Curse you immoral Eggnog latte!

I'm no fan of Starbucks. I find their coffee weak, overly milky and poor value. Indeed it is the coffee that coffee lovers don't generally drink. The recent tax controversy brackets them along with Amazon, Google, Facebook and others as massive companies who, though doing nothing illegal tax-wise are exploiting tax loopholes that are at best immoral and massively out of step with public opinion. People here have overwhelmingly voiced their anger and distaste with this especially in these austere times. But of course nobody is surprised that they are all doing this. So, in general it is the last place I'd go for a coffee. Unless it's an Eggnog Latte.

Eggnog isn't really commonplace here in the UK and I'd associate it with North America. I think the first time I'd heard of it was in an Hollywood film. Many of my former Canadian colleagues said they missed it at Christmas time so one year in Korea I tried to make it. I can honestly say I'd never drank scrambled eggs until then and so bad was the drink/meal I'd concocted that I won't be repeating my mistake again. Despite this I find myself drawn to the Starbucks Eggnog Latte and liking it. With mixed emotions I will probably buy this every now and then until the festive period is over before going back to avoiding Starbucks once more just as Starbucks enthusiastically avoids paying moral levels of corporation tax.

Olympic torch in Manchester

Coca-Cola chief marketer Joe Tripodi, "Without the sponsors, there’s no Olympic Games."

One of the things that I've been looking forward to for a while is the Olympic Games taking place this year in my home country. Writing this as a thirty four year old I realise that barring some dramatic improvements in medical science I am not going to see another take place in the UK.

Despite this interest I haven't even tried to get tickets for any events. Tickets + travel + accommodation + expenses for London are excessive even at the best of times but I will enjoy it on TV. Over the weekend the Olympic torch relay made its way through Manchester. The torch passed by just five minutes walk from my apartment. My wife and I went to check it out. There was a big crowd for the section I went to and people were clearly enjoying themselves.

Before the torch ambled down Corporation Street (a most delicious irony) we were greeted by a cavalcade of sponsors. The convoy was a rolling swamp of commercialism and capitalism so brazen it bordered on pornography. Vehicles containing (presumably) employees bizarrely waving to the crowd as if they were there on merit. Perhaps this is a touch harsh but there was definitely too much jam on the bread. There have been some truly touching stories over the last few weeks about those who have carried the torch on the way but this left a bad taste in my mouth. I wonder what the real legacy of these games will be or even if we will have one that isn't more product placement.