Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, Roti man
Drive by my house
As fast as you can
Squish it, and toss it and mark it with B
Throw it over the gate for baby and me!

(Sung to the tune of the nursery rhyme “Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake”)

Our Uncle Roti is quite the grumpy old fellow. When we first started buying bread from him a few years ago, he barely looked at us. Only after awhile did he start to grunt to acknowledge our existence.

The grumpiness didn’t really bother us – some people are just like that – but we did wonder how he could make a decent living riding around the neighbourhood at top speed. I mean, if you heard the toot-tooting of his horn but you weren’t already outside, say, in the garden, then forget it. You’d just waste your breath shouting, “RO-,” and then zoom, there goes Valentino Rossi with bread hanging off his motorbike, “-ti.” And Mr Rossi is already at the end of the road by then.

Later we noticed he had an understudy following him around on a motorbike. We liked this new guy. For starters, he actually smiled and even talked to Abang who was about a year old by then. But more importantly, he would drive slowly around the neighbourhood allowing more people to buy his bread.

He was only around for a few months and we were quite sorry to see him leave when Speedy Gonzales came back from his holiday. The holiday must have done him some good, though, because he became much friendlier towards Abang.

The first time he actually talked to Abang came as a surprise to us, most of all Abang. I had paid him for the bread and reached out to take it but he refused to give it to me. “Tak boleh, tak boleh,” he kept gesturing ‘no’ towards me, “Bagi boy. Ha, boy ambik, boy ambik.” Poor Abang actually clung on to me even tighter wondering why this grumpy old man was heading towards him shoving a loaf of bread in his face. Eventually he took it and I prompted Abang to say “thank you” which he did.

Ever since then, whenever I bought bread from him and was by myself, Uncle Roti would ask after Abang. Poor man probably misses his grandchildren. He would even occasionally treat Abang to some biscuits or snacks, which is awfully generous of him.

The routine now is for Abang to pay Uncle Roti who would then give the bread to Adik instead.

Uncle Roti’s latest show of affection to the boys was last weekend. After giving Adik the loaf of bread, he walked back to his motorbike but as he was about to ride off he noticed Adik was just staring at him (I guess 13 month old boys do that). So he got a little packet of chocolate wafer biscuits, walked back to our gate, opened it up and gave the boys one piece each.

“Ha, mari mari, ambik,” he said to the boys and then passed me the remainder of the biscuits. What a sweet old man. Still goes over the residential area speed limit, but he’s a lot less cranky now.