FUEL GOOD TRIBE

FASHION TIP: If you want to feel really different, put on something special…

I wore a vest to BLC today. It all started last night, when I updated my Facebook and Twitter profile pics - or “avatars” - with a custom-designed madmenyourself.com self-portrait. The only outfit that I liked included a vest. Mel said that the vest looked good, so I said I’d put on a vest to church - if I could still button it. (I hadn’t worn it in years.)

It fit. (I didn’t keep it buttoned, though, because I enjoy breathing deeply.) Quite a number of people commented that I looked good in the vest. I also got a couple of “cowboy” references. (I matched the vest with deep blue jeans and pointed black leather shoes that looked like boots under the jeans. “Where are your horse and hat?” Sonia asked. My trigger finger itched to whip out my six-shooter.) Anyway, I was feeling pretty good about myself, this morning.

I was still feeling pretty good, by the time I joined Adeline and the gang for lunch (I had a meeting to see to, after church). We were eating at the Korean restaurant opposite Coffee Ritual in Section 14, Petaling Jaya. I can never remember it’s name, except that it has three syllables, and the third is “Bum”. I found them in a private room, where they were already well into their meal. So, I stepped outside to find a waiter and make my order.

As I walked towards the counter where a gaggle of waiters gathered, I noticed a young woman waving at me on my right. She was looking intently at me, and waving. Do I know her? Is she an old friend I’ve forgotten? I couldn’t place her face.

Or, maybe she was just asking me over to join her and her friend for a drink of Korean ginseng tea. It wouldn’t have been too surprising. After all, I was getting oohs and aahs all day long.

As I looked more carefully at her, she mimicked writing in the air, an invisible pen held between her thumb and forefinger.

This, in case you are unfamiliar with Malaysian culture, is the universal signal for, “Check, please."

I smiled at her and waved back, just as her friend realised her mistake - the friend’s mortified expression is still burned into the pinhole camera of my mind.

Anyway, I moseyed on over to the Waiter Gang and told them, "Them over at that thar table yonder’s askin’ fer their bill, pilgrims.”

A cowboy’s got to do what a cowboy’s got to do. No matter the circumstances.

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Here’s the cartoon avatar that inspired today’s adventure: