Friday, June 1, 2012

An Ode to Wayne and Bella

We once knew a quirky couple in this town who set up a coffee shop called Firenze.All the locals found excuses to eat there just like in the movie, 'Chocolat'. I happened upon it on returning from a walk to the bus one morning where I went to drop my two older children. They would scooter beside me and then I'd stack the scooters under the Emmelunga and keep walking home with my baby daughter Gabrielle snoozing happily and cosily as we went. When I think back I can't believe I managed to do that and get us all organized for our quite significant walk but I guess I was awake and feeding anyway. Well on this day I walked down Taylor Street past what used to be the print and copy shop but instead the windows were all steamed up and I could see an ecledctic mix of chairs and tables inside. The smell of coffee and fine food wafted out to me and I was enticed and captured.As I entered a lady with a soft, shy and beautiful smile nodded in my direction and a rather scruffy curly headed barrista smiled too and began a conversation. Those early days of breastfeeding with my third child became special and golden because of stumbling upon that cafe. Wayne was the best maker of coffee and always experimenting with new blends and finds from different countries. He was a philosopher too and very creative with his musings. I would sit and each day find a new saying or photo or quote somewhere on the wall or ceiling. And Bella, well she was the Juliette Binoche of the Kitchen. The aromas of baked tarts, flans, tuna patties and muffins would waft in my general direction and I was wrapt and alone and together with them in my own special world of baby and mother. They were quite happy to chat as I fed Gabrielle there and we passed an hour together. Later my baby and I  would go there as she grew and now she is four and her and Mummy have a capuccino and a baby chino as we watch the cars go by.

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