MFZ, 3rd September, Monday
6:30 PM rolls by, and it is a wet Monday.
With the students back from their semester break, the
cafeteria is once again alive and bustling with activity – a drastic change
from a mere month ago during which the place looked like a setting from some
Thai horror movie, even at 6:30PM when there was still some daylight to
illuminate the yellow tables and tiled floor.
(The cafeteria also houses the laundry room – last month
when the undergraduate students were away on their break, I made one of my
regular trips to the washing machines in the evening; my overactive imagination
wasted no time in conjuring an image of the classic ‘long-haired-girl-clad-in-white-dress’
ghost crawling across the cafeteria towards me, leaving a crimson trail behind
her.
No such lady-ghost appeared, of course.
But that mental image managed to spook me into reciting Ayat
Kursi non-stop while I loaded the washing machine, inserted the correct amount
of coins, and poured in the detergent and softener.)
Presently, however, the cafeteria is packed with students. Most
are purchasing their dinner, while some are already sitting with their friends
at the tables, perhaps waiting for the Maghrib azan so they could break their
fast. There is already a rather impressive line forming by the cashier.
All the stalls are open today with the exception of the ice
blended one at the far end. Despite having prepared my meal already (Carbonara-flavoured
Samyang), I walk by each stall out of habit.
The first stall offers nasi Arab, shawarma, a variety of
macaroni and spaghetti dishes, as well as butter rice served with coleslaw,
some black pepper sauce, and friend chicken that tastes amazingly like the ones
sold at KFC (well, almost).
The second stall is almost done for the day. This is where the
pisang goreng and keropok lekor are sold – the kuih stall, if you will. As I
walk by, I see that the makcik there is already starting to clear things away,
combining the leftover keropok keping into the keropok goreng container; there
is no sign of any pisang goreng.
The burger stall, in contrast, has only just begun its
operation for the day. A small line is forming there as the abang burger
expertly puts together all the ingredients for an order. He’s got several burgers
already prepared on the table next to him.
(“Abang, yang ni burger ke oblong?” asks a student, to which
the abang burger replies, “Yang tu oblong.”
The student picks it up and asks, “Ni orang lain punya order
kea tau boleh amek?”
The abang burger says, “Yang tu takde siapa punya, boleh
amek.”
The student happily opens her wallet.)
The counter top of the beverage stall is dominated by plastic jugs filled with various colourful sweet drinks, including sirap, kordial oren, milo, and teh ais. There are two kakak chatting behind the counter, one of them probably on auto-pilot mode as she scoops some ice cubes into a plastic cup before pouring out some teh ais into it and handing it over to the student there.
The next stall is perhaps one of the busiest, as is often the case. It is the masakan panas stall, and students there are either picking up their orders or writing down their orders on small pieces of paper. In the kitchen, two cooks (a lady and a guy) are busy at the wok, while a kitchen hand helps by putting out the orders from the kitchen to the counter top out front. A reminder on the wall reminds the students: "9PM - LAST ORDER."
The last stall is somewhat empty, with most of the food already gone. Last year, the stall sold various types of nasi, including nasi lemak, nasi kerabu, and nasi kukus. Today, it's only nasi kukus, by the looks of it.
Having canvassed all the stalls, I doubled back to my true destination: the beverage stall. My spicy Samyang dinner calls for something cold and milky to lessen my inevitable suffering, and I have my eyes set on a cup of teh ais. I am somewhat of a teh ais fiend, having bought at least two cups a day everyday last year. The two things that make a beverage perfect in my eyes are: 1) it has ice cubes in it, and 2) it is a type of sweet drink. I have since realised that consuming two cups of teh ais a day might not be the healthiest of habits, and have aimed to cut back. Instead of teh ais, I would purchase plain ice cubes in plastic cups from the cafeteria to drink with plain water back in my room.
Overtime, my collection of plastic cups from all the ice cubes purchases started to grow. While I am not the most environmentally-conscious person, the rate at which my plastic cup collection grew had started to actually make me feel rather uncomfortable. So, to combat this, I began to either bring my own mug or reuse the plastic cups from my previous purchases (I have several tucked away in my mini cabinet, alongside a couple of straws). Some of the previous cafeteria staff were used to me bringing my own cup or mug, I think -- I did it almost throughout bulan puasa, to the point where even the tokey of the cafeteria (a Malay lady and her Arab husband) took notice.
(Fun fact: ice cubes purchased with the cafeteria's plastic cups cost 30 sen; with your own cup or mug, it is 20 sen.)
Today, I have with me one of those plastic cups. The two kakak are still merrily chatting away behind the counter of the beverage stall when I get there.
One of them looks up and says, "Ya?"
"Akak, nak teh ais satu."
Before she could reach out for the stack of plastic cups, I handed mine over.
"Takpe, guna yang ni."
These two kakak are new to the cafeteria crew -- last year, the cafeteria hired several post-graduate students to man the stalls alongside their staff. Perhaps those girls have finished their studies, or have entered the Writing Stage of their journey. Who knows. The point here is that the two ladies behind the counter are new additions to the MFZ cafeteria crew.
The kakak takes the plastic cup from me with an amused smile, and turns to her friend and grins.
"Wah, mana dapat ni?" she asks.
"Bawak sendiri dari bilik," I replied.
The other kakak laughs, "Bagusnya, kitar semula!"
Her friend is scooping some ice into the cup and jokingly says, "Itu lah -- penutup ni ada jugak ke?"
I simply smiled back as she pours some teh ais and covers the cup with a plastic cover. "Penutup takde la pulak. Boleh la saya bawak yang ni lain kali."
The two of them laugh again, and I thanked them before joining the queue to the cashier.
~*~
I can't wait to see the look on their faces tomorrow when I bring my own plastic cup, plastic cover, and plastic straw.
Okay maybe the straw is a bit too much.
But I can be next-level petty, if the occasion calls for it.
Just so you know.
~*~
Takde la, nak cakap saya kena gelak sebab bawak cawan sendiri masa beli air kat cafe. Tu je xD
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