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If there’s one thing that will get an office full of government employees out of their seats, it’s coffee.

Recently our social club organised a coffee machine so people in the building could buy cheaper coffee than the cafeteria supplied. While I applaud their reasoning for doing so (the cafeteria jacked up their prices), I can’t believe how much attention the thing has picked up.

I find myself forming strong opinions on things that aren’t really that important to me. For instance, since selling my car and riding to work more often I am in disbelief when I hear about people driving 8 minutes to work rather than riding or walking. I end up labelling them all sheep and just disregarding their opinions from then onwards. Ok so maybe it’s not that bad, but I guess you could say that it “fuels the fire”, the fire being my hatred for lazy car drivers. People that could be walking, riding, jogging, and catching public transport and usually have no good reason not to do so.

Coffee is fast becoming my newest and biggest gripe. I’ve always been in tune with my hydration. Right now as I’m typing this I know that I need more water, even though I’ve had a good 5 pints of water already today. It’s only recently that I have realised the affects that different foods and drinks have on my hydration, and how important it is for myself to be hydrated.

Up until about a month ago I used to have the occasional black coffee. I actually like the taste of it, but recently my “stand” is more important than my need to drink coffee. I’ve quit (until I go to Italy next year). There are a huge number of people in my office, and obviously worldwide that start their day with a coffee, have another coffee for morning tea, then have a coke with lunch, and later have another coffee for afternoon tea. If their body is lucky it will finally get some water with dinner! Living like this is terrible for your body, but it’s so accepted that I’m the freak for not having a coffee in the morning, and for going to the toilet every hour.

Anyway, this is my gripe and I’m sticking with it. Now do yourself a favor and drink a glass of water!

Ok, so not the roses as such, but riding to work this morning I saw what I usually do – some very dodgy driving because someone was obviously in a rush.

I’ve always found that riding to work is an excellent way to slow down your life. The time doesn’t just fly by as much as it does when you’re driving a car. You’re actually taking things in around you, seeing the interesting, beautiful and often hilarious things that are happening in the world.

As I mentioned, this morning I saw a very near miss of a car crash. Last week I saw a motorbike try and overtake a truck on the footpath, then almost stack it into a light pole after literally skidding to a halt and letting the truck past. I know what it’s like to be behind the wheel in peak hour – frustrating. Changing lanes to pass the slow driver in front of you, having someone cut you off, and always trying to get through each light before it goes red.

Obviously this extends much further than driving a car. Slowing your life down has many positives. There is just so much going on in this world, it’s really cool to take it all in rather than being involved in it all.

A few months back I was catching up with some friends in the city for a drink after work. I was about an hour early so I just decided to grab a beer and wait for them outside on a chair in the sun. All sorts of things passed me by and it was a really enjoyable experience. Nice looking girls, those pierced goth types, a couple of homeless people all walked past. A truck did a reverse parallel park into the smallest parking space I’d ever seen! Pretty much everything I saw was interesting in some way shape or form. Maybe I should start doing that more often instead of watching TV for entertainment?