Coffee time

Anyone fancy a coffee?

So if George asked you if you’d like an NESPRESSO, he would no doubt flash you a smile and regale you with some witty banter about some Million Dollar heist that he had pulled off, while making it.

You’d ignore the fact that he has clearly forgotten that he was only acting, and isn’t actually a criminal genius (unless you count getting paid so many millions, just for snogging Juila, and acting very badly, while nurses work so damned hard for a pittance – which is both criminal and indeed genius), and smile.

You’d laugh at his witty banter, and occasionally catch your partner’s eye, as both of you try and guess which one of you he is hitting on; both of you will try and decide if you can realistically say no if it’s you.

You would take the proffered coffee and relax, letting the combined smoothness of the drink and its creator, massage your troubles away.

Yes you would.

I love barmpots me.

I am constantly drawn towards a good old fashioned nutter, and last weekend saw that role filled very nicely by a very good friend of my Father-In –Law, called Paul.

These guys went to college together in the days when men were men and the Pop stars of the day were Mick Jagger, David Bowie and Liberace. As I said these were the days of men!

Actually, I don’t know who the Pop stars of the day were, perhaps Pop hadn’t been invented yet. It is difficult to be sure.

To get vaguely back to the point, these guys have been very good friends for a long time and it shows. Their genuine warmth for each other and each other’s families is highly evident and an inspiration.
It was due to this extended friendship that we came to be at Paul’s daughter’s 40^th birthday party. And mighty happy I was to be there too, as they are a solidly nice bunch, and well worth the journey to Bristol.  

They are, of course, a bunch of barmpots.

Especially the two old friends.

Never more so than when they are together.

Mind you – Paul can be quite eccentric by himself.

Take his coffee machine for example…

The shiny new Nespresso machine sat proudly in the corner, waiting for its moment of fame. It got it.

Each and every person at the party was offered coffee, and each and every one of them had to be shown how it was made. “Here let me show you how it works” Paul would proudly say, before dragging them over to slowly learn how “first you press this button here, and that just puts some warm water in the cup – you don’t drink that, I think John might have been given that earlier actually, he said his coffee was a bit weak. You don’t drink that though, you throw it away. Meanwhile you pop one of these special pots into here – look at that, it goes in just there, then – and look, here is the old one; can you see the little holes? It pushes the water through there somehow. Anyway, then you throw that old water out, but the cup is warm now, so you press this button and…”

Everyone got the tour.

Everyone got the coffee.

I went back three times for two very good reasons.

Firstly the coffee was good. I’m not a big coffee guy, I’m more into tea, but this coffee was real good. You coffee aficionados may disagree – but I for one am a Nespresso convert!

The other reason harks back to the basic point that I’m making about people. You see, the repeating tour and talk about a coffee machine should technically have been boring. It should have been a chore to go through just to get a drink.

But it wasn’t.

Paul is just mad enough to pull it off, and keep making you laugh – not always at his jokes, but sometimes at his sheer nutter-ish-ness. That may not be a real word, but it should be. With enough caffeine inside, I went outside to hear about the birthday girl’s day feeding lions….

Barmpots – the lot of them!

If you want a cup of coffee made by someone suave, sophisticated, cool and sexually ambiguous - then head to L.A.

If you want a nice cup of coffee made by a mad old maths teacher who continually makes you laugh and feel very welcome in his company, surrounded by some very decent and insanely friendly family – then head to Bristol.

I’m sure Paul will make you a cup, if you ask.

Photo - http://rtf305-f10-07810-bnc475.blogspot.com/2010/09/george-clooney-frames-delicious-coffee.html