Tikam

It all started with this, the 'yellow' band.



Look how the craze has culminated into - a 'tikam' baller band machine. Sold at your local neighborhood coffeeshop, all for a dollar.




Three mornings in a row, I've sent the man to the airport. It almost feels like a routine since three-in-a-row (at almost the same hour) is pretty unusual for his schedule - so far.

A little earlier than I have to report for work myself, I've been getting some morning coffee time to myself. Putting it more correctly, it's 'kopi-o' time - at old dingy kopitiams, sitting amongst white-haired men in singlets and shorts who smoke, read the papers and gripe loudly about everything around them. I never fail to attract attention from these men - they would always stare, sometimes frown, at me quizzically, and I can almost always read their thoughts: "Who is this strange young woman and what is she doing here alone, sitting in my kopitiam?"

I try to avoid looks by usually pretending to fiddle with my cell phone, while sipping my kopi-o. So far, in the past three mornings, I have managed to:
- delete duplicate phone numbers in my list;
- send messages to friends I've not seen for a while;
- add pictures to names on my list;
- clean up my messages;
- explore all foreign functions in the new phone.

Making pretty good use of time, huh.

I don't stick to any one particular kopitiam. I 'kopitiam-surf' - simply because making the perfect kopi-o is such a rare skill, most kopi-o's actually suck. And trust me, kopi-o can really suck big-time. Sometimes it gets so bad you're almost drinking sewage water. Other times, you're just drinking coffee-flavored sugared water.

It's not so much of the grade of coffee beans the kopitiams use - honestly, you don't really expect the beans to be of any high quality, though they sure smell good enough.

It is them kopitiam 'baristas'.

I can find one place that serves me pretty good kopi-o one morning, then return the next to taste another totally different substance. I don't proclaim to be that excellent a 'kopi-o connoisseur' but just one whiff and one look, I can usually tell if it's going to be good stuff.


I have absolutely no idea how and why I got to talking so much about kopi-o.