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06/24/2002 Entry: "Frothy Coffee"
Ever tried to get a decent cup of coffee on the move in the UK?
For those of you unacquainted with the UK's highway system, our motorways have semi-regularly sited service areas, with gas stations, food, toilets, etc. They are the only rest locations on the motorway, and their operations are dominated by two companies, Welcome Break and Moto. There are a couple of smaller operators, but they don't count for shit.
So these two big guys have a monopoly - so they are generally expensive, and naff quality, but both companies have tried to make improvements recently, having been massively slated. Included in these improvements is a guarantee of "great coffee and clean toilets".
On this journey, I travelled late in the evening, between about 8pm and Midnight, so I needed caffeine! I stopped at both companies, and I was told "Sorry, you cannot have cappucino at this time of night". The alternative was some nasty-looking stewed filter stuff, which you have to buy by the pot (holds 3 cups).
OK, I was confused. The espresso machine is sat there, and switched on. Is there some strange "blue law" which says that frothy coffee can only be served between the hours of 8am and 6pm?
Apparently not. It just happened that the member of staff working was too fucking lazy to give the customer what they wanted. Hell, it's not as though it needs a real barista - these are "push button" dispensers, the machine actually does all the hard work including foaming the milk!
Oh yeah... their toilets are still covered in stray pubic hair, cigarette butts, and smell of piss...
