I'm an addict

I'm an addict.

No point pretending now.

I worship the ground caffeine spills on.

It's a rarity to meet someone in medicine who's not a caffeine junkie. Me, I picked this bad habit up (bad for the bladder) in medical school during my surgical rotation. Was waking up at 4am everyday. At that time, I was up to 6 mugs of coffee a day. When I completed my surgical exams, I stopped, and promptly developed a caffeine withdrawal headache.

Now, I've cut down. I have my first mug at home (see my Ikea french press, my little pot of Go-Juice) before I leave for work. 2nd mug (Starbucks) while I'm doing my morning rounds in the hospital. 3rd usually at lunch. And sometimes a milder cup of tea at night (Boh Tea, no less).

Although I drink Starbucks at work like a fish drinks water, everything else being equal, I think I'd much prefer sitting at the kopitiam in a Pagoda T-shirt and shorts, slurping coffee not from the cup but from the saucer. The coffee they serve is so strong that you could float a spoon on it. Would work better than ten milligrams of epinephrine during a code. And let's not forget that inch of condensed milk they add in (that would be job security for an endocrinologist).

And the ambience:

"Oi, loti kaya dan milo-ping"

"Aiyar, gua eh kia nah bi kok cho ee-seng"

Krrr-aaa-akk (sound of Ah Pek clearing throat)-ptooooeey (you know what comes next)

Hah hah hah, sound like a real Ah-Pek don't I? Oh yes, to complete the picture, sitting on the wooden stool with one leg on the seat.

I imagine that was how my late Ah-Kong and his pals used to do it.