I’m loving digging into this Makers and Mavericks list by Hiut Denim. So many interesting people doing some amazing things.
I’m loving digging into this Makers and Mavericks list by Hiut Denim. So many interesting people doing some amazing things.
My freestyle @1secondeveryday is up to 326 snippets since we started staying at home. I say to people, “just assume the rest of time is full of people being annoyed or crying.” We have done lots to keep the kids busy, but obviously only focus on the times we lost our patience.
We live in a compound - a group of 5 18-floor towers- it has a front gate. I’ve not been out the front gate in a week now. The longest I’ve been outside the front gate in 3 weeks is 90minutes and that was to go to the supermarket. Now, 1 of us can leave the compound every 2 days.
Work + Family
Were once separate and now crashing together Powerpoint to do
I think we’ll stay in this weekend. Self-isolation is the new going out.
It’s interesting how in our bilingual household certain words don’t get translated into English. We only ever use the Chinese, it’s typically foods. Do you want a 水果泥? Though, I realise English is full of borrowed words. Maybe we’re adding some then!
Currently working while the kids pop all the balloons in the house.
We’re doing ‘e-learning,’ posting daily work for students, responding to both their work and their parents etc. The issue is that I’m doing that with 2 small children running around screaming. It’s not conducive to working. Anyway, happy week 3/21 days of self-isolation!
In other news managed to setup the router I bought over a year ago to have a separate vpn WiFi network. Not sure how I managed to though.
Regardless, it was nice to just sit on the floor in the lounge and just mess about, which I haven’t had time to do. It working is a bonus!
In the disco today is Armand Van Helden remixes. We’ve got mixes of Spin Spin Sugar, Sugar Is Sweeter and his collaboration with Dizzee Rascal on the track Bonkers. The last one being kind of perfect to describe our situation.
We made an effort to tidy today. We’ve kind of been letting things go, so toys were everywhere. Definitely feel better for doing so, even if it doesn’t last.
The one bad habit I now have is going to bed much later. Before, I’d get a decent 7-8 hours sleep, sometimes more. Now, it’s around 6hr and I’m waking after the kids and realising - “it is a bit like the tv, when parents don’t feel with it." New experiences.
I feel like what works best for me, in terms of habits, is to not tell anyone and just get on with doing whatever I’m doing. It seems so much more successful. No apps, bullet journals, no charts on the wall.
*This message is not me admitting that I have started anything.
The daily trip over the road to the Lawsons (little shop, convenience hop, Spar) is the highlight of my day.
Continuing in the series.
Sometimes losing my temper is cathartic. A hard reset. This morning was hard. My stock answer to how it is going is now, “ups and downs.”
When you wake up and are briefly happy it’s the weekend… before you remember you’re stuck in the flat for the 16th day.
It’s hard.
The foreign office in the UK is saying we should definitely leave China (but we can’t because we don’t have the right paperwork) but the exposure from flying would definitely be worse then we have now.
“Daddy + Elise” Art therapy
Day 14
Medical Police’s account of a world wide virus is about the only one I can handle at the moment.
Also, I learned the phrase is self-isolation, not quarantine. We’re doing it badly though, but we gotta eat.
Also also. Day 14 tomorrow. We should have a party.
Half an hour, forty five minutes, sitting, playing with my phone, drinking a couple of beers and taking a breath.0
Before we were self-quarantined the problem was that I got no respite, I worked with small children all day and came home and had two small children of my very own. Now, that we’re preparing daily work for students while at home. It’s just, full on.
Your family is whichever motley crew of dysfunctional humans you love so damn much you would do anything for, including being driven crazy by them. Your family is your blood, or maybe not. Your family is the people that know you at your ugliest and least evolved. Your family is oxtail soup or rice congee or collard greens. Your family is your breaking point and your healing refuge. Your family is your best chance to be known.
Courtney Martin - Real talk on real families
It’s not even the first quote I wanted to quote but I got distracted clicking around and then ended up reading a second post of hers that ended with this. How families are not how everyone pretends they are.
The other post was about, ‘your first question’
Hearing about Day’s first, big question got me wondering about my own. What is the question that I asked as a little girl and have never stopped asking? How has asking that question defined, even if unconsciously, the choices I’ve made, the things I’ve created, the legacy I will leave behind?
When I have some time, it’s something I want to think about.
L went to get permits for the kids to leave China today but apparently they aren’t doing them until next week, the 10th, which is disappointing but not surprising. So, even if we wanted to leave we can’t, not yet anyway.