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A Grand Time with a Grand Piano

On the Christmas Eve excursion you saw in the previous post, we wandered around the super-fancy shopping mall for a little while. One of the shops there is a Steinway piano “gallery,” filled with some really, really expensive grand pianos. We’re talking literally hundreds of thousands of dollars for some of them. (One of them tried to justify that price by having a small diamond embedded into the body. I mean… what’s the point??)

Clearly we are nowhere near that level of nouveau riche to be buying anything even in the same universe as those pianos. But they were there for the playing, the salesman was friendly and welcoming, and Nyan loves to play the piano, so we spent a good amount of time in there.  

Not bad, eh? Check out the awesome lighting in this next video; that’s all the doing of the store – sorry, the gallery – not your humble photographer/blogger

Not that we would mind having our own grand piano, or even a real piano, if we had the space and the cash. We don’t have either, of course, so this will have to do for now. Not a bad way to spend a little time on a holiday though!

 
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Posted by on January 10, 2022 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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Nyan Thomas, Pianist

We’d been wanting to get Nyan into piano lessons for some time. Finally bit the bullet and did it: got a recommendation for a nearby music studio, signed him up, told him that if he wanted his Nintendo Switch, he had to do piano. He didn’t resist and started attending weekly classes in January. He actually seems to enjoy it! We are of course very happy about that. Here are some videos of young Nyan in his early days of tickling the ivories:

In class: 

They work on theory too, not just actual playing:

Here he is at home, showing off his knowledge of specific notes. (We were pretty impressed!)

There will, of course, be many more posts about Nyan playing the piano in the future…

 
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Posted by on February 8, 2021 in Uncategorized

 

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Live Music on a School Night

Nyan’s daddy has been playing in a rock band for a little while now, and one weeknight in May, his band had its first-ever live performance. Mommy and Nyan were there, of course; Jayden showed up with his family too!

Nyan gave himself a front-row seat and had a great time. But he arguably had even more fun hanging out with Jayden, hanging out with Daddy and Mommy before the performance, and watching the bar TV which was showing a muted video of Mr Bean.

 
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Posted by on June 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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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 First Ballet: Swan Lake 

For Mother’s Day in May, Nyan and Daddy accompanied Mommy to a production of the ballet, Swan Lake. It was a very nice performance, and Nyan did quite well with his first-ever ballet, sitting patiently, enjoying the dancing and the music, and not fidgeting much at all (although, about 15 minutes into the show, he did ask, “When are they going to start talking?”). 

The theater was in the western part of the island, pretty far from home, so we made an afternoon of it. That included a stroll to a nearby office building that has a lush garden on part of its roof – and features the Jedi master himself standing in a pond:

(Of course, Nyan had to do his thing where he tries to look miserable for the camera!)

We then headed to a nearby shopping mall for some food, browsing and – crucially – a haircut for the young man. Came out pretty well, we thought!

Before the haircut, we had dinner at a Japanese place, which featured mellow Japanese music playing in the background. Nyan did a sort of martial arts/dance combo. What can we say; he’s a goofball sometimes.

 
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Posted by on June 22, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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School Assembly, With Songs

Every so often, Nyan’s school has a school-wide assembly to talk about this and that, and the classes each take turns leading the presentation. In mid-November it was Nyan’s class’s turn, and parents were invited!

First everyone sang the school song.

The theme that Nyan’s class chose to talk and sing about was about healthy life choices. So we were treated to a couple of excellent songs, including this one about healthy food versus junk food:

They also stressed the importance of leading a balanced life:

There were also little skits. Nyan took part in this one, the theme being, uh, not sure. Playing nicely with your friends, maybe?

That was about it – no big deal, but good messages, and good catchy tunes too.

 
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Posted by on December 9, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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Music and Dance!

You’ve seen many times that Nyan loves music, and loves to dance. Wanna see some more? Here you go!

Watching the Singapore National Day celebrations on TV, dancing along to the music:

He’s become a huge fan of the band Foo Fighters, a song called The Pretender in particular. Nice air-guitar and air-drumming skills on display here:

Same song, different day. Definitely showing some drumming chops:

He even likes to practice his dance moves at his favorite cafe, Batty Fluffy Flaps!

 
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Posted by on September 11, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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Nyan Thomas, Musician

Music is pretty important around Casa de Nyan, as Mommy and Daddy have always tried to get Nyan interested in tunes, through singing, listening to music, even dinking around on Daddy’s guitars. Nyan is starting to show more and more interest in music, we’re happy to report, including actually making it – through a cheap and simple Disney keyboard, and more recently through an awesome Casio keyboard that Auntie Zuzu and Uncle Iain got Nyan for Christmas.

Here’s Nyan on the Disney keyboard:

And a pair of videos of Nyan on the Casio (with a little help from his Daddy):

(Of course, near the end of that second one, we see Nyan get up from the keyboard and go try to turn on the iPod. Guess he got bored…)

Finally, as proof that Nyan’s at least a double threat when it comes to making music, here he is, shredding on Daddy’s acoustic guitar:

 
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Posted by on February 9, 2015 in Video

 

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