Coffee and Violence...

Let me ask you something. How many times have you injured yourself while paying for a cup of coffee? Probably not that often, I would guess. But that's exactly what happened to me this evening. Don't worry, dear readers, it wasn't really serious, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the coffee itself!

Celebrating a sudden windfall, I took the wife and one of the kids to that emporium of earthly delights, Starbucks, at the Kuching International Airport. When they opened a Starbucks in Kuching, I was particularly pleased, as up to then there wasn't really a decent place to find really good coffee here in the cat city, unless of course you are counting that place in Sarawak Plaza that rhymes with "Toffee Wean"!

Starbucks is a great place to relax, and the chairs are actually built for people of my size, so I will never die from Deep Vein Thrombosis while drinking coffee at Starbucks!! You can just while away your time sipping excellent coffee and watching the world go by. If you have a laptop you can wirelessly plug into the Net, though I don't do that yet. I've only just learned how to use Bluetooth!

Starbucks thoughtfully offer a wide range of coffee-related products for sale, such as coffee beans, coffee mugs, and of course umbrellas and soft toys. And there are tempting little extras such as sweets, sandwiches and perhaps the biggest chocolate coins I have ever eaten.

But it was the coffee I was there for this evening. So, I went up to the counter and ordered my usual latte, plus vanillas and food for the others, and thought I would treat myself to a Billie Holiday CD they were selling. Then, when the smiling girl behind the counter (a former student) asked me if I had two sen change, I awkwardly poked my fingers into that little space in my wallet reserved for change, and instead of finding the requisite coins, came out with a small cut on my hand.

Now you might be asking, how on earth did you manage to cut your hand fishing for change in your wallet? Surely, Prof. Madder, you are truly a Cursed White Man!!

Well, to be honest, I am not naturally accident-prone, despite recent events. And this time, my little wallet-based incident was caused by my Swiss Army credit card. This is a James Bond tool which I keep in my wallet. It's small and blue, and the size of a thick credit card. It has a magnifying glass, tiny pen, scissors, flashlight, pull-out screwdrivers, ruler, tweezers, little pin and, of course, a dinky little Swiss Army blade.

And it was this blade that had somehow slipped out of the credit card and punctured my hand as I reached in to retrieve my coins. So this handy little device which I had kept for emergencies had found its first victim: its owner! But never mind, no blood spilt. Well, not much anyway...

But I must say the latte was excellent, for all that. My wife and nephew had a hot vanilla each and shared a sandwich and some crisps. We sat, chatted and watched all the fashionable young things of Kuching posing and chatting on their mobile phones and playing board games.

The cut was nothing, and will go away very quickly. But the experience of Starbucks is one I will cherish forever. At least until the next time I go there...