On life's journey, you and I accompany each other all the way

Monday is your birthday, and I was thinking about what I should give you.

When a question comes up, reflexively reaching for my phone to scroll - I doubt I am the only one with this bad habit!
Then I came across an online article:
<Being friends for three months is not easy; sticking it out for six months is worth remembering; staying together for a year can be called true sincerity; making it past two years makes you a confidant; more than three years is worth treasuring; still there at five years and they should be woven into your life; still there ten years later and they are no longer just a friend - they are family, and a part of your very life...>

So you, who are already a part of my life, what kind of gift are you hoping for?

Is it a book? Or a bouquet of roses?

Having not read a book for so long, I panicked so much that I could not even make up a recommendation list, let alone pick the very best one to give! (I am very afraid that Director Zhu of the Secret Garden will point at me and ask: is this really the best one?)
And as for roses, better to leave them for your future little prince to choose, so that the uniqueness of the one who has been tamed can shine through.

When neither option one nor option two was on the list, you read it and replied: just have a simple brunch!
(So I strongly suspect that stickers also have some mysterious psychic power!)

So I took you to Lu Tu Hao Ka.

You did not ask why I chose Lu Tu Hao Ka?!
(Because the coffee and brunch shops in Taichung really are a hundred schools of thought contending, exploding in number!)
Until you walked in and saw that long-missed smile, and in an instant I understood where the top pick on my shortlist came from!

Then we talked about how each of us had been lately - no pleasantries, no formulaic boring opening - and I asked Pei bluntly, point-blank: how did you have the courage to open a cafe? Had you not been working nine to five for quite a long stretch before? How did you turn back onto the one-way road of the food and beverage business? Being a boss is hard, you know - not as simple as it looks...

I looked at you, you looked at Pei; even though yesterday's yesterday was separated by many blank keys, the melody still flowed out as if unbidden - that is what old friends are like, so relaxed and at ease!

The season has already entered Minor Heat and Major Heat; the recent weather report said this week, the strongest of the year's muggy heat, would be partly cloudy, so now it rains one moment and clears the next, clears one moment and rains the next - truly just like the crisscrossing lives we have walked along the way.

Then you shared that Lonely Planet is recruiting writers, and the website lists the requirements:
1. Rich travel experience and a love of sharing; believes that in-depth research at a destination and exploring the truth is more fulfilling than superficial travel
2. Strong learning and writing ability, good at embracing new things and strangers (media, advertising background, or freelance writing experience preferred)
3. Familiar with the style of the Lonely Planet travel website and agrees with its responsible travel philosophy
4. Very reliable, punctual, and detail-oriented
5. Good physical fitness and ability to handle pressure
6. Strong team spirit
7. Likes (or at least does not resist) reading, making, and checking maps
8. ..........
Then I laughed ~ this is basically a footnote written for the best companion on a journey! So in short, a good travel buddy, right?! (Pei should put the above 7 items on the menu as an introduction)

I think so-called travel is the unpredictable process of adventure that happens when you leave your familiar environment and go to another unfamiliar country.

Perhaps from Green Island to Penghu, perhaps from Paris to Beijing, perhaps from Alaska to Egypt, perhaps from Lake Titicaca to the auroras of Iceland... just look at the carved wall on the 2nd floor and you will know: all travelers are filled with infinite expectation and imagination about traveling the world! That is why some people say travel is a posture for reading the world.

Hearing me speak so sanctimoniously, you retorted like Chen Qizhen: all along, liking a city has always been simply because a certain person you like is there. Leaving a city is just wanting to escape a past relationship. It is that simple!

So can I ask you to stop using The Meaning of Travel as your ringtone?
The answer is probably no, right?!

Suddenly I remembered that Banana Yoshimoto wrote: the most moving scenery on a journey is actually hidden inside a person's heart.

I sincerely pray that those tender fragments fall into every good time about to set off on a long journey, and I hope every wanderer who comes here to sip iced coffee can drink it down in one gulp; such purity, such refreshing coolness, may awaken the original dream, and then recover the emotion that was once lost.

Happy birthday to you!!

Lu Tu Hao Ka

Brunch, ciabatta, set meals, salad, Italian coffee
Business hours: 09:30-19:30
No. 107, Dadun 20th St., Taichung City
04-23105665