I used to think having a go-to name for Starbucks and similar places when ordering coffee was a little rare, but it turns out tonnes of people use one. I've been using one for years mostly because the staff can hardly understand my name at the best of times, never mind when there's noise from the coffee or ice machines. Then there'd be the slightly embarrassing moment when I'd have to spell out my name a little too loudly so they could write it on the cup. It took me a while to decide on "Kevin" - common enough that the non-English language staff will have heard of it; uncommon enough that the person in front of me in the queue is unlikely to be an actual "Kevin" (that happened one time when I was a "Chris", back when I chose a random name each time, and left me in a fluster). But I must have it easy compared to people with non-European sounding names who try and persevere with their real names.

I found out pretty quickly after going to lunch a few times that when places where asking me was I eating in or taking out, it wasn't just so they could offer me a paper cup or a tray. There's 20% VAT on any food just to sit down and have it there! Whether the shop wants to charge you or not - I'm used to the idea of having to pay more to sit in and drink you're coffee, but this is a little ridiculous. Obviously the places selling the food agree. How many times have said I was getting take away and then changed my mind and sat down..

I must have drunk more coffee in the last four years than I did in all previous years combined. Coffee is a big thing here, much more so than back home. As I'm sure I mentioned before, in our previous neighbourhood I could count more than 30 cafes off the top of my head within 500m of our apartment, and only one of them was a chain. Two of them stayed open until 10pm every night. The very fact that Australians know their coffee and cafes was one of the main reasons Starbucks had such a hard time here, having had to close most of their outlets. I used to wonder how, with so many cafes competing with each other, they could all stay in business. But walking around in the Saturday morning sunshine you can easily find all of them bustling; plates of breakfast and coffee served to tables on wide terraces, people reading newspapers or with families and friends. Lingering as long as I wanted over a perfect flat white, under a big parasol on a warm afternoon is something I doubt I'll have much chance to enjoy again and is something I will sorely miss from Sydney.

A couple of weeks ago in the weekend newspaper there was an article on Sydney-siders getting increasingly diverse/snooty with their coffee tastes and it mentioned that there were a few places now serving Kopi Lewak. One of those places happened to be a cafe/restaurant next to the train station where I go to work. After another article appeared in the free train newspaper featuring this particular cafe (complete with a guy contorting his face at having tried the aforementioned brew) I decided I'd have to go and try it. This stuff is apparently the most expensive coffee in the world, and at $9 for an espresso they weren't feckin joking. Or maybe that was for the lemon "palette cleanser" at the start. I don't usually drink espresso either but the waiter recommended that it was the best way to "appreciate its rich and subtle flavours". Yet desipte the beans having been delicately roasted after being eaten and passing through the digestive tract of a small asian mammal, I couldn't taste anything different at all, and kind of wished I'd just drank it with milk (blasphemy!). The presentation was pretty though.

Seems even the BBC have taken note of Starbucks failing in Australia. Reading their article though, it seems to just say that Australians are too cool and sophisticated for Starbucks. I'm sure there are plenty of people in thriving Starbucks cities like London might disagree..

It seems that Starbucks are closing a whole load of branches in Australia, reducing from 60 something to 20 something and shutting a couple of the branches I went to. Not really sure why, as cafes always seem to be full here and most chains (Starbucks in particular) usually seem to have really small locations, making it tough to find a seat a lot of the time. There're not many cafes in Sydney city centre that you can just relax for a couple of hours as they're almost always really busy and small. And especially in the city, hardly any of them open past 6pm. Just like Dublin. link link

Went into a local cafe today for the first since it opened after renovation a few months back. This was a place I used to call in to on the way home from work a lot, and it was a handy place to take lessons. Practically the only place that stayed open passed 7pm, I could never understand why everywhere always closes so early. The place doubles as a small gallery which helps the atmosphere a lot too. Coincidently it happened to be the same day the place was reviewed in the Metro, and an issue of it was strategically placed at every table, open to the appropriate page. And on top of everything else (or most importantly) - e2.40 for coffee...that pretty much beats anywhere else.