I've been pretty tired this week and unfortunately, my sleepiness seems to have coincided with a series of unfortunate coffee events. This photo illustrates what my desk at work looked like this morning. Clockwise from left: my favourite coffee mug from Joe in New York; the plunger from my Bodum French press inserted into the boss's Bodum filtre Belgique coffee mug; someone else's tea mug; my broken French press; the filter part of the boss's Bodum caffeination device; Papa's KeepCup* from the Missing Bean (Oxford's only independent espresso bar).


Because I am lazy, I use my Nespresso machine to get my first caffeine hit before I go to work. If it wouldn't feel too indulgent and if the machine were quieter, I might have bought a Nespresso for work too. Instead, I got one of Bodum's three-cup French presses (their "cups" are tiny because this makes a good mug-full of coffee), which produces pretty good coffee, especially when I'm plying it with a particularly nice blend of ground coffee (I usually buy from the Espresso Room). However, at work we regularly get emails from the facilities department warning us not to let a single coffee ground fall down the sink. As such, I get quite paranoid about emptying the coffee grounds into the dustbin and some mornings, when I haven't yet had enough coffee, I am rather too brutal with my poor little French press.

Earlier this week, I broke another French press, cracking the glass on the bin. As the crack was near the top, I tried making my coffee anyway, putting less water in, but of course, when I poured the coffee, it leaked all over my desk. The following day, I borrowed my boss's Bodum filter. I knew my coffee wasn't ground correctly for this coffee maker but I didn't expect the water to just fall straight through into the cup, taking only a tiny amount of coffee with it. It looked like black tea and tasted awful but I drank it anyway. This morning, I made myself an espresso first thing and then made myself a longer drink (I'd call it a dry cappuccino, although it's what you get if you order a double macchiato in Caffè Nero or similar) in the KeepCup to take with me on the journey into work. This tasted nice but didn't quite provide the second caffeine hit I'm used to.

As you can't replace the glass beaker in the French press model, I will now have to buy another French press. But perhaps I would be better off buying a steel version that I can't break with my super-strong arms. These are, of course, more expensive but given that I've got through two French presses in 18 months (or maybe a year), the unbreakable version might make better sense. And yes, I realise this post could have been tagged #middleclassproblems...

*I've been admiring the KeepCup for a long time. I like the design, they come in lots of different sizes and you can choose your own colour scheme. I haven't bought one yet though because I didn't think I would use it. I mainly drink macchiato in espresso bars but I'm not going to carry around a plastic cup in my bag just in case I decide to buy a coffee. As a commuting tool, however, it might work for me--especially on those occasions when I can't make coffee at work.

My Moleskine NYC city guide is all fired up...if only I were ready to go! I'm only taking three days off work to go New York tomorrow morning but from the number of hours I spent in the office today, you would be forgiven for thinking I was going for longer. Now I just need to turn my control-freak tendencies from work mode to holiday mode.

J'arrive, NYC!

The easiest way for me to do this is by updating my Moleskine NYC city guide, writing down the addresses of new espresso bars, shops, restaurants and cocktail bars that might merit a visit. To make life easier for myself, I tend to record these in a Google Spreadsheet (which has the same tabs as the notebook--coffee, cafes, restaus, bars, shops, things to do, places to stay, places to avoid) and then copy them into the pending section of my notebook before a trip.

But to get myself in the mood for an NYC trip, I sometimes read some of my old NYC-themed blog posts; some of my favourites can be found in the Bex and the City tab. As for what I'm going to do on this trip, I haven't made a formal to-do list but I expect that it will involve most of the following (many of these are not new things for me):

