My flat

After 3 months in my new apartment, I'm finally reaching the point that it feels a little more like home. It took me a long time to get the walls decorated the way I envisaged it, but slowly but surely I feel I'm making progress. As a result, I'm feeling more and more comfortable in my new surroundings.

These first pictures are of the living room which is basically furbished with a dining table, sofa, easy chair, coffee table, stereo, TV and DVD player. The TV isn't connected yet but that's something I hope to get around to doing during the coming weeks. The couch doubles as the guest bed, since I use the second bedroom as my study.

The view from the living room changes according to the weather and sometimes due to either the rain or the haze, it's not possible to see much further than Manila golf course and the skyscrapers of Makati. The window in my study on the other hand looks down onto Burgos Circle, which is not far from where the Shangri-La is in the process of being built between now and 2014.

Burgos Circle is home to a number of restaurants, and it is so popular on a Friday and Saturday night that it is often almost impossible to find a parking space nearby. Good places to eat are either the Indian or the Japanese restaurant, although the prices at the latter arguably make it difficult to dine there as often as I'd like.

The second bedroom doesn't have a bed so I just use it to work at the computer. As with the TV, I still intend to get an internet and landline phone connection installed during the coming months. However, before doing so, I will need to upgrade from the miniature laptop I am using at present.

In addition to 3 bathrooms, (an en-suite bathroom, a main bathroom adjacent to the lounge, and a maid's bathroom next to the utility room - no joke!), there is also the master bedroom, which like the living room looks out across the city to Manila Bay.

The dominant feature when looking across to the ocean is invariably the skyline of Makati which changes in appearance according to the time of day. As such, despite the haze and the rain, it makes for an extremely imposing and interesting sight everytime I look out of my bedroom window.