Green Engine Coffee

I live just a minute away from Green Engine Coffee. Somehow I managed to resist getting daily coffees last year, but this year not so much. It’s probably because my class schedule is light, so I’m not in class often, but my workload is heavy, so I need a place to work. I’ve tried working at home so as not to spend too much money on coffee at cafes I loiter at, but I never seem to be able to stay on task in the comforts of my apartment; the desire to cosy up and do nothing is too strong!

But despite the many mornings and afternoons I’ve spent at Green Engine, I’ve never gotten any food there before. When Grace (my friend and neighbour!) told me about her weekly ritual of grabbing Friday morning brunch at Green Engine to celebrate surviving the week, I was happy to join her!

I treated myself to salmon gravlax toast and orange rooibos tea, and Grace got avocado toast and an iced mocha, her usual. It took me enormous restraint to order tea instead of coffee, but I figured that since I was spending money on food, I should spend less on a beverage.

I try not to order avocado toast at cafes because they’re so easy to make yourself and there’s really no need to go out and buy avocado toast, but I had heard good things about Green Engine’s avocado toast. Since the avocado toast was Grace’s usual, I decided to order something different (for the photo, and also so that we could try each other’s and taste different things).

Green Engine’s avocado toast is good. They use some kind of sauce?glaze?vinaigrette? that’s sort of sweet and sour, whereas the salmon gravlax toast was more savoury and sour.

Above: Grace waiting for me to finish taking photos.

Below: Trying and failing to get my feet out of the shot.

Sometimes I go days without seeing my closest friends. Often because “I’m too busy” or “there’s no time.” But there’s always time to grab a meal; I mean, you gotta eat eventually!

For some, mealtimes are dedicated to doing more work, but at least for me, I can’t eat a proper meal and do work at the same time; multitasking just slows both processes down. The best activity for me, whilst eating my meal with two hands, is an activity that doesn’t require any hands–chatting with friends.

Admittedly, it was easier for me to grab meals with friends when I lived on campus and could swipe into the dining halls myself because I was on the meal plan, but now it’s a whole chore of figuring out who has enough guest swipes left to swipe me in. But there are so many other options. I can pack my own meal from home. I can have friends over. Or we can all eat out. (Guess which option is my favourite ;))

It’s just a matter of figuring out what’s important to you and what you’re willing to make time for. You can’t just call on your friends when it’s convenient for you; you have to make time for them. Yes, make time. No one is going to give you the perfect opportunity, the perfect moment, the perfect snapshot in time to do something, whether it’s to catch up with a friend or to start that darn project. You gotta go out and take that time for yourself.