TRUSTED MEN THAT WILL DELIVER

GRAB anything from meals (Savvy K's favourite salmon bowl that Thory hopes will fall over), 

 to personal stuff that we need delivered but are scared to be out and about. These plucky men and ladies 

are Malaysia's other front liners. 

They, who deliver food and anything else at the touch of buttons.

I bark at Savvy K for embracing this concept of wasting money. "You are a stick in the mud," she says, in a nice way I hope. I say I am conservative,

 maybe a bit of an old fogey at times.

When we could only drive within a 10km radius from home during partial lockdown or be prepared to pay a RM1000 fine, home deliveries became a NECESSITY, NOT a LUXURY.  

Today, a post to acknowledge and thank these front liners. What treasures do they carry in their motorcycle packs of Pink, Red and Green? The more popular delivery apps here are FOOD PANDA 🐼,

Ninja 😈 and 

GRAB. 

My neighbours have started to order meat and vegetables online, I guess it is a matter of time before I follow suit. But my weekly trips with Gismo Man to buy groceries keep me sane. It is the only excursion and excitement I get! How pathetic isn't it? 
 It is amazing as with these apps, we can track our food delivery in real time via

our smart phones. Welcome to the age of technology.

 "Order is confirmed, you are in the queue." "The restaurant is preparing your order. Your driver is heading there."

Even lets you know if kitchen is busy and there will be a delay. 

“Your driver is at your restaurant to pick up your order.” I grew up in an era with type-writers and rotary dial phones. I am constantly gobsmacked with these new apps that the millennials view as "just ordinary, what's the big deal."

Honk honk , Food Panda is at the gate, “Hello, hurry up Ma’am, it is hot outside.” Sometimes the delivery comes a bit massacred like my pizza!! But, what the heck I didn't complain cos it tastes just the same. I didn't want the delivery man to get a bad rating. I just called the restaurant and informed them to teach the drivers to place the pizza boxes horizontally during delivery.

These riders even deliver chocolates 

in our Malaysia's sizzling heat (93 F). So that's why I sometimes see them riding like Speedy Gonzales. Alo alo, make way, Chocolates on Board! 

Alas, these delivery riders 

have recently been getting a bad rap in the news for flouting traffic rules 

and encroaching on pedestrian walk ways. I feel very sorry for them as they are just making an honest living. People have been laid off. Many have taken jobs in delivery services just to pay rents and put food on tables to keep their families going. Customers can be really mean and demand fast deliveries even during thunderstorms, or the riders are threatened with low ratings. Others have demanded their food be delivered pipping hot. 

"PLEASE, if you want pipping hot food, COOK YOURSELF lah." 

 Clothes that Savvy K ordered.

 When Kim wanted to send me her Chinese New Year goodies from 22 km away, she just packed everything in a nice bag and "Grab" it. 

Gift pack arrived in 20 mins, I was eating her curry puffs in another 20 mins. THANK YOU "GRAB" and Kim. 

Boat noodles and sour plum green tea

 

delivered by a ninja. 

Even my neighbourhood hawker food stalls have signed up with 

Food Panda for delivery services 😍👍. Good ole' Uncle is trending with the times.

Rain or Shine, They ALWAYS deliver.

Sometimes when I am busy, YOUR SMILES escape me. I look but I do not see. I am sorry to take you for granted on these days.  

Who says MEN DO NOT DELIVER?

NINJAs, FOOD PANDAs and GRAB DELIVER 🚴‍♂️ with SMILES 🤩 . 

THANK YOU. Please RIDE SAFELY.

MY DAY STARTS AT DAWN,

 

at 5.45 am to be precise. I am out walking when the street lights are still on, and the air is still crisp. I only meet a few fellow walkers this early. I like this time of the day. The air is refreshingly cool. Twenty-four degrees C is glorious weather here and it only happens at dawn. 

It is so quiet I can hear the “fat” rain drops on the leaves when there is a drizzle. Rain, even a drizzle is seldom "light" in Malaysia.

Evidence as shown on my phone – LIGHT rain with THUNDER! 

Some days when I am preoccupied "with problems 🤣 of the world 🤣," I forget to appreciate the gifts in life. I am just so obsessed with walking briskly to get over my morning work out, I FAIL to realise that, “Hey, I am breathing WITHOUT a mask. NO police man will fine me RM10,000.” In Malaysia, exercising is the only time we are allowed outdoors without a mask.

 Only at dawn with the moist air do I get to see the magic in the street lights. 

Blue lights 

and

golden lights.

My friends are already warming up 

before pounding their beats around the neighbourhood

or on their racing bikes riding their circuits. 

All too soon and "morning has broken,"

 time to head off for HOME

to begin a NEW day. 

THANK YOU for all the BLESSINGS I have received.

YOGA AT SUNRISE

 

Is what the local people at Sanur Beach, Bali, Indonesia practice every morning. This is how a day should really start - 

exercising in the “nippy air” with a golden sunrise and to the sound of lapping ocean waves. At sunrise, I am already stuck in traffic jams driving Savvy Girl to school and rushing to clock in at work before 8am. Doing yoga at dawn would be a preposterous thought.  

Thus, it was a surprise catching this scene on a past pre-covid trip to Bali. Some locals came walking and others on bicycles. None in cars! Some rolled out their straw mats, but most just did their yoga in a “true-blue” manner on the sand. 

To our delight, the instructors allowed us to join the class. We tourists of course disgustingly rolled out our hotel towels as the sand felt kinda icky.  Class was conducted in Bahasa Indonesian. We sort of followed by example.

As the sun rose higher, the class continued on intensely.

The Balinese people were awesome, stretching and effortlessly propping themselves in various positions. The instructors had to prop me up as I was quite out of balance, falling to the left and right. 

Salutations to the sun as dawn slowing turned into morning. I found the moves difficult. Imagine keeping my legs right up pointing to the sky and supporting my entire body on the shoulders. Come on people, make me feel better and tell me this is simply not natural. 

I couldn't get my legs up, not even half-way. It is not my fault cos' gravity kept pulling my thunder thighs (that's what Savvy K calls my legs) right down. Isaac Newton's law of gravity states that everything that goes UP must come DOWN … sooner or later. It was definitely sooner for me. 

The Balinese group was so focused and disciplined. It felt like it was a ritual for them to daily train their bodies for flexibility, balance and to strengthen their minds before they faced the rigors of the day. I will always remember this morning where they shared with me their way of attaining inner peace, and their beautiful sunrise on Sanur Beach. How I wish I can start my every day like the people at Sanur Beach.