It is Monday morning in Kuala Lumpur (K.L.). Hard to believe that it actually is…Monday morning. In Kuala Lumpur. We are here, near Sogo. The traffic is smooth flowing and the streets are pretty empty of motor vehicles. Sogo shopping mall or the area surrounding it, is quite famous. It seems to be a gathering point where many street protests. both large and small; were / are held. Perhaps something like “Speaker’s Corner” in the north-east corner of Hyde Park in London, England?

Jeannie was on leave as we had a couple of document errands to deal with in K.L.. We would have preferred to have caught a ride to K.L. on the LRT near our house. However, the places that we had to get these errands seen to, were off the LRT track. We did not want to dice the weather, too; as it had been sort of temperamental over the past few weeks. We did like what many Malaysians would do – we drove in our motorcar. (♪Baby, you can drive my car, and baby I love you. Beep beep, beep beep yeah♪). Anyway, we had those errands sorted out pretty quickly.

We decided to grab some coffee at KFC…no, not at Starbucks, or CBTL (Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, though more commonly known as “Coffee Bean”) or a kopitiam (though we didn’t really notice any nearby). We wanted to sit in an a.c. (air-conditioned) environment. The weather was not hot. The sky was fairly carpeted with light grey clouds providing some shade. However, it was humid. Hence, our reason for having coffee as the term generally used in Malaysia “in air-con place”.

The KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) restaurant was located inside Pertama Complex, at the side, on the Ground Floor. We got our coffee and sat by the large glass windows, looking out at Sogo and all the going-ons in the street. This kind of reminded us of the time we had coffee at Starbucks early one morning in London, years ago. However, in London; it was cold with gloomy skies. Chilling out and relaxing, we sipped at our coffee and watched the world go by in the streets of K.L. This area with Campbell Shopping Complex across the road, Pertama Complex and the shopping haven of Jalan (road) Tuanku Abdul Rahman; was the modern shopping of K. L. in the 1970s and ’80s. Nearby here, was the iconic Coliseum bar & grill (no longer there). I think the reason it was famous was because of its rude waiters. They were probably as old as the restaurant. Perhaps, that is why they were often grouchy. And this was the charm of the Coliseum. Haha.

We were in the present, enjoying it.

After about 45 minutes; we decided to head home. When we stepped out of the restaurant; we saw this mat salleh tending to his bicycle. There were many things strapped to his bicycle that it looked like he was running (riding / cycling) away from home. We decided to have a chat with him.

David McCourt is an engineer by profession. He hails from Melbourne, Australia. He decided that he wanted to visit his place of birth, which is Dublin, Ireland. He also wanted to travel to different countries, too. What better way to do it – by cycling all the way from Melbourne to Dublin.

What caught my eye was David’s bike (“bicycle ” for the uninitiated😏). I took up cycling on a daily basis and clocked 75,000km between 2007 to 2015. Laura’s (our daughter) training and participation in competitive swimming on a state and national level became more intense at that time. As parents, this required our dedicated time and support towards her aspirations.

This meant me retiring from the cycling scene. No more 70km to 181km cycling distances in Malaysia’s hot, humid or rainy weather (sometimes all three rolled in one). No more grime and dust blowing into my face and sticking on until it caked in. No more pouring sweat…er, I mean perspiration that sprung out from every pore on my body; no more stinging my eyes when it found its way of getting into my eyes. No more motor vehicles cutting right into my pathway even though I could be seen a mile away. 3 mishaps was one too many. Yes…missed it all. Haha. Nostalgia.

Back to David’s ride to Ireland. He entered Malaysia at Malacca from Indonesia. A short sight-seeing of KL and then onwards through mainland Asia. We wish David safe travels and lots of fun.

It was also time for Jeannie and I to make our way back to the comforts of Subang Jaya as the cloudy over hung skies which provided some shade from the sun, was now without clouds. The sun was bright and hot. Drops of perspiration, stinging my eyes…