All hail the Queen of Everything, as Rockstar sometimes calls her…
Miss (overheard, while walking with Rockstar after school): Ko-ko. Now Miss is going to your friend’s party. When Miss’ friends have their party, you must go also. Ok?(Rockstar snorts and laughs, but doesn’t make snarky reply)
Ps: This our latest favourite gift idea – Lego Minecraft Microworlds. They’re really small, maybe a bit over 6×6 inches thereabouts (which is great because can you imagine at larger birthday parties of 40-60 kids (The Miss recently attended one such as well – I don’t think we even know that many toddlers in total, let alone to all come to that one party!) where everyone gifts giant boxes of noisy alien-invader blaster guns?)
pic from worldminecraft.com
They wrap up just like diamond ore blocks!
(Which prompted Rockstar to ask for one – not the Lego, he has loads, the block – to use as a door stop. Simply unwrap the top, open the Lego Microworld box and take the insides out, before filling with something heavy enough – sand bag, etc. Then if your child is anal retentive like mine, wrap the thing in plastic so the diamond ore-print paper doesn’t tear – it’s just standard wrapping paper I bought online in bulk sometime ago… Now I have to go look for a similar sized box since we junked all our own packagings before Rockstar decided he wanted one…)
And here’s a random pic of the Rockstars to end on, from when we pick the Miss up for party or etc… (Rockstar has on a too-serious-but-starting-to-crack-anyway look because although he was on a super serious day, he said all the Miss’ friends walking around about their own business with the Safari Kid standard issue elephant backpack complete with flappy ears and legs were just too cute…)
1) The Real Teens of Silicon Valley. Teens have been found to be exceptionally creative coders with high stamina. That makes them attractive hires…
“…Most people have their parents’ support, …but every now and then… “you do hear of some runaways. One kid, maybe 15 or 16, came out here for a hackathon and didn’t book a ticket back…… His parents called up one of my roommates, and we had to convince him to go home.”…”
Jackson Greenhouse Fall, Independent Designer (Yes, he dresses his friends!)
Aashna Mago, employed at Rothenberg Ventures
“…Aashna Mago, 19 years old and from Newtown, Pennsylvania …moved into Castro House in April, after leaving Stanford to work for …a VC firm with a focus on virtual reality. At the firm, she works with portfolio companies, writes code, and stitches together video to create virtual-reality scenes….”
Remember when teens dropped out of high school, packed their backpacks and went to Hollywood to wait tables until they made it as singers and movie stars? Now they miss assignments because of weekend programming projects and eventually move out to fill some of the ever-growing demand for tech labor.
This is an interesting one because when we were growing up, there was obviously no such thing.
Q: College First, or Trying To Make It Big As Movie/ Rock Star, Waiting Tables In The Meantime?
A: Well, d-uh.
These days however, it’s What Do You Do, when your teenager’s choice is between College, To Do Something They’re Ho-hum About, Or Worse, That They’ll Fight You On, And In The Case Of Tech Is Likely To Be At Least A Little Outdated By The Time They Graduate Anyway (absolutely no fault of any educators, simply the nature of the rapid-growing tech industry in general) Vs “Real-Life Education” In Tech?
Oh, and their vice isn’t weed or “fun” pills, it’s coffee, chocolate… maybe chips.
Also, they’re getting by not on waiting tables but by honing their programming skills because they can actually get respectable tech jobs. They make good money. Some of them interviewed in the article took over their parents’ utility bills.Instead of crazy frat parties, they’re socialising at entrepreneurial mixers. Think cheese platters and ski trips.
But… But….. No college degree? What d’you do as the parent, give your blessings and support unreservedly?
Oh, and the words “tech bubble” also feature.
How is this not a reality series yet 🙂
ps: My own 2 cents, given I don’t have a teenager yet (thank goodness :D) is:
1) Well, That Gap Year Would Sure Come In Useful Here (Y’know, that year some high schoolers say they want to take to go backpack and see the world, before buckling down to college – I first came across the term when one of my former bank employers had an intern from Chinese International School who very politely and honestly told us she had absolutely no interest in banking, and the deal she had made with her extremely well-connected father was that she do the several months-long internship on our derivatives and equity trading desk before being allowed to do her – yes – “Gap Year” in peace :D), and
2) This Is Also A Very Useful Niche For Kids With Mild Forms Of Mental Disability Or Trauma, Who Love Computers (One famous e.g. being Markus Persson, founder of Mojang and lead designer of Minecraft, who first learned to code aged 7 and later experienced some heavy stress and trauma in his family, growing up… )
Didn’t know this was a thing until someone not only wrote 4000 words on it, it got picked up on reading recommendation sites. This from the person whom Rockstar used to call “Aileen,” as a toddler. (Well, there was a time when he didn’t talk that much so I was happy to have anything 😛 I know. Sometimes really hard to imagine he was that same toddler.)
