I was sitting here this morning pondering the vicissitudes of life.

Then in a somewhat awkward moment I realised I wasn’t even sure what vicissitudes were. It’s tricky pondering something when you’re not even sure what it means. I looked it up:

changes that happen at different times during the life or development of someone or something, especially those that result in conditions being worse:

Indeed it was the right word as I had been thinking about my coffee shop.

You may think I worry too much about a particular shop and in a way you’d be right. But the thing is that the shop has taken on a major significance.

The great irony is that I don’t particularly enjoy coffee. Tea is my favourite tipple [with a wee dram of Jameson at night]. Furthermore there are four or five other establishments in the village where I can buy coffee. In one establishment I even frequently get given a free coffee, as I buy a lot of takeaway dinners there. The entire planet seems to be obsessed with coffee and as a result just about any shop seems to have at least one coffee machine in it.

So what is so damn special about my shop?

It’s hard to define. I know the owners well and would consider them to be close friends. Throughout the current Global Panic my concern is that they have no income and I would hate to see them lose the business they spent so long building. There is also something very comforting knowing that there is a little oasis where Penny and I are welcome and can sit just relax for an hour. Two of the other establishments have outside seating too, but they just aren’t the same.

My coffee shop has become a symbol of normality. When they reopen [if they reopen] I shall know that there is a vestige of normality returning. So far they have been thwarted at every step. They reopened briefly before last Christmas but they have been shut ever since, Then it was announced that cafés could reopen this month for outdoor service, but of course Disney put paid to that. The shop remained closed.

Disney did their stuff last week and the village reopened this week. But the coffee shop didn’t. The problem with the shop is that it is essentially an indoor establishment with only seven or so tables outside, so indoor dining is where they make most business. The outside space is still taken over with Disney crap so they can’t put their tables back.

Indoor dining is supposed to return on Monday week, which is when the shop can really open and do a good trade. But Disney has put paid to that as they are coming back that week and also a couple of weeks after. And anyway the idiots in gubmint are having kittens over this “Delta Variant” shit so cafés may be forced to stay closed even longer.

My one consolation is that the owners of the shop should have received decent compensation in return for turning their shop turned into a Disney “hair salon”.

For me, then, the “lockdown” continues, and it shall continue until my shop opens. Life just isn’t “normal” until then.

My coffee shop has become a symbol of freedom.