Nobody but me…

That morning, I went out early at 8.00 a.m. to send the parcel to Phong Hong and of course, when I got to the poslaju office, there was nobody else around but me. Unfortunately, I did not have any small change and I handed over one 50-ringgit note to the girl at the counter. She asked if I had anything smaller and I told her no.

After a futile search through her drawer and bag and everything, she went inside and came back after a while with the change. She handed it over to me with the receipt and everything and I said, “Thank you!” to which she replied, “Welcome!” after which I added, “Sorry!” (for the inconvenience caused, that is) and she looked quite stunned. Even her colleague who was at the other end of the office, putting up some notices, turned to look. Hmmm…I guess they do not get to hear somebody saying sorry all that often, nobody but me perhaps. As that Elton John song goes, sorry seems to be the hardest word.

Well, I was done in some 10-15 minutes and I had to go to the bank next but I was too early. It only opens at 8.45 a.m. on working days so I decided to stop by the coffee shop next door…

…for a bite.

I cannot remember the last time I was here – that was a very long time ago. I used to go and buy some stuff from the chap fan (mixed rice) place there on days when we did not do any cooking until one fine day when the guy said that I would have to buy what I wanted together with the rice and not on their own like what I always did. I do know some other places in town that have that same policy and I really wonder why. Do they make a lot more profit that way?

I also remember that I tried their kampua noodles once and I did not think it was great so that morning, I asked for the Foochow fried noodles but when it was served, it was not what I had in mind. They had dished out the dry version (RM3.80)…

…and I always prefer the one with a bit of sauce or gravy.

Searching through my old posts, I could not locate the one on this place but I did manage to find this photo of their Foochow fried noodles, wet…

*Archive photo*

…and that is the kind that I am not all that fond of – the gravy is pale like the one here or here, not dark in colour.

Thankfully, this dry version…

…turned out to be very nice and there were quite a lot of those thin strips of char siew in it plus a fair amount of green veg and taugeh (bean sprouts) too. I had my usual kopi-o-peng (iced coffee, black) with that and yes, theirs was pretty good.

By the time I finished, the bank was open already and yes, like at the poslaju office earlier, I was their first customer that day. It certainly seems like people do not venture out that early anymore these days, nobody but me, unlike in the old days when everyone was up at the crack of dawn…and I must say I do like it this way – no crowd, no queuing and no waiting at all.