Free Coffee from the Coffee Machine
Tuesday, January 24th, 2006 -- J. DoeThis morning I showed up for what was supposed to be the first day of a two day temporary assignment.
I actually only worked for 5 hours because at the last minute the big guys in the head office in another state decided to cancel the project us temp workers were supposed to do, so the office in which we were located sent us home after 5 hours of doing ‘busy work’ such as filing, making tabs for notebooks, alphabetizing mail and hole-punching documents, boring stuff that everybody in the department obviously didn’t want to do because some of the stuff I was filing was dated from October.
The company had a coffee machine, and the actual employee who actually requested the service of temporary workers offered us both some coffee.
I have never seen such a machine before in my life. It was free, like in most business places in the US, but none that I have seen in Italy.
There were numerous choices too, some of them being teas and hot chocolates. You can even turn the flavored coffees into cappuccinos!!
The coffee/tea/hot chocolate comes in little sealed packages. You insert them, still sealed, into the machine which opens them and adds water. Like many coffee machines there is a digital display telling you when the coffee is being prepared, or is in fact done.
Having lived in Italy for several years, I have become accustomed to the habit of drinking several cups a day. I started my day with French Vanilla Roast. Then 2 hours later I took an Espresso Roast Un po’ schiffo (a little disgusting) as they say in Italy so I spilled most of it out and drank instead a Hazelnut blend.
Before lunch I slowed down a little and drank a decaffeinated House Blend. It tasted pretty good, so after lunch I had a caffeinated House blend.
I washed it down with a Japanese Green tea. Later on in the afternoon I drank a Columbia blend. I was pretty much well caffeinated by then.
MMm .. cafe. My kind of gal. I drink far too much though. That does sound like an interesting machine. I’ve not seen anything that does ALL that.
Good you had at least 5 hours with the temp agency. It’s a start.
I have seen these machines in Italy, there is one at the questura in Torino and one in the hallway of my ASL building.
Thanks Deborah,
It felt good to work,well, make holes in paper and file at least
Gina,
North Italy is probably more advanced then Central.It was a newfangled machine for me, even though I have seen ones with digital writing before. The coffee machine in the office was great.It had a lot of variety and the coffee was free. Too many coffee machines near me were for payment and ‘non da il resto’ or didn’t give change if you paid to much.
YUCK
Don’t you just love the Boston Tea Party!
Thank God for good history!
Having spent 3 months as a temp I know exactly what you mean by doing boring office work that nobody else wants to; and I know of that coffee machine too! It’s awesome! Take advantage! You deserve it after hours of filing!
no way! JUST TODAY I too (during an interview here in Manhattan…omigod) saw one of these machines for the first time….INCREDIBLE!! I opted for water at that point because I’d already had enough coffee…but man, way cool!!
PS should i move to NYC/CT?
I think a move to NYC/CT would not be bad. Or a move to NJ either. As they say in Newsweek magazine ‘NJ-it’s not as bad as it smells’ HA HA HA (It’s a nice place, really. We just let everybody else in the nation rag on NJ as a sort of population control)
Wow I feel caffinated just reading what you drank! I’m thinking it must suck to come off a high like that if you aren’t with coffee for a day.