Cafe with Five Faces

Chaelli Cattlin

Description

The Cafe with Five Faces, hardly surprisingly, is a cafe with five distinct areas, each named after a city or town with which the author has a special affinity. Although there is some crossover between the rooms, both in terms of characters and storylines, each space has its own central themes. Beirut is a room for personal stories and aspired or failed romance, usually of the latter variety (and the author is well-versed in the latter). Budapest is a room for aspiring artists, writers and musicians, usually of the thwarted variety (and, again, the author has relevant experience). Cape Town is a room mainly for men and mainly for politics, exclusively of the pro-liberal and anti-Brexit persuasion, with a bit of football thrown in for good measure. Granada is an outdoor space for raconteurs of travel anecdotes for readers suffering from wanderlust. Last, but not least, Hebden Bridge is a Yorkshire-style tearoom frequented by the over-fifties and just a little bit gossipy. There's something for everyone - just choose your room with care!

Sujets

• Hungría
• Republic of South Africa
• Reino Unido
• South Africa
• United Kingdom
• Short story
• Spain
• Hungary
• Great Britain
• Spain (groupe)
• Beirut
• Lebanon
• Royaume-Uni
• Hongrie
• Afrique du Sud

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 15 mai 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781838595883
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 12 Mo

Extrait

Copyright © 2020 Chaelli Cattlin

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

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ISBN 9781838595883

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The Café with Five Faces
What the Walls Heard, 2018–2019
Chaelli Cattlin


A fictionalised autobiographical collection of often interconnected short stories charting the social history of the dis-United Kingdom and some of its citizens during a turbulent period.


Dedicated to all those I have travelled with,
to those I have met on my travels,
and to my fellow European citizens.


Some names have been changed to protect the innocent.
And the not-so-innocent.


The Café with Five Faces is a dedicated supporter of the European Union.

About the Café and its Stories
The Café with Five Faces, hardly surprisingly, is a café with five distinct areas. Although there is some crossover between the rooms, both in terms of characters and storylines, each space has its own central themes:

• Beirut: a room for personal stories and aspired or failed romance, usually of the latter variety.
• Budapest: a room for aspiring artists, writers and musicians, usually of the thwarted variety.
• Cape Town: a room mainly for men and mainly for politics, exclusively of the pro-liberal and anti-Brexit persuasion, with a bit of football thrown in for good measure.
• Granada: an outdoor space of travel anecdotes for those with wanderlust.
• Hebden Bridge: a Yorkshire tearoom for the over-fifties and just a little bit gossipy.

About the Author
A traveller, an observer and a coffee fanatic, Chaelli has, to use a turn of phrase, been around a bit!
Born in the north of England but an adopted European, he has travelled the world in his capacity as a trainer, working primarily in Europe, but also in North and South Africa, Central and South America, Australia and New Zealand, the Middle East, and Central and South East Asia. During this time, he has developed a particular affection for, and affinity with, Beirut, Budapest, Cape Town and Granada, along with the much closer to home Hebden Bridge. Having spent many months or years in all of these places, he has named a room in his café after each of them, hence The Café with Five Faces .
His ‘day job’ involves a lot of observation and he has used these ‘skills’, also known as ‘nosiness’, to put together The Café with Five Faces , a book of the stories his café’s walls have overheard and will continue to overhear.
Delving back into the annals of time, Chaelli studied history and politics at Leeds University and maintains an active interest in the latter, being a vociferous opponent of Brexit, a mistake he views as a form of national suicide. He was a founder member of the now-defunct Independent Group for Change, and was a big supporter of first Remain and then the European Movement and Rejoin EU.
These days, he is studying for a diploma in coffee skills and has, so far, taken courses in Beirut, London, Huddersfield, Cape Town, Bogotá and Villa de Leyva (Colombia).
He has been a writer for years too many to mention, starting with children’s adventure stories written when barely a teen, through to materials and courses for English language teachers, and an as-yet-unpublished travelogue.




