Joy and Dive were heading off to meet Thom after breakfast yesterday and we simply couldn't resist this poor, miserable, cold guy with his horrid-looking sausages and chocolate hearts standing under the word "Brat".I am sure his bratwurst were delicious but he looked so pissed with me for taking his photo that I dare not ask.
Anyhoo … I shall leave the stew of yesterday's mystery Valentine simmering for a little longer and distract you with a boring photopost of my usual Saturday morning routine.
Regrettably, my own Valentine's morning was not spent snuggled under the duvet with the sender of my card, but instead in my regular Saturday breakfast haunt of the Starbies in Borders bookshop.
I'm not a huge fan of Starbies but the service we got at our old coffee haunt was so bad that it drove us here.
Besides, the books are good.
Anyhoo … Here's baby brother Phil and Tony, star of The Worst Band In The World™ who was still recovering from the previous night's rather excellent gig.This is where anyone who wants to find Old Dive will be able to find me on any Saturday.
Phil and I arrive first. We sit here and split the Guardian; I have the book review section and Phil takes the sports pages.
We walk in as the place opens to be greeted by the singsong voice of our lovely barista yelling cheerfully across the bookshop "One skinny and one fat!" which is how we take our lattes.
I'm the skinny one … I accompany that with toasted fruit bread, thick and yummy and dripping with melted butter.
Together with my skinny latte I call that a "balanced diet".
And here is Tony's lovely wife Terri with our own Joy. Terri had danced her ass off at the gig the previous night but was still more awake than Tony, who'd merely been sitting down behind his drums.While most of the world is still in bed we come here every Saturday morning to talk music and rugby and put the world to rights and then hit the shops before the queues build up.
I hate queues, which is odd considering queueing is England's national sport, so I am always out of the city and heading home when most folk are crowding in to the place to moan about not being able to park and having to queue for bloody ages.
If they just had the sense to get their fat arses out of bed a little earlier they would discover the joys of empty shops with no waiting and shop assistants who are pleased to see you.
Idiots.
So anyhoo; after breakfast, Joy and Dive headed for the Royal Arcade to meet up with Thom who was having his hair cut.We got kinda distracted by this little lot.
Mmmm … Sex.
As it was Valentine's Day I had to take a photo of England's most romantic couple (they truly are) and scream with jealousy at Thom's unfeasibly dashing new haircut, something a baldy-man like me will never be able to experience.Sigh …
So … Boring but true: Old Dive's typical Saturday breakfast.
You're more than welcome to come and join us any time.
29 comments:
I now regret not buying those delicioush looking heart cakes! But I'm on a mission - only 3 weeks left!
It was good to see you on Heart's Day and chat about life, love and shrimp.
Dive, Happy VD to you anyway!
Though it was mean to post all those food pictures considering my current state of culinary affairs....
PS--I hate Starbies coffee. WAY too bitter, IMHO. Lattes at least take the edge off. But I usually opt for herbal tea if they have it.
It looks like fun, really. "One skinny and one fat" is priceless.
Joy, I still hanker after that raspberry and champagne heart. Oooh!
How anyone as slim as you can diet is quite beyond me, but good luck hitting your target!
Life, love and shrimp are good subjects.
Happy Valentine's Day Katherine!
Oops! So sorry about the heart cakes but hey! Pretty soon you'll be able to sample those and not worry.
I'm with you on Starbies coffee, but the better tasting coffee shops in Norwich have yet to learn the one good lesson that the USA teaches Europe: good, polite, prompt and efficient service.
Though I can do without being told to have a nice day; that can put a dint in my carefully nurtured miserable grumpiness.
Robyn, come and join us. My treat.
Medium skinny latte for me, too. Please.
(I refuse to use Starbies Tall, Grande, Venti size classification when I order. It reminds me of this person I dated once who called something grande that was, at best, medium.)
great sunday ritual, sugar! xoxoxox and OH.MY.GAWD! how absolutely adorable are joy & thom? i wish them many years of deliciousness!
(the MITM and & will celebrate our ruby anniversary, march 8th!)
Yer makin' me hungry.
We have so many alternatives to (okay, I'll say the awful word) Starbucks that I don't have to go there. It was gracious of you to admit it, Dive: service is one thing we do have over the Brits, at least in little food shops. Why do you suppose that is?
