Rainy Day Trinity

Thanks for all the good wishes re the cold. On the good advice of TJ and my friends at Shipley Health Store, I've been dosing myself up with Elderberry Complex and Vitamin C and Echinacea. It seems to be holding the usual symptoms at bay. The sore throat and sniffle of yesterday have gone away but I've had a very heavy head today.

I had a date to meet up with a friend in Leeds at lunchtime so that got me out of myself a little. We enjoyed a sandwich and a coffee in Laynes, near the station, and very good it was too - not quite up to the dizzy heights of Creative Breads but then they happen to make the best sandwiches in the entire world!

We got to talking about coffee because they take great care with their coffee at this place. I love my coffee and I'm quite fussy about it too, but for me that applies to the context just as much as the taste. I don't drink coffee at home, nor at the office, despite us having a decent coffee machine. I only have coffee when I'm out and about. I seem to feel the need to reserve it as a special treat. I do find, though, that it never tastes the same in England as it does in France or Spain. I'm an addict of a tea drinker at home but when I'm in Europe I only drink coffee. A café au lait or a café con leche imbibed at the top of a col after a long hot climb on the bike is a heavenly experience that cannot be replicated back home. Everything, chemically, could be reproduced, but the experience of that taste couldn't be. The context is the most vital ingredient of all. Our every experience of the world is coloured by context in that way. Sometimes it's good to be reminded of that.

Thanks B.