So it didn’t come as much of surprise to me, when I noticed that I was goggling “what to do while my friend arrives”.
It seems so far away today, but I did come from a generation that actually sat and waited for their friends with no FB,Twitter or Insta to check every 5 minutes. And it seemed like memories from another planet, while I tried to remember what was it that I did while waiting in those days. I tried to imagine myself 15 years ago, sitting on the roadside mamak while I wait for Geetu to show up…and…what did I do?? Come to think of it, I might have been doing a couple of things(some of which surprisingly were suggestions from google today):
1. People watched.
I admit I still do this till today, sometimes it gets interesting. Like this one time a mom and child were walking through a mall, and then out of the blues, the child turns to a T-rex and starts running amok and the poor mother starts chasing him. It was a short scene but the hilarity of it? Priceless. Or that girl waiting for her blind date, who keeps checking both her phone and her make up every minute until he finally arrives. Awfully shweet! But again, it’s not always the case as most times, people just have their heads downcast looking at their mobile FB or taking selfies.
2. Listened to others' conversation.
Ok, maybe this sounds a bit kepoh, but I admit I did this too. Sometimes you get to hear the darnest things, and if there was any positive note to it, you get a moral lesson on what not to do in your life/in your kitchen/in your office etc. Or in a restaurant, when someone remarks another shop has better food, can that be counted as eavesdropped advice?
3. Learn Patience.
This, is SO true. I learnt how not to murder someone who left me waiting for 2 hours. Should probably take up Yoga in that waiting time..
4. Read Road Signs.
I think It wasn’t just road signs. One instance, I had memorized the entire menu off a restaurant, read all their waiters names and even devised a master plan on how to get past the shop’s laser beams at night to rob their secret roti canai recipe, Oceans 11 style! All while waiting for my friends Ultimate arrival.
5. Talk to a stranger.
Well, my momma told me not to. But I did it anyway(yeah, I’m the rebel!). Talked to waiters at the restaurants, to cashiers at newspaper stands, to people at the bus stop, and sometimes, to the cats on the staircase of Kotaraya.
6. Read the newspaper.
The difference between the then and now would be that the paper has become electronic. I have always been someone who lugged their story book wherever they went, so I would sometimes just sit by with my tea and start reading. Sometimes, my books don’t fit my bag, so I hope e-books count in this category too.
7. Get Lost
Not in the literal sense. But I have this itch that I can’t sit in one place for too long, just waiting. Back then, I used to meet my college friends in Petaling Street, which to my young eyes was just a maze ( To my adult eyes, Hanoi’s 36 Streets surpasses that) and it was just wonderful being lost in that maze and finding small knickknack stores around the corner. I would just time myself to be back to my original spot in time to meet the Teh Tarik geng. I guess I still do it, when Pbear is late, I tend to drive around the area we are supposed to meet, checking out new stores or a new street. Only difference is that I don’t wear a watch now, so my curious-drive-away ends up with him waiting for me instead.
Though technology had made us almost inseparable from our mobile phones, I guess the waiting for my kawan has taken a new turn now. We don’t really do what we used to , but then again- somethings do stay the same. Like I am still here, with google open and my friend is still LATE. Another 5 minutes and I am going to have to re-learn Point 3..
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| How it feels.. |
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