Today, as I was early for my appointment at the outskirts of the town, I decided to do some reading of my file and get myself a cup of coffee at a nearby stall. The proprietor was a pleasant elderly lady who greeted me "Good morning, young man " in English and asked for my drink. I was like a jackass for a moment as she repeated the greetings and repeated the same question followed by " Can I help you, young man? ". I just looked at her and stammered ; replied, " Kopi O kosong would do." She smiled and replied , " That would be good. Can I get you anything else?" I told her it would be good if she could bring me a tausah pau. I then went back to my file and within minutes the coffee appeared together with a nice looking tau sah pau ( sweet red bean paste bun ). I thanked her and I struck some small talk with her and I came to know that she had learned the language by speaking to her customers and that her daughters had helped her. I complimented her that she spoke good English and I was impressed. It just goes to show that there is simply no barrier if you set your mind to learn a language or do a task. I learned an invaluable lesson when I looked at this elderly lady. The sheer tenancy to learn a language, speak it well and overcoming the difficulties are applaudable effort! I guess, the phrase "learning never stop" rings true in every sense. What a great start to the morning!
Then, I saw a cockerel and two hens started to move into the coffee shop. Being at the outskirt of town, seeing chicken roaming in the coffeeshop is a welcome sight. The funny thing is that the cockerel walked toward the stainless steel steamer where the steaming buns were kept. At first , it circled the steamer, then it started to peck at the steamer. The pecking activity went on for a few minutes and it actually "disturbed" my concentration and I diverted my eye from the file to the cockerel. This pompous little cockerel ( they are not that big built in the village ) strutted and raised up it's chest while moving it's feathers to make it look bigger. I was wondering what the heck is the cockerel doing. Then I realised that the funny bird saw its reflection and started to strut its' stuff to the image at the stainless steel steamer. I almost choked on my coffee as I see it constantly darting and pecking at the reflection. Everytime the bird took a peck at the reflection, it would then re-coiled back and make its beak to go through some sharpening process on the hard concrete ground. Then it would start its assault all over again on the reflection. It soon got tired and moved away but not before giving the reflection some dirty look! I guess, as I reflected on what had happened, it just reminded me how we are like that at times. So insecure , pompous and paranoid at times. Heck! We are even afraid of our own reflection nowadays. I definitely took away some valuable lessons as I walked out of the shop hours ago. "Have a good day, now!" was what the elderly lady greeted me as I walked out of the shop. I turned back and smiled. She gave me the biggest smile ever and that really made a difference. Somehow the day seemed brighter despite the gloomy heavy dark clouds hovering over my head. Even if it rained, I would still be wearing this silly smile. A smile is just infectious. Don't you agree?
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