On Coffee Blogging

When I commenced writing about my subjective coffee experience I had no idea of just how interesting life would become as a result of writing about coffee.

I am now immersed in another world - a caffeine fuelled subculture as complex as any sociologist could desire. Me - I'm in it for the coffee!

The interest in coffee - and writing about it all happened at the same time that Junior Grendel Number One was diagnosed with autism. We like many families, received services from the Autism Association of WA and it was probably inevitable that the two should interact.

I deliberately have kept coffee as a hobby, I like my work and don't wish for my hobby to intrude (too much) on my workplace, and keeping my coffee blogging in the 'hobby' sphere has also been a good thing. It turns out that life is not that simple and now I see an amazing tapestry that weaves through my life with people from work, family, organisations and businesses all linked through my coffee hobby.

This has been an amazing experience and when we started fundraising for the Autism association the response from the coffee community was the most generous that I have ever seen. As a parent that makes me immensely grateful, as a coffee lover that makes me very proud.

Lately I have not been getting out to many cafes - I don't eat much at the moment so I tend to skip most of the morning treats I used to indulge in. I am finding however that I miss the people in those cafes and I miss writing about the experience that can be had in Perth's best coffee venue.

I'm going to make an extra effort to get back out there and see what is on offer - I can't promise my writing will improve much, but I'll work on it.

I do find that I want to write a blog at the most inconvenient moments - usually while sitting in a cafe with nothing to hand but an already used paper napkin and more than one blog post has been sketched out around a smear of jam.

I've not managed to attach to myself the enviable technological blogging aids that I have seen in the hands of others. I have 'borrowed' Junior Grendel Number One's laptop on more than one occasion when I knew that I'd be visiting a venue I wanted to cover in depth.

Tonight I saw a competition for a laptop and it is a good one - pretty much what any blogger could dream of - however I think I am going have to work on my creativity a bit to win it. The competition is based on skill, not luck, which is good since it inevitably should promote people's creative juices.

I'm struggling tonight though! Perhaps if I opened that bottle of port and alternated that with shots of espresso. . .