2011 Streak 87/365: Walk - 4.95miles, Time - 1hr 30min, Weather - sunny spring day
A regime of cycling and walking has one great advantage over running - it is both easy and pleasurable to stop at a coffee shop. In cycling the ride to a cake shop and back is an established tradition, with walking it is just obvious that a coffee tastes better after you have earned it.
Of the coffee shops in Hemel the two I like are Tiki and Starbucks. Tiki ought to be my stone-cold favourite because it uses coffee from our local roasters (Smith's) but I mostly go to Starbucks.
It might seem odd to support the big multinational that a few years back was the focus of a lot of hate from anti-globalisation protestors - but it doesn't feel like that. It is not impersonal and it is staffed by people who are both friendly and nice. I was struck by this the other day as I watched one of the girls help someone who had cut his finger. She cleaned the wound and applied the blue catering plaster with care, almost as if it gave her pleasure to be helpful. I don't know if her unselfconscious good nature made the person with the wound feel better but it certainly lifted my spirits.
They also do a good job with the coffee. Usually I drink a flat white, which takes care and attention to get right and one of the guys there takes great pride in doing just that. I was talking to him and he said he had been in New Zealand (where the drink originated) and he had been amazed at the number of coffees he had that were better than the ones he made. So he came back and practised until he thought he had it mastered. You can only applaud his attitude and I know the practice has paid off because I drink the results.
I hold no brief for Starbucks as a whole and draw no conclusions about other branches. All I know is that coffee shops are places I like to go to to think or read, and the mood is terribly important. I like the mood of the Hemel shop.
Today's picture is another in the series of watching the seasons. It shows the development of an apple tree bud.
1 comment:
Mmmmm, flat white.
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