Law, Partially

We had a good life in the Lower Holloway area of Islington. Bobby's nursery was very close, and many kids living in our building also attended. His best friend lived in the same building. There were many cafes, all of which knew how to make babycinos (ingredients consist of foamed milk and some chocolate powder), including one on the ground floor of our building. Some of the last few babycinos at the New Zealand-style cafe, Sacred, on the ground floor of our building; since the hamburger restaurant across the square closed, Sacred became a de facto hangout for the local gangs of small children. King's Cross was two stops away on the Piccadilly. This area north of the station was an old intermodal port, where goods could be transferred from train to ships on the Victoria Canal. The big brick building was grain storage but is now an art school with various restaurant chains on the ground floor. Next door are former coal storage buildings that now house a high-end s...

We expected this trip to the Netherlands to be special, and it was. Our first family trip to the Netherlands, almost two years ago, opened our eyes to the joys and practicalities of family travel with small children. On this trip, I learned yet even more about the joys and practicalities of travelling with children -- this time, doing it without Mummy's help, while she stayed in London to study. I had no expectations for this trip except to have fun. Like diners at an authentic sushi restaurant putting their experience in the chef's hands ( omekase ), so we were all putting ourselves into Gugu's hands, she being the veteran Dutch traveler. Along for the trip with Bob, Gugu, and me were Uncle Kevin, Lincoln (on his first European trip), and Nainai. The itinerary would include Delft, Rotterdam, flowers, and Amsterdam. At the table in our Delft apartment, a little Dutch boy waits for his family to wake up. The street and canal out the window is Hippolytusbuurt, one of ...

Like Bobby careening deeper into a train museum, while Baba reads a wall display, family life has been running away. Our attempts to maintain order have sometimes felt like this traffic jam ("taf-fick jamp"), displayed here in an art installation constructed by our resident abstract expressionist, Bobby. This taf-fick jamp  looks orderly at first, but upon closer look, we have cars piggy backing, cars turned the wrong way, etc. Life has indeed been lived on the run amidst much family travel of late and more on the way. Nainai came to stay with us in London. Baba spent a few nights in Brussels and then returned home to take Bobby and Nainai to the Netherlands on the next day. After seeing Nainai off at Heathrow, the London Linges decamped to Singapore for two weeks with a few additional days in Malaysia. Bobby and Baba visited York, and then a few weeks later, Bobby, Baba, plus Mummy, went to Cardiff. On several of those trips, I was worried whether I'd be adm...

Having a toddler is also a lot of fun. And London is a big fun city to explore, for toddlers and dads alike. Every morning, we talk about busses. Bobby earnestly asks if we can take a bus. On most weekdays, we tell him that we have to go to school but maybe during the weekend we can take a bus. He then says " Mummy take bus " or " Baba take bus ." If one of us leaves early, he says it's for us to take the bus. Luckily, he rarely complains much (knock on wood) about having to go to school and how it prevents him from taking the bus. On the weekends, we plan our days around how we can ride in public carriage. Some weekends, we take the bus to parks we could walk to, or we take bus rides to parks in adjacent neighborhoods, especially Stoke Newington , which is just a very nice little village with a big park (Clissold). Today started early and terribly. Who knows what time the little guy woke up, but he woke up his baba at six to tell him he needed help with t...

Sometimes, changes in a growing child happen in such small increments you hardly notice them. Sometimes, a change is as stark as black and white. And sometimes, along the evolving pathway, you note a benchmark against which a change becomes noticeable, whether gradual or not. The Christmas holiday marked a number of milestones, some we hope we can move past and some that we will cherish. It jolted our London routine, and now, back in London, we're still living in the aftermath. Thank you, Santa, for this bounce house (and for a fun cousin). Flopping face first into the new year like... It's natural and common that we prefer the happy memories. So when someone shows a camera to snap a photo, we all smile and pretend like we're really happy, regardless of how happy we really are at that moment. Social media is now infamous as a tool for us all to present only the happiest aspects of our lives, not to mention spin them so it all seems better than average. As I w...

Ireland exudes a certain romantic lure. Christine, Bobby, and I had never been but were drawn. We wanted to jam one last European trip in this year before heading to the U.S. for Christmas. How could we have known the weather would be so cold and rainy in December? We were anxious to spend some time in Ireland because so many people talk so fondly of the place, and it has experienced a remarkable economic transformation (we, of course, being contributors to the blog Law Partially are always interested in the legal-socio-economic structures underlying our tourism destinations). I love the  Irish language  and Irish names. I love that the language is so old and a bit strange and actually hardly used anymore. We almost named our first born Seamus, and I still plan to name our first daughter Siobhan, even if Mum so far hasn't been convinced. Besides, visiting the Long Room of the Old Library at Trinity College was a bucket list item for Christine and me. In the Long ...