Head Space Daily Words...

Whilst working in Docklands, the coffee shop at Shadwell Station has become my early morning retreat - filling the gap between dropping my youngest at the child minder's house and catching the DLR to work - without which I would arrive in the office ridiculously early. A relatively long freelance booking at a company brings about routine and certain habits and my daily fix at Shadwell Station has been mine. There are coffee shop regulars who sit at the same seats. The studious looking, predominantly bald guy with a tuft of hair on top of his head, peering over his glasses to read his newspaper. The elderly man who always asks for the two greenest bananas they have in the shop. The mixed race girl ferociously tapping away on her i-pod, chuckling happily to herself at whatever she is writing; and the East End old boy, with lank greasy hair and bottle bottomed spectacles, who comes in around 8.45 every morning, loudly shouting greetings, commenting on the previous night's football and declaring his love for Spurs. It may sound like groundhog day but there is something comforting about this regularity. It never feels boring. Everyone is on their own daily trajectory, influenced by whatever mood they are in, if they are running late, whatever stress may be happening, or what the weather is doing outside on that particular day. The music playing on the stereo also differs from day to day. Fairly homogenous, inoffensive, mainstream fare. There was even a Christmas tune on the other day - a Frank and Bing number I believe - which is way too early but a reminder of what is around the corner. No matter what is going on in the world, the same people will be sitting in the same seats, having the same chit chat with the owner, drinking their coffees and eating green bananas and pastries. Seeing this slice of life every morning for the past eight weeks has certainly set me up for the day ahead...