Café Society

Yesterday we had coffee in Starbucks. I had presumed that the name came from the character in Battlestar Gallactica. It seem that I'm not well enough read and that Moby Dick is the source - or at least almost. It still doesn't explain the missing apostrophe.

I'm old enough to remember the days when the High Streets of England where sprinkled with Tea shops - every major town had a Lyons and even when they dissapeared in the late 60s, there where plenty of places around for tea and a bun. The tea shops sold coffee, but no one bought it, those were the days before the English had learned how to make it. Then suddenly, about 15 years ago, all the tea shops seemed to dissappear, I remeber visiting Epsom with my parents and finding that the last local tea shop had gone.

And then - when? - about five years ago, maybe less, everywhere suddenly had a US style coffee shop and now every town centre seems to have three. In general I'm not a fan of the Americanisation of England, but the current spate of cafés are much nicer and more relaxed than the old tea shops