Best Cafe Ever

As life twiddles on, all contours and corners, some parts expected, many not, the old roads rising up like snakes, or a beckoning, clear and flowered, I, and my curious Alice mind, notice it all. Actually, this Alice noticing thing can be a pain in the ass, a lot of the time, but, and but again, I have the Alice mind and it is my mind and I am always curious. I stop, a lot, see a little ‘weed’, see a butterfly on a bloom, and I question. I see huge invasive flattening in the mud where careless cars have quashed a whole story, a whole tiny life story, now just tyre marks and unfertile ridges. However I bemoan nothing beyond an initial gasp at the uneducated. It is as it is, and, beyond the well-known fact that Nature will survive and revive way after we eejits are dust, I don’t want to carry judgement. It’s like wearing lead boots. I do wish, nonetheless, that more of us understood the precious gift of our lives, our responsibilities, even our place in this time, this Now. I wish, too, that everyone would be curious, ask questions, be open to learning. But, it isn’t like that now. I know, I know. There is an expectation that beyonds me. We want, I want, this, no, not that this, this this, and now. I know not the language to engage in that conversation, were it one beyond observation, nor would I.

I didn’t have work today, although I did delight in collecting and delivering the bread, the croissants, and the pain au chocolat to the Best Cafe Ever. I wound my merry way along the complete wiggle and turn, cornering, rising in speed, slowing because the bracken is frickin and holds the view in completous. (my latin coming out there) and I did meet a few eejits who cannot reverse, but we worked it between us. Driving home in the sunshine, the heat and still smelling the glory of newly baked sourdough and the fresh pastries, I had a think. I am listening to a beautiful audio book. I should probably name it. Harry Potter and the History of Magic. It’s all about the making of the books, including in detail all the research Rowling immersed herself in. It is way more than my initial assessment of her, to my shame. As revelations arose going back centuries, to beasts, beliefs, to christian evolutive paths, her research brought together magic and belief, unbelief and choice. It thinks me, a lot.

Church today, a few of us. These days folk come because they want to, not because they ought, or should, or are told to. The theme was about stepping up to genuinely bring good. I used to wonder. about the consistence of that ‘good’. You can be one person in your good giving and then you. come back home as mum or dad in very bad moods, and ‘what changed?’ So confusing. I get it. However, I am a Leapist. I can understand magic and faith. I disagree with a lot on both sides, but I am open, curious and always learning. What I do learn is about the stops. No, this, No, that, on both sides. Perception on both can be sqewed, cultures are BIG on tidelines, on either or. In between there is the chance to leap through. I’m there.

It was super boiling in the Washeroo today, all that steaming water puffing steam at me as I loaded and emptied the dishwasher, one I have never met. The wash is fiery hot and quick and very effective, plates and cups too hot to touch for at least three rounds of ‘He’s a jolly good fellow’. I am so happy that, back in the 80’s, my adventurous and spontaneous culinary skills were ‘allowed’ to develop without any eye from Health and Safety, bringing in some besuited interference with a clipboard of rules, immovable rules, no matter that we live on an island with a dispirited ferry and, thus, limited deliveries of fresh anything much.

We, up here, in the thankful coolish climes, with a wind that, once November comes, can wheech a skinny old woman off her feet, we are happy it’s gentle now, warm and soft, and more than happy we are not in Englandshire nor in any other Hotshire. I thought I was hot in the Washeroo, but I can imagine, actually I cannot, the temperature in a restaurant in a confined city place, with no access to a seawind, no chance of a blast of cool.

However, this is not the thing I wanted to say. I gave a lift home to a young beautiful woman, shy, smiling, respnsive, smart, definitely in the room. I watch her head turn, saw her respond to a customer demand, watched her serve, clear tables, respond to a sudden rush. I watch from the Washeroo, where I am definitely hiding, because there is a lorry load of plates, cups, glasses, bowls, and more coming in on trays so fast I can barely keep up. But even focused inward, the dishwasher, the drying, the response to askers. More Teapots, now, This Knife, More quiche plates, that sort of dynamic. I do this dynamic all through the middle of the day which is when the everyone of everything arrives with a list. Two soups, one with bread, one with cheese scone, yes, extra cheese and Mull seaweed chutney, yes. Four quiches, no, wait, two are vegan, so no this nor that. The kids want juice, ice, no ice, baby chinos, is the banana loaf nut free, is the lemon polenta ok for vegetarians, are the blueberries safely sourced for those muffins, can I have this tea, that tea, this coffee, that coffee with oat milk, soy milk, no milk, extra water, warm, not iced?

We do it so well in the Best Cafe Ever. We duck and dive, juke and swivel, guided by the bosses. Actually I wonder if they like that title. Just wondering. We are well led. When something looks like a lack (always wanted to write that) it’s a turning, an opportunity and what I have found in that wee serving space, with goodness knows how many conversations and solutions burgeoning like new blooms every minute, we are a flipping marvellous team. The leaders, the we of us, the whole impact on this summer, this place, this dynamic. I’m so glad I’m here. The fun we. have, the shenanigans. Everyone is jealous. Work is boring after all, a thing to get through.

Not here.