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The air definitely feels more than a tad nippy.
The clouds overhead suggest of arriving snow fall, not within the immediate neighbourhood, but more likely kilometres away to the south, where this year's skiing season is due to begin.
Passerbys adorn that extra layer of cosiness, but more because there is a bite of chill from the single digit temperature overnight.
I head straight to the little bakery inside an arcade. I know precisely what I want. Not for eating on the spot but like a squirrel in a forest, I am saving the baked delights for another day, the culinary delights with flakiness, bite and fillings.
Yes, there they are behind the glass display. However, there are several eager people already queqing when I arrive. Indoors, I feel warm enough to wait.
There are three compact shopping centres next to each other. I easily navigate to another building. Having not been back there for several months, I am eager to explore, to see if familiarity is still there, but also ready to realise if change has come about.
My subtle expectations of change are right on my path and in my eyes. The once bustling cafe at a corner is gone. An ethnic food eatery has its doors closed, an obviously not a good sign. The bigger restaurant across the aisle has changed names. Centre tenants come and go. So it is a delight to see people still take the escalator to a long standing brunch and lunch place on the second floor.
I explore the spaces between rhe shelves in a still existing supermart on the ground floor.
The meet up for lunch with friends is at a recently renovated venue along the main road, but it is still two hours away for that catch up.
So I continue wandering into another building. I check the custard apples at a fresh produce hall but today they are highly priced. I relax looking at Japanese made packaging and kitchen items at a low price Daiso joint. I bought the smallest kitchen filter sink that I needee to replace for years, a break to a lingering procastination.
Then I stumble into a cooked fresh food stall offering takeaways at a good deal of a price. I cannot resist an exotic dish that I do not know how to make. So I fall for the choice of pan fried cumin lamb, perhaps so appropriate to partake in this cool season. There is also a queue lining up for the lamb and chicken.
I proceed to the main street. It is now chock a block with vehicular traffic, underlying the hustle and bustle of the trading and economic activity there. I look for a huge and well stocked kitchen ware outlet, but its doors remain well shut today. I wonder why. I quietly pray it is not closed, for I got a well made wok there a few years ago.
I pop into a place selling porcelain and furniture from the Orient. I check out another family run bakery, spot their versions of small chicken pies and pork rolls. I wonder if their version makes the mark. I get takeaway, no harm trying them once for a start.
The sun comes up, the breeze outside tones down.
I park myself at a contemporary bakery, yes another one, as the restaurant I am heading to for lunch with friends is just across the busy road. All the walking around so far has energised my body more - and now I need a drink.
Enough hot coffee is my thought. So I get a bit adventurous and try a new fangled concoction. It is a cold brew but laced with a fruity flavour. What am I thinking of, it is still a cold day.
My trying that contemporary brew turns out all right. It has hydrated me at the right spot and moment.
I cross the road and line up in front of the door to the lunch time venue. The place is full, buzzing with hungry appetites, eager faces and endless chatter.
A middle edged lady rudely speaks to the elderly gentleman waiting at the door, telling him in an over the top voice that he is blocking the way. The day had been pleasant for me since dawn - and even if such uncalled behaviour was not addressed to me, it broke the magical idyll when a day has been perfect.
#yongkevthoughts