The Miss tells me she needs junk food too. “Because my mouth is really empty now.”(Mildly interesting, several friends of mine have told me it’s harder to limit their daughters from sweet foods than their sons… Jury’s still out, some articles say boys have a bigger sweet tooth, some say girls have more taste buds… I don’t have a sweet tooth and was a huge carnivore growing up, Rockstar in earlier life was vegetarian, go figure…)
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4) Caveat emptor story about selling your stuff online… Not what I was expecting when I randomly clicked the article hoping to skim for any extra tips on shopping online (almost never buy anything full-priced, and use various app functions to monitor flash sales or stalk the stuff I want and the inventory the store has, to figure how long I can “risk” waiting for it to be marked down (or further marked down) before “having” to buy it in case it sells out… Well, just because it is AMAZING how much you can save, for the exact same stuff… Why would you ever want to pay more than you have to right…)
This is about how the “woman” trying to buy the narrator’s dress appeared later to be a man… Now read the exchange below.
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5) Here’s more things technology can do: Crayon Crunch is a project recently launched on Kickstarter which mixes software engineering with traditional book printing. The entire lead character in the book is personalised to your child – not just gender, clothing, hair and eye color, they can also accommodate some physical disabilities – in a way similar to how a video game character might be customised.
Child’s initial goes on the treasure chest
Where else are you gonna find a personalised book which includes any disabilities, I really liked this..
USD 35 for a soft cover copy, USD 50 for a limited edition hard cover. (Easily within the “standard birthday gift” budget around here, and recently more mums I know are specifying they prefer their child be gifted books, so such a personalised book makes an even greater gift… As long as it doesn’t take too long to arrive after the project is launched… Well they do give you an expected launch date of September 2015… So just in time for Christmas 🙂
**Updated 3 June 2015: The original Kickstarter was cancelled and then restarted with a lower fund-raising target. To access the current project, click here.
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6) Miss-Skit is titled Joyride. or Cheap Thrills. HK being all high-rise, we ride up and down select mall elevators with the glass walls at odd times when it’s a little less crowded…
Freakin’ trippy and SO many ways to look at things.
She gets a thrill from the ceiling rushing up to squish us (I. KNOW.)
Sometimes, she also dances. (But no jumping up and down)
Playtime in the Rockstar household, interspersed with excited exclamations from the kids and grumblings from the dog (who doesn’t bark so much as rumbles deep in her throat)…
Rockstar: Mum. Guess what we’re playing now!
Me: <Eyeing them alternately standing straight with their backs to each other and falling over in strange ways> Wow, no idea.
Rockstar: Bowling! We’re taking turns being pins!<dull thudding sound as the Miss delightedly bounces a soft hand ball off his chest>Ouch. <falls down>
Feeding time in the Rockstar household, I walk by to utter silence. No background tv noise, and the two kids strangely quiet. I raise my eyebrows, and sure enough:
Rockstar: I switched off the tv because every time I went “Are you eating, are you eating,” she <indicating the Miss> went “Yes Ko-ko, I am eating, I am eating,” – and – she was only licking the spoon.
Me: <Glancing over at the Miss who then obviously set her spoon down and completely stopped feeding herself, still a very bland reaction by her standards> He’s worse than me, isn’t he?
(Miss nods seriously)
Me: (To Rockstar) You’re the worst kind of tiger brother <Rockstar stares back at me with no remorse>. (More quietly) And I’m surprised she hasn’t thrown anything at you ye-
(Rockstar shushes me loudly)
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I walk by to Rockstar’s Youtube videos blaring at absolutely top volume, while the Miss is hammering on her toy piano…
Me: (To both of them) Lemme guess. Volume competition?
Rockstar: Yeah d-uh.
Miss:<reproachfully>Mummy. Be. Quiet. I’m playing the piano.
