STARBUCKS!!!

I finally have it! The first cup of Starbucks coffee in 4 months. It's been soooo long :( .  I'm in Oxford for my first proper MRI since the craniotomy. And it's too cold for me to wander around. I forgot how pretty Oxford, even mid-winter. I almost regret getting here 2 hours early but that's just perfect time frame for sitting in 'bucks having a drink. Funny bit is I would have gotten to headington and hour earlier but trains heading south from Banbury were facing severe delays as the result of broken down freight train. Fun day for rail staff.

It's been a busy day already. First job was to get to a drs appointment to ask my dr to write a letter to send to the benefits office on my behalf.  I am hoping it will be enough to make them reconsider suspension off the housing allowance because, while I am pursuing other avenues to get my payslips, it will be cutting it close if I do get them in time. At the moment I have to hope the benefits team will accent bank statements. Bloody frustrating. The worst part is I'm not even blaming the benefits team; it's their job. Although the best part of the day was my dr advising me not to go back to working with them. Highlight.

But I guess I am going to have to go into my savings sooner than planned either way -_- I need new glasses, sooner the better. The prescription difference is substantial enough that I get eye strain just walking around town. Working the mail-out at age concern was fun. Had to keep stooping or bringing the envelopes uncomfortably close to my face evey time there was a snag.

My daily dose of Starbucks

Today I am enjoying a Toffee Nut latte.   Mmmm, Starbucks.  Now right here imagine I'm saying that as a Homer Simpson impression.   Like Mmmmm, Donuts.  But now I have a problem.  I can't hide my addiction.  It's right out there in the open.  So here's a list of the reason why I go to starbucks.

It makes a great away-from-home office.  My addiction to Starbucks began when He Who Shall Remain Nameless (Oh I bet you just sniggered at that) got us studying for essays those many months ago when I was still in uni.  Of course, I already frequented Starbucks at that point, just not nearly as often. Utilizing Starbucks as a home office was a turning point.  It just made such a convenient place to study.  You could sit for hours, use the free wi-fi and no one would bother you.  There was even coffee on tap!  I fully admit to writing 60% of my degree in Starbucks.

You can sit in there for hours nursing the same drink.  This is perhaps the best element of the Starbucks visit.  It makes the perfect retreat when you've been caught rain, waiting for a bus, or just hanging out.  I've sat around for a whole day and not once been badgered by staff into buying another drink.  This, of course, may be because I'm such a regular that they know I will come up eventually for seconds.  Or it could also be because generally they don't care provided you don't get cheeky.  In fact, the few times I have actually seen management ask people to leave or buy a drink it invariably involves teenagers who think it's perfectly acceptable to take up seats for hours without anyone purchasing a drink.  Or the homeless...  But they tend to be more forgiving towards them.

Free Wi-fi.  This is pretty much self explanatory.  There are plenty of places with free wi-fi these days but I've always found Starbucks one of the more useful places to stop because you don't need a password or to sign up.  Just connect you device to the Starbucks Openzone signal and hit connect on the Starbucks page that opens up.  Simple.  No hidden costs, no giving away phone numbers or emails.  One simple connect button click and you are one.

Coffee.  Nuff said.  Starbucks coffee isn't the best.  In fact it's so weak I used to order extra shots because the standard number of shots was insufficient.

You can study people.  So this is admittedly a personal hobby of mine.  I often found myself observing people looooong before undertaking a degree in Sociology and Psychology.  If you ever are curious about human behaviour just sit in a crowded place and listen/look at what's going on around you.  This always makes for great material if you regularly create any form of art, whether it's writing or painting or what ever.

And finally - You can even meet people.  Better yet they aren't all weirdos!!  Yep, that's right, have interesting and unusual conversations with complete strangers.  Just beware of the loonies...  I have fled Starbucks to escape people before.

Hand blended soaps!

On the left I have a batch of coffee soap made with recycled filter coffee (kindly given by Starbucks, as I am not at home and they coffee I have access to is instant). On the right I have orange citrus blend sitting a professional bikky tray. These are intended for family so I don't need to worry about fancy loaf shapes since they are not for sale.


You wouldn't believe how much trouble these were. I bought a cheap hand blender to mix these. It burnt out on a failed batch yesterday so I had hand mix these. Took me 30mins and the blended soap mix was no where near as thick as normal when I ladled it out because hand blending is so much slower.

Of course the hand blender burn out cause it was cheap crap from asda who, while the delivery service was fantastic,substituted my important ingredient for a cheaper lower quality one that was not fit for my purposes. Unfortunately the ingredient they substituted was the lye which meant I lost two batches before I went and bought more

My exciting Starbucks life

I have traveled all the way to Oxford and what do I do? Sit in Starbucks! Like a proud starbucktonia.... :)

My top reason: I can get a filter coffee + free refill + free wifi and sit in Starbucks in comfy chairs for hours on end.