That half cup of coffee

I may have mentioned this before, but there’s something deeply unsatisfying about leaving half a cup of coffee – or tea, or anything else you might be consuming because you have to dash off somewhere. This morning we were going out to meet friends at Dunster Castle, and aware of the possibility of traffic we wanted to leave earlier than otherwise. Of course I found lots of last minute things to do, clean Graham the goldfish (not him personally but his tank) deal with a blockage in the bathroom basin, find my phone/cards/charger/notebook/pen etc and make a cup of coffee – and of course, it was then too hot to drink. I got in the car with everything I needed, including bottles of drink because of the weather, and the crossword, but left behind was the half cup of hot coffee. I found myself dwelling on it – it was only instant coffee, but I’d made it to perfection, it was a waste (I’d heat it up when I got home but it wouldn’t taste as good) and I had a real sense of dissatisfaction. I know with all the terrible things in the world an unfinished drink is barely anything, I knew that at the time too, of course.

I’ve mentioned this to other people, and some have the same silly feelings of frustration at that perfect but half-consumed drink left behind because it was too hot to chuck down your neck. I did heat it up when I got home, but it didn’t taste the same. I could have poured it into a flask, but something about drinks being in flasks changes the taste of them. It’s different if you make a flask of tea or coffee to take out with you, that’s all part of travel or picnic.

What’s even more silly is we drove down to Dunster, met our friends, had a coffee sitting by the mill stream, looked at the watermill, walked round the castle grounds, had lunch, strolled along together catching up with each other’s news, ambled back to the cars, hugs, and then headed home, and what is on my mind is the half cup of hot coffee I left when I dashed out to jump in the car first thing! Ridiculous!