It may sound a little vague, but Harj refers to Harjeet Singh, my old friend and work colleague initially from the Penjom days of 2008-2012 (although he has been there a whole lot longer!).
For the expats of Penjom and anyone from those days who still hangs around Malaysia and passes through Lipis once in a while, Wesly Cafe - and Harjeet by association - is an institution.
This is a recent shot from earlier this year, showing Harj in his usual spot, and Sam, the Penjom accountant, who generally pops in each day for one, pops a few pills and then goes home. Harj as you can see, is drinking Anchor these days, but for many years was a Skol man. However the Skol rep was not customer-focused enough, whereas the Anchor one was, so Harj was converted!
The Wes was our watering hole pretty much from Day #1, back in 2008, when I started at Penjom. It was not unusual for Harj to be joined by Dean, Russ, Stu, Bob, Brian and myself, with numerous other ring-ins from time to time. Our drink of choice was Tiger cans, and at RM6 a drop, it was easy to turn one or two into many.
Haha, in fact that reminds me. The catch-cry was usually one of us asking the owner for satu lagi (one more), which was quickly followed by dua, tiga, empat (2, 3, 4) and then often Brian finishing up by throwing his hands in the air and crying banyak! (many). Brings a smile to my face. I loved those times, and loved working with and drinking with those boys. Sad that those days are long gone. Dean and Russ still work together, and a few of the Avocet group are still in KL, namely JR, Peter and Jason. But those heady days at the Wesly are but a memory now - a hazy one too just quietly!
I'll do a follow-up on the Wes once I get my stuff back from KL and retrieve some old pics. There's more to this story - namely the food and the toilet! But for now, this will do. If by any crazy chance you ever visit Lipis, drop in after 6pm any day except Friday and say hi to Harj for me....
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