The Perspex Bubble and the Safety Search

So – Cardiff today. Starbucks for a while before the All Wales Humanist event.

This actually involved some work, and possibly some equivocation – you be the judge.

As I’ve mentioned in previous entries, it’s a little warm to be sucking down big mugs of steaming hot coffee at the moment. But the cold options at Starbucks have always been relatively calorifically heavy – and I speak as a man whose normal order in the cold section is a venti de-caff skinny coffee frap.

When I got there this morning, I scoured the dietary information chart for alternatives. Now, Starbucks veterans will tell me “Dude, just get an iced coffee.” Which is all very well, but that’s entirely unsweetened, and I’m a fiend for artificial sweetener. I tend to add a lot to my hot coffee, and if you try and do that to an iced coffee, it kind of just sinks to the bottom, refusing to play no matter how hard you stir.

So I found a compromise. It IS a frap, and so technically, given my history, you might think my avatar issues would kick in – if it’s OK to have one frap, then what’s the difference between that and, say a full fat mocha choc chip frap with cream?

However, oddly enough, I seem to have developed a Perspex bubble around the question. My normal venti de-caff skinny coffee frap apparently has an even skinnier version – a venti de-caff skinny coffee light frap.  That cuts the calorie count down from 250 to 137 per large cupful – it’s basically a cupful of ice, hope and betrayed dreams, but it works, and as I say, I seem to have developed a Perspex bubble around it where the avatars of full-fat creamy deliciousness can’t touch me. I mean, granted I sound like the ultimate coffeehouse yuppie trying to order the damn thing, but it works, so who cares? Takes it down from being a meal-surrogate to being on a par with a large mug of ordinary coffee, and that’s good enough for me right now.

Met d after the event, and we went for lunch at Carluccio's. Technically, this had the potential to be the biggest meal I've eaten since Tuesday. I had a starter of toasted bread with goats cheese, raw tomatoes, peppers and spring onion, and a main of more goats cheese, roasted peppers, pine nuts and assorted leaves in a balsamic dressing. Had...at least some of it. Regular readers will know I'm not a natural salad-eater, but oddly enough, today I had to choose between two different salads, as they were what appealed to me most. 

Came home and had what might be described as a violent biological reaction. Then got on the bike and pedalled to a lacklustre 400 calories, having walked around Cardiff an equivalent of 500 calories during the day. Add to that three Starbucks, at roughly 137 calories per cup and the walking nullifies the Starbucks. The 400 calories might take the edge off the salad. So I'm left at 9PM with a calorie deficit of a single piece of dry toasted bread, and a heap of raw vegetables.  There will probably be more before I close my eyes (at least one more coffee, I imagine). But still all in all, not bad. Back to walking down the Trail in the morning, prior to a barbecue at Ma's in the afternoon - need to burn off a bunch of calories before indulging in that proteinfest. And on we go...