Musings from Singapore: meow's it going?

My apartment building has a family of cats living in the courtyard/lobby. the cats are multi-colored (black, white, tan, calico) but all seem to be part of the same family. They play well together and share the dwelling space with no quabbles. They're lovely.

Someone in the building feeds them: they gather around the building manager's office around dinner time and wait to be fed. I'm not sure who feeds them, but there is a bowl that appears from time to time, with food in it and the cats eat. Then they nap. The scatter around the courtyard, on the ground, on the furniture, on the sculptures, etc. 

There are a couple of cats I like more than the others. (Yes, I have a favorite stray cat). There's one with an eye injury. I'm not sure if it's from a fight or just some weird infection or a scratch or...but his right eye is hurt. But despite the injured eye, he's the most adventurous of the cats. Sometimes I see him roaming around the pool or hanging out in the stairwell. And after dinner, when the other cats are licking themselves in the parking lot, this cat likes to curl up on the narrow table just opposite the elevator.

Sometimes (when he's not in a post-dinner snooze), he's roaming around and will say hi. One night, as I was coming home from work, he greeted me in the courtyard and walked me to the elevator. The doors opened, I entered the elevator....and so did the cat. He walked in, then turned around and faced the doors and sat there, facing the doors for the duration of the ride. He didnt look at me or talk to me...just the doors. Just like humans do in an elevator. We reached my floor, the doors opened and he walked out of the elevator and off to the left. With a purpose. Like he had somewhere to be. I got out of the elevator, turned right to go to my apartment and bid him goodnight.


I'm not sure how he got back down (I live on the 7th floor) but the next morning, when I walked out to go to work, he was lounging in the courtyard.

The rest of the cats kinda bug me. And there are more now than there used to be. Some of them look gross. And mean. But this one, I like.*


Maybe being alone in a foreign country makes me more interested in the company of stray cats. Or maybe I just feel bad for a stray cat with a hurt eye. Or maybe the heat has finally gotten to me. But I have made friends with the stray cats that live in the courtyard of my apartment building.

I keep telling The Tad and Rosie that if they want a cat, I'll bring one back for them. So far, no takers on the offer. But I'm here til March. Let me know.

*I dont like him enough to invite him in to my apartment or even touch him or anything. But I do speak when I pass him in the courtyard. I say hello. He nods at me or meows back. It's casual, but pleasant.

Musings from Singapore: my 'hood

The street next to mine, decked
out for Mid-Autumn Festival

My neighborhood is named Geylang. It is NOT a neighborhood that caters to ex-pats. There is no Swensen’s or Mexican restaurant. I’m pretty sure you’d be hard pressed to get a hamburger, a milkshake or a decent martini anywhere around here. But totally authentic, delicious Chinese food? Yes. Ditto for Malaysian food, Paranakan food and Thai food.

In fact, it’s so authentic, that one night The BF and I were wandering around my neighborhood checking things out and scoping dinner options. We wandered for about an hour and only found a handful of restaurants (not counting hawker centers) that had menus with English words. We then started looking for restaurants that had menus with pictures. Even if there’s no English, we can pick things by pictures.

Which is kind of a fun adventure.

The street next to mine, decked out for Mid-Autumn Festival

Most days I take the bus to and from work. It’s a quick ride (maybe 8-10 minutes) as my office is in the neighborhood just adjacent to where I live. However, this means that most days I am the ONLY white person on the bus. I’m also usually the tallest. Couple this with the fact that Singaporeans like to stare at people anyway and I pretty much get stared at a lot.*

Within one block of my apartment, there is a mosque, a Buddhist cultural center/temple, several chandelier stores (Other appliance stores, too, but MULTIPLE high-end, shiny, sparkly chandelier light fixture stores. Why does one neighborhood need more than one of those?) and a hawker center food court on EVERY corner. They advertise everything from fresh Fish Head Bee Hoon (this is the one nearest my apartment) to Hokkien Mee (popular Malaysian food) to Frog Porridge (no clue what this is or where it comes from. I'll check it out and report back.)

Hawker center food court with sidewalk tables

These little spots are always bustling and busy even late. With some indoor seating, but mostly sidewalk tables, the busy hawker center food stops make the neighborhood lively. The food is very good and fresh. So fresh, in fact, that the place advertising Fish Head Bee Hoon keeps a giant fish tank in the store and I have seen them scoop a fish from the tank and take it to the kitchen for cooking. I mean, that's fresh.

The view from my front gate. On the left side of the pic
is the hawker center that serves fresh fish head bee hoon.

It's a fun and lively little neighborhood. I love how close and convenient it is to work. And I love that I am getting an AUTHENTIC Asian experience and not living in ex-pat central. But it's VERY different than my 'hood in Seattle. Toto, we're not in Lower Queen Anne anymore.

*I mentioned to people at work that I got stared at on the bus and they said "oh yeah. of course. Singapore people like to stare. We just stare at people all the time. It's a thing."