Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Cat-proofing the balcony

We're on the 8th floor of an apartment building, and the balcony railing is not designed to keep cats on the balcony where they belong (the first time that Sonny ventured out there, she stuck half her body through the railing with the intent of making an escape). So, our big adventure today involved procuring chicken-wire to "baby proof" the railing.

After lunch at a nearby restaurant (a tofu dish, a chicken dish, and a sauteed greens dish), we stopped at a hardware store to see their wares. We spied a roll of chicken wire, and D's dad explained what we needed. The photo above is of the store owner cutting our wire. What's not pictures are the 20 or so locals, lounging under a tree about 10 feet away, who were very entertained by the foreigners buying this kind of thing.

I suspect that the balcony is going to be a big part of our lives. We use it to relax and to hang clothes to dry (I don't think that anyone in our area has a dryer, just a washer). As soon as we get wireless internet, I'll probably work out there, too. We have a great view of the road below, and I get to watch all kinds of shenanigans (families of 4 on one bicycle, cars and motorbikes competing for road space, little kids playing in the street, wild dogs running amock, and so on).

Bonus photo for you today: a picture of the loo that we used at the local grocery store (those doors you see at the end of the alley are the entrances to the two stalls). I'm not bathroom obsessed, but the differences in habits regarding all toilet matters is kind of fascinating. This one looks scarier on the outside than it was on the inside. It did, however, have a manual flushing mechanism: a.k.a. a bucket to fill with water and chuck down after your "stuff."

2 comments:

Jim said...

My friend in Taipei refers to the mopeds loaded with > 4 people SUVs.

Anonymous said...

and to think sony had a wonderful little country house with built in screened(huge) porch at grammys and bapas