Friday – morning before the afternoon. Jeannie and Laura are on leave from work for the lunar new year (known as Chinese New Year [C.N.Y.]) holidays in Malaysia. The traffic was somewhat more than half, yesterday; meaning that many people have already left for their hometowns just to beat the expected long traffic jams, on the highways.

That is the “secret”. People leave a day or two earlier to avoid the jams and aim at coming back a day or two earlier. Picture this: they quietly leave home to get on the highway. Why is it a secret? It is because everyone thinks they are getting an upper hand on the next person to beat the jam. The only thing is that when get on the highway (“freeway” for the Americans), the traffic is at near crawling speeds – everyone else had privy to that “secret”, too.

back to the “Friday, morning before noon”. Breakfast. Laura is out already. Which left Jeannie and I with the question, “What do you want to eat?” But before that question was asked, I decided that we go to A.Y.C., an Indian restaurant, near our house. A. Y. C.’s tagline is “Always Your Choice” – catchy. Jeannie just noticed their tagline a few days ago. This tagline has always been there, however we never took notice of it until recently. Now, whenever we past the restaurant, the tagline will almost always be the first thing we notice on their signboard.

Parking our car is relatively easy around A.Y.C. and its neighbouring shops in the mornings. As we walk in to the restaurant, the food is lined up on either side of the passage. I saw the “doughnut” (donut for those unsure of the spelling) vadai and the bean vadai, both favourites of mine; on the right row of food. I told Jeannie I wanted one of each. I saw this fluffed up bread called “puri” on the left and wanted that, too. It was the last one on their tray. It was already nearing 11.00am so it is understandable that the breakfast offerings was almost all cleared. The restaurant would start preparing for the lunch crowd. From the dishes they had just laid out, it looked like it was going to be a vegetarian affair. The food looked good.

Jeannie chose a currypuff for her bites. A.Y.C.’s currypuffs are really tasty. The fillings are made from potatoes, marinated in spices, which does make the potatoes spicy, but not too spicy.

We both ordered iced coffees, Jeannie’s was with milk and sugar; mine was black, without sugar.

Our breakfast was good. We were relaxed, sitting at a table towards the rear of the restaurant, facing outwards. We always like to face out and watch the world go along with its activities.

I did get quite a few side glances and quick stares. People don’t seem to get to see other people wearing hats, let alone tartan flat hats out to breakfast. I maybe starting a trend for others to follow, who knows.

We were soon back home, as Jeannie then had to go to her mother’s place to help cook the CNY reunion dinner for this evening. At the time this article was getting done, Laura was already at Jeannie’s mother’s place.

Happy Chinese New Year’s eve and reunion dinner to all those celebrating the lunar new year festivities.