Baker Street Station, 8.45am, every day:
I sit bolt upright on the bus and peek around to see that as per usual, everyone else has, like me, just awoken, or is still in the midst of what I like to call the "Greenline Coma". No matter how loud you turn up your ipod, stare intently at the words on the page in front of you or even hold your eye-lids in a desperate bid to keep them open, the Greenline will get the better of you - sooner or later you will succumb to the deepest of sleeps.
I scramble around for my belongings, stuffing my book into my Bayswater, while hurriedly checking the seat for a forgotten glove or heaven forbid, my phone. Hitting people by accident with my many bags,
I hobble lethargically down the aisle, croaking a thank you to the driver as I jump down on to the pavement.
Just one thing is going through my head at this point - must. have. caffeine.
But it's not just any caffeine that I crave, it's Starbucks caffeine.
I've got it bad.
Really, really, BAD.
I wake up with good intentions - every day is a new day...
I say over and over in my head - today Charlene, you will not, I repeat, NOT buy a Starbucks coffee.
But somehow, before I know it, temptation has won and I am overcome with guilt as I catch myself using the stirring stick to desperately scrape the sides of the cup for those last frothy remains of my soya 'cap'
(yes we're on nickname terms now).
And the worst part? I've usually given in before 9.30am.
You see, I pass three Starbucks on my way into work, which is quite simply, temptation personified.
Even if I make it past the first, there are still numbers one and two to beat and after an hour and a half's commute, with let's not forget, the "Greenline Coma", I rarely make it past number two without a coffee in hand. There have been a few occasions where I've made it to stop number three before bowing to pressure, and just the once, I abstained completely, arriving to work empty handed and caffeine depraved.
(That is until the clock struck lunch and Starbucks won once again.)
So I've decided that when Lent hits the calender in 2011 - La Voguette will be caffeine-free
(yes, I could try giving it up as a New Year's resolution - but that's a little too close for comfort right now). Until then, I'm going to savour every last sip of my weakness and just remind myself that it could be worse:
Two coffees at once Mary Kate? Might be time to sign up to Starbucks Anonymous...
