food

a week without coffee

by

No coffee for one week now.  The last coffee I had was 1/3 Folgers, 1/3 Starbucks house blend, and 1/3 nothing but empty space.  The second-to-last was one spoon of Folgers and the rest Starbucks house blend.  Before that, nothing but straight high-test espresso beans steamed in a mocha pot.  But all that’s history now.

I had a couple of days where I ate enough Tylenols and ibuprofens to kill a good sized horse, but I’m pretty much in the clear now.  Only 2 ibuprofens.  So what are the side effects of quitting almost cold-turkey?  Headaches, a couple of backaches, sleepiness, and, believe it or not, sore hips.  Yes, three nights in a row I woke up during the night with sore hips.  I never would have imagined.  Yes, it could be from something else, but I don’t believe so.

So – will I ever drink coffee again?  Hmm.  I once went 346 days without coffee overseas.  I walked by a Starbucks on Jungang Ro (Street) and had a triple Americano.  I remember the euphoric rush of caffeine wash over me as I sat at my little round table with a copy of the IHT.  Utter and complete bliss.

All that is a distant memory now.

Oolong

by

I’m drinking Oolong tea these days.  I did a search on Ask.com.  According to Caffeine Informer, the average cup of Oolong has 37mg of caffeine.  My Starbucks Americano (tall) has 150mg.  And their Pike Place – I was surprised at this – has a whopping 235mg of caffeine!  Good gawd.  So this is why I’m switching to tea as my “second cup”.  Eventually I plan to go without caffeine.

You probably don’t know this, but my nickname from way back is Oolong.  The Wife gave that to me.  Why?  I still don’t know, but it’s probably because it sounds like Allan in some languages & cultures.  Good enough reason to switch to tea.

when drinking coffee, time … flies

by

During my days looking for employment daily and practising engineering & architectural stuff, I sometimes head to a coffee shop.  There’s one close by called Good Earth.  Nice surroundings, nice enough people.  The coffee’s not fantastic – a bit on the weak side – but good enough.  Free refill.  Good scones.  I commented to a server that the music playing was good.  Then, 10 minutes later, a person in the back turned it to something else – “You’re no good, you’re no good, you’re no good, baby you’re no good,” repeated the lyrics over and over and over and …  <sigh>  I left.  I used to go to Starbucks (MMDS), but there are so many flies there that it makes it impossible to concentrate on anything I’m doing.  The coffee is always good.  Yesterday I went to the Starbucks downtown.  Also good coffee.  I once waited about 20 minutes for a coffee at The Penny Coffee House.  Good coffee, nice enough surroundings, but so busy that it took forever.  I couldn’t complain because the staff are all working full-tilt.  But sometimes it’s just nicer to sit at home and continue working.  Cheaper, too, for someone not employed.  Unfortunately, staying in the house all day makes the day drag on.