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Showing posts with label coffee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coffee. Show all posts

Friday, 22 June 2012

Warwick Diaries

Its been a full year since I wrote anything! And like always, the long gap makes me all the more conscious of what I write in this 'comeback' blog post!
Anyway, this one is about being a uni student in UK and it wasn't until my friend from India asked me 'How's life in UK?' that I thought of writing it...
Well....its fun and nice...and given the number of Indians around, you may actually forget you aren't at home.
But there will always be these little moments we'll miss when we go back home:

1) Going shopping and mentally converting all the prices to INR and then uhh...leaving a few things behind.
2) Its freezing cold and you have like a million layers on but drunk British girls walk by wearing practically nothing, screaming and puking all over the streets of Leamington Spa.
3) The waitress at Costa Coffee glares at you for not ending each sentence with a 'Please' or a 'Thank you'.
4) The fire alarm going off at 3 am at night (Seriously, why does somebody always have to try smoking in their rooms at this unearthly hour?!)
5) The cleaning lady comes knocking on your door the only day you decide to sleep till late.
6) You crave golgappas, namkeen, papad, maggi and all those things we so take for granted back home.
7) When vegetarian food tastes sucky, has no salt (of course!) and comes with fat and oily fries.
8) The Costa Coffee guy stares at you when you ask for 8 sachets of sugar (8 is normal!)
9) When the shops close down at 5 and you have nowhere to go :(
10) When u finally start cooking by yourself, discover there's always been a chef hidden deep inside you and start bragging to your family members back home (come on...I'm sure you do that too!)
11) That feeling when that essay is due the next day and you haven't begun writing yet.
12) It being sunny when you are about to leave home but raining when u do ;)
13) And when you do go back to get your umbrella, the wind ensures it is turned upside down and broken and you are drenched..
14) When you and the Tesco delivery man are down to first name basis.
15) When you feel handicapped if you don't have access to the internet (*shudder*) for even a minute!
16) When its summers and the sun just doesn't go down and there are girls in itsy-bitsy shorts everywhere (:D)
17) That moment of realization when water no longer means just water. It means either one of- tap water, still water, spring water, sparkling water, mineral water etc etc...
18) When you start categorizing the world into Chinese & non-Chinese (sorry, but true!)
19) When the pound rate starts going up just before the fee instalment due date... :(
20) And finally....when chips become 'crisps', college becomes 'undergrads', beer becomes cheaper and dissertation becomes a pain in the neck!

Sunday, 2 January 2011

A Tale of Two Drinks

I have a special relationship with coffee shops.
Inevitably, every single time I have stepped into one of those, the following happens:
First, I have to wait. Yes. Wait for the other person. Every single time at a coffee shop. For a loong loong time. Until even the most seasoned waiters start feeling sad for me. (Yes. I have actually been offered free cookies at Barista more than once. And no. I am NOT kidding). Now, I hate waiting. I know, I know...most of us don't like it. But I totally totally despise it (the free cookies do ease the uh...pain, I confess!)
Anyway, once he or she finally turns up, I lash out (obviously). And then we both start talking (or fighting or playing Scrabble) and finally, we order. The waiter gets the drinks. And I always, always hate what I have ordered. Its either too bland (the Kaapi Nirvana at CCD the other day!!) or too strong or too icy. And always, the other drink on my table is extremely inviting and great to taste. After begging the other person to swap drinks with me (I rarely succeed), and having at least half of it, I mentally make a note of the name and decide to order it the next time around. And you will so not believe what happens the next time...
I order it. And yet again, it sucks!! And the other person's drinks tastes great!
Its a vicious circle actually. I'm sure the coffee shop people do this on purpose. No! I am not paranoid! And I can't, I just can't get myself to order the same drink as the other person. It sounds yuck the first time! And it mostly is crappy flavoured- strawberry or something instead of chocolate! And yet, it tastes good. Sigh.... I wonder when I'll start enjoying my visits to the coffee shop....