Thoth speaking

Thoth is Tiny House of the Heart - it’s the Singaporean compulsive abbreviator at work here. Thoth started out as my wanting to own a place for real conversations.

I didn’t like the noise in the city, preferring the crickets’ emsemble sprinkled with the distant dog’s barks of approval. I simply cannot stand the artificial pounding and driving anymore, not even the Doppler’s swish of cars. I know I have to get out of the ‘city’. But, alas, I live in a country that is also a city. However, I’ve got my supporters - guardian angels who love me and are going to LOVE what I’m going to do next. So, they brought 113 Jalan Hitam Manis to me.

Jalan Hitam Manis - literally will be my ’sweet dark street’. It’s where I will continue the quest to find my soul - a quest Thomas Moore says will take me into the dark nights. It’s a trip that one makes on their own. Well, you’re not really alone because your guides will show up. Jalan Hitam Manis, the street where the nights will be sweet.

There will be 3 rooms on the upper floor. Two will adjoin a quaint balcony. I’ll settle in one. My own room. And in the other, the guest room, which I’ll use for the hypnotherapy sessions. In the third room, facing back, I’d move Spiragram there if the landlord approves my Home Office scheme application. There is one bathroom on the mezzanine level. No more lower body privacy for me then, but I guess I can live with that, just need to get a big comfortable bath robe to spare the rest.

On the ground level, there’s a fairly big living room where the conversations will take place. I’ll have to come up with a layout plan that ferments them. A place where a stranger walks in and immediately feels at home. A Singaporean stranger, but not your typical HDB layout of course. There are things that transcends cultural and ethnic barriers that oozes ‘home’. I have to nail that down. And it’s not that hard, I tell you. If I were to use my head to think and plan this, it will be impossible. But now, I’ve learn to use the faculties of my Heart - the better brain - to achieve this. There’s this quiet confidence in me that tells me I can do this by walking around, visiting 2nd hand shops.

The kitchen is bare, and white, featuring a nice-size store room. I think I’ll set it up professionally, with 2nd hand equipment of course. But it’ll be my kitchen and I’ll bake, cook and brew sweet java with it.

Ah, the gardens are next. That’s what made me sign up for the place. The previous tenants did a good job with them and I intend to keep all of it. It’s a good thing the timing of the viewing was before they level them to make way for cement. I want to add a couple of fruit tress in the back. How good if there’s a breed of apple trees that can grow in our climate. If not, mango trees will be it. And from there, mango crumble! No one has done it that way before and it’ll be great. I’m also thinking of carpet grass. I love carpet grass, they feel so much cleaner to lie on to enjoy the sun and read. Rusty will like it too.

Rusty, my yet-to-be adopted Labrador Retriever. I’m calling it Rusty for now. No good reason, just that I figured that’s what its coat color will turn out to be. And ‘Rusty’ sounds amiable, calm and friendly. I hope to meet Rusty as soon as the time is right. And yes, Rusty gets his own privacy in his own doghouse, which I’ll built. Speaking of which, I got to remember to look this up online.

I don’t know about you. But if I know someone who has a place like this, opens it for people to visit, plays classic jazz and serves donate-only beverages and pies, I’d definitely hang there. It’ll hold only 4-5 groups of 2-3 friends. But Singapore is a small and pragmatic country, I think this should be enough.