Episode 384 : Crock tales

Frasier: Splendid! Gives me a chance to debut my Limoges coffee set — a series of six unique cups, each one representing a different wife of Henry VIII.  My antique dealer just found an "Anne of Cleves" to complete the set!

When I first moved to an apartment I wanted to buy a coffee cup for my daily cuppa. It is another story that I hardly made a daily cuppa those days and when I did get regular at it, it was tea and not coffee.

I went to the nearby Big Bazaar and looked at what they had on display. I wanted something nice but something different- something that defined the zeitgeist of my generation yet did not lean on it like most cups that were being sold. I noticed a set of six cups.

I decided that I would need more than one cup when I have guests over. I was sure I would entertain friends at home and have a small party of sorts where coffee would be served (eventually it was alcohol, not coffee). But I could not find the same ones in a box set of four. Something is better than nothing, I thought and brought them home.

The weekend arrived and I debuted one of the cups by making tea, though the cups screamed coffee with their various types of coffee written all over them in that shade of brown. Teabags were all I had and it was the only choice considering that I only knew to make instant coffee and I wanted the filter one.

Days went by, and there were two cups in rotation. One broke followed by another one. Now I had four left.

Many years passed.

Today, I am left with two. The fourth cup broke while it was getting washed and I began to rue their loss.

‘It is ok’, Anna said trying to console me, and yet not wanting to. ‘You must stop getting attached to them so much. You used them, and it is fine if they break. You need to let go’

Now it would seem that I was filled with sorrow and unable to come to terms with the loss of four cups.

Hardly!

But when I look back at all those years, I wish they hadn’t broken like crockwork even if some glue is all it takes to put them together.