It was one of those ordinary mornings… How do I describe an ordinary morning?

Can we say an ordinary morning is when nothing out of the ordinary is happening? We can.

This ordinary morning was more of me having started the day doing some of the routine daily things.

The weather was clear skies but with what looked like rain clouds fast approaching this way. The rain clouds weren’t the stormy type or didn’t look the type to bring a gloomy overcast on this fine mid-morning.

I had to go to the shops which were a distant 3 minute drive or 7 or 8 minute walk. There were a couple of things that I forgot to pick up on my way back home after having dropped Jeannie off at work.

Decisions, decisions. To drive or to walk. Flipped a coin and it landed standing on its edge. Which meant I still had to make a decision. 😉

If I drive, it would mean starting the car, opening the front gate, reversing the car out, closing the front gate, looking for a car parking bay when I get to the shops and paying the parking fees. Run in to the 7-11 store, buy a loaf of whole meal bread and a pack of 4 AAA-size batteries. Get back in the car, drive back to the house, open the front gate, drive in and close the front gate. All this would be around 10 minutes tops, including the paid-for-1-hour but used 5 minutes parking bay.

On the other hand, if I chose to walk: open the front gate (one side necessary only) close it, walk the few minutes distance straight to the 7-11 shop, buy the loaf of wholemeal bread and a packet of 4 AAA batteries and come home.

Note that opening and closing the front gate did not require much of an effort, just press a button to open, and another button to close. It is an autogate.

Between drive and walk, I decided on the simpler of the two: walk. Making decisions or choices is one of the best gifts of life that we have.

Walking meant I had to walk past Restoran New Apollos going to 7-11 and on my way back.

I picked up the groceries from 7-11 and decided to stop at New Apollos for brunch. The rain clouds had approached overhead faster than expected and began to rain a heavy drizzle. All the more reason to have brunch now.

The food offerings were wide! There was Wonton noodles dry or soup, both with char siew, roasted chicken rice, char kuey teow, Penang fish ball kuey teow soup noodles, various types of pau, notably tau sar pau, green and red bean pau, siew pau, kaya pau; chee cheong fun, fried rice, among what was readily available. When the famous spinach swallowing / gulping “Popeye the Sailor man” retired from being a sailor; he opened a stall to sell Penang curry mee. You will see a bright yellow banner : “Popeye Original Penang curry mee”. Here, I am not too sure whether this is meant to mean that he is the original Popeye or the Penang curry mee is as authentic as the curry mee from Penang. I went for the wonton (pronounced as 1 ton) noodles (medium), dry with char siew.

I ordered a Kopi-o peng (1) from a young lady, that is the drink-order-taking and serving lady. She was wearing a face mask. Even with the face mask on, one could see she had such a pleasant disposition about her. Her eyes were smiling radiantly. Simpleton, yet very happy.

The happy waitress soon served me my kopi-o peng. She also pulled out one of the pre-wrapped straws from the side pocket of her apron and gave it to me. The drink came pre-sealed, which I thought was a “neater way” of having them served to customers. These pre-sealed drinks is a system New Apollos recently introduced. While waiting for my food to arrive: I soaked (pun intended) in the atmosphere of the hustle and bustle of this coffee shop / restaurant (spelt “restoran” in Bahasa Malaysia).

My wonton (pronounced as 1 ton) noodles order came shortly after my kopi-o peng was served. I generally choose this meal because it is the least oily (I think) and not too heavy for me. It did not just look delicious. It was delicious as usual. I think that’s why I forgot to take a picture of it.

Within minutes, the rain became a heavy downpour. The people in the restaurant thought nothing of it. I felt the nice cool breeze that came blowing as the rain pelted down. I thought the pouring of the rain was quite a pleasant site. Maybe, it was because the skies were still bright, not blocked with dark, gloomy clouds. And the young waitress? She enjoyed sticking her hand out in the heavy rain, feeling the drops beat against her hand . She loved it. The simple things in life.

The heavy downpour was only for a short while and the rain stopped in less than half hour. By then, I had finished my wonton noodles and kopi-o peng. I made my way home soon after. I thought today was more just than another ordinary morning. I was reminded that happiness is all around us. We should not only just see with our eyes, but look with our imagination, too.

NOTES:
1. “Kopi-o peng” is iced coffee, no sugar, no milk; or as I would usually say “coffee with the clothes off”. Kopi-o peng is a mixture or combination of two languages: “Kopi” is the Malay word for “coffee”; and “peng” is a Chinese word in Hokkien dialect for “cold”. THe “o” in the “kopi-o peng” means no sugar, no milk.
2. Wonton noodles dry or soup, both with char siew, roasted chicken rice, char kuey teow, Penang fish ball kuey teow soup noodles, various types of pau, such as tau sar pau, green and red bean pau, siew pau, kaya pau; chee cheong fun, Penang curry mee and fried rice, are all popular hawker food among Malaysians. You may get some, if not all this choices, in most parts of Malaysia.