For shame!

Sometimes it's difficult to live up to one's principles. Forces seemingly outside one's control take over, and one does things that one really doesn't want to do. This is the story of one such situation.

We're in Suzhou, and we're out of instant coffee that we can brew in the room to start the day. Our hotel room does not include breakfast, and the daily price for breakfast is more than we want to pay. What to do, what to do?

One word: Starbucks.

We knew there was a Starbucks in Suzhou (we saw it when we visited two years ago), and we knew it was within walking distance (1/3 mile) from the hotel. And we knew that we really wanted some good coffee.

So we strayed from our principles and went to an American chain while we were out of the country. We walked right by the KFC, we turned up our nose at Pizza Hut, we didn't even give McDonald's an instant's thought. But we were led astray by Starbucks.

Be kind when you think of us, be generous, be forgiving. But damn, the coffee and scone were good this morning...