I'm deprived of yam cha sessions

My friends studying in the Northern Hemisphere are all on summer holidays and many are currently back in Malaysia.

The old gang is now complete (with the exception of me, of course) and are having very frequent yum cha sessions. I suddenly miss the mamak.

To contradict myself, I don’t actually miss the mamak per se. The mamak is a tool for friends to meet and actually spend time together. And a damn good tool too! For the price of one iced lime tea, you get a glass of iced lime tea and the rights to occupying your table until closing time. (I’ve never actually seen closing time. 5am? 6am? Someone enlighten me.) There are also options available like various kinds of roti, naan, rice, curries… the list goes on, extending to lamb chop, clay pot noodles and anything else one can possibly think of.

Its probably like those Italian/ French cafés where people sip lattes late into the afternoon, except that mamaks operate at night, and most people would probably sip teh tarik and pick at roti canai.

So I don’t actually miss the mamak as it is, but the company of old friends.


Incidentally, I just read a post by Diana:

Sometimes people think being abroad is soooo much fun. I'd say - it depends. Back home I had the freedom of taking the car out and just going places yamcha etc. Here although there's (fairly) efficient public transport, it still a hassle to get to places. Shops close waaay too early and its abit too quiet.. Of course there's the good things as well..I'm probably just missing some good 'ol yamcha sessions.

I completely agree with her, down to the point about the car. How I miss the fancy footwork when driving a manual vehicle… fancy but mostly pointless exercises like heel-and-toe double clutch, or a gear shift without the clutch*.


*This is actually doable, crazy as it sounds. More on that another time…


Sources:
Diana, "Jumble of Thoughts", from http://xaverri.blogspot.com, 18th June 2005