Descale

Of all my rituals after waking up, making coffee appears to be the most highly consistent. I crave coffee every morning. We all do. It is little wonder, then, that it's disconcerting for me when my coffee machine didn't work two days ago.

People used to think that it can be dangerous for heavy drinkers to suddenly stop alcohol. Alcohol withdrawal actually kills. Not infrequently, I think this applies to coffee, too. I was, of course, trying hard to troubleshoot by googling. I started calling the service hotline after several unsuccessful attempts.

It was then I realised that my coffee machine was getting stuck because of the need for descaling. I have never bothered to do so since my purchase of coffee machine nearly four years ago. As I checked from the machine website, I learned that, with time, minerals in water will accumulate on the machine's heating element. Hard deposits like calcium have to be removed or else the limescale build-up will disrupt the coffee-making. Worse still, the machine heating elements can't be seen. Months of mineral build-up could have existed without our knowing it. The terrifying calcium burden inside the coffee machine is no different from the silent killer of calcium-rich cholesterol plaques growing inside our artery wall. First, nothing, I mean nothing, can be felt. Not until the build-up of plaque is heavy enough to rupture and completely clog our heart artery to trigger a heart attack.

As I stood next to the machine watching the rinsing cycles, one after another, I felt a gush of relief. It turned out that I descaled my coffee machine shortly after a weary overnight shift at the hospital. Think about it; those of us working for years without descaling should do so too.