Have you ever experienced this - sometimes, when we are having difficulty or feeling a bit down facing up to all the challenges in life, a good thing happens (no matter big or small) and the whole world brightens up for us.
Today, something exactly like this happened to me.
No, I am not talking about receiving a bouquet of my favourite flowers from my dearest darling (though I
would like that very much, it's been a while), nor am I talking about striking the lottery overnight.
It's much, much more simpler.
As you have read from my previous post, I'm having one of the busiest times at work due to several of my company's publications coming out at the same time, having to do client servicing for invoices, meeting them to pass the magazines, and of course, THE event of the year that I've been working my butt off for - the
postgradasialive! 2005 postgraduate study fair happening next
Thursday, September 29th (more about that later).
Today, my colleague and I planned a distribution route all around KL city to pass out the event postcards, posters and booklets to various planned drop-off points. We knew that it was going to be a long and tiring day out in the hot sun, and my car was so overloaded with books and stuff that it looked like a delivery van/lorry!
Also, as is so typical of me, I've left to the very last minute the submission of the form and payment for a women's workshop this Saturday that I'm signing my Mum up for. (Forgive me, Mum, was just too busy with work to even stop and breathe). To redeem myself, I decided to send the form & payment via Poslaju so it would arrive within the next 2 days to ensure that my Mum would still get a seat in that workshop.
Since our route will be passing by Sungei Wang Plaza, my colleague suggested that we post the envelope at the post office there.
And so, at about 1.00pm we parked my car at Berjaya Times Square, did all the drop-offs then proceeded to Sungei Wang Plaza to post my envelope and have lunch at the same time. My colleague led me to POS Malaysia located on the 3rd floor (or was it the 4th? Don't ask me, I can really get lost in Sungei Wang). So anyway, while we were walking to the post office, we passed by a food court with no signboard and no name. It looked like it had
just opened for business. Inside we saw open-concept kitchens, and some cosy corners with cushions, as well as chairs with cow-inspired designs. Interesting! It peaked my interest and I thought the layout resembled
Marché, the Swiss-based restaurant that just opened an outlet in The Curve, Mutiara Damansara in Petaling Jaya not too long ago.
View from inside, Marché Movenpick Restaurant, The CurveBut duty calls first, so we went over to the Post Office to post my precious envelope before discussing how to fill our growling stomachs. I persuaded my colleague to try that 'open-concept food court that we passed just now' to check out the food as I was really curious what it was. When we reached, I walked up to the waiter there, and asked, 'Is this Marché?' and he replied 'Yes, we are just opened'.
Since my colleague had not tried Marché before and wanted to, we took our tickets and entered the restaurant. What I noticed was that this Marché is quite different from the first outlet at The Curve. It is really spacious (I mean really! You can do a breakdance on some of the spaces in between tables), and there was more Asian food stalls than usual - there was
bak kut teh (*yummy pork!*), Hong Kong cuisine (tong sui), Japanese Ramen and Teppanyaki besides the usual rosti, sausages, Euro grill and pastry/cake stalls. We were thinking what to eat, knowing the tasks that still laid ahead of us required strength and sustenance to last us till 5pm at the very least. So we skipped all the stalls and went for the pasta stall (the queue at Euro grill was too long anyway). I had also earlier warned my colleague that the food at Marché could be quite expensive if you choose meat dishes or eat a large variety of dishes.
So we ordered 2 tomato chicken spaghetti dishes for us both and were about to ask the price of each plate (there was no price tag at all, really odd) but someone beat us to it. To which the waiter replied, 'Oh, you don't have to pay anything. Today is our Trial Run and all food is served free.'
My eyes widened and I looked at my colleague who turned to me with exactly the same expression. I clarified with them again, and they said yes, today is their Trial Run (it was the their first day open) and there's no charge for any food served. No wonder there's no price tag displayed anywhere!
Well, realising the
*gold mine* that we had accidentally stumbled upon on a normal hot afternoon in KL running our errands, we just went a little crazy after that, ordering everything that was worth ordering that we felt we could finish in our limited 'lunch hour'.
We had
tomato chicken spaghetti, grilled salmon with salad, tong sui, fruit juice and
a slice of cake EACH. It was a most satisfying and delightful lunch. I tell you, a few other customers were also like us, walking around carrying the plates of food to their tables with a grin on their faces. The best thing with this outlet is, if I'm not mistaken, they serve pork. My colleague claimed that she saw them serving pork knuckle and I saw with my own eyes the chunks of meat in the bak kut teh that cannot be mistaken for chicken (or beef (yuck can you imagine bak kut teh with beef?)). Oh, I do,
do hope they serve pork. The pork knuckle at Marché is
HUGE and
heavenly and to taste it you'd need to travel all the way down to Singapore which has 2 Marché outlets.
Oh yeah, aside from having more Asian stalls, there were also newer concepts for their dining areas - I noticed a Middle Eastern room (pottery, hanging tapestries), a Japanese room and a Malay room (attap roof). Nice!
Well, looks like Sungei Wang's latest restaurant, Marché, will draw larger drones of people into the mall, if Marché's popularity worldwide is anything to go by.
My colleague and I just couldn't believe our luck to have passed by and bumped into Marché the first day they opened and conducting their Trial Run. We savoured the yummy food and enjoyed the ambience (they were playing Mandarin songs over the PA system too!). But all too soon, it was time to get back on the road to complete our deliveries and try to head back to the office by 4pm.
The traffic was also surprising - where it would normally take us 45 minutes to an hour to reach the office, it only took us 20 minutes today! Surprise, surprise...
All in all, in the gloom of 'darkness', sometimes the sky clears just enough to allow a ray of light shine in. Today was just such a day. (Though I am not in gloom, but have just been extremely & impossibly busy and stressed out with the event, staying up late and waking up early in mornings just to get all the work done).
I'm sorry guys, if you're thinking of visiting Marché Sungei Wang to take advantage of all the *free food*, the Trial Run is only for one day. Believe me, we asked and probed them about how long it would last (perhaps we could return the next day, hehe), but too bad - the fact still stands. I guess they know how kiasu Malaysians are and wouldn't want the place to be swarmed. As it is, there wasn't any sign outside the restaurant that said it was a Trial Run nor did any waiters at the door inform us about it. They are real smart, eh?
Another day down in history for me, and a new day beckons.
I wonder what little surprises Wednesday 21 Sept would hold for me?
a ONE-OF-ITS-KIND postgraduate study fair
