Black and White

We are staying in Singapore with Jenny’s friend Vicky (and her dog Nima), who grew up here, in a family typical for this environment: her father is a white American and her mother is Chinese Singaporean.

Vicky lives in a fabulous (and fabulously decorated) house of a colonial type called “black and white.” For a Nebraska kid this house is nothing short of fantastic, in the sense of seeming like something from Fantasy Island. For starters, it blends “indoors” and “outdoors:” the windows have shutters, not glass; transoms punctuate the roofline throughout the house (and most of the rooms inside it); the kitchen, bathroom (actually a wet room), living room, and patio all blur together in a four-walled but not fully-roofed grand room. Secondly, the walls are about two feet thick. The entire edifice is designed to maximize airflow at night, and resist heating during the day.

For some reason, the house is not particularly infested with vermin. I suspect chemicals. Although Vicky is worried that the snakes that have been hanging around are cobras.

A public thank you to Vicky for letting us stay for a whopping six nights.