Ode to a Capuccino

Capuccinos are what we miss most. About Cape Town.

No one serves a capuccino in Joubertina. There is only really one restaurant here anyway - a smashing burger,yes, the best slap chips ever and a darn good coffee - but no capuccino.

In Kareedouw there are capuccinos to be found - but they are really coffees with froth on top (I have high standards I'm afraid!). And Kareedouw is a sort of neither here nor there place, although we are very fond of the restaurant and the 'from somewhere else' owner. And so Lex and I found ourselves travelling a good hour to Jeffreys Bay in search of THAT capuccino.

We found it in a fab restaurant, with a wrap around stoep and a chef (who worked with Jamie and holds to his 'keep it simple , happy" philosophy). The menu looks stunning- sushi, mezze - drool! But on our (very) limited budget we stuck to a couple of capuccinos.

And they were enough.

They arrived complete with a white frothy leaf pattern on top. I was hopeful. I dipped my lip in, and sipped. Yes. Its been months since we had one of these!

And then we started chatting - Lex and me. And while we chatted my eyes moved, from the Australian couple, her Chinese and beautiful, who were talking about primates and clams and he was older and smitten...

And then we paused to eavesdrop on the hostess chatting about her trip to Thailand and visits to forests and temples and.....I watched the man clip the hedge wearing his 'I love Jesus hat'...

And all the while we sipped and chatted. Immediately we wanted to stay for hours - we noted it was a wireless hotspot. We felt inspired. We wanted to open our laptop and start working out scripts. Ideas abounded and hope floated like the smells of food and coffee around us.

It was then we realized that it was not really only the capuccinos we miss so much. It's that certain kind of restaurant. The ones where you can sit and work, and eat sushi. Where there is a bakery and fresh breads and pies and croissants and platters of olives,cheeses and meats. A place with friendly waitrons in extra long aprons, well trained and accented - young and American, Spanish, English - seeing the world.

I miss being anonymous. I miss just catching the tail ends of the conversations of other people, reading into smiles the characters, the details of their lives. Imagining. And somehow being there just gets me and Lex going. A whole lot of things - dreams - suddenly seem possible again.

So, we have to do it more. Get out. I saw in the leafy cloud floating on top of my capuccino a whole lot of dreamy dreams.We have made a date with ourselves to do it more often - maybe once a month.

To find that part of ourselves that wakes up when we sip a real capuccino.