John Baker’s Blog

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 [...]