What were you doing when…?

I've been drawn into another meme by Ali! This time it's about significant events in recent history from my perspective. Here goes…

Princess Diana's death – 31^st August 1997

I was assistant director of a Salvation Army summer camp for children in north-east Ohio, USA (Camp Neosa). The main season had ended and the kids returned to school, but for the last couple of weeks in August we ran sessions for others – older people or church groups. As I recall it was Labor Day weekend and people from Salvation Army churches across north-east Ohio had gathered for the annual 'Camp Meetings' – worship services, bible studies, BBQs, hanging out. It was always an easier pace than the rest of the summer so I quite enjoyed it.

It was over breakfast on the Sunday morning (5 hours behind UK time) that someone came and told me what the news was. I think at first I thought they were joking. Obviously they weren't.

A few days later on the day of the funeral my girlfriend (now wife) came over to my apartment at about five in the morning so we could watch the funeral. Two things about the funeral struck me. One was a marvellous piece of choral music that I don't actually remember what it was called, but all the way through it was a sustained pedal-point drone sung by the basses. The other thing was the images of flowers being thrown on to the hearse as it drove along its route.

I can remember thinking at the time that there seemed to be an awful lot of fuss about this woman and it wasn't as if Mother Teresa had died. That happened six days later on 5^th September 1997.

Margaret Thatcher's resignation – 22^nd November 1990

I wasn't particularly interested in politics in 1990 and so couldn't say for sure what I was doing when this event took place. I do remember the striking photo of her in the car leaving Downing Street – the Iron Lady, crying.

Attack on the Twin Towers – 11^th September 2001

I'm sure for many in my generation this will be our JFK-assassination-where-were-you moment.

My wife and I were just a couple of days into our training for ministry in The Salvation Army at their theological college in London having moved to the UK from the States earlier that summer. We had had some kind of introductory class in the morning followed by lunch with our "session mates" and staff. The afternoon was set aside for official photos. It was after we had been photographed and were walking down a corridor that a member of staff stopped us to say that there had been a plane crash in America – the full extent of what had happened was not yet clear to reporting media. (I could tell a similar story of travel news reports on the radio regarding a malfunction or "power surge" on the London Underground on 7^th July 2005).

My wife and I returned to our little flat to continuing unpacking and arranging furniture. I decided to turn the TV on to see if there was anything on the news about this plane crash. What we saw shocked and stunned us and will forever be imprinted in our minds. One of the towers had been hit by a plane in what seemed to be a horrific accident. A few minutes later we watched as the second plane struck instantly changing the perspective of the scene.

As the afternoon progressed lots of people came around to see us and ask about my wife's family – a thousand miles from New York. We assumed they were ok, but it was impossible for quite some time to get a phone connection to the USA so great was the demand for communication.

My wife planted a small American flag outside as a symbol of solidarity. I was touched when, later that evening, I noticed that some of the teenagers whose parents we were training with had placed a few candles by the flag, and a hand written prayer.

England's World Cup semi-final v Germany – 4^th July 1990

I was a teenager living in Felixstowe, Suffolk. A few friends had come around to my house to watch the game and we were all bitterly disappointed with the result. I have a feeling one of my friends kicked a bird table in our back garden and broke the top off. Later on, as we wondered through our small town centre that evening, I saw a Germany football shirt in the window of a sports shop. I spat at it. (Not a very proud memory that. Sorry.)

President Kennedy's Assassination – 22^nd November 1963

Umm, if I was a teenager in 1990 I'm sure you can appreciate that this event has very little emotional attachment for me. Like Ali though I have enjoyed the conspiracy theories.

Right, now I've got to think of a couple of people who could have a go at answering these…

I'm going to nominate my wife even though the only two that will really apply to her are items 1 and 3 – both of which I was with her at the time. It might be interesting to hear her side of the same event.

I'll also nominate jsi and miz melly.

Finally, I am going to randomly choose a complete stranger by clicking the "Next blog" button above. So…

mints it's over to you! (Poor girl has lost her snail).

Begining of the End for Starbucks?

Ali was kind enough to think about me today as she read a news report on the BBC's business pages. (I'm not sure what I'm more impressed about - the fact that Ali thought of me or that she reads the business news!)

It looks like Starbucks are planning to close 61 of its stores in Australia - more than 70% of its business! This reminded me of news last week that for the first time since Starbucks went public 16 years ago they have encountered a loss in their quarterly finances. Is this a sign of changing times for Starbucks?

However, I have more conclusive proof! I decided to take my game of visiting every Starbucks in ROI a little more seriously and have knocked off a few more from my target. (Look out for a future blog about this on 17th September).

Currently, the Starbucks website for the Republic of Ireland shows that there are 25 stores waiting to be visited. My current figure is 15. (Although it could be 16 as I can't remember if have been to the one at Liffey Valley shopping centre. I should have taken photos!)

BUT, I have my suspicions that Starbucks are not as big as they say they are! I recently noticed that there were two listed in Blackrock. I'd already visited the one in the old Post Office, so I purposefully went back to the town last weekend. There was no trace of the second store and one of the baristas at the Post Office told me they were the only ones. On closer inspection of the website listing the "second" store is given the same street address that the Post Office is on. This double listing also causes me to doubt that the details of the store at the IFSC in Dublin and a store on Custom House Quay are not two separate stores, but one. The IFSC is located on Custom House Quay!

But wait, there's more!

The clincher for me that Starbucks are in trouble is the fact I have noticed in a couple of their stores (and I presume nationwide) that they are offering FREE REFILLS on their filter coffee. Now, I whole heartedly welcome the introduction of free refills (most places on this side of the Atlantic are too tight to make that offer), but I have never come across this at Starbucks. Bring on the loyalty cards too!

What does this mean for Starbucks in Ireland? Interestingly, what could this mean for Starbucks in Dalkey? (Check out some of the comments since I posted a while back).

I don't know! What do you think?

What I do think is that I better finish my game quickly before I wind up with a sense of failure if a store closes before I get to it.

Cup Holders - Breaking News!

In order to combat the mind numbing task of grocery shopping (I'm not sure now how it wound up as my responsibility) I decided to go to a different store than usual. I went to a local store of the chain referred to below - and low and behold they had trolleys with "cup holders". Plus a separate holder for the scanner gun!!! (And one for a bunch of flowers).

Could it really be a cup holder?!?

Yes!

A regular latte was swiftly bought from the store cafe and I went about my task in a much better mood.

Salad, onions, (sip, sip) bread, milk, cheese, (sip, sip) washing powder, orange juice, (Hey, look at me everyone. I'm drinking a cup of coffee while putting frozen peas in my trolley).

It just felt right.

Cup Holders

I once read that in America one of the primary issues for many people when buying a car is how many cup holders it has got. Whether or not this is true I do not know. I like to think that it is as it would be a factor for me given the choice. My latest car has no "real" cup holder in the front - just improvised one that are very likely to cause an accident one day. I actually think that the car manufacturer has purposely left out cup holders in the front (there are plenty in the back) in order to discourage drivers to be drinking coffee/tea/whatever while driving in an unsafe manner. They might have a point. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has put a vehicle worth thousands of Euro in jeopardy just for the sake of trying to balance a hot cup of coffee and a donut worth less than five Euro.

Anyway. I happened to go into a grocery store today (a slightly more up market store than usual) and I noticed an addition to the traditional shopping trolley. It was a cup holder! This is a great idea and one that I have been waiting to see implemented for a while. Truly, I am a man before my own time.


Hmmmm, hang on. On further reflection, I wonder if it was actually a holder for the automatic scanner gun that some stores let you take around the shop?