My Favourite Table

I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark last night and woke up today feeling adventurous. I thought I'd be brave and try something new, so I picked a cream cheese olive on rye bread sandwich, along with my regular long black. And then I thought I'd sit at a new table downstairs for a change. But to get downstairs I first had to pass my second favourite, and then my favourite table.

Balancing the black tray in my hands I walked by my second favourite table, and within an instant I decided that a new sandwich was adventurous enough for a day. A minute later I found myself sitting on the very same chair that I've been sitting on so many times before, looking out the same window, on the same street. And I thought, man, this is really good.

My favourite table is an old wooden kitchen table. Currently it has a tall white Dahlia resting on it. The four stools are of different design, one of them had been painted white a long time ago. The space between the table and the chairs is just big enough for people to cross their legs. The tabletop has the perfect height for me to work comfortably for many hours.

The ceiling is high and the music subtle. Besides that I hear comforting sounds of clinking kitchen ware in my elevated back, the sound of people stomping half a flight upstairs to the counter to place their orders and fetch their beverages, and then downstairs to the main seating area. These days the door is being kept open and the casual sounds of a wonderful town reaches in.

I'm facing the big window front of the store and see the lower end of Camden High Street. Across the street there's Nicholas' Camera Company which is so old that it probably houses not a single digital camera, I see Camden Food & Wine, the frequently visited MB Chicken & Pizza, the Pharmacy with the purple front, Chicken Cottage, and Nazaks, the Indian place I've never tried.

I always wonder what it's like to live above one of those shops. You would open the window on the second or third floor and look down on the exact same street. On the other side of it you'd see a coffee shop called Leyas. They have a little bench outside their store front. If you'd look through the large window, you'd see my second favourite table. And then you'd see me, typing this.