted with the boy and asked him how old is he and he said he did not know.. hahaha:) so cute...
And then hor, he also learnt how to 举一反三cos after they taught him to say nice things.. he told another jie jie.."YOu are a mermaid (mei ren yu), can you lend me your phone?" Hahahaha.. what a fast learner!
After we finished the table tennis game, we proceeded on to the indoor stadium to support Team Singapore in the Wheelchair Basketball...
And poor Oracle.. cos me, Jez, Ace were all very enthu and she was a auditory type of person.. so our loud cheering was really torturous for her.. hahahaha
Team Singapore unfortunately did not fare too well as we were not as good in terms of skills and stamina as compared to team Myanmar...
I also realized that it is very common for their wheelchairs to fall forward during the game.. I think it must be so painful lor... but everyone regardless of what team they are in will help each other up..
Anyway, during the half time break right, they will have this AIR GUITAR thing.. When Ace realized there is a chance to be on "TV", he promptly stood up and started crazily dancing...
Alas, we lost... but still we enjoyed ourselves very much.
After that we went for dinner with Max and went home...
And so this ended our super long day at the Para Games. When I reached home, my battery was totally flat lor.. hahahaa:)
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