The Rise and Rise of the Coffee Shop

In a former life, Granny and hubby owned and ran a cafe in the centre of Norwich. At the time, it was we think, one of the first to house a cappuccino machine and to sport outside tables, a very un-British thing to do given our summer weather. But it was clearly the way to go given the amount of foreign travel people were undertaking.

​

Very soon competition began to grow. The department stores began to put refreshment outlets on several floors, as meeting up in coffee shops (never tea-shops), become a pleasant pass-time. Any establishments that could find an inch of outdoor space squeezed on tables wherever and whenever possible.

Granny remembers beginning to notice the alarming rate that food outlets were mushrooming around us (pardon the pun!). Pizza chains, coffee stops and sandwich bars but now she simply cannot believe just how many more eateries there are in the City. Naturally most of the big coffee-shop chains are well represented, especially since not one but two shopping malls have been built. It seems that every other vacated shop has turned into a cafe of one kind or another and yes, welcome once more to the return of speciality tea- houses!

Granny loved serving the public who, by and large, were very appreciative of her home-cooking and cheery approach. She cannot count the number of times a customer said wistfully it was their dream to open a little place like ours. Ah yes, from the other side of the counter all must have seemed sweetness and light but just try cooking all your own cakes and gateaux, making gallons of soup and judging how many jacket potatoes to put in the oven or bacon to prepare, and at the end of the day, sweeping and mopping. Like many things, it's not quite so easy as it first appears...

Granny and hubby prided themselves on swift, friendly service and so cannot help being

slightly judgemental about others when we are out. On the other hand it has given us great

empathy. Only this morning when we called at a small local establishment for cappuccinos

and found them clearly overwhelmed, hubby set to and cleared all their outside tables for

them and washed up as well!

Cynicism as Skincare

Thankfully I was born with good skin as well as a strong dose of cynicism which makes me question the motives behind cosmetics advertising though I know of course they are primarily financial!

​Naturally, cosmetics companies are going to slate simple soap and water. A face-cloth and bar of soap followed by a touch of overnight cream is not going to bankroll the chief executive! A few reviving splashes of (naturally) astringent cold water in the morning followed by a light covering of whatever you fancy is not going to pay for exclusive headquarters in Paris, London or New York!

​I don’t like being dictated to by so-called experts, and object to being told I need expensive products to ‘clean off the grime of the day’. A nice warm wash with soap and water or in my case just water alone, should suffice if you do not have problem skin. Cleaners, toners, moisturisers, exfoliates, and all the pseudo-scientific babble surrounding them, are there in part to bamboozle us into thinking we need to buy a variety of products that in my opinion fall into the realms of witchery for the gullible. Just think about it…

I'm all for a little enhancement, but for myself I choose inexpensive products and apply with a light touch - less is more is a good rule for the older face. None of us wants to look as though a plasterer has been called in to fill wrinkles and lines...

If you've got them, flaunt them! Don't habitually moan and turn down your mouth. Have a ready smile and at least your crinkles and creases will chart your happiness and enhance your glowing skin and sparkling eyes.

Gloves

We take gloves today so much for granted. I expect that you, like me,

have a drawer-full of assorted types and materials and that's without counting gardening, cycling and rubber gloves!

We tend to forget that in times past, gloves symbolised nobility and power as well as purity and protection.

Used originally in warfare, the widespread use of gloves as fashion accessories did not begin until the early seventeenth century. Typically made from deer, sheep and kid-skins, gloves became decorative

garments in their own right adorned with elaborate gold and silver embroidery and often bejewelled with precious stones.

This was also the time of the birth of fabric and knitted gloves. However, those did not communicate the social status and prestige that highly decorated leather gloves and gauntlets did, particularly if they were made of

finest Spanish leather from Cordoba tanned with a special vegetable process that left it both waterproof and soft. Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, large quantities of tanned hides and calf skins were sent yearly around the coast from East Anglian ports, particularly Ipswich and Woodbridge, to London, where it was said, the leather was much valued by shoemakers in particular because it was stronger than any other leather. Far more leather came to London by this route than in any other recorded way.

Although Norwich was predominantly a cloth town, it nevertheless contained a large number of leather workers. Between 1548 and 1719, 1,079 leather craftsmen were made freemen of the city, that is just over 10 per cent of the new enrolments. Worsted weavers and leather workers between them formed about 40 per cent of the industrial and commercial population of the city.

After Royalty, Judges, Clergy and Freemasons were of the orders who wore gloves, and until the mid-19th century, it was customary to give gloves as tokens to guests at weddings and to mourners at funerals. The formalities of glove-wearing gradually lost sway until the 1940's and 50's when something of a more glamorous renaissance occurred. Ladies' glove styles emerged in new synthetic materials and perhaps the most alluring examples of glove-wearing were by those fabulously-dressed Hollywood stars who wore close-fitting net or satin virtually up to their armpits! The trend was short-lived, though I can remember old ladies in their crocheted lace gloves, and myself as a teenager occasionally donning white cotton gloves for Sunday walks!

It's all a far cry from my snugly synthetic 'every-day' gloves though I do treasure several pairs in leather of different shades hoarded over the years to complement my smarter boots and shoes.

Man with Glove by Titian