Adjusting my commute

Right now, one of the gates to the university is closed and barricaded off in order to allow some works to be completed. It’s going to be closed for around five weeks. Naturally, at the start of this week I managed to miss the memo, I arrived at the very closed gate and was forced to walk around to the next one, which made me a little late.

No matter, I work flexi-time, I just did a little more before leaving at the end of the day. What this does mean, though, is that I need to alter my route just a little, if I don’t want to be ten minutes late every day. Normally, my route looks a little something like this:

Now, it’s not quite to scale, but it’s approximate. The red section is uphill. The two coffee shops are where I can stop in the morning for coffee, which I sip as I carry with me to work and finish while reading my morning emails.

Coffee shop 1 is better, the coffee is nicer. It’s a little bit more expensive and you get slightly less of it but this is offset by how much better the coffee is, as well as by the loyalty scheme they run. Naturally, I’m not the only person to notice how good it is, so they often have a queue and since I don’t have time to wait in line, I go to Coffee shop 2 when this is the case. Coffee shop 2’s coffee isn’t as good, but you get more of it for slightly less money and I don’t have to queue. It’s good to have two options.

If I don’t want coffee I tend to walk my second route, which looks more like this:

No coffee shops and a slightly longer uphill section, but that green section is through the park. Now, that’s lovely and it’s usually the route I take home. Being able to walk through the park every day is a treat.

However, there has to be some compromise, right? There has to be a way to walk through the park and get coffee. There probably is, but it means a few of things have to happen:

1. I need to be alert enough to override the autopilot I have on when I’m walking to work in the morning
2. I need to cross the roads in less efficient (although no less safe) places – this may mean crossing more roads than I need to and spending more time waiting for the traffic to stop
3. I need to try new and unfamiliar coffee shops

I am up for the challenge! Item one is going to be the toughest – surely everyone walks their regular routes on autopilot? It’ll be hard enough to not go to the closed gate for the first few mornings. I guess there’s a catch 22 here; I need coffee to be alert enough to get coffee.

The way I see it, there are five coffee shops on the wrong side of the road (who put them there? Such lack of foresight…). If I go out of my way just slightly there’s another two. In five weeks I should manage to distil another couple of favourites out of these new options. Prepare for a list of the Best Commuters Coffee Shops in Finnieston, coming soon!