During the past week or so I’ve had a couple of those deja vu moments that manage to make me stop and ponder life, the universe and all that other crap.
Strangely, they both involved coffee … and not good coffee. Since falling off the wagon a few months back I’ve been incredibly restrained on the coffee-drinking front but do tend to get jittery on the odd occasion I do indulge only to find the coffee I’m paying for isn’t of a suitable standard.
Let’s face it folks, if I wanted to drink bad coffee I’d make my own because brewing bad coffee is one of my talents. In fact, it has been said that I can make coffee almost chewy. I’m managing to stick to around three coffees a fortnight and usually a couple of those are bought from the global coffee corporation along the road (aka Starbucks). For the most part, these have been pretty good: all steamy and coffee-like as they should be. For the other “I-paid-someone-to-make-it-so-it-better-be-good” coffees, I’ve been venturing further afield. This hasn’t been a success and so far I’ve found four cafes and restaurants near the office where the coffee is decidedly crappy.
But I digress, back to the deja vu issues.
The first coffee incident involved me wandering into a local cafe for a takeaway coffee: “Could I have a short black to go please” I asked politely, because my dear ol’ mum taught me to use my manners.
The wee chicky babe fiddled with the big coffee contraption that spits steam and gurgles hot, coffee goodness into your cup: “Do you want milk with that?” she asked.
Now, I don’t know about you but I’m not in the habit of ordering black coffee with milk.
I left the cafe with the uneasy feeling that I’d been there before, that I’d heard that question before. It wasn’t until the next day I remembered a dream I’d had about ordering coffee, asking for a “short black to go” and being asked two stupid questions:
- Did I want milk?
- Was that to have here or takeaway?
A few days later, I went to another cafe and ordered another coffee, once again a short black to go.
Can you guess what question I was asked this time? Yep, “was that to have here or take away”.
To go, people, TO GO!
And yes, SHORT BLACK!
PS: How bad is it that I dream about coffee?