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Captured by words

Apr 29, 2013 | 0 comments

I’m one for rituals and processes. It helps me get things done and while I like change and spontaneity as much as the next person, repetitive behaviours (especially fun ones) are particularly useful for making progress on things.

I have a writing project I’m particularly enjoying at the moment, partly because my ritual is to go to a local cafe/bar near here when they open at 5pm, grab a table near the window at the back which lets in the afternoon sun, buy a medium glass of Malbec (175ml), and type until my wine is finished, usually about an hour and a half later.

I’ve been doing it for a couple of weeks now, and although I’m a reasonably recent addition to the bar staff’s own experience of regularity, I was asked today how the writing was going, and did I want my usual?

And in fact, the writing’s going rather well. Had something of a breakthrough today, actually. I continued tapping away at it when I got home and have carried on doing so long into the evening. What had been intended to be between 60 and 90 minutes of progress has now been five and a half hours of chipping away, getting it just right. Reordering, adding paragraphs, deleting sentences, reading back and moving forward.

I’m sure there was a whole bunch of other stuff I was going to do this evening – but given how sticky this new writing project seems to be, I’m making the most of this early bout of enthusiasm and indulging it to whatever extent it will tolerate. As a result, ten thousand words that didn’t exist last week exist this week. All of them are subject to change – but they’re a start.

Though my evening has completely vanished.

Open letter to café owners

Jul 30, 2010 | 13 comments

Organic Cafe

We’ve recently moved into a new neighbourhood, and I’ve been checking out the local spots. I love the record store here (apparently there’s a better website on the way) – and our local pub is a fantastic venue for all sorts of great live gigs – the sort of international calibre stuff you wouldn’t expect at a local pub.

One great thing about Kings Heath is that there are also some cool cafés around, and I thought I’d check one or two of them out. The one above looked really promising – nice coffee, and the menu’s pretty good… but unfortunately – no wireless internet.

I spoke to the woman behind the counter, and she said that the boss wasn’t keen to install it, as it would only encourage people to just hang out with a single cup of coffee for ages – instead of eating and then leaving.

I do get the thinking behind that, but I just don’t think it makes good business sense anymore. I told her that their competitor just a couple of blocks away does have wifi, and on that basis alone, that’s where I would always choose to go.

She suggested I tell that to the boss.

So… I was going to write them a note to make the case for installing free, open wireless internet – but then it occurred to me that this is a broader issue. There are lots of good cafés not providing wifi, and potentially losing out because of it. So I wrote a more generic, general purpose letter that anyone can use.

Feel free to copy and paste the letter below, amend as required – and give it to the people at your local café. Not having wifi in a café should be as unusual as not having sugar.

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