Monday, September 10, 2012

Soccer Team Selection


School started and Ace came home and told me that there is going to be a Soccer Team Selection try outs during his PE time. He says he is interested to give it a go and so I gave him a high 5 and asked him to go for it.

While we did have big dreams for him when he was much younger.. hahahaha..  Alas, Ace has never been very athletic and never seem to have much ball sense. With constant practice and exposure to football though, he has improved by leaps and bounds since he started school in Horizon. Anyway, at this point, I think my encouragement will be more helpful for him lah... Besides, he does have quite a keen interest since he likes playing with balls and kicking balls when he was young as he seems to enjoy playing soccer in school all the time (as evidence by the small hole in on the leather in the front part of his school shoes) and even enjoyed going for soccer games with his dad.... and it seems he is very often the Gaolie...

So on the day of the try outs, before I sent him to school, I gave him a big hug and asked him to do his best and enjoy himself.

When he came home, I asked him how was his try out and he said, "Oh, Mrs Myers (the PE Teacher) said I am a 'maybe' and fall into the 'maybe' group and she asked me to come back and try again next week to be sure.

I was pleasantly surprised.  I actually did not expect him to get into the team at the first try at all and I am so happy that he actually made it to the "maybe" stage. I asked him a little bit more about it and he said that out of the people who tried out, some of the people did not get in at all. Some were instantly accepted and about 10 of them made it into the "maybe list".

A week later, it was time for his second trial. When I talked to him about it the day before, he seemed a little inconfident so I encouraged him a little. In the morning, before he set out for school, I told him that it would be good for him to set goals for what he wants to achieve today at the trial. "For example, you can set a goal to do your best..." I said..

"And you can set another goal to enjoy yourself," added his Dad.

"And I can set a goal to get into the soccer team!" cried Ace excitedly. Since he was all fired up, we just high fived him and gave him a hug and sent him off.

When he came back from school, I asked him how was his trial. "Confirm out already.. i did not do well at the trial.." he pouted.

"Well, did you do your best?" He nodded. "Did you enjoy yourself?" He nodded.. "Then it is ok, cos you already achieved your goal."

"But I din get into the team." "Well, no matter.." I told him, "Now you know what the trial is and where you can do better than you can practice for next year's trials."

When his dad came home and asked him about it and he said that he did not do well at the part where they have to meander around the cones with the ball and Ace said he kicked the ball either in the wrong direction or skipped cones.. hahaha

At night before we slept, I hugged Ace and I told him.. "I love you if you never get into the soccer team and I love you if you get into the soccer team... I love you no matter what, ok?"

"But daddy will be disappointed.." he said and I reminded him dad daddy's contribution to the goal setting was only that he enjoyed himself.

Since he felt that his dad might be disappointed, I asked his dad to reassure him that he is not and give him a prep talk when he sends Ace to school. Ace confessed though that he was sort of relieved as well that he did not get into the soccer school team because their practice dates clashed with his Mad Science dates. Wahahahaha... i guess he still prefers the fun of experiments to the thrill of kicking the ball around.

Anyway, talking about soccer, father and son had a Liverpool Soccer date the other day while we were in Singapore.



Father and son decided to go watch a Liverpool match together and have a Man's Day Out:)

Ace is all happy to drink coke while his dad drinks beer while they watch Liverpool get kicked in the buts tat day:) wahahahaahahahaa..... (Max is so going to kill me for saying this.. hhahaha)

Self declared Liverpool fan holding on to Uncle Eddie's LFC card:)

Whole night though, Ace told me he was feeling very hungry and he complained that
They only served chips and drinks! But he really wanted a proper meal.... So they walked around to look for food.. That is him stopping in front of a seafood restaurant and doing the "Oh my god, what is this big monster doing here!?" look when he saw those big snowy crabs...


What's up man.. these things dun look as if they should be eaten... yikes..

Dun ask me why they want to take picture of this bridge and underpass.. likely tat after a few beer, everything starts to look beautiful and interesting liao...

Ace's fav... when he was much younger, whenever he would pass this place, he would imitate what the pple sitting in the bouncing capsule might say and go "ahhhhhhhhhhh.. jiu ming ah, jiu ming ah" and so, this bouncing capsule became known as Jiu Ming ah Jiu Ming Ah to us after that:)



Finally, they found a jap restaurant and they decided to have jap food;)







Max told me that the first thing Ace said when he ate this was, "The food here is very nice, next time we must bring mummy here too.. she will like it.." What a fillial boy:) He like tat say, when I go.. no matter wat I eat also NICE:)



Nah, Mr Scaredy cat only posing lah.. you din think he would REALLY go up on the bouncing capsule did you?:P


Anyway, they had a wonderful day out together and I am glad for that lah.. since he hasnt had much of a chance to spend time with his dad in the first 6 weeks he was in Singapore.. and I know how much it means to him cos on the day we flew off to Singapore, he started crying for his dad the moment the plane took off. (on a side note, he also cried the moment the plane took off and left Singapore when we were going back to Dubai cos he says he already started to miss all our family and friends already...)

PS: Did you click on those links above? They are all links to previous articles I wrote related to Ace and his love for soccer.. hahaha.. so cute to see the few mths old Ace and reading them does bring back fond memories of a younger Ace:)

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