You know, the idea of franchising to me used to be nothing more than just a long-taught theory, a strategy, a business progression used by companies desiring to expand their presence in shores domestic and global.
It was just something that happened in the world of business, nothing more, nothing less.
I thought little of it.
I thought nothing of it even.
But then one late evening we got hungry and decided to walk over to the shops nearby for some supper.
And out of the two coffee shops that were still open at that rather late hour, at one of them I found myself more eager to settle down.
I don't know whether it were the presence of the dim sum stall, the glow of the light bulbs at the exterior area, the color of the tables, or the sense of familiarity that attracted me.
But something did.
As my friend headed to the dim sum stall for an order of century egg porridge and some random fried snacks, I looked around, and almost at once, thought of another Kimly that I used to go- at another place, at another time, elsewhere.
It's been nearly a year since I last went to that coffee shop.
The last time I went there was in December, and since then I (sadly) haven't had much of a spirit nor an energy to go there.
Perhaps it's something I'm not ready to face.
Perhaps the memories I have had there I'm not ready to embrace.
But sitting at the cream-colored table that night in this (present) Kimly, with the one cup of kopi in front of me, plus all the dim sum, my mind flew back to all the times where Radioman and I used to hang out at the (other) Kimly at the (other) place there.
It wasn't very often that we went- most of the time we went to the NTWU canteen at the bus interchange for our kopi, but the couple of times we were here, together with the memories, yes, I remember.
February there was one time where we went for the kopi because it was Chinese New Year and we had just finished a meal of fried rice, and fish and chips from another coffee shop nearby and were wondering if we could have an extra serving of fried carrot cake from the stall that stayed open there.
Then there was once in October where we went because we were too lazy to walk to the bus interchange, and anyway the kopi here went deliciously well with the Wife Biscuits and Salted Egg Pastries from Leung Sang that I had bought to share for our birthdays.
And of course there was that time in December when Radioman discovered to his great delight that it was actually possible to retrieve certain audio tracks from certain sources via mobile applications and requested for certain tracks to be done so.
I'm pretty sure that we went there more than just these three times- it's just that these moments stick out most in my head because of the highly recommended kopi, the space, the atmosphere, the fans, and the wee hour winds.
I'm not sure whether this (present) Kimly at Eunos has exactly the same late night atmosphere as the other one that I used to go to, but with the lights, the tables, the stalls, and the coffee shop decor, it looks like I won't be forgetting them anytime soon.