coffee morning
It’s February now so we are edging toward the hot season here which then moves on to rainy season. The days now are warmer. Gone are the cool evenings where the Khmer wore their winter jackets and sweaters. Expats here dress about the same year round. I do cheap light t shirts and shorts. Never collared shirts or pants unless it’s a wedding party. One person commented once I dressed like a homeless person. I thought it was interesting since I have felt homeless off and on for years.
Instead I sink into my iced americano at LaLatte coffee this morning. I let some words almost crafted take me to whatever place they wish. I am just the follower here too. I never know where things will go when I start wanting a blog post. Most of the time things start with some intentions. Like,
- I wanna write
- I will write
- I have no idea on what
- So let’s go
I’m not sure how all the rest of you do things. Maybe waiting for an idea to flash by or you collect thoughts like little mile markers of your days. Or you have some other strategy to write here.
My answer is why not just write? See where you end up on a day. I have this canvas of life here I guess. I can find a thing if I look like family life, Khmer culture, travel. Whatever. Why bother looking. So instead I just go.
The intrinsic value of coffee
Every day for me it’s this. This going to a place and I really want each place each day to be in a different direction. Perhaps look differently. Feel differently. Here’s today.
Coffee today is after some beer last night. Sometimes I have felt I should just not go for beer. Not sit at viva and watch. That would be difficult and my weekly forays away from things would become going to a gelato parlor or sitting in a park? Nah.
Instead I suffer through the little beer headache. And I find my morning like today. The coffee mornings mean I find a thing. Lose another. I rarely do coffee out with others. I’ve tried. One person loved to just talk about all his things. His wonderful adventures. How he had done things which rivaled anything another might have done. This was boring. I admit to inventing or embellishing things and then hearing him tell me he had done the thing but much better.
Another expat I would meet on Thursdays. We would meet and he would hold forth on whatever. He also does some YouTube on daily life things here. I still occasionally watch his channel.
Finally my friend R and I would meet and talk life. Philosophy. Culture. This was the best and I miss that most. He’s gone back to the UK so for months really no coffee buddies. At all.
I’m thankful. I never could attain the mastery of daily life some of the YouTubers manage here. With R I felt we shared this thing but we could only rarely find the time we both wished to explore them.
So it brings me back to coffee. And this morning. My wife does her things. She has her friends and family. Perhaps you know Khmer families are huge things both blood and socially related. People come and go. She patiently explains a new person to me as being the sister of a friend of her friends brothers friend. Yeah. I get it I mumble. She always checks to see if I do but I don’t really.
So I just go. No hard feelings. No feelings at all. Then I know it’s coffee time. Hello Lalatte I missed you.
I’ll see you all when you see me as they say here.