Comments on: All I want is a proper cup of coffee

By: WolfieWolfgang

WolfieWolfgang — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:19:00 +0000

Yea, we escaped just in time I reckon - it was the most difficult thing I ever did.

It is odd how I still look back at those addictive days with such fondness though.

I think recovered addicts do leave a bit of themselves behind. It may be that to keep off the habit, you have to have a little bit more caution than before.

Sometimes I wonder if I left some of my other less dangerously reckless impulses behind with my last packet of cigarettes.

By: Bridge

Bridge — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:26:00 +0000

oops…..
LOVED someone dearly 😉

By: Bridge

Bridge — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:25:00 +0000

oh, love someone dearly who used to scout for fag ends. He used to go through ash trays and scavenge to make one last roll-up too.
I can’t say that I ever did that…..we were the typical cross legged girls tapping ciggies, blowing into the air and sipping red wine.
There’s an awful kinship in addiction – glad we escaped.

By: WolfieWolfgang

WolfieWolfgang — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:07:00 +0000

I too remember those addicted buddy moments.

My best friend at university and I were both hooked and poor.

There were many unspeakably sordid moments where we would do anything for a cigarette....stubs out of the gutter, out of pub ashtrays etc. Don't shout at me, please.

Oh and the most disgraceful was to send female friends up to strangers in the bar to beg for a cigarette, or preferably three.

The last cigarette at night, and no money for more, moment was one I remember as a true sign of friendship.

We would draw a line have way up the cigarette and then argue on who had the first go.

We both wanted to be the last of course.

Those were the days!

By: Bridge

Bridge — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:20:00 +0000

I used to smoke a long time ago and remember fondly, if a little guiltily, the ballet for lighting up.Sharing a bottle of wine with girlfriends in London bars over a few cigarettes became our habit with the alternating ‘yours-mine’ of the packets and flames.I had a particular friend who wa really expressive with her smoking, timing the puffs for maximum effect! She was so gorgeous with it. I associate her still with smoking although she hasn’t done for years either – she’s the only person who I ever thought made it look glamourous!
I can’t stand instant coffee now, I drink it at work but nowhere else unless I really have to. I’d suffer without it.
To me it’s like the ‘chocolate or cheese?’ question where the answer is definitely ‘cheese!’

By: WolfieWolfgang

WolfieWolfgang — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:43:00 +0000

Well you are right of course, Anatole!

Without wishing to insult your great country, I do not really have any higher expectations for Starbucks or MacDonalds as I do for some of our own, home grown establishments.

I do remembering worshiping at the Starbuck shrine though once, and only once. I was dumped off a coach in the middle of Edinburgh one rainy morning at about 6.00. The first shop to open was the local Starbucks and they had their coffee, not instant then for sure, already steaming and hot.

Sad but true about the replacement French Pots - now I love that term even if it does sound like a STD.

And, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! Coffee and wine are not luxuries without them on that desert island, all I would need would be a shallow grave.

Those 8 discs are a problem...I love the concept but I would have to cheat, I think. There are just so many I would want to take.

I will try to list them one day on here though.

As for that island....I have to agree with you yet again. A total luxury! There is nothing I would like better than to hang out on a tropical, forested island doing all those things I love best.

By: Anatole

Anatole — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:12:00 +0000

Now I have to start calling mine a cafetiere, which I greatly prefer to the American term press pot (it used to be French press, but that went the way of French fries and all else French during the Bush administration). I assume you're like me and keep 2 or 3 replacement carafes in waiting so you're not left high and dry when the current one smashes in a tragic 6:00 AM misunderstanding with the countertop.

But come on Wolfie, do you really think the primary objective of Starbucks is to preserve haut coffee culture? Huge corporations get to be huge by not turning down opportunities to turn a profit. I like a latte as much as the next person but really, you might as well expect MacDonalds to restrict itself to free-range organic beef.

And I'm sorry, but coffee and wine are essentials, not luxuries. Actually I think living on a desert island would be a luxury. With those 8 discs, which I'll list some other time.