He did agree to paint the fingernails on her right hand, though…
Rockstar: It was sooooooo good! We cleaned a beach! 5 or 6 BIG BAGS of trash! A-and we met a crazy guy who lives on top of a hill. We had to climb the hill to visit him.
Me: Why is he “a crazy guy”?
Rockstar: He makes his own toothpaste and soap!Baking soda!
Me: How is that crazy?
Rockstar: How could he possibly have learned to do that, he’s got no internet.
Me: Uh…….
Rockstar: <thoughtfully> May-be he went to a shop with internet, downloaded everything he needed, then went back up his hill to not need internet.
Me: Uh… You don’t think he could have… read books?
Rockstar: No Google….. <shrugs>
Me: There. Are. Libraries. You have been taught library skills in school. You know, books with the actual paper pages?
Rockstar: He doesn’t have that many muscles. You’d have to look through a lot more books. Only two lightbulbs in his house. Two! Also, no computers (to search a library).
Me: It’s Green Week. You are supposed to be all environmental. Not incredulous people live without computers. Come to think of it d’you think it’s alright to call people “crazy”?
Rockstar: <glances at my laptop> He doesn’t have internet. He won’t know.
Me: Excuse me???
Rockstar: Oh ok, I’ll…. clean more beaches. There was so much trash. We picked up so much and there’s still so much more. Or… I could clean his house. Just don’t cut my <pause> internet. <wanders out of the room>
Nb: Rockstar’s school won the Gold Award in the Hong Kong Green Schools Awards this year, and a Silver Award for Primary Schools in the Hong Kong Awards For Environmental Excellence; there are 571 primary schools in Hong Kong.
Rockstar and friends (several of whom have wandered out of the frame with their cups) on yoghurt break after the trip before we all went our separate ways…
Beach scene someone sent me (couldn’t put anything else up, lotsa faces)
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***Updated with a few more pictures; photo credit Denise Pontak Photography.
Obviously pro right…
Dis Is Art: Standard issue beach cleaning gloves… the girls looking out to sea… This my favourite…
Of course this too…
And of course this one’s Rockstar’s favourite. It is a stinkbug. Of course it is. (Rolls eyes)
For real though, “I have a little daughter,” is almost your Get Out Of Outfit Jail pass for every weird thing a person wants to wear. Make sure you actually have one handy though, (little daughter, that is) because otherwise you’re just going to come across as the biggest creepy person ever.
Jury’s still out on this one too…
What? There must be a gadzillion Darths with black cloaks that cover all their sins. The perfect sense of humour (and smile 🙂 are not easy to find (I assume this is… a Star Wars Fan Convention of some kind? Not say, your child’s school Halloween party?) Cough.
“…’He said ‘hey kids’ they looked up and he took a photo, then he said I’m sending this to a 16 yr old,’ she wrote on Facebook….”
“…’Police said if he is a registered sex offender he will be charged, this happened at Knox, be safe with your kids.’…”
The problem with this is even freaky mum’s original post simply states he asked her kids to look up for a photo. That made her uncomfortable enough to include the words “creep” and “IF… registered sex offender,” my point being it doesn’t take much at all for someone to freak out about these things in this day and age. It’s the world we live in. It’s the tools we have at our fingertips.
Even if she apologises:
“…Once it’s out there it can’t be retracted… and the retraction post has only been viewed one-fiftieth of the times the original post was viewed…”
You’re still the guy who looks “familiar” from… somewhere… Where was that again? Oh right, in an article that had the words “wrongfully accused creep and sex offender.” See, I couldn’t even bring myself to type that last sentence without also including “wrongfully accused”. Thing is, not all words are created equal. “Sex offender” packs a helluva lot more punch than “wrongfully accused”.
S-o… Just… don’t go there. Yes you didn’t do anything wrong. Yes there was some crazy overprotective mum in the picture but…. “crazy overprotective” still not as bad as “wrongfully accused sex offender”. And yup, your own kids. (Also, I always feel you don’t know the other kids, in an encounter like that. What if they whisper to you, “Gimme 100 bucks or I’m going to scream at the top of my lungs that you’re bothering me and I’m scared?” :D)
Hence the guys who post comments like, “This is why if I see some mum going crazy with 3 screaming kids I do nothing. Let em scream.” (And for the record, as much as us mums want to say the screaming and noise drives us insane, chances are it drives us less insane than it would drive you (because that would’ve happened to us like, a gadzillion times a day and our threshold is probably a lot higher) so we’re probably goods.)
