The day, weather-wise has come up a little short again. However, now I’m in the back-up café, I’m desperate for them to bring me the sometimes-accompanying glass of water Double Denim used to give customers. I was finally served some 15 minutes after arriving and asked Upright for the glass of water. She brought one over, despite not having to be prompted by the table behind me who got their water without asking.
It didn’t have the ice Double Denim used to throw in even in December, but it was welcome. It’s not actually hot so I’m wondering if I’m simply dehydrated after today’s lunchtime run. I’d be surprised if that’s what it is as I did rehydrate well when I got home, a pint of water and a glass of cold fresh milk. Some nuts too for added protein so I don’t reassume my old running look which saw me labelled as looking like a ‘depressed vampire’ on the circuit.
Run1kerr action
Today’s run was a 13.5k. From about 5k in, I was feeling it on the legs but I’d loaded up on carbs for breakfast so as not to pull out of the planned longer run. The first climb, between the 2 to 3k mark, I’ve even heard experienced runners who use the park talk about how difficult that climb is, is made all the more difficult by the fact the climb also involves running past the local estate and being overwhelmed at times by the weed fumes.
With spring now here, plenty of people will look to dry their clothes in their gardens or on the estate balconies, but if you do that in south London, the chances are your clothes will reek of the exotic tobacco and you’ll smell like one of the many kids that board the upper decks of south London’s buses.
I had a reasonably productive writing session this afternoon. The reworked script is coming on though I still haven’t resolved its thorniest issue. That won’t come while there’s a lack of focus. I tried a number of different sitting poses in the back-up café as my legs were definitely feeling today’s run but the leg on the knee thing wasn’t working, partly down to me being too achey and partly down to the table needing a few more inches height-wise. I just felt like I really needed to stretch my aching legs in there.
Behind my table, I wasn’t too impressed with a man and the way he was talking, for the best part of an hour, to a woman that was with him. It was either a working relationship or a ‘relationship’. Either way, it came across as very unhealthy from the minute they sat down. The man came across as very controlling. If that was a friend of mine in that situation, or my sibling, I wouldn’t have accepted that behaviour from the guy.
At one point he pulled the woman up for apparently looking elsewhere in the back-up café rather than at him, even though he’d already made the same points he was making about her work several different times, in several different ways, all amounting to the same thing. She didn’t once pull him up.
Controlling Man put on his nice personality when Nostril Flarer turned up at the table, minutes after he’d praised Upright for her Chai latte and talked about how he’d heard about the café’s ‘macaroni experience’.
F*** me.
‘Macaroni experience’.
Their exchange confirmed my suspicion that Flarer is the back-up café’s owner or co-owner. You might recall, back in the summer, I was certain the departed Double Denim owned the place, such was his domineering presence. Looking back, I suspect this showed Flarer’s skill as an owner in allowing his staff to shine and grow, albeit not enough for the Cantonaesque Double Denim who ultimately left in a huff back in January.
Controlling Man advised Flarer he needed to start posting on Instagram to get the back-up café out there, although to be fair, the guys are usually busy. Their conversation confirmed that Flarer and Upright are married. They make for a nice couple. The place has apparently been going for a year.
So I think we’re all caught up on the coffee gossip.
Café Soundscape 15:48HRS
Around this time I heard that the Dossett Box I’d arranged for my aunt a couple of weeks ago with the local pharmacy is to be abandoned as my aunt is getting too confused. Anything seems to confuse her. She tells us she understands something and within days, it’s clear she doesn’t. The NHS must be thinking if it will ever be possible for them to come up with some way of my aunt grasping how and when she’s meant to be taking all her medication.
16:43Hrs.
I’ve only managed to have one coffee here in 93 minutes, despite placing my request for a second some 15 minutes ago. Let’s not forget I had to wait 15 minutes for the first one.
I’ve only managed to have one coffee here in 93 minutes, despite placing my request for a second some 15 minutes ago. Let’s not forget I had to wait 15 minutes for the first one.
On the walk back home, saying my prayers, as I have done every night since I was 4 years-old, I found myself having to start all over again as for the first time ever, when thinking out my thoughts (the prayers are always silent, whether at home, walking or commuting), I used a French word and inevitably tripped up over it. I apologised to God and started all over again.
That’ll teach me.
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