"Well, here's a turn up for the books - I only wish I knew which comic it was", as Rachel Reeve's boss might have exclaimed when she was promoted to Senior Stapler Monitor at Sodden Prickney's village sub-branch visiting caravan on the 'Basil Kalshnikov Field of Glory" car-park, (2.00pm - 4.00pm, Wednesdays and Thursdays)!
Yes, the Earth has moved, Saturn is in the Despondent, Mars has Groils for each strumlical legend, and Jupit...(get on with it - Ed), and Scrobs has started partaking of coffee again!
Yup, it is a new era!
Some years ago, around March 2015, Senora O'Blene and I had taken to the habit of visiting a large garden centre just outside Tunbridge Wells. They were in the process of refurbishing and extending, and like a lot of them now, they were intruducing the through-wave of having to walk round every single section, to arrive, tired and exhausted at the exit with a plastic gnome, some fake snow, and a pot plant of dubious quality, but at least it had Latin name!
One day, the GC decided that all loyalty card members could have a free cup of coffee, which was normally a couple of quid, and as we'd been there for some time, buying an electric fence cable, some barbed wire for the garage roof and the plans for an air raid shelter, we decided to succumb to their brand new speciality coffee, which had some sort of Italian name, but I can't remember it.
Resting tired rear paws against a blue plastic-sided raised rose garden, I risked a sip of the stuff, then another...
At that monent, I gave up drinking coffee for nearly ten years! It was utterly disgusting, with a sour, unpleasant smell coming from a turgid grey/brown slurry surrounded by a rather weird looking foam which seemed to creep everywhere over the cup, down the sides and dangerously close to Senora O'Blene's handbag! The taste was nothing like coffee at all, and was downright foul!
It wasn't worth complaining, it went to feed the plastic roses, and we left soon afterwards, with me quietly exhibiting the occasional shiver and whimper! I haven't touched a drop since then, well, one very small Gold Blend, but it just reminded me of the nasty stuff!
So there you have it! Coffee has just made a comeback today, as several dietary issues demand a bit more diversity, and that goes for drinks etc., as a scoop of chemo every three weeks for myeloma makes partaking of comestibles go somewhat awry, but we're winning, and thanks to Mr Alta Rica, it's been an even better day!
6 comments:
Your posts makes me appreciate our local nursery which, after years as a serious plants-and-a-few-gardening-sundries emporium frequented by horticultural cognoscenti, built a shiny new coffee shop in a glorified shed next to the polytunnels (mainly, according to the owner, to give the staff something to do during covid). The place is now effectively a coffee shop with a nursery attached and the car park is full of fancy cars - some customers are even surprised to find plants for sale.
I’m sure there’s a metaphor in there somewhere…
Kenco Millicano is quite good for instant coffee. A Groenenberg French Press makes good coffee at home too.
MacDonalds coffee has only once let me down. I read a crit which claimed that the staff rarely, if ever, cleaned the machines and wondered whether the one letdown had been cleaned that morning.
On reflection, your final paragraph reminds me that, a month or so into chemo, my father astounded us all by drinking a cup of coffee: he had previously loathed the stuff with a passion (‘nasty foreign muck!’). In a similar vein, having had a legendary sweet tooth all his life, he developed a sudden liking for grapefruit, 85% dark chocolate and tonic water laced with Angostura bitters, together with a craving for sherbet lemons and sour fruit gums.
Following your coffee epiphany, hopefully much happy experimentation awaits…
Kenco Millicano is one of mine.
Very interesting Mac! Tastes have indeed changed, as has appetite! Having lost about twenty pounds sice end August, I'm not really up for huge meals and advice is to 'graze' throughout the day, which is just fine by me!
I have decided, however, to change a few drinking habits, therefore spending a bit more on quality and less on quantity, and that really is working, especially with a new choice of Belgian beers, one of which, La Chouffe, at an eye-watering price of £2.50 a bottle from Waitrose,, proved to be possibly the best beer I've ever had!
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