Tea for Two

The other day two quaint women came into the cafe for a cup of tea. They asked all kinds of questions about the tea that we had -- their flavour, strength, origin, blah, blah. I made up some answers while wondering how it was possible that people can end up becoming such wankers over a pile of dried up tea leaves. They seemed satisfied with what I said though and chose a pot of Fancy Oh la la Tea for two.

It was the end of the day so they were the only ones in the cafe and they just sat there talking about beige things for the best part of an hour while we pottered around in our self-important waitress way. I would write down some of the conversation but it was so vacuous it went in one ear and out the other.

Finally they came up to the counter to pay.

"That'll be $9.80 thanks."

* rustle rustle coinage rustle*

"Thanks a lot, it was lovely."

"Bye."

A normal exchange. But later when I was clearing their table I realised that the cups were still half-filled with water. As in water, rather than tea. I flipped open the lid of the teapot and realised that we'd forgotten to put the tea leaves in. These two ladies had been sitting there for an hour drinking hot water and hadn't said a thing.

Were they too polite to complain? Or had they thought that they were actually drinking tea, despite all their wanky comments and tea-snob remarks??

People are so strange.

Express posting crusties

Today my boss posted some croissants to her friends inter-state. She put them in an express post bag and said they'd get there the next day. If only I had a photo of that express post bag stuffed full with croissants. She told me if I cared about our products more than maybe I would consider posting some baked-goods to friends as well. Maybe.

Today I also over-stocked the oranges. We're living in exciting times.

Corn Crackers

"Yeah part of my extended family were in a cult. They lived in Brisbane at the time and it was all really weird. But then they ended up getting out of it and since then they've become millionaires by inventing corn crackers."

The Second Till

"Chrystle, I've turned the second till off for you."

"That's a nice story Nomes."

Introducing the Weasel

So my original reason for starting this blog was to have a space to keep track of all the awe-inspiring (and particularly the abhorrently mundane) conversations that I overhear at the cafe I work at. The number of times I've said "Now that's a story for the blog" is ridiculous and it only seems fair to be true to at least part of the b.s. that comes out of my mouth.

Having said that, I'm not great at sticking to my intended plans so this blog will probably just end up being one of those self-indulgent "check out my latest arty photos and listen to this band that I'm currently obsessing over" type of blogs that seem to consume the lives of all the Gen Y's in the inner-city of Melbourne. I've avoided using Facebook and Twitter for so long, but now that I've fallen for the allure of the pop culture spin on autobiographies I'm very afraid. It's a slippery slope. Before you know it I'll be parading around in skinny jeans and baggy t-shirts and my fringe will be so long I won't be able to see anything except for the fine print of the copy of 'The Catcher in the Rye' that I'm holding in front of my nose, hoping that someone will see me with it and we'll strike up a conversation about the claim to fame of adolescent rebellion.

Yes. Mummy and Daddy are proud of all you hipsters. I hope your honours year of Arts at Melbourne Uni is fruitful as punch.

I'm really not always this cynical. Maybe it's got something to do with the fact that I re-watched the entire first season of Daria last week. Pretty stoned for most of it, but the message must have still weaselled its way in there somehow.

Anyway next time I visit I promise to have some good stories of over-heard conversations. If not I'll make-up something and try to make it sound realistic.