Kinky's House

I've been in my new apartment, aka Kinky's apartment, for about five months now … about time I shared some pictures! The other day I got the place all spruced up and organized and took some photos. Kinky managed to insert herself into almost all of them, it's almost as though she was engaging in digital territorial marking. She does tend to follow me around as I go about, so I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised. She tends to be very affected by music, she gets really mellow when I put on jazz like Billie Holiday and turns into a hyper attack cat when I play hard stuff like Jane's Addiction or Guns N' Roses. Apparently Jimi Hendrix is “follow Carol around and pose adorably for her photos” music. The shot above was early in the shooting and seems to capture the “this is my kingdom (queendom?) and how charming of you to drop by to pay obeisance to me” vibe that cats so instinctively exude. Note the elegant, relaxed sprawl, the regal tilt of her chin, and the disinterested sneer, accented by the dramatic, alert ears and powerful paws with claws ready for unsheathing at a moment's notice. Kinky my dear, you really know how to own a countertop. Thank you for allowing me to share your pad with you.

Kinky eats her dinner and watches me bake cookies and do other cooking in the kitchen here. A major step up from the other two kitchens I've had here in Manila, it has a full-sized fridge, a nice big double-welled sink, and a real oven (thus the ability to bake all those cookies, and empanadas). It even has a clothes washer, this strange plastic double-tubbed thing, but no dryer so for me the washer serves as a countertop. The major challenge in the kitchen is that there is not one single drawer. Who designs a kitchen with no drawers?!? So I have a lot of hooks on the wall holding strainers, potholders, tongs, etc., and a lot of stuff on the countertops and in cupboards that I would normally put in drawers. Outside the windows is the roof of the downstairs unit, which extends further out than my unit. Birds like to hang out on the roof there.
Kinky likes to hang out and watch the birds.

The picture above is of the entry door and the bathroom door; on the right is what you see as you walk into the apartment (except that Kinky is usually hanging out by the door looking to snoop around the hallway or get picked up, not sitting on the island/table/counter). The TV is part of the unit furnishings. For someone who watches no TV and movies pretty seldom, I have two of the nicest home theater setups I could imagine in a place this small – one in the living room here and the other in the master bedroom.

In the corner with rather sparsely-decorated walls is the couch. Kinky likes to chill out there listening to music. Here she is the mellowest I've ever seen her – Jerry Garcia Band turns her into molasses!

Before we head upstairs, here's the bathroom. One of Kinky's favorite hangout spots is on the mat in front of the shower. The pink towel is mine, the purple one (which gets a lot of use) is Kinky's – I turn on the water for her and she runs into the shower and either drinks the water or uses the facilities – either of which ends up with her pretty soaked. She's been a shower-playing cat pretty much since she could walk, and when I took her to the vet at a few weeks old for her first vaccination the vet sternly said, “don't give her a bath until she's at least 3 months old.” Oh well, she'd already had dozens by that time and showed no sign of stopping. In my defense, I never give her a bath – she takes them herself!

And on we go up the stairs. There's a little ledge around the stairs at the height of the floor of the second level, and I decided to put books around it – they remind me to read them and think about them as I go up- and downstairs. The only air conditioner in the place is in my bedroom, the door to the left off the landing at the top of the stairs. Sometimes I use the fan there to try to blow cool air down into the lower level. Fortunately it seems naturally cooler down there, as the lower-floor windows are more sheltered by overhangs outside.

To the right at the top of the stairs is the guest bedroom, which also serves as my extra closet and storeroom for suitcases, balikbayan boxes, etc..

Kinky's bedroom (she lets me stay here too), with the second amazing home theater setup.

Finally, here is the reason I moved from the other QC apartment – which is on another floor in the same building – to this one: the bathtub. I don't know who other than me would put an alcove off the bedroom containing only a bathtub, but how wonderful it is!!! The perfect place for reading all those books, as long as you don't mind a water-loving cat sitting on your chest while you're in the tub. It's very difficult to find a place with a bathtub in Manila. In this culture, people just don't take soaking baths – in fact, if someone says “I took a bath,” what they really mean is they took a shower. The concept of soaking in a tub of hot bathwater just doesn't register with most Filipinos. But some kindred spirit of mine designed this condo, and I lucked out in finding it. Once upon a time many years ago I saw a picture in Vogue or Architechtural Digest or some such magazine of what, as I recall, was the master bedroom in Gianni Versace's Manhattan apartment. He had a big claw-foot tub right in the middle of his bedroom. I thought, “someday when I grow up I want a bathtub in my bedroom too!” So I guess I'm grown up now!

Warmly,
Carol