when two loonies interact...

"boleh....*mumble mumble*"..., an incoherent mumbling from a homeless guy and my first impression from his crusted hair and pungent smell was he must be one of those young unfortunate individuals who has gone loony due to reasons only he himself know.

from the mumble, i thought he was asking for money and my first reaction to what he was saying was "huh?" even though it wasn't my intention to listen to him, maybe i was curious to know what he wanted to say to me. as he began to repeat the sentence again, i cut him off abruptly and said "tidak" (no), leaving him behind as i head over to the open air restaurant to have my dinner.

after ordering my meal, i sat there wondering to what he was trying to say to me. something was off, and as i tried to recall the sentences he uttered before i rudely cut him off, i remembered snippets of words like "belanja" (buy) and "mi goreng" (fried noodle). not being sure made me felt restless, so i decided to head back to my car and grab my laptop since wi-fi was available there and i might get my mind off the restlessness.

surprisingly, he was at my car standing as if guarding the vehicle. as i went into my car with my back facing him, i was ready to show off some kung-fu moves should he pounce on me unannounced, but instead, he repeated the same sentence again from a distance and this time i heard him clearly, "boleh belanja mi goreng?" (can you buy me fried noodle?). at that moment i felt bad but reflexively, i said no.

i didn't mean to decline his request, and i certainly wasn't sure of saying yes either. but the thought of declining someone of wanting to have something to eat just felt wrong and it bothered me throughout my dinner.

my siblings and i, or rather all my family and relatives that i know of were raised to never be stingy with food. it's like a taboo for us to not share food, and this is one of the many valuable lessons from my parents i was able to digest, a lesson which i will certainly pass down someday to my own children and them to do the same to their children.

from where i was sitting, i couldn't tell if the homeless guy was still there or not. but right before finishing my meal, i had the captain to prepare a take-away and even threw in a can drink to go along with it just in case the guy was still around.

as i walked back to my car, the guy was still standing there, nearby the restaurant entrance. i didn't want the other patrons to see that i bought this guy a meal, but i realized that no matter where i decide to give him the take away, it'll still be conspicuous to some of the patrons there.

the homeless guy wasn't much help at all, he saw me carrying a bag of something in my hand and to normal people, they would've guessed the content would be none other than food since i just stepped out from an eatery premises, then again, i'm not exactly dealing with a normal guy. this may sound funny, but i had to make eye contact with the guy and raised the bag in my hand to coax him over to my car. i can tell the patrons were looking at me, but at that moment i somehow didn't care. why would i be ashamed of doing a good deed, right? as he took the bag from me, few of the patrons stood up to see what was going on. somehow sensing the awkward situation, the guy took me by surprise when he said "terima kasih bang" (thank you 'bro') and walked away fast paced... well, at least he had the decency to thank me before dissapearing into the darkness.

a wave of relief and warm feeling enveloped me, it has been quite sometime since i last did a good deed to someone and it felt good! :). what can i say, sue me for being nice hahaha.

of food and prices...

as i was waiting for my supplier to meet me, i had a light breakfast somewhere nearby my workplace. the choices were limited, every restaurant served more or less the same type of food and since i've tried out couple of them in the past, i decided to patron a simple looking restaurant.

This modest place has a self service buffet style serving..my prefered style compared to ala carte orders since i'm the type who prefers to know what the food looks like before gobbling them down :). the servings looked decent, and i opted to have a small portion of fried noodle (good thing i'm controlling my food intake hehe), a slice of srambled egg, and a small scoop of chicken rendang (i think haha) and chilled Horlicks for beverage (fyi, i prefer cold chinese tea in all my meals :))..i figured that all these shouldn't cost more than RM5 and boy...was i wrong, it cost me about RM6 for this meager breakfast!!

i wasn't pissed off, one reason i patroned the restaurant was because i wanted to check out how the prices would be (well, aside from knowing how the food tastes like) since the other restaurants nearby charged their food unaccordingly. suffice to say, i was right and was spared the shock :).

one thing i realized about the food business in KK is that, the prices are dramatically increasing over the past few years. what used to be a RM3.50 meal has now become RM6.00, but on what grounds? tax? rent? the price increase in everything else?

frankly, i don't mind the high priced charges if the establishment is well known and quite established or if they served great foods..but a new restaurant charging exorbitant prices?!! wouldn't that be a way of deterring potential future cutomers?.

i know a bit about the food business having been in it during my younger days assisting my mom in her fish grilling business on the sidewalk, a foodstall on the roadside and lastly, a short try out in the restaurant business. and at times, without anybody knowing i would take a short stroll at the marketplace just to look at the price range of meat and vegetables.

well, aparently..the prices for these items in Sabah are still quite reasonable and cheap and no wonder they're taking advantage of the price diffrence, justifying their increase by blaming it on the tax or rent. then again...that's business, but a business is not a business if they don't cater to their guests' expectations or demands. if they want to hike up their price, then give their customers something worth in return say like...a good proffesional quality service, something which every customer may say 'i don't care about the price, it's worth every cent' :).

Ciao peeps :)

ps: damn it...should've taken a picture of the food :)