by Shaun McGill
It’s cold today and the windows of my car are iced up – such a shame to waste boiling water on glass.
The drive to work is uneventful and dull- no near misses or traffic to distract my mind from the monotonous day ahead.
At last, work has arrived and the coffee bar beckons me …
“Cappuccino please.” The big silver machine whirs and the milk frother froths as the white paper cup and plastic lid are prepared. Plastic lid? Put that away! They know by now to never put a lid on my coffee- it sticks to the chocolate and eats it up before I get to my drink.
“80p please.” Cappuccino is always expensive wherever you go but it seems a small price to pay for my early morning habit.
Cappuccino
20 minutes later it is gone, the PC screen shines over my desk and the paper cup nestles in my bin.
The train journey to London is always fraught with embarrassment. Sneeze and everyone looks at you, read a newspaper and the person next to you leans over with no consideration for your personal space and reads it with you, mobile phone man ‘shouts’ into his phone with no regard for the people around him and so the train chugs along until the big smoke appears with its pollution and faceless people wandering the train station.
Meeting over and waiting for the train back to the office. There’s a coffee bar on the station platform and I have 5 minutes before the train arrives.
“Cappuccino please.” The big silver machine whirs………….
The impolite man hands over the coffee. “Um, can I not have a lid please?”
“Sorry Sir, health and safety- we have to put a lid on it.”
“That’s a joke right?”
“No sir.” Sigh…
“2.60 please.”
“You what!?!”
I hand over my life savings and sit on the train as it trundles back to the office. The coffee tastes better today and I ponder where the money will come to continue my silly chocolate-covered habit.
Home at last- children exhausted and in bed. The Cappuccino maker sits glistening against the evening sun through the kitchen window and beckons me to use it. A few minutes later and it sat there in a familiar mug, no money spent, no person serving it to me. It does not taste half as good because I’m in my comfortable place and it was free.
Cappuccino is for coffee bars, sitting outside in the middle of a town, watching the world go by, and for passing the time at work. It should NEVER be drunk in your own house- it is an experience rather than refreshment and deserves an interesting backdrop to its consumption.