another day at the cafe office

I was back at my café office today. The plan had been that with our nanny would be shared with another family and care would be at their home – thus allowing me to work from home. However, that arrangement has fallen through so I once again find myself spending my days at the café while the nanny looks after M at home.

Sometimes it is rather inconvenient – hauling my computer over and making sure I remember to bring any necessary files. And as much as I love coffee, I usually max out after 2 cups – but the wireless system is such that clients need a temporary pass which is only valid for an hour (although some days it lasts for much longer through some random blip in the system). This means that on days I have to be doing a lot of email correspondence or web research, I am obligated to make a purchase almost every hour in order to maintain my internet access. And like I said, there is only so much coffee I can drink in a day.

But despite these inconveniences, I do enjoy the social aspect of working in a café. There are the other regulars I chat with and lots of people watching to do. I can’t help overhearing conversations happening around me – sometimes they are rather banal or annoying and I have to work to tune them out. Other times they are so interesting that I have to work to not let on I’m listening.

Today there was a young man talking with a woman who seemed to be some sort of social worker. It seems he had lost all his ID and citizenship papers. The woman was helping him fill out some forms and was sympathetically talking to him about his life, his interest and talent in art, his social isolation. I’d find my attention often drifting over to their conversation and to thoughts about what it would be like to have no identity cards, no proof of my citizenship and all the privileges which citizenship entails. I think of what a privileged world I live in – and the access to it I so often take for granted.