A Touch of Pink

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Well, at about 11:30 this morning it stopped raining. I’m not holding my breath or anything. It’s been raining pretty much straight out for three weeks now, but the sun and crisp air have a feeling of permanence that they haven’t had during their brief appearances over the past many water logged days.

My hope is that we can actually hit the beach, instead of the mall, this afternoon. When it’s cold and rainy I’ve been all about the coffee and especially the Gingerbread Latte, but with the return of summer weather, I quickly reverted to my new found addiction - the smoothie.

I realize that in some of the warmer climates in the US, smoothies are a big thing. But in the places we’ve tended to live, we can get a smoothie by just throwing a cup of yoghurt out the window onto the snow and then scooping up the mixture. The point is, the northeast, and especially Boston with its two week summer, tends to be too cold for me to really get into smoothies. But down here I’m a fanatic. Everyone seems to be. There are smoothie bars scattered about on every corner here in the same way that ‘Mackies’ (McDonalds) are in America.

The best part is that the smoothie baristas infuse the same gung-ho, wildly enthusiastic, venturing into almost dangerous maniacal excitement, into making and selling smoothies as the rest of the Sydneysiders do about life down under. They love to sell and make these things. And I love to buy them.

There are always long queues at the smoothie bars and we all hold ‘loyalty cards’ in our hands, eager to get another stamp on our little paper wheel cut to look like an orange bursting with nutritious flavor. Our loyalty cards have our names on them and so we are greeted like long lost friends.

“How you going Esther?!” They practically shout at me. (And yes, the phrase is ‘how you going’ here instead of ‘how are you’). “What’ll it be today hey?”
I’ll hum and hmph but I always get the same thing, the small Raspberry Relief. Because here’s a secret -- no matter what size you order - they always give you a jumbo. In all their giddy happiness to share their smoothie goodness they always scoop far too much yoghurt and fruit and they always blend mad amounts. And as they see it, no point in wasting it all, rather they always happily hand me a drink two times the size of what I ordered. As they say down here, I am gobsmacked by this.

The final bit of sales pitch that I happily buy into is the “extra shot”. In America I’ve always been so disdainful of the ‘wheatgrass shot’ or the ‘shot of protein for energy’. But down here, I can’t help myself. What could be better than walking along the beach with a jumbo size tub of smoothie, then with one that has been fortified with all sorts of magical things guaranteed to fix everything that ever ailed me?

One of the smoothie bars I frequent even has nutritionist on staff to help make “shot recommendations” and there is nothing he can not match.
“Hmmm,” I might muse, “Today I’m feeling a bit tired with a touch of joint pain in my left knee.”
He’s got it covered. “No worries! You need a shot of pummeled berries infused with three anti-oxidating seaweeds. You’ll feel heaps better!”
Or I might say, “Well today I feel a bit of ennui coming on and last night I had a nightmare.”
He’s ready. “Love, what you need is some mountain grass that 100 happy cows have stampeded across with a touch of kiwi mold.” (And yes, being called, ‘love’ is an almost hourly occurrence - - I’m over it).
I could even go with, “You know I feel great! Not a care in the world. I’ve never felt better.”
“Fantastic! Hey mate, she needs a good strong shot of carrot blended with golden snail shells, keep that happy feeling all day long.”

You see what I mean. They are just wonderful. Today I ordered a small Raspberry Relief and mentioned that I had recently gotten over a nasty cold and I really hoped I wouldn’t get another one for the rest of my adult life. They whipped up some sort of shot full of, I believe, pixy dust and kelp perfectly designed to give me superpower immunity to colds. And of course they made about a gallon of it.

So now I’m drinking the leftovers of my vat of Raspberry Relief and I’m tickled pink by it and by all the excitement and energy that a single drink can embody.

Speaking of pink, tomorrow night is Les’ office Christmas party. When I asked, as every girl does, what the dress attire would be, Les sent me a copy of the invitation. The dress attire calls for, “Lounge . . .with a touch of pink”. Seriously, that is verbatim.

I will report back as to whether or not everyone shows up in pajamas with pink slippers or, if perhaps lounge means more like lounge lizard, in bad Las Vegas style garb.

I will probably ask my smoothie barista tomorrow to make me a special shot to help me look my best in my loungy pinkness - - and the thing is, I have no doubt they will have just the thing.

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Comments

[Capn George]

Just what I need
I can't wait to get to Sydney. What I really need today is a smoothy with a shot of something to handle a 30+ page spread sheet chock full of four-line long boolean formulas. Instead, all I've got is coffee.

[Cbo]

Touch of pink - so mod- so fun!
Es - Les' office party sounds like a blast - love the lovely mod look - so fun! You will have to tell us all about it and post pics when you post your lollyhouse. Cbo