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The Return of the Light Festival

Singapore used to have an annual “light festival” downtown every year – basically a chance for artists to display some public light-based sculpture. We made a habit of going – see here – and it was always a pleasant evening out.

Of course, Covid put a quick end to that tradition. But in early 2022, even though we still had to wear masks indoors and out, the festival made a comeback. One Friday evening we renewed our tradition.  It was smaller than in years past but still quite nice.

The main thing was a series of lights projected onto the façade of one of the museums downtown. Kinda cool:

Nyan enjoyed it:

That museum, by the way, is the National Gallery, and it was open for touring, so we checked out some of the exhibits.

Afterwards we strolled along the river. In years past there’s been plenty of exhibits along here; this year, none at all. But it was still nicely lit, a pleasant stroll and a great way to end the evening.

 
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Posted by on February 15, 2022 in Uncategorized

 

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The Artist Currently Known as Nyan

Nyan continues to get better and better at drawing and painting. An update:

He’s been taking an art class on Sunday afternoons. Check this out:

Here he is in various art-making poses:

And here are a LOT of examples of some recent drawings. His creativity continues to amaze his parents, we must say…

And finally, here’s a video of the artist, walking the viewer through an explanation of some of what’s going on in one of his more complex pieces:

We will certainly share more examples of his artwork in the future!

 
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Posted by on November 9, 2021 in Uncategorized

 

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Space Camp and Mountain Camp 

Since we couldn’t travel this summer — for the second summer in a row, not that we’re bitter — we found several different day camps to occupy Nyan’s time during summer break. You’ve seen his efforts from cooking camp; in July, he was off to two more (before new Covid restrictions put an end to day camps, aargh!)

One was called Mountain Camp — a sort of multi-activity five-day camp that featured lots of outdoor activities as well as indoor action like artwork and meditation. Nyan had a blast. Here’s some of the action:

They did some work on emotional resiliency and whatnot (which we loved!) and check out some of the art Nyan drew as part of that.

The camp was held at the Swiss Club, up in the hills on the west side of the island. Nice place!

Nyan also spent a few days at Space Camp, learning all about outer space and space exploration. He did a fair bit of writing in the class:

And maybe best of all, he got to keep his very own space astronaut uniform:

As you can see from some of these pictures, Jayden attended both of these camps as well. So not only did they get to spend entire days and weeks together, they also got to get together after camp for the occasional dinner and playdate! 

Not a bad summer, not a bad life. 

 
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Posted by on August 20, 2021 in Uncategorized

 

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Hot Fun in the Summertime

Some of the random bits of fun Nyan got up to in the early weeks of Summer Vacation 2021, before his various camps kicked in.

We did a puzzle! Grandma and Granpa had sent Nyan a 500-piece sloth puzzle for Christmas, and we finally found the time to do it. We don’t have a great space to do it, unfortunately, but we made do,

Truth be told, Daddy did a fair amount of the work on this one. But Nyan helped out, and got better over time. And he wanted to be sure to put in the final piece himself

We learned another new skill: full flips into the pool!

He also did a lot of drawing

Check out some of the results. This boy continues to amaze his parents with this artistic skills!

Not a bad start to the summer!

 
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Posted by on July 9, 2021 in Uncategorized

 

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Nyan Embraces his Artistic Side

Nyan’s really been embracing his artistic side lately, in terms of both visual arts and music. 

He had some time off from school in February, so Mommy took him to a local art studio for some classes. They did some pottery, which Nyan really enjoyed:

He did some drawing too. Usually he likes to draw fantastical cartoon fantasy worlds, but he’s also got a great eye for still lifes:

He also took up piano at the start of the year, as you saw. Here’s Daddy helping him with some finger drills:

And in his lesson at the piano school:

His drawing and piano playing has only gotten better since!

 
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Posted by on March 16, 2021 in Uncategorized

 

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Uncle Jeff, Taekwondo and More

We got a visit from Uncle Jeff for a few days in January. Always good to see him.

(That one photo is Nyan measuring his height against Jeff, so we can compare the next time we see Jeff.)

Nyan continues his taekwondo, including sparring:

He had another grading session in late January, which — if he passed — would mean another level up.

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Did he make it? Tune in next time!

Finally, here’s a brief selection of some of the art and drawing that our boy got up to in January.

