Make that: love, coffee, and a new French press
Guess what the first item on Jonathan’s “Things to buy when you go to the States” list is?
It was a dish-washing accident. The water was so hot. The soap so slippery. It could have happened to anyone.
And, the thing that really upsets me is that Jonathan had to deal with it all on his own. No coffee-loving man should ever have to sweep up the glass from his own shattered French press. It’s just not right.
Thankfully, our friends just received a replacement for their cracked, but still functioning, one. (We stock up these things. You’d hate for yours to break and the next mule, I mean person, isn’t coming over for another month.) Because they love us and care for our marriage, or they just don’t like us when we are on Starbucks withdrawal, they lent their new one to us.
Life without our French press is something no one wants to see.
Because – as much as it pains me to tell you this – sometimes, love just isn’t it enough.
Sweet dreams and flying machines 
Why are there no Starbucks in Vietnam?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100517041803AAiWeFU
I don’t know why it isn’t here. There isn’t a McDonald’s either, which is really strange to me since they are everywhere. I have heard different reasons including some listed on that site – Vietnam won’t comply with Starbucks’s standards being a major one – but don’t know for sure.
There are other coffee shops (Highlands Coffee, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Gloria Jean’s Coffee) that carry similar products to Starbucks at similar prices, so I am confident that the cost is not a deterrent.
There was a Mc Donald in SG, but it went out of business because anybody who’s tasted their stuffs seemed to be in the opinion that they’re pretty foul.
Amen sister!
I love reading your blog. . . 🙂
Hahaha…. awe poor Jonathan… having to go through that ALL alone! So did he bring one back with him? Is there anything I need to bring over for you guys?
Do you know you can buy french presses (us antipodeans just call them plungers) at Gloria Jeans on Dong Khoi St – for quite expensive around 1.5-2 million. Or I also bought one once from a tiny shop kind of next to Sherwood Residence on Pasteur St. But I broke it about 2 weeks later. Not that I think that means anything, because I used to break expensive bodum ones at home all the time too.