First thing a jet lagged American might want upon arrival in Sydney is coffee. You know, the simple comfort of a routine; so I approached the Quickshots coffee stand mid-morning while killing time before my flight to Cairns only to find some strange terms on the board of caffeinated offerings, along with the usual espresso suspects. After a friendly comment about this being my first time ordering coffee in Australia and an equally friendly response defining the options of "flat white" and "long black," I said hopefully, can I just have regular coffee with lots of cream? The friendliness continued but I was informed of that I would, in fact, not find poured cream on the . . . continent.
What?! My wobbly mind began to race about the next 2 weeks without cream for morning coffee . . .
Oh, I said, weakly, can I just have a latte?
And by the way, somewhere along the way I lost the entire day of March 13 . . .