• Go to directly to J. Crew. Do not pass Abercrombie. Try not to hand over more than $200. I find my J. Crew shopping is usually more successful if I haven't perused the website beforehand; however, I hope the pink skirt I like is still there, in my size and (preferably) on sale.
• After my J. Crew desires have been sated, I'll be visiting the new-to-me Kate Spade boutique. Oh, and on the subject of shopping, I'd also like to visit Market NYC, where I will probably buy yet another colourful necklace. 
• Check out some more new espresso bars from NYT's The Scoop list. Last visit, Bluebird, Think Coffee and Everyman Espresso were all new discoveries via The Scoop. La Colombe Torrefaction is on my to-caffeinate list and as I'm staying in Midtown, Zibetto will definitely come in handy pre- and post-Central park running. 
• Speaking of running, I will definitely do at least one circuit of Central Park; maybe two, unless I decide to run over Brooklyn Bridge on the second run instead.
• The High Line will, no doubt, feature at some point (unfortunately, I'll miss screenings of Strangers on a Train and Some Like It Hot).
• I certainly hope I'll be drinking an exquisitely mixed cocktail, preferably somewhere new like Mulberry Project; well, or my old favourite, Employees Only.
• I don't have any new restaus on my list since my last visit, but I would happily revisit Pulino's, Minetta Tavern, Five Leaves and Fanelli's.

When I first heard about the BBC TV programme The School of Saatchi, I assumed it was a sort of Apprentice meets Mad Men. My first job (all right, fin de millénium work experience) was at Saatchi & Saatchi's swank Charlotte Street offices, although having just checked out the modern-day Cassandra that is Wikipedia, it seems that neither Saatchi has been involved with the once-eponymous Saatchi & Saatchi since 1995.

Actually, SoS is about art. Innit. Like The Apprentice, there are some candidates who have chosen from among thousands of applicants for their ability to look good and/or be annoying/funny on camera artistic potential. Each week, the six chosen artists work on a different project--this week it was creating some public art for various locations in happenin' Hastings; this week, it was bringing Sudeley Castle into the 21st century with some, er, interesting contemporary pieces.

The best bit is that although ultimately, Charles Saatchi gets to decide which artist will "win" and get to exhibit their work in the Hermitage and have their own studio for three years, renowned curator--I mean, notoriously camera-shy--Charles Saatchi doesn't actually appear on the show or meet the candidates. Instead, he conveys his opinions through one of his gallery team (I can't help but think of Jane Goodall).

As the candidates/artists don't have to live together, it's not quite as intense as The Apprentice--indeed, they even had their mums and boyfriends to come to help them set up their installations this week--and personalities aren't quite as intense as on The Apprentice.

There is, however, one guy who is a little bit of a drama queen, threatening to throw a tantrum every time one of the others might ruin the impact of his leaning towers of chapatis. Then there's the terribly kooky, gamine one--the panel and Charles can't decide whether they love her or hate her but Tracey Emin thinks she's great if that holds any currency. Also, two of the other guys look very similar to each other--OK, so they just have big, messy, curly, dark hair but even so, it's hard to tell them apart when they are both quiet and mumble a lot (last week, the cuter one was wearing a hat, which made life easier). The two others are a lot saner and I liked their work the best (in the sense that, I am a magpie and I like pretty, shiny things).

Another similarity to The Apprentice is the way the editing makes it sound like the artists are constantly uttering pretentious crap. After the kooky one's installation (a tasselled curtain tie thing attached to a rotating wire) broke and failed to rotate, she said: "I've decided that I've always liked the potential in movement but not the actual movement" [emphasis mine]. Later, on hearing philistine members of the public who have just seen her art criticise it: "I just don't want anyone to speak when they look at the work."

On The Apprentice, the candidates excel in failing to answer the questions "why should I hire you?" and "why shouldn't I fire you?" They can talk for minutes at a time while attempting to address the question and still manage to completely miss the point. On SoS, the equivalent question is, "why is this art?" Again, none of them really comes up with a decent answer and almost all of them seem surprised to be asked this question during the "mini-interview" stage of the application process. "You mean you can't tell?" you can hear them think. "But art isn't quantifiable or even describable!"

The real difference between the two programmes, though, is that on The Apprentice, when the candidates mess up, you can tell and you can laugh at them and their foolish mistakes and watch them get slated (and, sometimes, fired) in the boardroom. On SoS when the artists screw up (chapatis going mouldy, funny rotating tie rail thing breaking, mirrors not slotting into shelves, etc.), I really can't tell when looking at the finished product, especially when they just justify how they meant it to be like that all along.

But what would I know? The only art I like is art with history attached--portraits from the fifteenth and sixteenth century, mainly--and even then it's mainly for the stories rather than for the aesthetic pleasure.