“…Six weeks earlier, Darius had been paroled… …served two years for attempted grand larceny—“attempted” because he had signed out NYCTA vehicles for surface use (extinguishing track fires, supervising maintenance projects) and then signed them back in according to procedure. Darius has never worked for the NYCTA; he has never held a steady job. He is thirty-seven and has spent a third of his adult life in prison for victim-less offenses related to transit systems….”
“Racism in the rules,” was something I first came across on The West Wing during what seems now to be another lifetime (I haven’t watched something, a series or whatever, on tv in…. years.) To be a little more general about it however, when the Powers That Be decide who gets punished how much for which no-nos, they’re basically telling you who they really “like”. The West Wing conversation where I first picked this up was about how certain drugs carried much heavier jail sentences/fines than others – and how certain drugs were more likely used by black, as opposed to white, people.
(In other cases some Power That Be may simply not have the time or inclination to look at that, what with so many other pressing issues. Like, everything can be a pressing issue.)
Both the most beautiful and the ugliest thing about life and people is that well, nothing’s fair. But in the same way you can only shine a light with any measure of effectiveness into a dark place, and there is a lot less need or use for a light in a bright one, there is also beauty in opportunity. In my previous banking life, one of the biggest unsung erm, “talents” you could have in the job was finding opportunity before the rest of the market had seen it. That’s how you’re supposed to make derivatives money. You find opportunity, value, where the market hasn’t priced in the entire potential. You create an investment product out of that opportunity in the market that has not yet begun to trade more expensively.
There was a little imagery of a little boy on the beach that stuck with me – I think I first read it in Our Daily Bread. Thousands of starfish get washed ashore after a storm one night, and in the morning there’s this little boy who’s flinging them back into the ocean, as far as his skinny little arms can throw them, one at a time. Some jaded grownup comes along and asks why he bothers, he can’t possibly save them all – or even enough of them to make a difference – and as the little boy throws another starfish back, he says “I bet it made a difference to that one.”
All the people who get off scott-free and more for the most horrible things they do to others. Every time you see another one of those, go look for another starfish you can fling into…. the transport system? Because which would you rather be, upset with people who would probably love for you to be, or saving a starfish?
Be-sides.Think what the Dariuses of the world could do for transport!
Find your Darius. Thought for the week…
5) And with that, Miss-Skit is a single pic I forgot to put up from the Guinea Pig Chronicles, titled Saving The World, One Critter At A Time (But You Can’t Expect Me Not To Have A Little Fun Along The Way Too).
Playing with Guinea one evening, The Miss still finds time to stuff Rockstar’s home crocs with the ink markers we always have lying around for our ever-ongoing Ikea cupboard art project. Y’know, because making Rockstar go “Aaaaaaargh!! What IS this?????”is almost too easy, as she gets older – and more creative.
Oh look, isn’t she cute with the school Guinea Pig cage-laying, and broccoli-carrot-dry food “salad” preparation…
(Guinea and JD are kinda in cahoots, we think – he knocks over his pellets every time he’s dining alfresco on the Miss’ Ikea step stool (also highly recommended – super sturdy, lotsa uses all over the home and the one we’ve got has been good quality – hardier than an Indigo Living one I bought on sale sometime back, so really good value for money!) and we tire of picking up every single one so JD gets a treat…)
For real though, the Miss does deserve a lot of credit for increasing Guinea Pig Responsibility, over the last few visits. She’s been there at every bedding change and even asked to be taught how to pick up his poop with tissue (we drew the line at letting her mop up the increasingly large (Guinea’s growing! So’s his bladder!) puddles of pee around the home though 😛 Maybe next time…)
Bedding – check! Carefully mixed and transferred into feeding bowl (I’m not kidding) meal – check! Chewing block – check! “Pree-tee” dried flowers saved from the pile of hay and squirrelled away in her “purse-ey” – check!
