The Lost Codger

It’s cold and gloomy this morning despite being very warm and bright on the day before. It was so warm yesterday, I almost regretted wearing my jacket when I went out. However, I’ve come to rely on my jacket. I need the additional pockets. I mean, sure, I can just stuff my house keys, my chunky Nokia 6600 and my digital camera in my trousers, but you see, they have this tendency to pledge their allegiance to gravity and unveiling the name of my favourite designer store. We wouldn’t want that now do we?

I took the tube to Paddington Station for my nasi lemak fix. Good God, it was bloody hot down in the Undergound and I didn’t want to remain below for too long. I used to get on the Piccadilly line and change at King’s Cross to get there, but I soon learned that I could get there faster by getting off at Finsbury Park and taking the Victoria line to Piccadilly Circus and finally getting on the Bakerloo line to Paddington.

The trains on Victoria line move a whole lot faster than the ones on Piccadilly line as there are less frequent stops. A word of warning: ladies who are well-endowed and donning plunging spaghetti straps should avoid getting on this line. The rides can be extremely bumpy and often sway side to side. The lady sitting opposite of me couldn’t care less on this occasion, not that I didn’t mind the view, but she did make me miss two entire stops. Please ladies, have some sympathy for those who are easily distracted!

Anyway, it was so cool and refreshing once I got out of the Undergound. Upon arriving at Nahar Cafe, I was quite surprised to find the place almost full; my usual table was taken. My friend James was nowhere to be seen. We had earlier agreed to meet here. I sat down at a free table next to the entrance to the WC and ordered some karipaps and a glass of teh tarik. Had there been less people there, I would have whipped out my laptop and harass some people on Yahoo IM. But at the risk of attracting too much attention and becoming popular, I played a game on my mobile phone instead.

Oh yes, if you do come here and bring your laptop along, there is an unsecured WiFi network connection nearby and you can happily do some internet-surfing while sipping your teh tarik. The signal is a lot weaker on the west column of tables so try to stay on the east side. It’s not a slow connection either, I did some tests and it turned out to be an 8Mb pipe! How long this will remain available however, is unknown. I guess it won’t be long before more people discover it and even abuse it. So please guys, be gentle ok?

Whilest waiting for James to arrive, I took notice upon some conversations that was filling up the ambience of the cafe. A few random ones even managed to put a smile on my face;

“Nama apa?”
“Wan.”
“Wan? Wan mana?”
“Wan Trengganu.”
“Oooooooo Wan ganuuuuuuuuu. Mung bape taung sini?”
“Dua. You?”
“Baghu sampai.”

“Dia tak balik Msia punyaaaa.. dia dah ada mata air siniiiiiii”
“Hahahahahahahaha.”

“Apa la kau. Pakai (mobile phone) canggih-canggih, tapi ringtone bubuh lagu nasyid.”
“Hahahahahaha.”

James arrived soon after in just a short-sleeved t-shirt, jeans and slippers. If it wasn’t for the lady-in-spaghetti-strap’s earlier “performance” still lingering in my head , I could have sworn I was back in KL.

Perhaps the old saying is true..

.. you’re never too far from home.

p/s: After having my nasi lemak fix and as I was just about to leave, two familar faces popped into the cafe; Jim and Ms. Papillon. It was really nice to see them again, especially with their happy glowing faces hehe. Would have loved to stay and chat guys, but three’s a crowd right? Hehe.;)