Weekend Engagement - My Tea And Coffee Adventures

Do you people-watch and if so what do you get from it, deduce or conclude?

I actually thought this topic is probably not going to garner much attention, also because other topics had more room for personal sharing, but I was wrong! Haha! It seems like there are people who also share this past time (I wouldn't say it's a habit) like me, which is people-watching!

I developed this past time because of how my personal lifestyle evolved over the years. As we grow up and older, our social circle shrinks (at least for me) and we just have a few friends and our family. Most of the time, everyone's busy with their lives, be it work, or with family and kids. Being a single who has a small social circle, I have gradually grown used to spending time with myself. I exercise mostly alone, I go grocery shopping alone, and I often eat alone too.

And being alone means I inevitably will people-watch when I am outside, because I don't have someone beside me that I can chat with or listen to. Well, it's definitely not my intention to eavesdrop or invade anyone's privacy, but in some settings such as cafes, the tables aren't that far apart.

Just yesterday, I wanted to try this Japanese cafe which sells delicious mochi. The nearest outlet had long queues so I went to another one nearby. Here's my matcha drink with whipped cream and mochi at the bottom of the drink. The matcha was average, but the mochi was indeed delicious! But the real testament actually came from a table beside me. It was a Japanese family (dad, mum and son), who bought a box of mochi and a few drinks. I watched them sample the food and the dad's face lit up and went "mmmm" (which I take it to mean it's good!). You know the food's really good when their locals enjoy it because they know their food best!

And today, I was at another new coffee joint. It was on my list and today I happened to be nearby running errands, so I popped in. Unlike most coffee places where you just order the lattes and mochas, they actually have a few different blends of coffee beans to select from. That's something I appreciate because it's a new experience! Being an amateur in this area, I asked the staff to suggest the blend which is the least bitter. And I got the Australian Blend - and the drink even came with an information card! Pretty interesting right?

One thing that I find it interesting to do at these F&B places is to watch how the staff run the business. How do they treat customers, how efficient do they clear tables, how they allocate their duties within the team to ensure there is teamwork and synergy and the list goes on... And I think this place ticks all the checkboxes. For the hour I was there, they greeted every single customer with "Welcome", and "Thank You" when they leave. It's not an easy task because there's so many things to do and keeping an eye of the movement of customers moving within the door is challenging. But this little gesture left a good impression on me.

Back to the question, what do I get from people-watch, deduce or conclude, I don't have a clear answer. Observing people is like.. a box of chocolates? You won't know what you will see/get.

It's actually the randomness of the human interactions that makes this past time interesting and somewhat magical. I didn't know I was going to see a Japanese family trying out the Japanese desserts, and I didn't know I will be impressed by the customer service at the coffee joint, but these caught my attention and I had my personal takeaways from these little adventures. And they made my weekend interesting this week.