Mark Lee Is “Quite Happy” About His Kids Doing HBL Again & How Other Stars Are Reacting To P2HA

In what is probably a bit of an unpopular opinion among parents, Mark Lee admitted that he and his wife Catherine Ng are actually “quite happy” about their children starting home-based learning (HBL) again. But why, though?

“We can see how our kids learn and spend more time with them,” the 52-year-old father-of-three explained. “There might be some parents who have to work from home while looking after their kids’ studies at the same time, and that might be frustrating to them.”

However, Mark and his missus decided to look at things from a different perspective: “When the kids are in school, they might talk to the classmate next to them. When my son goes to school, we would get a complaint every two or three weeks, but when he’s doing HBL, there are completely no complaints and he’s able to concentrate ‘cos his parents are at home and he can’t run around.”

In other words, there is no escape for naughty student behaviour.

Like what Elvin Ng did with his family during the circuit breaker last year, Chantalle Ng previously tried to get her 57-year-old mum Lin Meijiao to do some HIIT workouts with her, but the latter gave up halfway ‘cos she felt that it was too intense (well, it does literally stand for “high-intensity interval training”).

The 25-year-old My Star Bride actress ain’t gonna give up, though. “I think exercising like this is good sometimes ‘cos it can get her heart rate up, so this time, I will still get her to work out with me.”

Perhaps they can start with something a little easier before ramping up the intensity?

According to Romeo Tan, who stars in The Peculiar Pawnbroker, they’d already gotten about one month of filming in before shooting had to be halted — right when they were starting to get into gear.

“The momentum will be affected,” the 36-year-old mused. “And when we resume filming, I might have to recapture the essence and feeling of the character.”

Another issue is his hair... for continuity reasons, that is. “When you’re filming every day, you’ll more or less take note of your character’s hair length so it’s easier to manage. At least hair length can be changed, but if your face looks chubbier, that’s a little harder to change!”

Time to start watching what he tapows.

Desmond Tan had an entire week’s work schedule nicely arranged for him… and then #P2HA was announced, disrupting all his plans.

This time, the 34-year-old vows to be more productive with his newfound free time and not repeat what happened during last year’s Circuit Breaker, where he thinks he wasted time by being “too relaxed” and doing nothing much aside from “eating and watching television”. Hey, wasn’t that all of us, though?

“Earlier, I watched a Korean drama called Start-Up, and I thought that coding looked quite fun, so I’ve thought about looking at some things related to coding,” he said. “I hope to spend my time more wisely, not like last year when I wasted too much time! (Laughs)”

Um, didn’t Desmond already star in a tech drama called Dream Coder a few years ago? In any case, not wasting time certainly seems like a goal we should all aspire to.

F&B towkay Ben Yeo is about to open a new stall and has been taking advantage of his additional free time to plan for an even better launch, with better-prepared staff and a refined SOP.

Some precious father-and-sons time could be in the cards as well. Recalling the earlier Circuit Breaker, the 42-year-old said that it’s a period that he really cherishes ‘cos he finally got to spend a lot of time with his two boys.

“I could put aside my work and there was no way for me to get busy,” he said. “I was at home every day so I brought them downstairs to ride their bicycles and things like that. It was during that time when they learned how to ride a bike.”

Gasp. What on earth has Zhang Zetong, 28, been up to that he had to implore Mei Gui not to tell his manager about it?

Okay, so it’s not actually anything that serious.

“Let me tell you a secret: I’ve started playing video games at home,” he chuckled. “I think the most important thing is to relieve some stress.”

In that case, game away, boy.

Watch this full episode of #JustSwipeLah here.

Photos: Artistes’ Instagram pages