Hometown

I did the last kopitiam session with my baby girl, our usual weekend shit.

Well, this one was a little more memorable. For obvious reasons, of course. But also because this was the one where my baby girl got that usual pick-up line I'd have heard elsewhere, where erm... 'drinks' would have been more worthwhile.

"Can I buy you a drink?"

Let's disregard the fact that it came from an ah neh uncle, who might have gone on home to beat up the wife if we'd taken up the drinks offer. Still... it was totally out of whack.

My baby girl said the right thing her fatmomma would have said: "No, thanks."


So, me and my baby girl sat al fresco in the droning heat for a little longer than usual.

It was not only my last, but hers as well.

By the time I am next back in August, I'll be gorging on Ben & Jerry's with her new dessert spoons at her house-warming party in ulu Seng Kang.

So, between mom and daughter, that was our farewell kopi session in our hometown.

I think I choped the "Penguin". Oh no, maybe not. Maybe it was the "Cow". Or was it the "Pig"?


So, as usual, I took a stroll back home after we bade our goodbyes. And this time, I took a long, hard look at the apartments along the way. The trees, the roads, the bus-stop. The basketball court where I swore I would pick up the game when I was only all of twelve. The primary school that is in the process of resurrection.

The everything I had grown up with over the past twenty-nine years.

The familiarity and the comfort zone that I am removing myself from.

...

And I feel exhilarated.


I will never, ever forget my hometown.

But it doesn't mean I will never leave it.