John Baker’s Blog

There’s a coffee bar next to the University library and during the summer I wander up there from time to time. They have benches and tables outside, close to the bridge and you can look over into the road and watch the students come and go. The coffee’s not the best because they use boiling [...]

It is a chintzy kind of place but I force myself to go in there from time to time because the coffee is good and they put together an almost fat-free breakfast. They have a painted pelmet which circles the room half a metre below the ceiling, where they line up sparklingly clean old teapots. [...]

I’m in the walled garden of the Ambience Café Bar waiting for breakfast to arrive. It’s a small space, paved for tables immediately outside the kitchen, then rising steeply towards the medieval city walls. There’s a breeze in the street but here we are sheltered and a thin sun concentrates on warming us through. At [...]

I guess she was half black, but what do I know. She was head and shoulders taller than me. Straight hair, waxy chocolate complexion, in need of something to give her system a kick.
The Habit gets some tourists but most of the regulars are locals who like the coffee or the chat, and they do [...]