Saturday, January 07, 2012
At Wild & Wood. The tiny cafe was full, so the barrista offered me a seat at at the "bar counter".
I confess to being completely unable to ignore an independent cafe when I walk past it.
I don't know what it is about them that draws me like a magnet - the smell of proper coffee? the smiles on the faces of the people inside? the frightful weather outside? nostalgia for good ol' times previously spent in similar cafes? the opportunity to feel good about myself not being one among the pedestrian millions who frequent starbucks/costa/nero/other equally uninspiring chains?
Whatever it is, I find myself utterly spoilt for choice in London. So many alleyways hiding secret cafes, so many talented barristas offering magic in a cup, so many floor-to-ceiling windows with excellent opportunities for people-watching, so many comfy sofas promising quiet afternoons with a book...
so little time.
A typical Saturday -
1. Hip-hop dance with the energetic and effortlessly cool Xavier at Pineapple Studios (a legacy of my Melbourne adventures with Sue-Anne).
2. Light lunch at Moolis (roti rolls bursting with fillings such as "goan pork and pomegranate salsa" and "keralan beef and coconut") or Koya (they pretty much serve plain udon, but it is such excellent plain udon that I don't even mind paying 10 pounds for what is essentially plain udon).
3. Wandering around the bustling and unfailingly "cool" vicinity that is Soho / Covent Garden / Fitzrovia / Bloomsbury / Holborn.
4. Visiting the Oxfam second-hand book shop near the British Museum (the people who stock it must have extremely similar reading tastes to me, as I've managed to find something every time I go in).
5. Coffee at a random cafe (newest discovery today is Wild & Wood, the above-mentioned tiny cafe run by an omnipotent barrista/waitress/cashiers/dish-washer/everything, and the cafe at Foyles, a bookshop that in the past was "famed for its anachronistic, eccentric and sometimes infuriating business practices, so much that they made it a tourist attraction", hiding in what appears to be an office building but with excellent views of Charring Cross Road and doubling as a jazz bar at night).
I'd very much like to sleep in and lie in bed all day on weekends, but when London has so much to offer, I simply can't pass it up.
To many more dance/food/books/coffee-filled weekends to come - that is my toast and sincerest wish for the new year.