Guinea often climbs in by himself, this school pet is really quite sweet, and the Miss must’ve fallen in love with him from how he is at school… Even super-serious Rockstar is not as “dedicated,” observing in between Youtubes that we “already havea dog…” So in the end Guinea’s been an incredible learning opportunity for the Miss, and parenting opportunity for us, I think he mellowed her out a bit because otherwise she’d be even more boisterous than she is…
The Miss washed his head pretty gently too… Don’t tell Rockstar, because he’s going to complain she’s super rough with him and take that all personal… (Actually it’s quite true, she’s pretty rough with Rockstar. Then again she’s pretty rough with all of us in the family, but now come to think of it JD doesn’t get it either, only the humans :D)
And here she is, pushing the newly-bathed Guinea around for a joyride on her chair before bundling him off for a blow-dry (was quite worried he’d get run over so didn’t let her do that for very long) 😀
Epilogue: The first night Guinea came to stay, the Miss cried like her heart would break, at bedtime. It was gut-wrenching. As I struggled to soothe her, I remember being really worried if I’d made a huge mistake in bringing him home.
By now he’s come over quite a few times because we also wait around for if someone else pulls out… When I looked at the thick Guinea Pig Home Visit Log that will run out of pages soon, I realised repeat visits aren’t uncommon. One entry mentioned it was the third time he’d been to another little girl’s house, and that she “wasn’t afraid” of him anymore.
Each time we drop him back in school, the Miss has taken the goodbye better and better. Like Guinea and his puddles, I like to think she’s grown 🙂
Me: Hey, can you complete this survey for me about how well your needs are being met as a kid please? It’s for that Effective Parenting course I’m taking in school.
Rockstar: <without looking up, sticks his hand out> Give it.
(Takes him like, 2 mins)
Rockstar: So, are you going to get an “A” or what?
Me: Uh… An “A” is you growing up to be a happy and balanced individual.
1) “…I ..exploit my physique while I’m performing; …….I’m a freak… I’m an actor… I’m a freak actor, and it’s awesome.” Interview with actor talking about his deformity. Still remember when I mentioned Thalidomide in an A levels General Paper essay…
“…what I think is interesting is my personality…” I agree. I could totally understand some of the comments the video clip got – after awhile as he talks, all you see is… him. That is amazing. He is amazing. You see…. for want of a better word, a… soul in a “costume”. It was kind of a reminder because we really are all “soulsin costumes.” The soul in that beautiful body and face, that other soul in the gifted person’s “costume”, that other soul wearing bespoke on Wall Street… (I know, and then you start to wonder what those souls really look like :P)
He describes his mother waiting for hours after she’s given birth to him, and the doctors don’t bring him to her initially because they don’t know what to do. “5 hours.. She’s convinced I’m dead.” Finally they swathe him tightly because they don’t know what she’s going to be like when she sees him for the first time. “…Open, open, open (the blankets) …she looked at me and said she looked into the eyes of… an old friend..”
Not meant to be preachy, this is first and foremost a reminder to myself (you guys know this blog is me working out my thoughts in writing, right?):
Your attitude towards things in life can really, really affect how your child turns out.
PUH-RESSURE!!!!!!!!!!!
(For real though, I do think that parenting is the hardest thing a person will ever have to do “right” in life, and I say it that way because I consider raising another human being who will be joining society to be a kind of obligation a parent has to that society to do all you can not to add another Wolf of Wall Street or mass murderer. (I know. You can still do everything right, and they still turn up a mess but the point is you have an obligation to do your sincere best. Galations 6:4-5 Make careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given… …Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life))
There is one more thing about perspective – a few weeks ago, one of our pastors made an observation about how if we look to serve the Lord, then the word “deserve” can really be broken down into “DE-serve.” As in, the opposite of “serve.” That was incredibly powerful for me, because when you “deserve”, it will eventually eat you up inside. See, if you require something from someone else, be it approval or what-not, it gives that person a tremendous power over you – they can jerk you back and forth on that proverbial yo-yo string because you want, you need something from them. (The flip side of the same coin of course, is then when you think you deserve something.)
Oh yeah and you can watch Mat Fraser in American Horror Story: Freak Show.
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2) The Fox And The Hound is one of my most loved tales. It’s about these two animals who grow up together in the woods without the hound’s owner realising what his prized new hunting pup (the hound’s owner enjoys hunting) was up to when he slunk off into the woods to play. (Tiger parent much?) The hound had no idea what a fox was “supposed” to be, and vice versa. I love the whole theme of how puppies (or children 🙂 are species-blind/ colour-blind/ culture-blind.
This picture evoked fond memories of a certain scene and dialogue between the fox and hound and got me all wistful…
There’s a whole bunch of dog friendship pictures here. (Yeah a fox is not a dog – Thank you, Captain Obvious)
And I suppose the next thing you’re gonna tell me is that dogs can’t fly?
