Ah the blessings of cafe culture...

After work today, though days are always good at work (wonderful people I work with), for some reason, I was absolutely knackered today by the time we were leaving the office. Fatigue overcame me, yet before I went home, I knew that there was something that I wanted to do first. I took the tube from Hammersmith to Leicester square, then made my way to the Cafe Nero by the station.

I love cafes, I often wondered what I did, or indeed, what many people did, before they came along and became popular. Well, there is a reason that they caught on so quickly, as they did become popular in no time. All the fancy drinks aside (tiramisu latte!!), it is one of the few places where people could happily go on their own without feeling any kind of inhabition, or to go with a group of friends to catch up, again, nothing wrong with that. I got a Camomile tea and made my way upstairs to the gallery bit of the cafe. Though it was Friday night and the streets were buzzing with tired people going home, excited people going out, people waiting outside the theatres with anticipation for a wonderful night of opera/play/dance performances, people taking advantages of what seemed to be the last few days of sales, the cafe is right by Leicester Square station yet it was surprising quiet. Though all the seats downstairs were taken, there were no long queues, and as I was waiting for my tea, I could see from the CCTV screen behind the baristas, that there were empty tables upstairs!! I made my way up there and sat down, though I had a note book and a book with me (philip Roth's The Human Stain, wonderful book), I decided to just sit quietly on my own for a while and reflect, on everything and nothing. I was overwhelmed strangely with joy and calmness, I listened to everything and nothing, and just enjoyed the sound of other people's chitchat, the turning of the page, the clinking of cups as they connected with the sancers, the lighting of the cigarettes, and let all these sounds wash over me.

Now I really did have solitude and silence, in the best possible way. Total silence is far too loud as the thoughts in my head fight for priorities, while semi-silence such as this calms me and sooths the thoughts, no matter how aggressive. It is fair to describe my state of mind as being completely blank at that moment.

And it was wonderful. Though still tired beyond words, it didn't hurt anymore.