Star Wars Run 2017

I don't know how this whole thing evolved, because I was never a big fan of Star Wars(I never even watched the original 3 episodes), but I somehow made my 2 sons huge Star Wars fans. I think it's largely to do with the fact that, while not really into the shows, I do find light sabers very cool, and would often expose my sons to these toys, when we go to Toys R Us, and I would tell them the little I know about Star Wars. Gareth became very interested, and started reading all the children's books about Star Wars, and now knows way more than me. Gideon, like me, just likes light sabers very much. As a result, we now have several light sabers(the cheapo ones, of course), a Darth Vader mask, and a few other Star Wars toys. Gareth has also watched a couple of the movies(much to my wife's disapproval), and even Gideon has watched Rogue One, though I'm not sure what he understood from the movie. He did come out of it chanting, "I'monewiththeforceandtheforceiswithme...."

Anyway, because of this, my wife and I decided to sign the whole family up for the Star Wars Run that was to be organized in Singapore. It cost us a bomb, although Gideon and Charlotte were not included(too young), but we made sure that we could bring them along.

So it was on 6 May 2017. It was....quite an experience. The beginning was still alright. There was a big space in the race village, and the runners were all scattered, so it didn't feel too crowded. But when we went to queue for the run itself at the starting point, it was crazy. 50 000 people signed up for the event. The lines of people snaked up and down the huge open field at MBS. We waited in the sweaty crowd for what felt like an eternity, before it came to our turn to pass the starting point. By the time we did so, it was 40 minutes past the actual starting time.

Furthermore, because there were 2 race tracks, one for the light side, and one for the dark side, and because a disproportionately large number of people chose the dark side(yeah yeah, being bad is cool, and all that), that particular line was jammed. While edging forward in our lines, Chloe, Clarissa and I managed to force our way into the light side of the queue, which was a lot lighter(what a clever pun), but my wife and the rest of the kids could not, and were pushed into the dark side queue. As a result, we were forced to go on different routes. We tried to wait just past the starting point for them to cross over to the light side, but for some reason, one of the workers told us we could not wait there, even though we were not blocking anyone. So we had to be separated.

It was, all in all, a pretty nice walk. The night air was pretty cool, and we walked along the Singapore River, and through the various shops and restaurants lined alongside. We went up the helical bridge, and took in Singapore's cityline. I was surprised at my daughters' endurance, in particular Clarissa's. We walked for a solid hour, covering 4.5km, and she did not once stop and whine about how tired she was.

The other group had their walk cut short, probably because of the huge crowd on the dark side track. They ended up at the finishing line way ahead of us, and watched the open air screening of The Force Awakens, while waiting for us. Eventually, we all got our medals, and by the time we got home, it was way past bedtime.

Below are a few pics of our experience.

A nice family pic to start the whole thing.

Caught this AT walker at the festival village.

We had time to get some face, well, arm, paintings.

They had cool Star Wars characters walking around happy to take photos with the runners.

Taking a quick light dinner before the run.

Must get a lovey dovey pic with the wife, of course.

Just before we got into the huge crowd to line up for the race.

Got a pic of the girls with Merlion during our walk.

The proud finisher!

Chloe got interviewed by the organizing staff as a promotional video of the event, to support bringing it back next year.

And that's that. It was quite an experience, and overall, I would say enjoyable, especially for the kids. We might sign up for more of these, and it'll probably be easier to manage as the kids get older.

A commitment

I've been quite infrequent in writing on this blog, because once again, the busyness of life has been overwhelming at times. But I want to make a fresh commitment to write regularly, to meaningfully chronicle our family's journey, our joys and our struggles. Chloe would sometimes lament my lack of new posts on the blog, and I don't want to keep disappointing her.

So I'm going to try and write a new post every 1-2 weeks. Not sure if I can keep a weekly schedule at the moment, but at least 2-weekly should be doable.

Okay, Chloe? So don't keep telling me how your aunt has so many posts compared with mine anymore....

Fifth

The long overdue post on my fifth child, Charlotte. She's 14 months old now, and getting to that age where awareness is growing, and tinges of cheekiness are creeping in. In my opinion, this is the period where kids are the cutest, because they're starting to respond to you more purposefully, and just before the terrible twos where they will defy your every command. So I'm going to enjoy her as much as I can right now.

During the first few months of her life, my wife was convinced she, being our youngest child, and a daughter, was our little demure princess, because she seemed to have a mild-mannered behaviour quite different from the rest of her siblings. Even her crying usually came in muted sobs, and my wife would declare to me on many an occasion that we finally had a gentle, lady-like daughter with beautiful polite manners. Furthermore, she is really smiley, more than her other siblings:

That really makes her very endearing.

In recent months, though, she is starting to show some of the feisty character her siblings, in particular Clarissa and Gideon, possess. She shows some signs of defiance, an example being when she does not want to eat what we feed her. She would turn her head firmly away, her mouth pursed shut. She is also turning quite rough when playing, often jumping on Gideon recklessly, not a shred of lady-likeness evident at all. My wife is currently in denial, insisting that this was all because of the bad influence of her siblings, and not through any inherent character of hers.

Whatever it is, she is still extremely adorable, and we are enjoying watching her grow everyday. Chloe particularly loves playing with her, reading to her, talking to her. Chloe has this knack of talking to Charlotte in a way that she responds positively, so that's a great help when we need someone to look after her.

As she grows, and reaches each milestone along the way(she's starting to walk independently), we want to provide an environment of love within the family, so that she does not feel like she's alone in a desert:

but will always experience the support and warmth of a loving family. I guess no matter what, she'll always be our little princess.