Stepping Back In Time

SweetTeen went for a 4 day-3 night Christian youth camp in Seremban last Thursday. The last time she was away from home was when she went for a school trip 3 years ago to Pangkor island. The house was unusually quiet without her because CoolTeen doesn't speak as much and even when prompted with questions his answers are brief.

On Friday night, hubby  and I decided to go to Empire Shopping Gallery to look for a gift as my MIL's birthday was coming up. Every night before she went to bed SweetTeen would call us on her mobile phone to say 'goodnight' and when she called on Friday night we were travelling home in the car after our shopping trip. As usual she would ask what we were doing and when we told her we were in the car, she retorted in a joking manner, "What? You went shopping without me??!!"

We were caught in a traffic jam on the way home, even at 10 pm the Federal Highway was still choked with heavy traffic, so we decided to take a little detour and see if the A & W restaurant at Lorong Sultan in Petaling Jaya was still around. It has been about 20 years since I last visited that restaurant!

The roads and landmarks have changed quite a bit, the huge signboard is faded but the A & W restaurant was still there...looking exactly as it did 20 years ago.

As we stepped through the glass doors it was like going back in time...the interior was still the same. Even the air-cond units were the huge old-fashioned type that was mounted on the walls, and I recognised the familiar floor tiles...and it was still as crowded even after all these years. We ordered our favourite - the waffle with a scoop of ice-cream topped with strawberry jam.

This was one of the places I used to hang out with my friends when I was a teenager, so being there again after 20 years brought back lots of memories. Hubby also used to go there when he was younger, but we didn't know each other then. So this is one thing we have in common.

The strange thing I noticed that night is that the customers were mainly people around the same age as us, some with their children and some just come on their own to enjoy a meal of fastfood...people who have had fun times at that little A & W restaurant tucked away in a little corner of Petaling Jaya, and still enjoy going there for the food and the ambience.

There was no WiFi back then and there is still no WiFi at this restaurant today...very unusual for a fastfood outlet. I suppose that's why it was so noisy because people actually had to speak to each other instead of being engrossed with their portable WiFi devices!