A (not very) Ambitious Goal

I once read about an ambitious man who had a goal of visiting every Starbucks coffeehouse in the USA. I can't see how he did it as there must be more opening all the time.

It has inspired me, however, to set a similar goal here in Ireland. I hereby declare my intentions to visit every Starbucks in the Republic of Ireland!

Umm...ok, so there's actually only four at the moment, but I've been to two so I'm half way there already. I'll keep you posted.

I went to Starbucks (Harcourt) to spend an hour studying for an essay I'm writing about the mission of the Church in post-modern culture. I didn't get an awful lot done as my seat by the window allowed me to get distracted by the world as it went by.

I did enjoy my blueberry muffin and fair trade coffee. For all people say about Starbucks I do appreciate them serving fair trade coffee as a regular feature. I'm a keen supporter of Fair Trade.

While I was reading, a woman came in and stood just inside the door talking on the phone in quite a loud and upset manner. It seemed a business deal was about to go down the tubes. She did have the courtesy to step back outside to finish the conversation and I couldn't help watching her from my window view. (Who wouldn't?!) It did make me grateful for the life and career that I have that shouldn't lead to too many stressed phone calls on the run. I like my life!

My wife and daughter showed up shortly afterwards from their trip into the city, but only came in for about a minute when we were all informed that they were going to do a routine emergency evacuation that is standard practice every six months. I thought this was strange as they only opened two weeks ago.