Recent Red Wines by the glass 6.50
Montes Alpha Merlot  2006 | Chile
Pascual Toso Malbec 2007 | Argentina
Martin Codax Ergo Tempranillo |  Rioja, Spain

Recent White Wines by the glass 6.50
Cuma Torrontes 2007 | Organic | Argentina
Famega Vinho Verde | Portugal
Maximo Viura 2006 | Spain

Recent Seasonal Bottle Beers 4.50
Full Sail | Wassail
Steamworks | Steam Engine Lager
Deschutes | Obsidian Stout

There had been a dissonance in the notes of his affection for some time. Like an old shoe, I had become a comfortable fit, worn thin to the point of no appeal. But through rose colored lenses, I held on to that part of him that needed me, that needed someone, anyone, that would do things for him, make him sandwiches, sew his buttons. He no longer asked me what I was thinking, and when I asked him, he said, “Can’t I keep some of my thoughts to myself?” He wouldn’t leave my apartment for days. I didn’t know how to adjust for my lack of productivity, for the stagnation that he had brought into my life. I thought that we would soon find a way to compromise our time together, but this was never discussed. He spent most of his time drinking, and I grew weary of the monster he became. I dreaded and feared that side of him. He would kiss me and bite my lips till they bled, tell me he loved me, tell me he never wanted to see me again. And when I told him his drinking had become a problem, he couldn’t see why I wouldn’t just leave him.

“Because I’m invested in you, in us. I can’t just abandon you because you have a problem.” But I should have. He was bad for me.

And when we sat in that coffee shop and he said the only thing he liked about me was that I cared about him,  I tried to imagine every woman that he had ever loved. What inherent qualities did they have that I was missing? How easy it was to lose myself in him, to be so consumed with someone that I didn’t have time for me anymore. He sat there feeling guilty looking serious and I tried to imagine what he looked like when we met–ardently smitten showing off his dimples.   And I wondered if he threw away the four-leaf clover he found on our first date? And would he delete all the pictures of me on his camera? Would he call someone else his Miss Havisham?

But after ten days of sifting through the pieces, I don’t even care.

Ladyhawke – Love Don’t Live Here

I was tinkering with my iPod and thumbed through my notes and found this doodle written 32 days ago. I believe I wrote this when I was with friends hanging out in one of the coffee shop in Trinoma. I just edited and added the last few paragraphs.

It’s amazing how coffee shops have evolved from an ordinary coffee place into a melting pot of people. How from being a quiet escape where one can hang around to have a quiet moment, perhaps read a book or just enjoy momentary solace, it became a meeting place of all sorts– friends, a venue for business meetings, a dating place, or whatever agenda people nowadays have. People coming in used to be composed of college students, yuppies or older people, but the crowd slowly included teenagers and children.  I wonder what happened to the notion of too much caffeine intake is bad for their health.  From a quiet nook, these shops turned into a pandemonium of thoughts, laughter, chitchat, clattering of plates and utensil and the occassional shouting of the barista.

I used to love sitting near the bar, wanting to hear the grinding of coffee beans and the aroma of freshly ground coffee.  I love  their couches and with a book in hand, I could actually stay all day. Hanging out with friends in these places, to either study or  just plain hang around, was never a problem. There came a time when I couldn’t live without it. It was not because of the coffee anymore but the habit of going there and the feeling of belongingness. It felt like an addiction, but not until I started earning my own moola.  I realized that though I love coffee, coffee shop lounging had become a bad habit and the reality that I am not really up to spending all my hard-earned cash on sitting and sipping coffee.

Despite my demurral to join the “coffee shop lounging bandwagon” I can’t help but notice that their diversity and numbers have obviously increased. You could spot those familiar-looking umbrella with tables and chairs in almost all malls and gimmick areas in town. Their market has started permeating big cities in the provinces. Though recent economic turmoil forced some of them to close shops, they’ve become part of culture and lifestyle of our society.  The impacts of which is another thing to pry on.

I have overcome the habit and I am glad and proud of it, though I don’t actually dissent the thought of lounging once in a while. But I still wanted to find a coffee place that is cozy and quiet, with ambiance but not pricey– a place that could be a great hiding place when I just want to be invisible from my everyday sentience.

