Papi I need you

Bedtime routine for our two kids is a chore and a half. Ideally we would like them in bed and asleep by 8pm, but in reality it means they are in bed by 8pm but getting them to actually settle into sleep is another matter entirely. My primary tactic is to sit with them and try to bore them to sleep by prohibiting any further noise or engagement. However, the sneaky little buggers can see right through that and just make noises anyway; complain they can't sleep; can I have a drink? can I have my teddy bear? I want mummy, etc. I'm either shushing them or running errands for them and it's 930pm already and bloody hell why aren't these little rascals asleep yet!

Sometimes like tonight, I'd employ my secondary tactic which is to kiss them goodnight and leave the room. This is not much more effective than the primary tactic, as the kids just carry on chatting and giggling together until one of us checks the time and bloody hell it's 10pm already and why aren't those little rascals asleep yet?

Except tonight, Saffira had already drifted to sleep while little Vida's voice could be heard saying "Papi, I need you." over and over. Of course I come upstairs promptly lest she wakes up her sister. I sat on the floor next to her bed and gently asked her to go to sleep please. She reached out for my hand and kissed it, then snuggled with it. I watched her face as she looked me over and rubbed her tired eyes. Then it hit me, when was the last time something like this happened with me and my adult daughter? It was something I took for granted as back then I was too busy raising her that only now I realise we never really know when any loving task we cherish is done for the last time ever.

So I just ignored the urge to leave her for some other chore waiting downstairs and instead I just sat there for ages.  I relished watching her toss and turn in her bed until eventually she fell asleep. Who knows when will be the last time I ever get to watch these little rascals drift off to sleep?

Is this Serendipity?

Because sometimes I leave stuff around that should have been put away, I need to think on my feet.

Tonight my daughter asked me what this shiny plastic packet was?

So I told her it was a condom.

Next thing both kids are repeating the word 'condom' as if making sure they never forget that word. Before I could follow through imagining embarrassing scenarios where my 2 or 4 year old daughters could use that knowledge,

they ask me "Papi what is it used for?"

Thinking fast I told them it can also be a balloon. A clever evasion if I might say so. I ripped the packet open and continued to demonstrate the inflation of the balloon. "Oooh it's green!" Saffira shrieks gleefully. I stopped blowing when it was getting hard to blow air into it, knotted the end of it and released it.

To my surprise it didn't come down after I released it. I thought maybe the respired air is warm enough so that it's lighter than air (which is heavier 21% oxygen? or 21% CO2 combined with oxygen?). But what happens when the air cools down? I thought maybe the lightglobe might be keeping it warm, but it stayed up even after the light was switched off.


My best hypothesis is using my understanding of the Combined Gas Law (Boyle/Charles/Gay Lussac)  If you squeeze an amount of gas, its temperature increases. I think that somehow the pressure exerted by the stretched material at the correct volume maintains it's temperature. It just also happens that the mass of gas inside the condom plus the mass of the actual condom displaces a heavier amount of surrounding air.

I'm not sure I can replicate this feat. Started out as parenting agility leading into serendipity. What do you think?

  floating condom balloon with nothing but air video here

The Best Way to Eat Sinigang

So it turns out I've been eating sinigang the wrong way for most of my life, in fact I think we all are.

The way most people eat it is with a plate of rice where the broth, the vegetables and the meat are added. The rice is soaked in the broth because it tastes great that way, plus it changes the textural experience of eating rice from the usual dry or saucy. Using a spoon and fork to scrape a little bit of meat, veg and wet rice onto a mouthful of brothy goodness. That broth, indeed one must have more of it! So now everyone is served a tiny bowl or cup or mug for the 'sabaw' so we can add it to our mouthfuls of sinigang and rice to maintain that delicious soury and savoury note. Until finally you're at that wicked little end game of 'kanin vs ulam' - where you're left with too little rice to finish the sinigang on your plate so you add some rice and as you're down to the last two mouthfuls you realise you need more ulam, so you add more ulam and run out of rice and repeat the process until you say fuck it either just eat what's there or declare you're full leaving what's on the plate as leftovers. Sorry.

Instead I propose eating sinigang like a soup served on a shallow bowl, to which rice is added as required. Think about it. No need for that extra cup or bowl of sabaw. You can still spoon gobful after gobful of rice and sinigang but now you also get as much of that broth as you want with every mouthful. Similar to eating any asian noodle soup you can see when you are at the end of your rice so you can just finish up by eating it like a soup thus avoiding the kanin vs ulam game. You're welcome.