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The Week #281
by James- πΉ We made another trip to the skate park. This time Leo had an intro to skating class. They went over the basics like the parts of the skateboard, identifying the tail vs the nose, and riding and pushing. Leo's riding stance is much cleaner now that he had an authority (not me) tell him how to ride it.
My skateboard with Enoshima
While Leo was taking his class, I rode around the park. I taught myself how to ride up the quarter pipe, turn around, and come back down. Being able to ride on the ramps a bit unlocked the real fun of the skatepark. Growing up skating it was always street and shit ollies at best, so I finally get the real fun of skating. New life achievement unlocked π!
The middle-aged skate/surfer guys looked like they were having the time of their life shredding the pool. My new goal in life is to be able to shred it in the pool with them.The pool I intend to shred - π We visited another local international school. It was nice and offered the education that I'd like Leo to get. Try as I might, I cannot quite figure out how getting there and back 5 days a week would actually work. Maybe it's something we can consider again after things settle down a bit. But it is good to have at least done the research and visited the schools so we know what they're about.
- π I went with Leo to get haircuts in the evening (which is the time to go, zero waiting). I went first and had an uneventful cut and shave. After I finish I look over at Leo as he's now getting his haircut, and he's laid back in the chair getting a shave! I wish I had taken a picture. They don't usually give 7 year olds a shave, but he knows his barber and he asked for one.
- πΉ We made another trip to the skate park. This time Leo had an intro to skating class. They went over the basics like the parts of the skateboard, identifying the tail vs the nose, and riding and pushing. Leo's riding stance is much cleaner now that he had an authority (not me) tell him how to ride it.
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The Week #280
by James- πΉ Leo and I skated both days on the weekend. And for 5 minutes after school on Monday. While he is frustrated that he can't ollie yet, he is getting better control over the board. I expect he'll smoke me at skating in a month or two time. Still the dream of riding a half-pipe together persists. Unfortunately it rained on Sunday, so his skate class was cancelled.
- π Last week when we went to the beach the wind blew some sand into my eye. Usually you wash it and at most the next morning at the latest you're better. It wasn't the case for me this week. My eye felt like it was getting a bit better each day until it didn't and, being American, I am (still) not in the habit of just going to the doctor. I went. And it turned out there was a tiny piece of plastic or something hooked itself into my eye. 30 seconds with some anestheticΒ eye drops andΒ scraping of my eyeball the doc got it released. Instantly my eye felt better. Microplastics, the gift that keep on giving.
- π₯ Since teaching Leo how to make instant mash potatoes and him writing down his recipe, I feel like he's gained a super power. When he's hungry and or has a craving, he just gets on with it and makes them. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
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The Week #279
by James- ποΈ We had the first of long weekends in November. Despite it cooling down, we decided to visit the beach with Sophie, the popup tent and some coffee.Β I've resolved to get some decent pegs that can hold in not just grass at the park as the thing nearly blew over (but it still provided shelter).
Coffee with Fuji - πΉ While at the beach we had the idea of walking down to the skate shop directly connected to skate park. I had been thinking off-and-on for about a year about getting back into either skating and or blading, so I was quite keen see what the selection was like.
Part of the selection
Absolutely massive selection of decks and trucks. Larger than any of the skate shops I visited as a kid. Leo had mentioned wanting to get a skateboard a couple of times and I am keen to find another physical activity we can do together. I also think learning to skate will be good for building one's frustration tolerance up. And that it's a sport that has a large degree of freedom will be good for him (unlike, say, baseball).
Which is to say, we got Leo a complete (early Christmas present) and paid for entry into the skatepark. Watching the kids (and adults!) shred it on the pipes and ramps was really great. So great that we went back the next day and I bought got a complete for me and we skated for 3 hours. I now have a new life goal to ride the pipe next to the ocean. ( Also what a fantastic place to learn to skate. And the fact that skate parks exist today generally. And to have parents that will take you to the skate park. What a lucky kid.)Flat area of the park - π§ The only unfortunate happening of the week was that while we were at the beach Yumi's AirPods left the case somewhere. We had a bit of hope because they showed up on FindMy 2 days in a row, and despite our best efforts looking for them, we could not find them. It will cost almost as much as a new pair to get replacement buds... maybe it's worth getting wired headphones...
- ποΈ We had the first of long weekends in November. Despite it cooling down, we decided to visit the beach with Sophie, the popup tent and some coffee.Β I've resolved to get some decent pegs that can hold in not just grass at the park as the thing nearly blew over (but it still provided shelter).
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Checkin to ι΅ ζ²Όζ΅·ζ΅ε ¬ε γΉγ±γΌγγγΌγ―
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The Week #278
by James- π We made a visit to our local Yokohama city library and I think I want to make it part of our weekly routine. There is a English books corner in the kids section which is nice (though I think we'll read them it in no time). It's amazing the transformation of people by place, incuding boyo. While he didn't suddenly sit down and start reading heaps of books, his mind seemed to open up towards reading. In some ways, we're clones of each other, me and Leo. In others he's entirely different.Β I was always stuck in books, organized a library in my room, and read the most number of books in my class at his age.
- π One of the reasons why this could be is the format of a physical book. When you're struggling reading a book it can be quite discouraging. Turning each page you see how little progress you're making. Realizing this I experimented by putting the Kindle app (where we had a Dragon Ball manga sample) on his iPad and Leo sat down and read the entire 33 pages. Success!
Building on this, I've taken an ancient iPad Mini that's been sitting around discharged and loaded some manga into the Books app. This will become Leo's e-reader for now and I hope it will enable him to enjoy reading more. I also started loading kids books on to my Kindle so we can read them at night before bed. Surprisingly, it's the first time he's actually listened to chapter books in English when I've tried to read them. I think it's the format. We shall see if a new routine and an easier way to read without the discouraging affordances get him over the reader hump.Captain Underpants
