The Coffee Addiction

Is it a habit, an addiction, or a social condition? Whatever - it’s firmly ensconced.
It’s not life sustaining, but it does seem to be the essential ingredient needed to kick start the day – we’re talking coffee in a paper cup.

Full grown men, resplendent in business suits, sucking on the nozzle of the lid of a paper cup. A hang over from their infant dummy days perhaps, or a more recently discarded cigarette habit? It’s not gender specific though, the females of the species
are equally ‘sucked’ in.

If you’ve ridden a peak hour escalator you’ll relate to this comic situation.
You’re standing directly behind a suit clad, briefcase carrying, umbrella wielding, coffee balancing person; it becomes a matter of judgement as to which you should dodge to avoid - a crack in the ribs, a poke in the eye, or a coffee down your front

I’ve watched bus, train and ferry passengers on a short commute, either sitting or strap hanging, clutching their precious morning coffee fix without touching a drop. There are those that put it on the floor for safe keeping and then promptly kick it over leaving a trail of lukewarm milky liquid that makes its way under the seats. There it stays for the rest of the day unless some unsuspecting person accidentally uses their bag to soak it up. If the carrier and the cup do make it to the office the cup often gets knocked over in the flurry of the morning’s activities. Result – a soggy keyboard or worse still, a drowned laptop.

During office hours these same coffee addicts punctuate their day and hence the time they spend at their desk, with frequent trips out to get another ‘fix’.

City bins overflow with discarded cups; that’s if the drinkers subscribe to the ‘keep Australia clean’ message. If not, you’ll notice these wayward cups dumped on ledges, in gutters or heaven forbid, on a vacant table of an outdoor café.

Office workers haven’t got exclusive rights to this ‘sucking’ compulsion.
Bus drivers have cottoned on to. Here’s a real life experience: It’s the end of a shift, time for a change of driver. Passengers sit patiently while the driver checks the destination board, ticket machine, and then for a place on the dashboard to rest his coffee cup. Passengers pray that we will stop at every red light, not a prayer you’d normally want delivered, to allow him time to finish his coffee before we reach the peak hour CBD traffic.
He has competition on the inside lane; a sweet young thing, in a mini minor, is doing a juggling act with, you’ve guessed it - a coffee, a mobile phone and a steering wheel.
What guise will this socially acceptable norm take on next, how about coffee on a kebab or coffee tapas perhaps?