Hee hee, T! You have a wonderful way with a euphemism.
I'm afraid I'm pretty far from grande myself but then I've not had a use for the stupid thing for millennia so the size hardly matters any more.
Hey ho.
Savannah: Joy and Thom are completely adorable.
And hey! Big Blogville party on March the eighth? Yay!
xoxox
Hi, Petrea: I really have no idea why we are so utterly useless at anything other than surliness, laziness, incompetence and the total inability to realise that ten minutes is too long to wait for a coffee. We really MUST be appalling for me to have been driven to breakfasting in Starbies!
Someone once told me it's because the British who are not of the (non-working) aristocracy all wish they were, or think they should be, so they resent having to work. But that doesn't make sense to me because I feel the same way.
Brr, Petrea … the alleged aristocracy. Ick. I so wish we had all joined in with the French Revolution and beheaded the lot of 'em.
Sigh …
I actually love my job and happily work unpaid in my spare time when we are busy.
But if I were forced to work in the service industry I would probably kill people.
It must be something genetic in the English.
I actually think that the service here might have something to do with the fact that everyone is armed to the teeth. Concealed carry laws allow little old ladies to keep guns in their handbags (in the same zipper pocket as the hard candy, but separate from the pictures of their grand kids), and men to keep "hunting" knives in tucked in their boots.
I think that retailers are, at least on some level, aware that if they don't smile and say, "Have a nice day," Grandma might blow their young whipper snapper heads clean off. Just to teach them some manners.
The service in New York is notoriously rude. People have long attributed this to the fact that it's a big city, or to some intrinsic surly characteristic of the natives. Not true. They just have much tougher gun laws. The woman making your coffee in Manhattan has calculated the risk and decided that she can afford to treat you like the shit piece she believes you to be. Chances are, she still won't get shot.
Contrast that with the South, where people are the most polite, and even the toddlers carry weapons.
Hmm …
I sense an experiment coming up, T.
Time to oil up the shotgun and go shopping!
Yay!
Good point Terroni. Service is pretty good in LA. Good in Pasadena too, though, where crime is relatively low.
I'm not sure how to conduct this experiment safely. Maybe we need "seconds" to do it for us.
When I used to live in Manila, I loved Starbucks for their peppermint tea served with honey (they don't have any over here in Norwich), the warmed onion bagel with Philadelphia and strawberry jam (again, they don't have any here!). Or at times I'll have mango juice - the real kind :D
Savannah - March 8 is the best day in the entire year hee hee
Petrea: I think that's a wise move.
Joy: most people in Norwich would be frightened by peppermint tea. They'd think it smacks of witchcraft.
If it's not brown and full of sugar they aren't interested.
Sigh …
One day, I'm going to take you up on that offer, young Dive.
Hee hee hee!
People kindness induces a come back
kindness.
I will try one of those sausages Dive. And an ale to wash it down with.
I don't do the latte thing. I like my morning coffee regular, no sugar. My kids love the lattes, caramel machiattos and whatnots.
I'm on the herbal mint tea during the evening hours lately. We've given up alcohol for a bit.
What is happening on March 8th?
What a gorgeous couple!
And I like a fat latte myself.
Skim latte? Comming from a barista's P.O.V, if you added any syrup with that coffee, I would have to ask you if you were gay... Hehe what happened to your americano's? =(
Doesn't seem like such a bad Saturday out,dive. I spent my Valentines day falling more in love with my wife.
What's the name of this place Dive?
Great photo of Thom and Joy. Really lovely. I feel it may find its way into a frame on their mantelpiece.
Gosh Rich I'm still spinning from that lovely line of yours. What a lucky lady she is.
Anonymous: That was worthy of Yoda. Thank you.
Mark: Stick to the ale; avoid the sausages.
Neetzy: I have no idea what is happening on March the eighth but I have a feeling we will find out.
Maria: They truly are, but you and Bing should know what that is like.
Dot: I know; my gay gene gets out of hand sometimes.
I have latte at breakfast only; the rest of the day it's espressos or black Americanos (unless I'm in Portugal where it's bicas all the way).
Rich: You fuzzy old romantic, you.
Lynn: It's Borders bookshop. It's in the basement of Mikey's "vagina mall".
I would have been distracted by the cakes too.
They sure did look yummy, Mme.
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