We've become balcony people...

It started in hospital, when our pocket-handkerchief balcony was quite the life-saver. The practice continued during our home-quarantine period, when we took to having breakfast out there.

The time available for using our balcony is somewhat limited. By 8 am, the builders on the neighbouring site have started clanging and banging. And in the middle of the day, it's too hot to be spending time outside.

But, as Nigel pointed out, if we had something comfortable to sit on, we would probably make more use of the moments that are available.

So this week, we bought balcony chairs. After drawing a blank at Mr DIY, we finally found something suitable at a store on Jalan Padungan (which delivered them for free).

We deliberately chose the Malaysian-made offerings. But apparently -- as no fewer than three friends have told us -- these chairs are "classic". The manufacturer, T Rex, certainly agrees, describing them as a "Malaysia Classic Relax Chair", that offers a "cool seating experience".

We had a great evening for our trial run. The builders were unwontedly quiet. It wasn't too hot. It wasn't too humid. Lightning flickered in the distance. And smoke drifted up from at least three neighbourhood Hungry Ghost fires. Very atmospheric and beautiful.




The following morning, I got up early, and sat outside. The gentle, soothing sound of chanting drifted over from somewhere in the middle distance. Then the call to prayer went up from various mosques around the city. Depending on the atmospherics, you hear this better some days than others. This was a good day. I love the call to prayer. To me it sums up all the longing of humankind.

A little later, we had breakfast by moonlight, serenaded by frogs and crickets.


We're wondering about transferring our pre-sleep reading session to the balcony, too. I'll get back to you on that one...

Of course, when you've invested in reasonable-quality chairs, you then start to worry that the strong mid-day sun is going to fade and crack the plastic cord-work... You don't really want to be folding them up several times a day, so you embark on a quest for something to protect them when they're not in use.

Nigel's brilliant solution: motorbike covers!

Perfect. Keeps the sun off, keeps the rain off.


More from the balcony soon...