December Festivities

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We’ve had one of the busiest Decembers in a long while. With both Alicia and I travelling for work. We didn’t manage to wind down before walking headlong in to Christmas festivities.

A wooden tray containing dried citrus fruit and cinamon bark and a few fairy lights

homemade - dried citrus fruit as festive decoration

We kicked things off by hosting families of a few friends from Chinese class. We managed to squeeze two induction hobs onto the table and keep the hotpot going until no one could eat any more. On evenings like this I wish there was a breadth to my Chinese. We tried to keep the conversation in Chinese throughout the evening but there were times when I couldn’t keep up and even more times when I struggled to articulate what I wanted to say. There are moments during nights like this where I will invariably fail to say something so simple and then end up replaying the garbled phrasing in my head the next morning. This time it was my inability to explain how to get filtered water out of our fridge tap. Instead of saying, “把杯子往后推” (push the cup back) I ended up saying something like “按在后面” which means something like press it at the back, which invariably resulted in them pressing the back of the tap and getting water everywhere. It is amazing how we can over-index on small mistakes like this and forget that we’ve managed to achieve something far greater in the process. It was a fun evening.

Families sit around a table covered in bowls of food, steam rising from cooking pots. In the background a Christmas tree lit with fairy lights

hosting friends at home - hotpot for 11

Over the break we made an effort to take the boys into town. The boys love wandering around the city. For Ethan especially, everything is big, everything is new, everything is, “waaaaaaah”. Both Oscar and I enjoyed the Emily Kam Kngwarray exhibition at the Tate Modern. Ethan preferred the Performing Picasso exhibition and the video showing how paintings evolved with each individual brush stroke. I was convinced this was AI generated but I was wrong. ‘Le Mystère Picasso’ is a remarkable documentary film made by French director, Henri-Georges Clouzot, in which stop-action and time-lapse photography are used to capture Picasso at work (on YouTube).

Two boys walk on the streets of London, the older points to something behind the camera

in town - the boys catch sight of St Paul’s Cathedral

We had my sister and her family staying with us over Christmas which meant the house was busier than usual. We are fortunate to be able to host family for an extended period like this. Ethan’s cousin is six months younger and the two of them are inseparable. Six months isn’t much, but it is easy to forget that at their age that is 25% of their life. Ethan spends much of his time playing with Oscar’s friends and it was nice to see him transition to being the elder cousin for a change.

A boy kneels on the floor in front of a Christmas tree. Around him, a number of wrapped presents

under the tree - distributing gifts to others

For me, the most enjoyable aspect of Christmas was getting to spend time with both boys and watching them spend more time together. It isn’t until we stop for a few days that we realise how much of life is spent rushing from one thing to the next. Allowing the boys to be bored and to figure out things to do together has been a delight. We’ve gathered ever-green leaves, made our own decorations, baked (and eaten) 100s of mince pies, built forts all over the house, and had great fun together.

A pile of mince pies on a wooden board, a sprig of holly sits on the pile, a dusting of icing sugar gives it a wintery feel

homemade - the first batch of mince pies

Work

December has been a frustrating month at work with little going on. A mix of the looming winter break, the excuses of change freezes and the familiar inertia that seems intrinsic to large organisations has left me feeling like I’m treading water. Excuses I’ve heard for inaction outnumber any desire that may exist to create or improve anything. As someone whose ability to effect change is limited to my powers of reason or persuasion this can be incredibly frustrating. I’ve been promised things will pick up again in the new year. Past experience tells me it will be a slow start.

A view east over London from Millennium Bridge. In the distance you can see London Bridge and Tower Bridge.

london - offices that I once used to frequent now seem alien

As we walked over the Millennium Bridge, I found myself looking over to the city and wondering if I miss coming in to work. I don’t think I’d go back to a life of presenteeism, but there are aspects of the commute, the routine, and the company that I do miss. Working at home is great when there is something to get stuck in to. But when things start to slow down, motivation can be a real challenge.

Personal

I’ve been re-discovering what I call the web of curiosity. Instead of having articles algorithmically fed to me, I’ve left the big platforms and allowed myself to wander the web of individuals. I’ll click that /about page, I’ll browse that /blogroll and see where it takes me. The web of individuals is very much alive and full of creativity. I’ve been fascinated with the variety of ways people structure their sites, their information architecture as it were. The terms ‘blog’ or ‘digital garden’ feel limiting in that they evoke a limited view of the creativity that exists.

Looking ahead, I’m not one for new year’s resolutions, but I do find myself coming back to a few things I’d like to explore over the year ahead.

  • I’d like to get back to the piano. I don’t have visions of being great at it, but I do miss practising and have found that I’ve forgotten the few pieces that I could play.
  • I’ve started printing photographs and this is something I’d like to continue. I’ve stuck to printing small images for now, but am keen to explore working with larger prints. Printing larger images is far less forgiving than the small credit card sized pictures that cover our fridge.
  • I’ve found myself reading more about the world of amateur radio recently. I don’t know what prompted this but I’m drawn to the idea of being able to explore the possibilities of communicating outside traditional messaging.
  • And, whilst I’m unlikely to buy a 3D printer any time soon, I would like to try designing or modelling a few objects for printing. Working in 3D has always challenged me to think differently and there are a couple of replacement fixings for the home that might be fun to model.

Media

Interest

  • Year Planner (English, 中文)
  • Gemini Protocol - I’m tempted to build my own server. I’ve enjoyed implementing functional software off the back of a spec (EXIF parser, BitTorrent client). The Gemini protocol looks simple enough that it could be fun.
  • EveryNoise - This scatter-plot of the musical genre-space was generated off Spotify data before they moved to AI based genre assignment. Try discovering something new to listen to.
A boy holds a sparkler, sheer delight on his face, behind him a man kneels with his arm around the boy's waist

festive fun - his first sparkler

With that, I wanted to wish you all the best for the new year. If you are passing through London, I’m always available for coffee. If you are further afield, don’t let physical distance be an excuse. I’d love to hear from you.