Youth Olympic Games

Last month, Steph and I brought Victoria and John to watch the Youth Olympic Games Equestrian Event. I must say that if not for Steph, I wouldn't have even thought about attending a YOG event at all. But having gone for this one, I feel slightly sad that I hadn't really embraced the games all that much. Sure, I watched the token football game and read about it in the news, but still, my support contribution was almost zilch.

Having said that, I'm glad we managed to get tickets to go for at least one game and apart from the nightmarish trip to and from the event grounds itself (we parked at the turf club, which was taxi fare $5.90 away from the actual event venue, which had no parking spaces at all) we actually quite enjoyed it. Good company makes all the difference!

John and Victoria were both absolutely glued to the horses for a good half and hour before getting a little more fidgety. Even I myself couldn't really take my eyes off the beautiful horses that navigated smoothly through the course. Took me a while to really understand the scoring system and country codes (yes, I'm really NOT a sports person), but I was really awed by how these teenagers were composed enough to steer the course and make it through. I forget sometimes that some of these kids may have just hit puberty and yet they have the maturity and are skilled enough for competition on the world stage.

Steph and I were chatting later and we realised we both felt slightly sad that whilst we were kind of good at a lot of things, we didn't actually excel in single thing. Sort of like a jack of all trades, master of none. Thinking of John now, I want to really encourage something he's interested in, be it a sport, music, art etc. I have to remind myself not to quench an interest he might have (unless it's contrary to our faith of course) and to support him in that.

Here are some photos of our little YOG experience:

The lovely Victoria trying to get John's attention.

Victoria absolutely loves horses. After a while she was up standing on the seat and applauding like a proper little lady after each competitor had finished the course. Mummy Steph was beaming with pride!

The course

My little man and I :)

Playing with mummy's sunnies (photo courtesy of Aunty Steph).

Trying to take a picture by the "Singapore 2010" banner. (photo courtesy of Aunty Steph)