The two 'information sessions' I delivered, one in Sydney on Monday and the second on my way home, in Truro on Tuesday went very well. Monday night's stay in Truro did not meet with my approval so the least said about it the better. The place stank of stuff that some hotels seem to spray around to pretend to that 'fresh air' designation that gives me an asthma attack. No such yuk in Sydney; and that's my new standard to measure any subsequent hotel experience.
It was again a long time without good coffee and I have a new theory about coffee in most restaurants. I now think it is made by boiling stove pellets. Disagree with me if you can!
Today was the second to last day of my contract and things are in nearly settled down mode--I'm still responsible for a final report and I'll do that later in June--after I've had a bit of a rest/break and can think clearly again.
The entertainment on my Cape Breton jaunt was funky business names: Den of Antiquity, for an antiques place; I would have enjoyed visiting had I had time to stop, just to meet the folks who thought up the name; Herring Choker, a small cafe for great coffee and sweets; and Yellow Cello for a yummy pizza. The Herring Choker is outside of Baddeck and the Yellow Cello is on its main street.
So, now that I have proven to myself that yes I can do that most idiotic of things, drive an 1100 km round trip in three days, I think I'll leave off setting endurance goals for the time being. I have other options for goal setting that won't be quite as hard on my bones. Although as I write that I wonder how hard the massive de-cluttering and cleaning project I'm about to undertake will be on the bones. I may have to put out a call for reinforcements, and most certainly for heavy lifting help.
In a previous post I said I hoped to soon be at a place where I ate something other than pasta. So what am I looking forward to tonight?--of course, pasta. I need good pasta to remove the taste of too many days of restaurant food from my memory. Onward to dinner then....
1 comment:
A belated remark or seven on the subject of bad coffee... I feel your pain. The problem is that most places that serve so-called "coffee" as part of their menu (as opposed to places that serve coffee as their main menu item and oh Starbucks, I take back all those mean things I said about you) make their coffee first thing in the morning and then put it in a vacuum pot. It then sits in there until it runs out, at which point (and only then) a new batch is made to go through the same punishing cycle of degradation. Most coffee aficionados know (as I'm sure you do) that coffee is really only at its best for an hour, tops. The café at the bookstore I used to work in realized this and changed out the vacuum pots, but even they only did it every four hours, which is plenty of time to let the water start to evaporate and the resultant paste to get all acidy and gross. It's like pouring yourself a pint and then just letting it sit out for a few hours.
Now you add to this problem the use of low-grade beans and possibly substandard cleaning practices, and what you have is your (I'm totally stealing this phrase) 'stove-pellet coffee'. So it's really no surprise, and the safest thing to do is allow Starbucks to blanket the earth.
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