Coffee Date (Plus Muffin)

**** Dalam keadaan yang sungguh Tingtong From Tooting, even though dah tidur dengan senyenyak-nyenyak nya...apasal pulak kan, mengantuk semacam, adakah makanan, minuman ku or karipap ku telah di spike oleh manusia yang mahu mengambil kesempatan atas diriku yang lemah ini? (Macam sialllll okay, bunyiknya!!!)

**** Why am I still at Twickenham pada hari sabtu minggu ini? Kenapa tak pergi menjalan kewajipan sebagai isteri yang solehah kat rumah orang itu? Jawapannya, hah!! Pepagi buta dah ku sumpah orang itu...maka, entry ini dibuat and fikiran Makji tengah dipengaruhi oleh hati yang panas...apa ni? Asyik panas hati aje.

Okay, untuk memuaskan hati kau Kiah (seperti mana kau memuaskan hatiku dengan membuat 3 entry dalam seminggu macam itik berak) dan juga para-para pencinta gossip murahan, I finally agree to meet K, my once upon a time schoolmate. I texted him back, confirming the date and time for coffee. For a change, instead of travelling to London, I suggested Guildford, easier for him because it is not far from Reading, and I, fancy a change of scenery…(ye lah, but I regretted not long after, when realised that Guilford is the place that me and Nicholas Davis used to meet for coffee and mengadu-domba hal office)

This jantan tembam, as he physically appear, is called K (nama sebenar kenalah dirahsiakan) for sure he is not Siti Nurhaliza’s wealthy husband although I can swear that if he is not affected badly by the syndrome baking powder, (mulut aku, menanti masa aje untuk dicili oleh TLC kan?) he may as well look like Datuk K, only taller and perma tanned. K works for the local uni in Malaysia and is here for his PHD and is due to finish next year. Dah dekat setahun setengah dia kat sini???

I was quite anxious…pasalnya, when I arrived at Guildford, quite early…(menunjukkan betapa gigihnya I ke? ) I was hungry and agonising if I should quickly scoff something first before the coffee or dengan polite nya ajak mamat ni makan sekali. But what will that make me then? Dah le aku yang memula suggest coffee and now, dengan muka tak malu, nak ajak makan? Mana perginya sifat perempuan melayu terakhir aku ni? Or sememangnya dah ghaib semenjak kahwin omputih ni? I keep telling myself that I am only being friendly, although I must remember that not long ago, pasal being friendly lah I ended hurting people’s feeling, aku kononnya give out message (bodily/facially/emotionally?) that there’s a hope in us.You what???

As I stroll down to the Guildford High Street, I keep thinking, should we just minum kopi aje or nak ajak dia lunch…sampai ke tahap, if I ajak dia makan, mau kah dia makan chicken sandwich ayam katok tu or any form of ayam dishes (if sandwich is too lame) that is understandably, tak halal, as we are not in Arab/Pakistani populated area. In the end, few steps before the Costa Coffee, I just think…okay, we will order the coffee, and if my tummy start berbunyi-bunyi mintak diisi, I will just order muffin. By that, I bolehlah maintain kewanitaan sejati…ye lah, makan muffin can never be seen as pelahap and nampak class lah kan?

K was early, just as I thought I beat him to it. He was outside the café, smoking and smile away mengalahkan kambing. He reciprocated my handshake with a matsalleh style peck (time well spent in Portsmouth during his degree days) I have to say, that gesture kind of put me at ease, at least I know who am I dealing with…and what sort of wavelength of mentality (or am I speaking too soon?) Kekwat tak I? But after years of building my self esteem to where it is now, I think, I’m allowed to have some kind of expectation, especially to the people who never realised that I exist until it was too late… (nampak sangat ada mental disturbance aku ni)

We chat a lot. He was asking the questions…many of them, considering that he don’t know me that well. We don’t even have lesson in the same class but I remember having to cheer him (or shall I say the football team) up. But I do know him, because his good looks does stand out. As for me, apart from being so unusually tall, I do not have other attributes for him to take any trouble to notice. At time, I was making jokes about him turning into Azhari Hussin, with him being in University Of Reading, doing the same study and dah ada goatee-goatee bagai...nak jadi ahli Jemaah Islamiyyah ke? Dalam hati, I really hope he will laugh at the joke because, people in a sane mind (let alone to be in that location...nak mati kalau org sebelah menyebelah dengar kau buat joke pasal terrorist and bomb) wouldn't joke about things like that...I remember saying to this orang melayu, how I feel that the muslim in Malaysia was a bit too harsh to Lina Joy, what did I get? Muka masam pastu aku dikatanya dah takde semangat keislaman...takde akidah bagai. Eyy..takleh bagi opinion ke? But K, did get the Azhari Hussin's joke.

Chatting with K is like chatting with a new friend, I don't know anything about him apart from dengan siapa dia kemaruk berchenta kat MRSM dulu (that girl happened to be in my persatuan and asrama) K is on the verge of having his marriage dissolved. According to him that is why he is here all by himself. Sedih ke aku mendengar nya? To be honest, I’ll be more sympathetic if a woman said that to me. He told me that he was married for two years…didn’t work out and now needed sometime to himself. I can’t help to think…your marriage just about to end, and here you are, on your own? Hati I macam kena garu nak korek-korek cerita but, there’s rules in a first meeting.

We both had coffee and aku, asked for muffin while he cheekily asked 'eh, makan satu aje ke'. Apakah maknanya tu? Kau nak aku jadi badak cam kau jugak ke? Gentlemanly, he paid for our coffee and my muffin although I insist on paying...knowing that he's a student (tapi dia buat PHD kan..so, masih dapat gaji separuh kan?) We promise to keep in touch, and dia pulak dengan gatalnya suggest 'Lain kali you bayar pulak'. I have to say that he is very keen (he has been calling non-stop today masa I tengah tidur)

Bila dah bergaduh (serious ni) dengan F ni, mulalah hati ni nak cari alternative lain. He texted me last night asking how was my Ireland trip (merasa kalau aku bawak dia, mau dihabiskan karipap kita kan, Makji Eton)

There’s thing that I need to know about him, like, how on earth has he become so, so fat? (and lain-lain) What say you Kiah?