Landschlacht, Switzerland, 23 September 2017 It has been a hard year for my heart in my dual roles of teacher and barista. In the former role, I have been disappointed that my preferred profession of choice, teaching, has sadly not been as busy lately as I might have hoped. In the latter, I have been saddened by the… Continue reading Canada Slim and Our Lady of St. Petersburg
Tag: Starbucks
Oil and Blood in the Heartland 1: Hope and Despair
Landschlacht, Switzerland, 8 November 2016 King Solomon of Israel (970 – 932 BC) once wrote about life on Earth in his day: “A generation goes and a generation comes… All things are full of weariness. A man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will… Continue reading Oil and Blood in the Heartland 1: Hope and Despair
Working for a giant
As regular followers of this blog know, I have two jobs: freelance teacher and part-time barista. I work as a humble part-time barista for the largest coffeehouse company in the world, Starbucks. And I can´t deny that this results in mixed feelings. I am older than this upstart of a company. In fact, I am… Continue reading Working for a giant
Pieces of flair
I was asked the other day by Roger, a Starbucks partner and shift manager, what was my favourite film, and I must confess the suddenness of the question had caught me off-guard, especially as it is so difficult to narrow down just one title from the many movies I have seen and enjoyed and in… Continue reading Pieces of flair
Questions of character
The human mind is a strange thing. This is a truism I have noticed since I first became aware of the world outside myself. This is a truism I still encounter on a daily basis whenever I find myself amongst other people. Two conflicting trains of thought converge and clamour for dominance in my mind… Continue reading Questions of character
An enlightened age?
Perhaps doing a double shift outside alone in the Starbucks Kiosk is not a good thing for me, because it leads me to thinking about things and the way perhaps they should or could be. I confess the older I get, the more confused I become. Now while some folks suggest that this is the… Continue reading An enlightened age?
Smells like team spirit
I know…I know.. Working at a place like Starbucks, it is normal for there to be a lot of personnel change. People move away for personal reasons. People get transferred. People leave for better opportunities elsewhere. But there is something uniquely special about working in an environment like a restaurant or a cafe as opposed… Continue reading Smells like team spirit
Rooster in the Henhouse
There are situations in life when you know you shouldn’t look, but you can’t help yourself. Scenes of disaster, like a car crash or a fire, find people gawking and staring, knowing they should either help or stop staring but the impulse to simply look is irresistible. A man is walking with his wife and… Continue reading Rooster in the Henhouse