Dark clouds gathered...
A thunderclap foretelling mankind's impending doom shook the sky with a booming glee. Followed rapidly by a foreboding friend with no humour in its deafening authority, roiling rage, whilst it rattled the cage for a second time.
The torrential downpour that signals the start of Sydney's monsoon season chose my lunch hour to wreak its special brand of havoc.
It was this cyclonic force of gyrating wind and unsympathetic sheets of teeming rain that greeted my grimacing face as I exited the sanctuary of my office space to engage in one of life's simplest acts... Grabbing a bite. Had I been blessed by the academic pursuits of the mensa minded; one of the socially elite intelligentsia; mayhap I would have happened upon a more salubrious hour in which to dine. Alas, I'm just me, lingering one step from foul-mouthed redneck whilst t'other foot is caught in the grate of life's gutter threatening to suck my soul into the sewer.
As I traversed the street, pummelled by wet, I noticed unpleasantly, that my left shoe had finally past its point of usefulness. My soaking sock making every step a squelch of sodden misery.
It was in this state, resembling a drowned rat without the careless charm, that I approached the unfamiliar window of Le Quays.
[Service was fast, the coffee was decent and suitably priced.]
As I sipped the creamy unsweetened mixture and the roasted complexity burst through my visionary peripheral, I found myself gazing upon a remote tropical isle, sunshine beaming like a smile, palm trees swaying in a cool, refreshing breeze whilst yours truly dozed peacefully in a hammock, semi-soused on cocktails and dreams.
A third quake of coruscation tore my minds eye back to harsh reality in a blinding flash. For I was in Sydney, and Le Quays was my harbinger.
Thankyou my friend for being my *any* port in *this* storm. read more