We’ve come to a hotel for two nights with two friends, we’re on our third bottle of wine, the kids were up till too late, we’ve not eaten much proper food, mostly biscuits, it feels as close to Christmas as it’s going to get!
We’ve come to a hotel for two nights with two friends, we’re on our third bottle of wine, the kids were up till too late, we’ve not eaten much proper food, mostly biscuits, it feels as close to Christmas as it’s going to get!
Raffles in Chongqing.
Name writing
Did not like the Ted Lasso finale. It was perfect.
What’s your favourite Christmas film?
Bonus questions: What’s your favourite kid’s Christmas film?
I’d got this card for Lyra for Xmas but broke it out yesterday at McDonalds because it felt like a good time1. I’d found it when looking for thank you cards for my team. It says, 好爱你 (hǎo ài nǐ) which literally translates as ‘good love you’ but actually translate as ‘(I) really love you’.
1There was a staff quiz and I didn’t want to go, because at the moment me time trumps social time, but I’d had a couple of beers on the way home and it seemed like a good idea but then we stopped for Friday McDonalds dinner and suddenly it semed like a bad idea.
Yesterday I was thinking about this quote a lot:
If you always do what you’ve always done,
you’ll always get what you’ve always got.
Henry Ford
Especially as the semester has come to the end and I can’t help myself start thinking about the next one.
Yumo has a brief chat
Got gifted this. Looking for suggestions beyond eat it with a spoon. Which is also why I haven’t opened it.
I have a soft spot for some of Tiesto’s early mixes, particularly In Search of Sunrise 2 and Magik 7. Plenty of tracks that I love, I think partly because they connect me to an earlier time.
Both are on Apple Music but not Spotify unfortunately.
Just remembered that tomorrow is Trance Thursday and that has cheered me up!
We were due to fly (2 hours maybe) to the south coast of China (so not leaving China) in a week for a few days in the sun (only a few, hotel rooms get claustrophobic with 2 small children quickly) but after a few more cases appearing both in the city we’re in and around China (not massive amounts by any stretch, but still) we’ve decided to cancel (we’d probably be fine, but why risk it?).
Which is obviously a bit rubbish. Generally feeling a bit down at the moment. Mostly I’m ok with living abroad and being thousands of miles away from immediate family, but not at Christmas. Plus, it’ll soon be a year since I saw Mum and Dad when they came to visit last Christmas.
Yumo plays a clip from the nutcracker over and over.
Day 2 of writing her name
Elise has started writing her name after starting at kindergarten. Even though I teach students around her age, she doesn’t see me as a teacher, which is understandable, and I’m ok with not pushing.
I know I’ve read about Ted Lasso on here, I think @maique has mentioned it? But, I’ve been binging it this week and it’s just the best.
As a Brit, Ted’s American-ness is just not me but the way he builds people up and his kindness, especially to Nate, is a-mazing.
In other news, I upgraded to Micro.blog to the Year and in the process realised I need to be making more use of my Premium account. Also started an Apple One trial and in the process found that there’s an adaptation of one of my favourite kids books series called Stillwater.
We talk about Christmas and I try to make the most of my premium subscription!
Thanks all, Hover it is!
Where do you register your domains? Does it matter?
My 1 mile a day
Is the bestest part of it
Except cuddles, duh
This timelapse of the song Better Days by Radical Face. The technicality of it wasn’t my cup of tea but some of the words caught my attention.
Particularly…
And your head is pouring gasoline
On the person you prefer to be
Which sums it up pretty well.
Radical Face also wrote the second of three songs I used to play off an old and battered iPod Nano plugged into one of those little speaker sets that I used as my morning/wake up songs.
In order
And this was when I moved to Manchester to live in the room at the top of K’s house on a whim. Though whim is probably the wrong word, ‘because I saw no reason not too’ is probably a better way to put it. Which is also how I moved to China and Beijing and then Chongqing and then time passed and now living here is normal. When really it’s anything but.
For the last few weeks, really.
Today, I realised, maybe they’re connected?
I read a post on a forum of teachers working abroad about not feeling great about about not being able to go home at this time and that being hard.
Not seeing immediate family is fairly normal for me but we normally see Mum and Dad at least once a year, if not twice (!) and now it’s been a while and maybe that’s starting to get to me?
A mile a day continues, still only walking, building up to running, maybe. After Kottke linked to this post - (How Japanese People Stay Fit for Life, Without Ever Visiting a Gym - maybe I’ll stick with walking.
