It's been a nice, lazy Sunday. Haven't really done much. Walked around a bit, did some writing, some blogging--as you can no doubt tell--and a smidgen of reading. One of the things I like so much about where I live here in Singapore--and life in Singapore in general--is that everything is within walking distance. It's about 740pm and I wanted a bit of coffee before calling it a night so I walked down the street a couple of hundred yards, grabbed some real java and sat down to talk with my three new friends: Eric, Leong and Muhammed. Eric runs a small hawker-eatery on Leong Seah Street (my street). He's in his thirties, has a 14 month old little boy and just bought a new Samsung HD TV. His family originally came to Singapore from Hainan. Leong is a tall, lanky fellow from Malaysia, but of Chinese origin. He's usually to be found chopping veggies or serving up rice and whatever else one chooses from the menu. Muhammed reminds me of a bantam-rooster. Small, compact, with a whisk of felt on his upper lip. He's quick, darting back and forth before you know it. Again, he's from Malaysia too, but not of Chinese origin.

Life is just good when you can dash out from your flat, grab a cup of coffee, or a bottle of water, beer, whatever your poison is and chat with your neighbors. Of the four of us, I probably make the most money, but that 'status' really means nothing. We chat, we talk. The conversation usually involves, like men all over the world, women, sport and just general nonsense. Of course they ask questions of me and my life but we're just a handful of guys blabbering on about nothing in particular, which means we're usually talking about stuff we know absolutely nothing about but are certain we are right. I buy them a beer, they get my coffee and back and forth it goes. The true reciprocity of hospitality, humanity and friendship.

I look forward in the next few months learning about their lives, ideas, hopes and dreams. I'm sure they will teach me a lot. Serendipity comes in many forms.