 
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Posted by on February 5, 2019 in Uncategorized

 

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Creative Pursuits: Drawing, Music & Science

Some of the creative endeavors Nyan got up to during the December break from school.

He did lots of drawing and writing, of course, as always. Including a get-well card for Uncle Iain, a letter of explanation to the Tooth Fairy, and some school work.

Nyan enjoys playing around with Daddy’s electric guitar.

He also had a blast when we went to a local music store one afternoon. He found his “dream  guitar” — a $7,000 sparkly Flying V. Save your pennies, kiddo.

He also did a number of scientific experiments, many of them with Mommy. Here they are in various science garb:

The masks were when they were doing geology, including pounding on various rocks with a hammer. Gotta filter out the dust!

Here’s an experiment on the viscosity levels of various substances. Peanut butter, honey, and olive oil.

And the creme de la creme: We took some pencils, connected them to a battery, put them in water. See those bubbles? That’s electrolysis!

 
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Posted by on January 23, 2019 in Uncategorized

 

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Hanging out with Zuzu and Iain

We got a nice visit from Uncle Iain and Aunt Zuzu (a.k.a. Mommy’s sister Emerald) for a few weeks in October. They’re two of Nyan’s favorite people, so he had a blast.

What did they get up to? There were Legos:

And iPads:

He made sure they met his school bus at the end of each day, and that they helped him up the stairs.

One evening, Nyan took them to see the nightly light show over the bay downtown. Here they are afterwards, featuring Nyan goofing around for the camera:

Another day they went to the National Gallery, a big art museum downtown, with Mommy.

There was a section in the museum where people could make their own art, which Nyan and Mommy were happy to do. Here’s Nyan’s output:

And Mommy:

Another day, Zuzu and Iain wanted to take Nyan someplace special…but we’ll save that for another post.

 
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Posted by on November 7, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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September Moments, Part Two

Second in our two-part series about little moments and events that took place in September.

On Thursday afternoons, after school and before taekwondo, Nyan took part in an art class held at his friend Nadia’s apartment, just across the swimming pool from us. It was one instructor, seven girls and Nyan. He was a little worried at first, we think, what with being the old boy there, but he quickly got over that and had a blast.

Over the summer, we saw The Lion King (the movie) for the first time, as well as a short live-action version of it at Hong Kong Disneyland. When we heard that the musical version was coming here, we snapped up tickets. No pictures of the performance itself, but here’s our hero (and his peeps) before the show. He loved it, by the way.

We were sad to see Jayden and his family move away in August, but one small consolation prize was inheriting their electric piano. Daddy’s had fun playing it, and Nyan has fun pounding the keys. We’re hoping it’ll spark some interest in actually learning to play. But for now, we have this.

 
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Posted by on October 16, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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Nyan’s School Portfolio

As we have mentioned, much of Nyan’s artwork, writings, and other school work has been collected into a large binder, called My Portfolio, all year long. It’s a wonderful book, and we got to take it home for a couple weeks, during which time we scanned some of the best bits. Let’s take a look.

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It includes a fair number of photos from throughout the school year

A letter he wrote to Mommy:

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Half photo, half self portrait. Check ot the detail on his shirt.

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This next one is a fun one:

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Check out the detail! Of course, he’s drawing Mommy and Daddy’s bedroom, not his own, since he ends up in their bed most nights, still. Grr. But whatever: see Daddy checking the news as he enjoys coffee in bed; see Nyan reading in bed; see the dresser, the window and curtains, the ceiling fan, the round bulb atop the bedpost! The kid has a good eye.

Things he likes: food. music. library. reading. sweets. etc.

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And things he dislikes, including cabbage, drowning, stinky smells, deep dark woods and some music. And bugs, too.

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Some random factoids he learned about Singapore history:

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He drew this happy self-portrait at the start of the school year back in August. Good stuff.

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(The words are small; they say: “I feel happy because I am doing science” and “I feel happy because I met Jayden.”)

Last but not least, this wasn’t in his Portfolio but we’ll include it anyway. For Chinese New Year — the Year of the Dog — the kids put resolutions of sorts on paper dog bones, and pinned them up on a board at school. Nyan’s: “I need to improve on fast writing. I need to impove on listening skills.”  We certainly wouldn’t disagree on the second point, at least!

 
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Posted by on April 3, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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