Decaffeinated

It’s 11:22pm Melbourne time but I am still up and typing this post while having a cup of decaffeinated coffee (with, of course, some ‘biko’ that I cooked yesterday).  I had actually given up coffee for five days after suffering from intermittent vertigo attacks for almost a week.  Thankfully, caffeine abstinence is effective for me— I haven’t had that annoying dizziness for four days now!

But my cravings for this moreish drink never stopped; every morning or even after lunch, my desire for my favourite skinny flat white with ‘half’ sugar has just been getting more intense.  This must be part of the caffeine withdrawal symptoms, though I don’t have that characteristic headache that my late dad, who was an avid coffee drinker, was describing to me when he was experiencing coffee thirst.

WHILE WE WERE CHATTING on FB Messenger this evening, my friend Anna, who is also a coffee drinker, suggested that I might be able to get rid of this vertigo while at the same time enjoying coffee.  But there’s a catch— I have to drink decaffeinated coffee!  Oh boy, I haven’t thought about it, so at 10pm I found myself driving to Coles supermarket to get some coffee.

While at Coles, I noticed a few staff down the aisle who had just cleared an entire rack to give way to a display of a wide variety of Christmas decors!  I stopped to browse along the aisle hoping that I could get something for my unit.  There were different sizes and colours of reindeer, glistening metal balls, artificial pine needles made into wreath, mistletoes, Santa’s hat, socks, candy canes and the list goes on...  Sadly, I didn’t find what I was looking for—the nativity scene poster or figurines!  Not even an ornamental star! 

I just can’t believe that a supermarket giant has never considered or thought about selling (or even displaying) a nativity scene poster when in fact Christmas is all about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.  

As I drove home, what I had was only a pot of poinsettia to adorn my coffee table with, and a small jar of decaffeinated coffee in my shopping bag.  While navigating through the deserted, dimly lit streets of Bendigo, I was thinking that I may be able to manage vertigo attacks by drinking coffee without caffeine, but I definitely couldn’t celebrate Christmas without Christ, can I?      

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Drenched

Things don’t always happen according to plans, he thought.

Just ten minutes earlier, the late afternoon, mid-springtime sun was boasting of its splendour and the blue sky beyond was visible through a huge hollow of low, thin, and fast-moving white-grey clouds hovering above Lake Weeroona.  The weather had been unfriendly for almost a week now—there were heavy rains and flooding but the condition a little earlier seemed to have gotten relatively better.  So James decided to run around this beautiful ornamental lake as if making a bold statement that he’s serious about his goal of shedding those pounds he’d gained over winter.

But after taking a few trots down the pathway, a strong gust of southeasterly wind started blowing; the cloud cover suddenly changed—it had gotten darker, instantly brought unexpected showers and freezing temperature around this man-made reserve.

James stopped running and stood on the boardwalk gazing across the lake while allowing himself to get drenched.  The people in the park—men and women, including the children on the playground nearby seemed to have vanished into nowhere as they quickly sought refuge from this unforeseen cloudburst!  All that’s left were flocks of Australian white ibis braving the rain and cold, perching on the sycamore sprigs and on the Japanese bamboo culm down the grove.

Now soaked, James closed his eyes and took a deep breath, unexpectedly inhaling the foul stench of ibis dung instead of fresh air!  Though that was much stronger, the smell reminded him of petrichor—that earthy scent emitted as the rain drops on a dry soil after a spell of drought.

Like this continent Down Under, James’ solitary existence had been through constant drought and flooding… It’s certainly uncertain; it hadn’t always gone according to plans.  His physique had gotten thoroughly wet now, almost frozen—pretty much like his spirit that’s been dampened by those unexpected storms in life.

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