Neuer Coffeeshop in Leonhard – STACHERS – schaut ganz gut von außen aus – Test folgt…

In het najaar van 2008 ontstond in Nederland ineens weer een discussie over het coffeeshopbeleid. Aanleiding was het sluiten van de coffeeshops in Terneuzen, Bergen op Zoom en Roosendaal op last van de gemeente. Plaatselijke overlast werd ingezet als motivatie om het huidige, landelijke beleid ter discussie te stellen. Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin van Justitie kon zich daar wel in vinden. VVD-Kamerlid Fred Teeven was zelfs dolenthousiast en sprak al over het failliet van het gedoogbeleid. ChristenUnie en CDA zijn per definitie, vanuit een moralistisch standpunt, tegen dit beleid en waren dus ook niet rouwig om alle commotie. Op de site van de Rijksoverheid Veiligheidbegintbijvoorkomen wordt zelfs door middel van een illustratie een direct verband gelegd tussen het gebruik van soft- en hard-drugs. Maar tijdens de ‘wiettop‘, die op initiatief van de Maastrichtse burgemeester Gerd Leers in november 2008 werd georganiseerd, waren echter de aanwezige burgemeesters eensgezind in hun oordeel over het huidige en toekomstige beleid ten aanzien van de coffeeshops. Volgens hen is een absoluut verbod op softdrugs geen oplossing voor het probleem. De burgemeesters gaven aan te willen reguleren en controleren omdat de openbare orde en de volksgezondheid hier bij gebaat zijn. Verder vonden zij het noodzakelijk over te gaan tot regulering en beheersing van de achterdeur door middel van een georganiseerde pilot. Ook vonden de burgemeesters dat de softdrugsproblematiek Europese afstemming vraagt en riepen het kabinet op, te komen tot een houdbaar gelijkvormig Europees softdrugsbeleid. Al snel na de top loste de discussie in rook op. Maar in juni 2009 zijn de Europese verkiezingen . De Nederlandse politieke partijen zullen in hun verkiezingsprogramma een standpunt moeten innemen ten aanzien van het te voeren Nederlandse- en Europese drugsbeleid. Bestudering van de  Nationale drug monitor 2007 geeft hiervoor genoeg aanknopingspunten. De monitor constateert, onder andere, dat het soft- en hard-drugsgebruik in ons land onder het Europees gemiddelde ligt. Wellicht krijgt de ‘gedoogdiscussie’ dit jaar dus toch nog een zinvol, niet moralistisch, vervolg in Nederland en Europa.

Info: drugsinfo.nl, Trimbos-instituut

La ley holandesa contra el tabaco, que exige espacios adecuados para los no fumadores, entra en vigor hoy en el sector de hostelería con un apartado singular dedicado a los coffeeshops. En estos locales (hay unos 750 en el país) dedicados al consumo legal de cannabis, el cliente podrá seguir fumando un canuto siempre que no lo mezcle con tabaco. Dado que la mayoría los lía con ambos productos, los dueños han recurrido al ingenio para evitar multas, como el vaporizador, un aparato que calienta la hierba y traslada luego su vapor a una gran bolsa. El cliente inhala en lugar de fumar, pero en lugares pequeños, sin posibilidad de habilitar zona de fumadores, evitará las sanciones de los inspectores de Sanidad en busca, sólo, del humo de tabaco.

Aunque los centros de trabajo están libres de fumadores desde 2004, el gremio hostelero había pedido una prórroga para acondicionar sus instalaciones. Pero los partidarios de eximir a los coffeeshops del cumplimiento de la ley (socialdemócratas, verdes y liberales de izquierda), no lo han conseguido. Ahora la ley incluye absolutamente todos los locales de hostelería, así como salas de congresos y aeropuertos.

Todos deberán contar con una zona dedicada a los no fumadores. Además, “los camareros tampoco atenderán, en su reducto especial, a los que sí enciendan cigarrillos”, dice el Gobierno. Para poder consumir, estos clientes tendrán que acudir al otro lado del local, libre de tabaco, pedir y volver junto con el resto de los aficionados al humo.

