February 1st – This place

I thought I'd take you back to where I spent a lot of my time during The year of the Gav (TYOTG)

After many caffeine and booze filled late afternoons and early evenings and having searched around for the most inspirational place to write.(For inspirational please read cheapest.)

I settled upon, This place.

As I write this, I am still not quite sure what its called.

Not only does this place offer the most economical coffee option £1.65 with a free refill, this place over looks the bus stop. This enabled me to stay in the warm drinking my free coffee whilst also ensuring that I'd never miss my selected work transportation.

This place is similar to most coffee shops within my area and, I would imagine, yours too.

But there was something special about this place. Whether it was the speedy complimentary Wi/fi, the lovely lady behind the counter (who looked as pissed off with her job as I was with mine but still managed to be polite and smile) or the deaf bloke, who comes in everyday, shouts at the top of his voice and nobody seems to mind. I don't know, but this place made writing come easier to me.

It had music and coffee, which I had in the flat, but it had something that I didn't have. It had tables.

I don't own a table, my writing days were and are hampered by uncomfortable afternoons on the sofa, with the ironing board set to its lowest notch and pillows placed behind me in a losing battle with lumbar support.

This place, became part of my routine, a routine I desperately needed.

This place, became the regular setting, somewhere to start from, somewhere that was as easy to concentrate in, as it was to be inspired from. This place was home to my task.

As with all tasks, I needed to set myself a goal, stick to that goal and improve on it. Before TYOTG, I didn't have any goals. Everything else was more important, everything else was one massive distraction and I wasn't achieving anything.

Something had to give:

I will be forever grateful to the way it gave.

I still don't know how or why TYOTG came about, forgive the pun, no rhyme or reason. A lot of people questioned it and even more told me that I couldn't/wouldn't do it. But I did it!

I found the outlet that I'd be longing for, and this place provided me with the perfect base to do that.

In some ways, this place drew many parallels to TYOTG, it was a social place, where I was constantly alone, it was a place I could explore what it was like to do something I loved but always aware that the clock was counting down to take me back to work/the real world.

This place was, and is, a place that picks me up and offers a little sweetener.

Thank you, This place.
p.s This place is called Cafe Americano.