Three cheers for the elderly.

I made a firm, new friend at work today.
Her name is Astrid.
She looks like a cross between this lady.

and this kitten.

(mainly just the eyes)

I adore her.
She visits me every second day and after several months of her coming in and completely distracting me from my work, today was the cherry on the top of the double chocolate and cream fudge cake that cemented out friendship forever.
Astrid lives around the corner from my work on her own, she is a utter lady of leisure, no children, partner, nothing but spare time and what i assume is a bucket of money.
She's also at least 70. She is feisty, loud and finds everything glorious. She will drink coffee in the morning ("very strong, very hot darling. I can't afford to waste my time on the weak") and a few slices of sourdough fruit toast layered with honey and ricotta. If she pops in during the afternoon it's a chamomile tea and a shortbread biscuit ("proper ladies drink tea in the afternoon"). She's always ready with a wonderful story, she holds your hand or playfully slaps you when she talks and she has the most wicked sense of humour. I'm forever getting in trouble for chatting with her for too long and ignoring the rest of the cafe, i have to fight the urge to sit at the other end of her table lunch with her for hours. She also always wears pearls.

Today she was sitting sipping her coffee and chatting away when a HORRID family came in. The usual Malvern type. Rich, rude, general I-don't-give-a-fuck-about-you-just-serve-me-slave attitude that i despise but can handle very well. They plonked themselves down in the middle of the cafe and ordered two coffees, one piece of cake and one scone. They then proceeded to eat in a manner that would make a pack of starving monkeys look like fine diners. The parents sat there and chatted while the children (fucking gremlins) put bits of scone and cake in every conceivable surface in the cafe, stuffed bits of cake in the vases with flowers, poured water all over the floor and tipped out our sugar holders and drew pictures with the sugar all over the table (they also put buttery hand prints all over the window and ran screaming about the cafe). Then, without uttering a word of apology about the disgusting mess, they left. Leaving us, in the middle of a morning rush with a natural disaster style clean up. This is a common affair for a lot of the parents that come into my work. The 'stay at home' mothers sit there sipping their eighth strength skinny lattes in between hair appointments and shopping trips while the terrors run amok and destroy the place. They don't care, it's free child care. (if it was my business, I'd probably enforce a no-child policy, but it's Malvern, all these people do is breed to fill their mansions).

A small idea of the mess.


I'm getting distracted by ranting about my pet hate.
Astrid came over as i was on my hands and knees picking cake out of the joins in the table and started clearing up with me. In between picking up the plates and helping my wipe down the table and salvage the flowers we bonded. She let me rant (which i never do to any customer, no matter how well i know them) and then she ranted back about how disgusting people were becoming today and how the more money some people seem to have, the more general politeness and manners seem to disappear. In all my time in hospitality, no one has ever done that - helped me clear up for no reason other than to lend a hand. She wasn't waiting for that table, she didn't make that mess herself.
After finishing her coffee, she gave me a hug, told me that i was probably her favorite person in the world at this time in her life and left.

She's wonderful.

I wish i could keep her.


There was also another lady that came into work today, i'm pretty sure she is my mother in about forty years. She was wearing bright pink knee high suede boots and leopard print tights. She had blue hair and gold eyeshadow. She sat with a group of about nine ladies-who-lunch and ordered glass after glass of wine (calling it her 'medicine'), she called Kevin (my boss) a handsome, strapping boy and ate a GIANT slice of double chocolate cake at the end of her meal because "i'm ninety, i'll eat what i want and drink as much as i want, i made it this far and i'll be damned if i'm going to waste the rest!"
She was so cool.


Anyway. Just thought I'd share.