Day 7 of my Finish-My-Course-One-Cafe-At-A-Time-Writing Tour Sabbatical. After a one-degree start this morning – ONE DEGREE, PEOPLE (Winter is HERE) – I find myself at Lilly’s, a little café that opens out on an outdoor courtyard facing the road through Rhodes, and I’m enjoying the lovely 18 degree sunshine of a beautiful afternoon. With a scarf. And a jacket. And wishing I’d brought my beanie. 

Yes. Rhodes. How did I come to pick Rhodes, you might ask. Why, for the excitement, of course – and the glamour, the cosmopolitan atmosphere, …. ok, it was for none of those reasons (although for sure, Rhodes is all that). It was a pair of shoes brought me this way, and before you think, ‘oh, that explains it,’ no, they’re not for me, they’re for Scott, and they just needed collection from Paul’s Warehouse at Homebush. I thought to myself, there must be somewhere nearby I could stop in at, and I thought, got to be good coffee in Rhodes.

And there IS. It’s bloody sensational – Lilly’s, people, try the cappuccino, it’s awesome, up there with Bertoni’s, it really is. And their bruschetta is fantastic, too.

So it’s funny how some things work out. My current 400-word assignment is about writing an article for a men’s health magazine on the benefits of seafood, and I’ve appealed to Dave and Mike for their thoughts and feedback on my article. (For the next assignment, I have to adapt the same article for an over-50s magazine, and I want to say I might appeal to my friend Terri for advice on that one, but I’m just not that kind of person ;)) Before settling in at Lilly’s, I bought a copy of the Men’s magazine, but I feel I almost didn’t need to. Because coincidentally, I found myself at a table next to a group of men-friends, who, loudly enough that I didn’t even have to try to eavesdrop, have so far covered parenting, the food here, their pet rats, a [hot] chick they saw somewhere, and are now onto investments. Not that I would have been able to get a word in edge-wise, but I should have jumped over and tried to interview them about seafood! They talked about everything else, why not? (I could make friends wherever I go, I’m telling you.) Anyway, enough of watching the world go by, it’s back to my homework for me, and to the prompt, for you.

(Just one last word: do you know how hard it is to write only 400 words? Already I’m at 470, still with a lot to say, and I can’t even begin to see where to cut the article back. Who knew there could be so much to say about the benefits of more seafood in your diet. I have to do something, though – last time I got carried away with my word count, I got marked down. You’ll have no such problem with the prompt.)

Writing prompt 214

‘So I said to him, I said, “you’re going to have to do that for the rest of your life, mate,” and he just looked at me.’

Johnno and Steno were laughing so hard the table was shaking.

‘You-you – ‘ he couldn’t speak for laughing now, either, ‘you shoulda seen the look on ‘is face, mate,’ and he began to go red in the face.