Thursday 26th September

 There's nothing to beat coffee, not even tea (and I am a tea-drinker too).

But for first thing in the morning  and after meals I'll choose coffee every time.

When I was younger, the other mothers used to turn up at our house after dropping off all the children at school.  It took my mother a while to discover the secret of her popularity (apart from her warm hospitality - she always ran her central heating higher than everyone else!)

Here's a clue;

She always made the coffee in an Italian stove top maker, using freshly ground beans. This was back in the sixties, when everyone else was drinking instant all the time.

At university we drank 'mellow Bird's, to make you smile' instant coffee...

But some years after we were married we bought one of these, in about 1979 or so.

We plugged it in to a timer, so the coffee was ready when we came down to breakfast. Luxury.

There was always the single cup version;

Then came the cafetiere. 

And the single cup version which I tried using at work for a while - too messy, I found.

Now we have one of these

And like nespresso coffee best of all, so much so that we have a portable hand operated version to take on holiday! 

It would be fun to pretend that this is BB rustling up some coffees somewhere in the wilds, but no, this is from the advertisement. 

BB used to have a Cona coffee maker back in the 1960s.... it looks more like the sort of equipment I used at my first job in a laboratory. 

There was a time when people had percolators... but I've never used them. 

Well, I've just finished a delicious nespresso coffee - the arpeggio pod served with hot milk. Thank you very much indeed, BB.