short notes for the new year
Happy New Year! I'm so glad the festive season is slowly falling away behind us. J and I managed not to kill each other, although there were a couple of cold stand-offs at the beginning of last week. It worked out better than it did the previous year, and I distracted myself by potty-training Bao, so I think generally we all emerged in one piece. The kids are not due back in school for another week and it has been unfortunately cold and rainy these last couple of days, so I guess we'll spend the next few days hanging around at home before we go to Lisbon at the end of the week.
New Year's itself was uneventful. We were supposed to have E and her husband come round for bubbly and fireworks on New Year's Eve, but they had just gotten off a plane with stomachaches so that was called off. In the end J and I stood around the freezing balcony watching the fireworks over the lake while sipping champagne. We eventually rolled into bed around 1.30am, which was a move we regretted the next morning when Bao popped awake at 7.30am. We never learn.
It was quite surreal to see everyone on my Facebook and Instagram feed out and about in Singapore having meals and going shopping because Geneva was eerily silent on New Year's Day. In the afternoon we took the kids to the Botanic Gardens to run them and discovered many other families doing the same. As much as we parents would like to pig out and then laze the day away, there's no such thing as a holiday break.
But! All this was inconsequential because I was eagerly counting down to the Sherlock special. The fandom was breaking out in hives with all the anticipation and speculation, and it was so entertaining that the general ruckus from the kids just washed over me. Immediately after the show ended I went on twitter to laugh and watch the fires burn, and it was all good. Three days after the first screening, and I'm still trying to catch up with all the online chatter unpacking the show.
I think one of the reasons why Sherlock is so beloved amongst its fans is because watching it is like playing a game of spotting and reading all the subtextual clues to form a picture of the 'real' story, much like how Sherlock the detective deduces from clues in the situations around him. It's one of those shows where everything is laden with meaning, from the wallpaper on set to the jewellery worn by the characters - a fact acknowledged by the producers and writers. For those in the know, seeing the evidence of all the writers' research and referencing is immensely satisfying, especially when it all connects to form a complex context for everything happening to the characters. Twitter was quite divided in its review of the episode, and it seemed that for the casual viewer, the show didn't make sense. For the fans who have been analysing every clue from Day 1, it was a glorious gift of purposeful references to everything that has been discussed before. Lovely.
Today marks one week since we started potty-training Bao and she has done very well. As I wrote previously, for the first two days she was quite fearful of wetting herself and therefore afraid to relax on the toilet and just do the deed. But on day three it all clicked and we have been dry at home ever since. She's skipped the potty after using it on the first day, and now will only use the toilet. She is mostly dry at night and will even wake me in the middle of the night if she needs to pee. For the last couple of days she has also tried going to the toilet on her own without telling me, which is pretty good. We've had a couple of successes with public toilets so far, but I still haven't worked up the courage for her to go diaper-free when we're out. Public toilets are not exactly easy to find here, especially if we're in a park or the woods, and it's so cold I can't exactly make her go behind a tree or something. Anyway, it's only been one week; we'll get there. I looked back on The Bun's potty-training chronicles here and the both of them mostly progressed at the same pace, although The Bun was not in such a hurry to be as independent as Bao is!
New Year's itself was uneventful. We were supposed to have E and her husband come round for bubbly and fireworks on New Year's Eve, but they had just gotten off a plane with stomachaches so that was called off. In the end J and I stood around the freezing balcony watching the fireworks over the lake while sipping champagne. We eventually rolled into bed around 1.30am, which was a move we regretted the next morning when Bao popped awake at 7.30am. We never learn.
It was quite surreal to see everyone on my Facebook and Instagram feed out and about in Singapore having meals and going shopping because Geneva was eerily silent on New Year's Day. In the afternoon we took the kids to the Botanic Gardens to run them and discovered many other families doing the same. As much as we parents would like to pig out and then laze the day away, there's no such thing as a holiday break.
But! All this was inconsequential because I was eagerly counting down to the Sherlock special. The fandom was breaking out in hives with all the anticipation and speculation, and it was so entertaining that the general ruckus from the kids just washed over me. Immediately after the show ended I went on twitter to laugh and watch the fires burn, and it was all good. Three days after the first screening, and I'm still trying to catch up with all the online chatter unpacking the show.
I think one of the reasons why Sherlock is so beloved amongst its fans is because watching it is like playing a game of spotting and reading all the subtextual clues to form a picture of the 'real' story, much like how Sherlock the detective deduces from clues in the situations around him. It's one of those shows where everything is laden with meaning, from the wallpaper on set to the jewellery worn by the characters - a fact acknowledged by the producers and writers. For those in the know, seeing the evidence of all the writers' research and referencing is immensely satisfying, especially when it all connects to form a complex context for everything happening to the characters. Twitter was quite divided in its review of the episode, and it seemed that for the casual viewer, the show didn't make sense. For the fans who have been analysing every clue from Day 1, it was a glorious gift of purposeful references to everything that has been discussed before. Lovely.
Today marks one week since we started potty-training Bao and she has done very well. As I wrote previously, for the first two days she was quite fearful of wetting herself and therefore afraid to relax on the toilet and just do the deed. But on day three it all clicked and we have been dry at home ever since. She's skipped the potty after using it on the first day, and now will only use the toilet. She is mostly dry at night and will even wake me in the middle of the night if she needs to pee. For the last couple of days she has also tried going to the toilet on her own without telling me, which is pretty good. We've had a couple of successes with public toilets so far, but I still haven't worked up the courage for her to go diaper-free when we're out. Public toilets are not exactly easy to find here, especially if we're in a park or the woods, and it's so cold I can't exactly make her go behind a tree or something. Anyway, it's only been one week; we'll get there. I looked back on The Bun's potty-training chronicles here and the both of them mostly progressed at the same pace, although The Bun was not in such a hurry to be as independent as Bao is!