A couple of buddies of mine sat out on Oak Bay avenue in the historic Oak Bay village under the warm embrace of a spring evening.

Although it went against my better judgement, we agreed to meet at the green coffee machine for our semi-monthly rap sessions.
Now it is not that Starbucks coffee is dull, it is just plain unsurprising.

There are no surprises here. You will not tuck into a mug of joe that makes you go: "Hey, this is an excellent cup of coffee! And, whoa, surprising! I did not see this coming!"

No, the flavors here are relatively subdued and just the thing to concentrate on topics of conversation not covered in previous male-whine fests.

None of us are smokers and there is always the risk that someone will be puffing nearby. "What is it with kids, female kids, and cigarettes?" One of my buddies is a family doctor and he is still horrified that pretty young teen girls hang lit tobacco sticks from their shiny-glossed lips.

Don't they know what happens to their looks after ten or twenty years of dragging on the nicotined fag?

Ah, friends, the young men and women are immortal. A cigarette and coffee in the here and now will not, in an immediate fashion, cause a downturn in their chisled looks. Immortality has its perks. Coffee and Cigarettes: A match made in percolated heaven!