Comfort Food

Things are pretty stressful at the moment, what with the "GFC" (as the knobs that use TLAs call it), general uncertainty over what this year will hold and bad vibes hanging over from the holidays (yes, I'm a bit of a grinch). The last thing that I needed was for my espresso machine to break down. My fault, really; I always say that pressurestats should be regarded as disposable parts and I didn't have a spare on hand. My friendly local supplier had a spare sitting around for me, but, of course, in a spectacular convergence of bad luck, inattention and stupidity, I managed to over-tighten the nut and break the fitting, which fit in nicely with my shocker of a week last week. Fortunately, it was Makin to the rescue again, cannibalising a spare machine to give me yet another part for what would otherwise be a two and a half grand paperweight.

I can only presume that MC Escher started drawing as a way of making notes on an espresso machine that he had dismantled. Seriously, though, it doesn't get much easier than this.

I knew the instant that I perambulated over to the machine this morning that my luck had changed. I love most forms of coffee and have been enjoying heaps of brewed coffee of late, but it's easy to over-analyse. Cappuccino is a totally unique form of coffee; comfort food for any barista. There's something soothing about taking five minutes out to make a cappuccino, half-asleep, with brain still in the 'off' position as your arm rocks back and forward in a pattern rehearsed a million times. No need to try and sort out malic acid from lactic, TDS 1.2% from TDS 1.4%, atitlan from huehuetenango. No need to think about who I need to chase up about what. For a few minutes, I just sit back and enjoy the warm, chocolatey foam and pretty pictures.

Come to think of it, there's something oddly soothing about late-night blogging, watching with amusement as my stream of consciousness sprawls, whilst my sentences grow ... and grow ... and grow, attaining nightmarish numbers of commas (and, let's not forget, the occasional parenthesis) ... damn I need a cappuccino!