Love Shadow

Shadow and light, early morning in the cafe as the sun came up. Peaceful start to a crazy day.

When Strangers Become Friends

This person walked into the cafe one day, dropped off her resume. She has turned into the dream co-worker. Delightful small-talk. Much casually intelligent discussion of movies and music. There is no drama. There is frequent laughter. There is much of the adore. I enjoy her company and am grateful for the random serendipity of our paths crossing.

The Vibe... sometimes it gets it right.

Boris

My Christmas present 2015. I love it.

Almost as much as I love her Christmas card message to me, which was "Love you always, you still are my best friend after all these years."

Mine to her was "True love morphs, never dies. I love you."

Nick Cave At Grumpy & The Dreaded One's Little Cafe Of Awesome

In my banged up little cafe... this is Nick Cave. He has written some of the most hauntingly brilliant love songs I've ever heard. I'm quite the fan. His writing and his music can be exquisite and it can be raw and exhilarating.

I watched a few passersby stop and say things to him. I saw a fellow customer get up from her table to say something to him.

But I chose to leave him alone, as much as I'd like to have had a conversation with him. He's a human. He's probably back in Australia at Christmas to be with family, and he's lost a son quite recently. He looked like he just wanted some quiet time.

And that's how I blew my chance to say I spoke to Nick Cave.

When Was That Moment?

The saddest question
That he never asked her was
When did you stop loving me?
What was that thing that I said?
That thing that I did?
What was that mistake that I made?

Because I never stopped loving you.

Even though I knew that at last
Our love was broken.

We are memory now,
But what was that thing that I said?
That thing that I did?
That mistake that I made?
When was that moment

That you stopped loving me?

The Raging And The Healing In The Little Cafe Of Awesome

In my banged up little cafe
I see the regulars
And the not so regulars,
I see the the broken ones
Who need a favour or a smile,
Or someone who remembers their name.

I see some of them in suits
When I loathe suits
But I overhear them doing good things
Genuinely helping others in their corporate way

I've seen garbed doctors
Give kindly to the raging wanderers,
raging at the world,
And I've seen healer and patient move on
And get on.
Raging.
Healing.

I've seen broken, good hearted people
Become well - life at its best,
And I've seen good people
Been given the unfair deal
By a god who wants to rage
Far more than he wants to heal.

Selfie At The Wilde

It's a selfie, Jim, but not as we know it.

Solitary Man by Crooked Fingers

Neil Diamond wrote a good song. Crooked Fingers made it better.  Sometimes it comes on in the cafe at the end of the day when we are packing down and closing, and I sing along to it as loudly and as in tune as I can in our empty cafe, and I feel a private happiness.

A Nice Story About Sausages

Just before I left the cafe for my walk home, The Dreaded One phoned and asked what I felt like for dinner. I said I feel like sausages and mash and pea crush and offered to pick up some nice sausages from the new gourmet meat shop on Smith Street. Sounds good, said The Dreaded One.

My walks home generally involve a lot of head la la la-ing. I just let my mind off the leash and it wafts about in the clouds and tells me all sorts of random things. I wasn't really thinking about the sausages until a woman walked by with two sausage dogs. Talk about a sign from the universe. The sausage dogs were sent as a reminder for me to not forget to pick up the sausages from the new gourmet sausage shop (which, you'll be interested to know, is owned by our cafe's neighbour, restaurateur Andrew McConnell, aka The Godfather Of Gertrude Street, aka Toasty Guy because he only ever buys our ham, cheese and tomato toasties).

I keep walking because the sausage shop is just up ahead. Just a little bit further along. Couple of doors up... I'm running out of this block and I'm certain the sausage shop is not on the next block...

I stop and scratch my head, the suspicion growing that I have walked completely past the sausage shop.

A car honks its horn. I turn around. It's The Dreaded One, sitting in bumper to bumper traffic.What are the chances? She waves to me. I step onto the road and open the door and ask her where in the hell is the new sausage shop. She tells me it's way back up the road and that I have walked completely past it. She laughs like this is the funniest thing that has happened all afternoon. Funny and totally typical all at once.

I walk back up the road and weirdly, the lady with the two sausage dogs is standing right outside the sausage shop.

And that's my story about sausages.

The Never

I looked for you
She said into the never
But I couldn't find you.
Were you there?

I was there
He said back into the never,
You just didn't see me
And I didn't know you were there.