Coffee Culture

Had a pleasant day down in the Borders yesterday. Visited the wee village where my parents were living when I was born. My Uncle A was boarding with them, having just come out of the army. Uncle A worked in a sawmill, and drove a big truck all around the Borders towns, so he has stories of every place we pass through.

We were standing on the other side of the road, looking at our former abode, when a woman came out of the house. She was going to her car, but happened to look across at us, and did a double take.

'Uh oh! A couple of suspicious characters casing the joint' she probably thought.

I shouted across to her that I used to live there 61 years ago, and she came across the road with a look of relief. She said she was in a hurry, otherwise she would have invited us in. Not that I'd remember anything of the house, but Uncle A would. She told us her name and we said we might come another time. I immediately forgot her name, but Uncle A remembered!

I love going to the Borders towns. There are some very nice shops, pubs and even bistros, but there are also some cafes and shops that haven't changed since the 1950s. We had lunch in an especially fine example of the latter. I was agog at the decor. And not in a good way! They're also keen on yellow cellophane to protect their window displays from the sun. The sun! Even during normal summers, it's not enough to warrant yellow cellophane!

A rather grey morning. I felt a bit weary, so I did something I haven't done for ages. I stayed in bed for another hour and watched Silk again on my iPad. I watched it last night, and I'm devastated it's the end of the series. It was so well acted & scripted - the whole series, I don't know why we don't have the Guardian chattering classes raving and blogging about it, instead of as well as the Nordic dramas. Not a peep. Must be the (lack of) subtitles.

Did a bit of painting when I got up. No, not finishing off a portrait or a landscape. I wish! Painted the tiles in the fireplace of one of the bedrooms. And I didn't get any paint on my clothes, so that would be a first.

Went round to the nice camerashop man bearing my old cameras. Had to go past the coffee shop. Actually, several coffee shops, but I wanted to blip this coffee flow chart, as there seems to be a lot of confusion about flat whites out there in blip-land. You can check out the flow chart better on LARGE. I saw a comment on another journal asking if it was an alcoholic drink. It's because Brits have been consumed/subsumed by CostaBucks coffee shops. That is not coffee as it should be drunken. Nobody needs those massive cups of watery 'coffee'. Support independent coffee shops!

A friend lives in a trendy suburb in Sydney (where they really know about coffee), and a Starbucks opened shop next to a popular independent cafe. The locals flock in their droves to the independent cafe with beer crates on the pavement for seats, and nobody went to Starbucks! Too late now in the UK, because those American chains came while you (I wasn't here) were all busy drinking tea. But DownUnder has always had a coffee culture.

List of annoying things (contd)

This is cheating, because I've never done it, but apparently Starbucks now ask for your name, and then call it out when the coffee's ready! They think this is 'customer friendly'.

"Lady Marchmont! Your flat white is ready!"

"Well? Bring it here, my man!"