But this is my other favourite
On the site, the picture is captioned, “My friend’s dogs think they’re going to the vet’s when in reality they are headed to the park.” What wonderful friends these two above are, comforting each other in time of need 😀
Anyway this thing pretty much makes my whole eye candy quota for the week…
I don’t agree with absolutely ALL of it, but some points are really good. Like this (double underline the word SATIRE ok):
“…Romeo and Juliet was originally written as satire to represent everything that’s wrong with young love and how irrational romantic beliefs can make you do stupid s— like drink poison because your parents don’t like some girl’s parents. But somehow we look at this story as romantic….”
“…“Until death do us part” is romantic and everything, but when we worship our relationship as something more important than ourselves, our values, our needs and everything else in our lives, we create a sick dynamic where there’s no accountability….”
An ex boyfriend told me, after a few years of us being unable to speak to each other and finally being able to have dinner and coffee again, that before we broke up he never, ever, ever dreamed he could “lose” another person (well we were both young then :). His parents had always been there for him and his sister, provided for them regardless of financial standing (at one point their parents worked as gravediggers; later his dad then grew a successful construction business from scratch and they became well-to-do).
Anyway, when my ex and I were on speaking terms again, he told me our breakup was a wakeup call. He is now happily married with several kids, to a really lucky girl, I’m sure 🙂
I like to think the “ex relationship” affords some valuable experiences – someone who was once “with” you can hold a part of you safe – they once knew and loved at least a part of you. When you start to lose that because of all the craziness life throws your way, they can give you a unique perspective on who you are/were. So a “good ex” is invaluable. One of the most powerful things another of my exes reminded me, when a long time ago on the rebound I entered a toxic relationship, was thatI was an easy person to love. (I. Know. Don’t you guys all want my ex now? Sorry, he’s also happily married with several kids to another lucky girl :D)
Caveat: Do NOT try this if your ex is psycho. 😀 Or thinks you are. Or if well, you really are 😀 No cooked pet rabbits please!) OR………. if their other half in any way minds. Always respect their other half. Not intended to be preachy – it’s because that is the person who is where you used to be. If you respected your own history with your ex then you should respect the person currently there (and then some).
Well it’s one of the ways in which I describe Hong Kong – as the place of debentures and toddler interviews – how could I not pick this up? 🙂
The Miss’ preschool however had this to say:
“…(Apple Daily, not BBC) have used a Safari Kid Photo (without our permission). ….We wish to clarify that Safari Kid does not (and never will) hold interview prep classes. It goes against the grain of our ethos and philosophy that a good pre-school and kindergarten needs to develop children at a pace and in a style they are comfortable with….. without any pressure on them…….. …our students have been placed in the top international and local schools in Hong Kong without the need to resort to interview prep classes (which is as it should be!)….”
It also said in the same notice that they’re taking up the issue with Apple Daily.
Separately I remember another incident a few years ago, with a different newspaper and different school, when paparazzi camped outside a certain kindergarten simply because the daughter of a Hong Kong star was going to school there and they had picked up some gossip about said star. This then led to a random picture snapped on the street, of one of the child’s classmates (also Rockstar’s classmate ;D) being walked to school by his family’s helper. Unfortunately, the newspaper then added injury to injury by captioning it, “a mother and her son walking to the school.” Obviously his real mother was furious. (And no I didn’t blog the gossip thing re Rockstar’s classmate’s celebrity parents either.)
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5) Miss Skit this week is… Birdcage.
So the Miss has been scrawling on our Ikea cupboard and here and there I’d ask what the scrawls were – this time she said “hearts” and I kinda outlined the scrawls into yes, winged hearts.
She then added this. Yes, she says it’s a “buhd” cage for her winged hearts.
You guys heard of the Unicorn Tapestries? The Metropolitan Museum of Art online shop has some copies or knick knacks and home decor of them.
I love the symbolism – story goes that it was impossible to capture a unicorn alive. In the Tapestry, the unicorn is however tethered and confined. Upon closer inspection, said tether is not secured and the fence is way too low to be functional as any form of confinement. The unicorn is in reality being depicted as choosing his/her confinement.
Can you guess what voluntary confinement that is?
That’s right: marriage. While predominantly idealistic, there’s another angle: you can attempt confines until the cows come home, but a unicorn is in reality (oxymoron alert!) impossible to confine – except willingly.
