Coffee Shops

Yes, the 6th Weekiversary came and went and I totally didn't have time to blog that Thursday...anyway, today I thought I'd blog about Starbucks because of something that happened today which was a huge wake-up call for me.

When it comes to coffee places there's no dearth of them on the Red Dot. Walk down a main road for about 10 minutes and you're likely to come across one (unless you really live in the middle of nowhere) Apart from Starbucks, there's Coffee Bean (closest to my home), The Coffee Connoisseur (aka TCC which has really good food and interesting iced concoctions) and Coffee Club (which again is at the mall near home but which I've never visited to date). Each is good for its own reasons, but there's something about the smell of coffee that hits you when you step into a Starbucks outlet that catpults me into a state of ecstasy that is unrivalled by any other cafe.

I don't remember whether it was the first time I went to Starbucks, but my earliest memory of the place was meeting my dad there the first year I came to the Red Dot and he travelled here on work. We met up there and had coffee and muffins :) At the time, it was one of those places I never considered going to unless a parental unit was there to pay, and dad doesn't mind paying more for a good cup of quoff-ee!

So today after lunch at Pastamania (yes, maniac is aslo a pastamaniac), I dragged my best friend to Starbucks for my weekend treat of an ice-blended coffee (ordered the "light" base which is 1/3rd less calories apparently, must be low-fat milk and less sugar). So I dig out my wallet and realize I have exactly 4 dollars when in fact I should have about 40, having withdrawn $50 the previous day. Suddenly it hits me that the Pastamania guy didn't give me back $40 change, and I was sure I had given him a $50 note and not a $10 one!!!

I ran back to Pastamania, stuck the bill under the same cashier's nose and asked him to count the cash he had in there and check if he had $40 extra. And in fact he did!! Wheeee!! Thanks to Starbucks, I got my $40 back and learned a good lesson about paying attention during cash transactions!!! If I hadn't made another purchase after lunch, I may not have even realized till dinner, which may have been too late if they had cleared the cash register or something!

Ok, that's it from me. The gymming and light dinners continue, except last evening I had fries *hides in shame* I will work out extra-hard tomorrow to make up...