When you drink coffee on a regular basis, especially when its primary purpose is to keep awake, you begin to develop a resistance against it. Eventually you find that your daily mug of coffee no longer increases you awareness, it only maintains it - without it you feel run down and irritable.

So you make it stronger.

It may be a half teaspoon at first, but then after a while you you find that even with the half teaspoon it's no good.

So you make it stronger.

And then you add a little more. Say a teaspoon. This lasts a few days, and you figure you've definitely hit the spot. Then, maybe a few days down the track, the latte punch has mysteriously deflated.

So you make it stronger.

This is the limit, you swear. No more after this... But then, you think to yourself, with this much coffee shouldn't you be feeling something with more pizazz?

So you make it stronger.

And after that, well heck, what's a few more teaspoons to what you've already got?

So you make it stronger.

Then, maybe a few weeks, or months, or years down the track, you lift the spoon to find your mug stuck to it. And you realise that inside your humble mug, contains enough coffee to run a stock exchange for several weeks.

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