Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 25 degrees, warm, sunny and with a blue sky.
Today I had a pleasant surprise. Jim, the Scottish owner of the more sophisticated cafe in Wordsley, sent me a message.
He is Julie’s boss, and over the months I was there, we began to build a kind of friendship. I like him, the cafe is very good, and I hope it will be a big success in the future. I gave a couple of tips while I was there. Now let’s see if he has put any of them into action.
Near where my mother lives, there are two cafes I went to regularly while I was in England. I made friends with the owners of both. The simpler of the two, ‘The Greedy Cow’, is a one-man band run by a gentle giant of a man named Luke.
Funnily enough, he texted me last week with photos of the newly refurbished cafe. Besides the cafe, Luke is a bit of a wheeler-dealer with cars, so he’s not just dependent on the cafe for a living. The greedy cow is located on the main high street, facing the village church.
Because there is no car park in front of him, only the churches’ on the opposite side of the road, I had always told him that his core business is delivering to local small businesses, etc.
Wordsley is in the Black Country, which was historically part of the Industrial Revolution. The area once had many large foundries, factories, and heavy industry. Many have been redeveloped into industrial parks, housing, and smaller businesses. Providing quick breakfast and lunch service to all these small businesses should be good, and now he seems to be gearing up his cafe for it.
And Jim, the Scottish owner of the more upmarket, sophisticated cafe of the two, situated in the main square and precinct of the village, with a car park directly in front of the establishment. Jim bought the business as a ready-to-go business interest in the middle of last year, and little by little, he has changed it into what it is today.
His message kindly told me that he had met my mother in the street and that she had informed him about the flight difficulties, cancellation, extra baggage charge, etc., that I had faced.
I promptly sent him back a message saying that it was a little stressful at the time, but it is what it is. I got there in time for Yasmin’s birthday, so I’m happy to be back in Rio, but at the same time, I’m missing Wordsley, his cafe, and Julie, too.
From regularly going to the two cafes, principally more Jim’s than Luke’s, I made many friends in a relatively short period of time while staying in England. Another observation was that, besides feeling that English people were so polite, they were also so friendly.
It was easy for me to meet and greet people in the street there. I do not know whether it is because of a bit of Brazilian influence, living in Rio and the carioca culture, where it is easy to talk to people in shops and on the streets, basically anywhere, because in Rio, it’s the way it is.
This culture has rubbed off on me, making it easier for me not to be shy about complimenting or making conversation with people on the street, as I was in Wordsley Village.
What I have also noticed is that because of my crazy accent, which is neither Black Country nor English, more of a broken English than anything else, from being so long out of England and my hometown, I consider myself more of an alien there than a native, very similar to how I am in Rio as a gringo.
A gringo who speaks Portuguese and its slang like a carioca, but still with a powerful accent, and still a gringo. For some, so many contrasts or contradictions are disconcerting, maybe here in Brazil and there in England too.
I received and responded to Jim’s message while I was in the park, exercising. I sent a photo of Sugarloaf, which is right in front of the park, on the other side of the Botafogo Bay cove. He replied to my message, saying it looked nice, that it was nice of him to reach out to me voluntarily, and that this was a sign of a nice person and possibly a good friend.
In bed by midnight
Thank you.
Thanks for reading this blog post. Please explore my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Richard