“Será algo difícil al principio, sobre todo en coffeeshops pequeños. Es posible que aumenten las combinaciones con otras hierbas [como la fárfara, de sabor parecido al orégano]. Y los vaporizadores, desde luego”, señala Jeanneke, una joven empleada de Kandinsky, uno de los locales más conocidos de Ámsterdam.

La ley “puede acabar transformando los establecimientos en simples expendurías, y arrebatarle la función social de evitar el tráfico ilegal”, asegura la Asociación Nacional de Coffeeshops. Holanda prohíbe la marihuana y persigue su cultivo, pero permite un consumo de cinco gramos por persona en estos lugares. Estos locales, a su vez, pueden almacenar para venta al por menor hasta 500 gramos.

El Pais

Giorni contati per lo spinello nei coffee shop olandesi. Dal primo luglio nei Paesi Bassi sara’ vietato fumare tabacco in bar, ristoranti e locali pubblici. Le nuove regole, gia’ in vigore in molti altri Paesi europei, non avrebbero niente di strano se non riguardassero anche quei locali dove, per legge, dal 1976 si puo’ liberamente consumare hashish o marijuana. La cannabis, venduta legalmente nei coffee shop, e’ l’ingrediente principale, ma per fare uno spinello e’ indispensabile anche il tabacco, tranne nel caso in cui si fumi solo ‘erba’. La quantita’ dipende dal consumatore, ma e’ tuttavia necessario avere del tabacco per ‘rollare’ una canna, come spiegano minuziosamente anche i siti online dedicati agli amanti dell’argomento. Paradossalmente, dunque, in Olanda, nei locali pubblici autorizzati si potra’ continuare a fare uso di droghe leggere, ma non a fumarle mescolate con il tabacco, quindi niente joint, canna o spinello che dir si voglia. ‘I coffee shop saranno trattati come tutti gli altri locali pubblici. Sarebbe sbagliato fare eccezioni, la gente non capirebbe’, avverte il primo ministro olandese Jan Peter Balkenende. ‘In un caffe’ si va per bere qualcosa, in un ristorante per mangiare, ma quando si va in un coffee shop e’ per fumare’, ribatte Marc Jacobsen, a capo dell’associazione nazionale dei proprietari di coffee shop, che ha chiesto al governo di prendere speciali provvedimenti per questi locali. E i diretti interessati, i consumatori? Stando ad una serie di interviste realizzate finora nella citta’ olandesi, non sembrano preoccuparsi piu’ di tanto. Se sara’ necessario ‘compreremo l’erba e andremo a fumare a casa’, dicono. Intanto ci sono coffee shop, soprattutto ad Amsterdam, che gia’ stanno allestendo luoghi separati per offrire ai clienti la possibilita’ di continuare a fumare sul posto. Altri si stanno attrezzando mettendo a punto strumenti alternativi. Come il cosiddetto ‘vaporizzatore’, un apparecchio elettrico che dovrebbe consentire di trasformare direttamente la cannabis in vapore da inalare evitando cosi’ l’uso di tabacco e cartine. Molti si chiedono poi come potranno essere attuate le ispezioni per verificare se si fumano spinelli ‘puri’ oppure contenenti anche tabacco, dannoso per la salute di chi lavora nei coffee shop piu’ che per coloro che hanno deliberatamente scelto di usare droghe. Da tempo nella permissiva Olanda il vento e’ cambiato anche nei confronti delle droghe leggere: in alcune citta’ si e’ cominciato a chiudere i coffee shop vicino alle scuole, in altre e’ stato vietato il consumo di cannabis ai poliziotti, anche fuori dal lavoro ‘per dare l’esempio’. Giro di vite infine per ostacolare il cosiddetto turismo dello spinello. L’iniziativa ha provocato una protesta infuocata dei comuni di frontiera del Belgio dopo che quelli dell’Olanda hanno spostato i bar del fumo nelle zone periferiche di confine, proprio per ostacolare il turismo della droga nelle citta’.

fonte: aduc.droghe