When we arrive at the Coffee Club, I\u2019m tired, overheated and sweaty from a particularly hard session with my rehab physio – never an enjoyable experience, today\u2019s workout was made worse by summer heat and lack of air-con.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve stolen hubby away from work to have a quick lunch break, but I can tell by the deep V of a frown line that he\u2019s doing his multi-tasking worrier trick; thinking about projects to be finished, clients to be billed, and packages to be sent, even as he decides on a coffee. I send him to the balcony outside to find us a table, and peruse the cabinet of food.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a trolley parked almost blocking the till, piled high with cardboard and a black bag of trash. I edge away from it, revolted mostly because I\u2019m cranky and therefore prone to revolting.<\/p>\n
The barista greets me, but I still haven\u2019t decided what I want, so I don\u2019t reply. Then it registers how rude I\u2019m being, and I remember those good ol\u2019 days when I worked in a cafe and customers ignored me. Good is definitely a euphemism. I try to make up for it by forcing myself to smile as I order, but the smile disappears when my card is declined.<\/p>\n
Blushing redder than the raspberry-topped muffins that sit in front of the till, I realise I\u2019m using the wrong card – hubby has the correct one, and now he\u2019s nowhere to be seen. I try the trick of struggling small business owners worldwide, and whip out my phone to transfer money across accounts, but the bank isn\u2019t playing ball today, and my card declines again.<\/p>\n
The patient barista takes pity on me, and gently suggests I pay on the way out. She hands me a table number, and I scurry outside, embarrassed but grateful, and trying not to make eye contact with anyone.<\/p>\n
I nearly fall over a vacuum cleaner that someone has left in an aisle, so when I make it to our table, I\u2019m short-tempered indeed. But it doesn\u2019t take the staff long to brew up our trim no-whip mocha frappes and heat a couple of muffins, so my grumpiness is quickly turned into delight. The drinks are perfect: sweet and creamy and oh-so-cool. The muffins, one orange poppy seed and one apple & cinnamon, are fresh and delicious. Hubby and I go halves on each, so as I enjoy the feel of poppy seeds popping between my teeth, he drools over the oat crumble that tops the other muffin.<\/p>\n
A staff member seems to appear from nowhere, smiling and nodding politely at us as he moves the vacuum cleaner out of the way.<\/p>\n
These franchised cafes can be a bit hit and miss, but Albany\u2019s Coffee Club has definitely scored a hit today. When we leave, I\u2019m happy and refreshed, and thank the servers as we leave.<\/p>\n
Best of all, hubby picks up the tab.<\/p>\n
Written 3 February 2017 for a Writers Group.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Coffee Club. When we arrive at the Coffee Club, I\u2019m tired, overheated and sweaty from a particularly hard session with my rehab physio – never an enjoyable experience, today\u2019s workout was made worse by summer heat and lack of air-con. I\u2019ve stolen hubby away from work to have a quick lunch break, but I can … Continue reading “A Writers Group Prompt – Cafe Review”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121,"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions\/121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mooncrowned.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}