A work at home lifestyle afforded the luxury of developing an elaborate (by USAmerican standards) morning coffee ritual. It started about three years ago while I was studying nutrition. The whole thing would last about two hours everyday, including time to prepare and to drink a café au lait while checking e-mails, reading some bad news, and getting the afternoon organized. This would conclude with washing dishes before getting started with work. Not such a bad way to begin a day.

Recently I’ve begun a process of streamlining days. I’m preparing for a return to the working world outside the one occupied in my domicile. Then I’ll have to be upon atom with the rest of Gotham. The process includes drinking a regular cup of coffee. Now in the mornings I make drip pot coffee (blend of French roast and peaberry beans) with skim milk and about one third a teaspoon of raw sugar. No French press. No boiled milk. Oh, the horror. But so far, it’s saving some time (amount tbd). And it tastes fine, though it gets colder quicker. That may be a key in time saving.

This return to Coffee seems to have been triggered by the purchase of a new coffee mug. I wasn’t looking for one (isn’t it always the case), but found one on sale at the Soho boutique where I picked a present for my friend’s brother who we stayed with in San Francisco. The mug is the typical mug shaped mug. The kind folks have a boxful stuffed in a closet or in storage, waiting for donation. It’s suited to coffee. Café au lait comes in a bowl or large glass. Café con leche in a throwaway cup.

My new mug has a pale olive green silhouette of a country fence trailing into the distance as it wraps around the mug. I love the graphic. I tend to love anything in silhouette and collect works created in the style. The aesthetic of it offers a fine compromise to the abandoned ritual of morning au lait.

Now to figure how to be less snail like in general. Less pausing, fussing, organizing, playing, and all that keeps one in a generally too slow for Gotham professional mode. Constructive suggestions are always welcome.

Buen provecho..