Coffee

Coffee is a widely-consumed stimulant beverage prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the coffee plant. -Wikipedia

I still remember when I was a wee tot and watched my mom drink her sacred cup of Nescafe everyday. I still remember how my dad orders his cam si kosong every morning from the char chan teng outside my house without fail that all he has to do is walk into the place and is served the drink in the next nano second. I also remember tasting my first coffee and how bitter it was that I thought adults were mental to drink something like this. It was during that period too that I did not understand why adults read news in the newspaper while I flipped straight to the comic section nor why they will insist the rest of the world stood still while they watch the 12am news on TV3 (at the same time asking my siblings and I to shut up).

Adults to me back then, were weird people. But my parents will say - you will understand when you grow up.

And now I have grown up. Evolved and realised why adults drink coffee.

WHY you ask me. I understand why coffee is the master of us all.

Because, there is really nothing else to do in any work place during break THAN to drink coffee. When the wards are quiet with no patients, staff cluster into the coffee room and boil water to make coffee.
When the clock strikes the hour and its tea time, the nurses rush to the staff mess and click on the switch to brew coffee.
Heck, even when the waiting room is chock full of patients with their legs chopped off, the doctors will rush in and say 'I will have a 5 min break for coffee.'

And of course there is the whole social stigma attached to it.

If you are in the staff room and someone asks, 'Would you like to have a coffee?'
You cannot really say No. It is anti social.
As everyone sits around the meeting table discussing top secret acts like how to bring down Lehman Brothers or how much Merrill Lynch is going to be sold while sipping at their steaming mugs of coffee, you sit biting your pen.
As the doctors have their grand rounds discussing what to do with Mrs A who had a heart attack that is complicated with a collapsed lung and kidney failure while sipping coffee, you sit chewing the edge of your patients notes.
As the Presidents of both countries meet to discuss international issues and policies while sipping on their exclusive coffees harvested in the 1x1 km patch of fertile soil only found at latitude 15 and longitude 20 of the globe, you sit fiddling with your thumbs.

No, not having a coffee is not socially acceptable At All.

Besides that, the power of coffee to re energise and prevent the onset of sleep in the fatigue soul has long been accepted as an universal truth worldwide.
So when you feel that bit sleepy, you say, 'I need a coffee'.
When you feel bored, you say, 'I need a coffee'.
When someone says you look tired (and you actually had 10 hours of sleep), you say, 'I need a coffee'.

And you have it regardless whether you need it.

Since starting being in from 8am-6pm everyday, I find myself with nothing to do during break times, other than to drink coffee. Because when someone asks if I would like a coffee, I do the socially correct thing and say yes. Because when we cluster around during a tutorial, and the tutor tells us to go get a coffee, I do the appropriate thing and get one. Because when someone offers to get you a drink, it will undoubtedly be coffee.

I now truly believe why coffee plays such a big role in our society.

Crap.
I think I need a coffee.