
When I'm in Singapore, I usually stay in a house I love (it's my aunt and uncle's place). I think it's a really neat design, a tad classical-Roman in that the building forms three sides of a little open-sky courtyard -- but, y'know, brick and cement, and without the columns. The fourth side is covered but open-air, with a table for dining or working al fresco. And in this case, the courtyard contains a fish pond, in which my uncle raises koi. It just makes me happy to be able to sit in the living room and read while still able to see the sky and the fish.

Plus it's a lot of fun to sit, dry and cool, in the covered part of the patio when the thunderstorms come and pour on the fish.
The fish don't mind.