the other day rikita and i went for a walk around west cambridge and goggled at the houses people live in. rikita wants a little victorian house with a porch. and i thought to myself that i probably never will manage it this lifetime, but i really want to live, if i can't have a lovely white box with frangipani trees in the garden (and one or two mango trees to feed any bat who wants to live with me,) then in a converted shophouse of the old-fashioned peranakanish sort, like the ones these children are sketching. with shutters (see these and these.)

but in any case i want to spend a lot more time just walking around the really old areas of singapore (or whatever's left of it) queenstown and alexandra and tiong bahru. and to go look for that very last kampung community (somewhere in sengkang, i am told) and and and i want to go to malacca. and cambodia. and vietnam. if anyone can wait for me to go. and i should learn to use a camera at long last.