Sugar, yes please!

'Can I have a coffee please?' I asked a wait staff at Gloria Jeans after a couple of months of living in Australia for the first time. 'What would you like to have?' he asked back. 'Ummm coffee??' 'Yes darling which one?' Okay, now I was annoyed. 'Which coffee? and now DARLING!' Looking at my facial expressions, he explained the variety of caffeine I could have. I had several options such as cappuccino, mocha, latte, salted caramel, piccolo, flat white and the list go on. "Oh wow, he is polite and has a soft voice." 'I would like a latte, please.' Then came again, 'Small, regular or grande or tall?' Okay, now I had it. Finally, after 10 minutes of rational thinking, I settled for a small latte.' Phew, what an effortful task to have a coffee!😅

A bit of shock for me. Back home I would have either tea, coffee, cappuccino, or cold coffee if I was out, and those were the only options when I was there but for me nothing actually, I would settle for plain water every time. If I was to reflect back at my home country, I would get an annoyed and irritated wait staff if I was taking too long to order. This is a trivial gesture to help your customer who is really scrunching and struggling to understand the menu. Nonetheless, I love people's humble and warm acts of assisting at any time here. More like I think I have accustomed to little act of kindness from a total stranger. You go on a walk, people smile and ask, 'Hey, how are ya? Great day, innit?' as if they know me. Even their poodles are friendly and love a tummy rub from anyone and they don't bark. Who the heck says 'hello' back home to an unknown person?😕

Okay, coming back to coffee. It had a horrible taste, frankly. No sugar! Yuck! My husband had the same and he seems to enjoy his cup. I recalled, he used to have less sugar. Could I have asked for sugar when I ordered it? Usually, people would have sugar, don't they? I went back and asked for sugar literally. He smiled and said it was at the table, the sachet ones. 'Can I have a spoon to mix it?', again a stupid question. 'We have a stirrer there, darl.' I am sorry, a what? There, again, my expression said it all. He came all the way to our table and tore a long sachet, there it was. So, THIS is a stirrer. I gave him a warm ashamed smile and apologized. He patted my shoulder. I looked at my husband, he gave me a silly smile but praised me for making an effort to get my way around the coffee shop.😄

Now, I don't go to coffee shops; I am not a coffee lover anymore. Just kidding, I have settled for white-hot chocolate instead, it's much simpler to order. No hassle for sugar and stirrer! And its rich, creamy, frothy and has sugar, just the way I like it!! Oh oh, catch you all later. My white-hot chocolate is calling me, it's chilly here in Australia now.😜