Scenes on the Street

The little side street we live on, Perumal, is a constant source of excitement.

During March and April it was torn up with construction. 24 hours a day, plowing and hammering! It was such a relief when it was paved a few weeks back.

Just when my mental stability was returning, I heard the sound of a jack hammer, looked out the window and saw they were tearing up the new pavement. Hasta luego, sanity!

Last weekend the stars aligned and brought us a festival at the Indian temple at one end of the street along with a huge Chinese festival at the other end, complete with a huge stage with Hokkien singers belting into the night.

Fortunately, Rohaizad and I went out to a dinner party, so we escaped the insanity. But when we came home, we had to dodge puke puddles to get into our door. Euu!

One of my favorite aspects of this apartment is the transvestite prostitutes who eat breakfast at the food stall across the street in the mornings after work.

If you've never been woken up by the laughter of transvestite prostitutes in the morning, you are missing a unique experience, or at least a noisy experience.

This morning I went out running at 5:30 while it was still dark. I walked around the corner right into a gaggle of trannies. Yikes! They seemed so excited to see a white guy and I was so flustered ... well, that got my heart-rate up even before I started exercising.

That was almost as exciting as the time a prostitute in Chinatown tickled me in McDonalds. Someday I'll tell you that story, but for now I'll just let you know that, NO, I hadn't hired her.