www.thecafewith5faces.com

All the photographs included in this book were taken by Chaelli and the customers of The Café with Five Faces. Most were taken with an iPhone 6 or an iPhone XR, but those which pre-date 2015 were shot using a variety of cameras, so apologies for any resultant lack of quality! Additional photographs to accompany each chapter are on my website https://thecafewith5faces.com/2020/04/29/photographs-to-accompany-the-book-the-cafe-with-five-faces-2018-2019/
CONTENTS
2018
Prologue
2018: 01: Budapest: The Room
2018: 02: Beirut: The Room
2018: 03: Cape Town: The Room
2018: 04: Hebden Bridge: The Room
2018: 05: Granada: The Room
2018: 06: Cape Town: Land of the Rhetorical Question
2018: 07: Hebden Bridge: The One Where Nothing Happens
2018: 08: Budapest: Promnice
2018: 09: Hebden Bridge: Splendid Isolationism
2018: 10: Granada: Tales of the Unexpected Coffee
2018: 11: Beirut: The Curse of Innocence
2018: 12: Granada: In Bandit Country
2018: 13: Budapest: Fifteen Minutes of Fame
2018: 14: Hebden Bridge: Fish Without Chips
2018: 15: Cape Town: Damn the Lunatic Fringe
2018: 16: Granada: Of Ladies of the Night and a Sharp Slap on the Leg
2018: 17: Beirut: Me Too
2018: 18: Granada: The Cons of Standing Out in a Crowd
2018: 19: Hebden Bridge: The Odd Couple and the Rat
2018: 20: Cape Town: Drifting to Extremes
2018: 21: Granada: For the Love of Lebanon
2018: 22: Hebden Bridge: The Things One Will Do...…
2018: 23: Budapest: The Long-Term Cost of a Misspent Youth
2018: 24: Beirut: Monogamy on Trial
2018: 25: Cape Town: How to Become a Comedian in Just Two Words
2018: 26: Granada: Under the Weather
2018: 27: Budapest: Break-Up Breakdown
2018: 28: Cape Town: How to Keep Attention Focused on You
2018: 29: Hebden Bridge: The Nutshell
2018: 30: Granada: We’re on the Road to Somewhere
2018: 31: Cape Town: Strange Paths Indeed
2018: 32: Budapest: The Right to Unhappiness
2018: 33: Beirut: The Grass is Always Greener Somewhere
2018: 34: Hebden Bridge: The Book Behind the Cover
2018: 35: Granada: The Facebook Syndrome
2018: 36: Hebden Bridge: A Snog and a Pillock
2018: 37: Cape Town: A Tale of Two Standards and Dubious Labels
2018: 38: Beirut: The Ménage à Trois
2018: 39: Budapest: Jimez and the Plastic Pollution
2018: 40: Cape Town: Resolution

2019
Prologue
2019: 41: Cape Town: Ever-Decreasing Circles
2019: 42: Beirut: The Hypocrisy of the Ostrich
2019: 43: Hebden Bridge: Back from the March
2019: 44: Granada: The Descriptive Rules of the Road
2019: 45: Budapest: The Gift
2019: 46: Cape Town: Life is a Roller Coaster
2019: 47: Beirut: Torture Beyond the Drapes
2019: 48: Cape Town: Over One’s Dead Body
2019: 49: Beirut: Uncorking the Bottle
2019: 50: Budapest: The Silesian Toilet Episode
2019: 51: Hebden Bridge: Bring Back the Nineties and Noughties!
2019: 52: Cape Town: The Malevolent Frying Pan
2019: 53: Granada: A Picture Painted in 147 Words
2019: 54: Budapest: In the Presence of The Presence
2019: 55 Cape Town: The Kipper and the Boris
2019: 56: Budapest: 2020
2019: 57: Cape Town: The Clouds of Autocracy Gather Over a Dis-United Kingdom
2019: 58: Hebden Bridge: The Youth of Today
2019: 59: Granada: Around the World in Sixteen or so Massages
2019: 60: Beirut: The Thrill of the Chase
2019: 61: Budapest: The Invasion of Privacy
2019: 62: Hebden Bridge: A Diet of Language
2019: 63: Granada: From the Hills of Amman
2019: 64: Beirut: Malinka
2019: 65: Granada: Offending Greta Thunberg
2019: 66: Cape Town: Gutted, Trussed, Stuffed, Roasted, Carved Up and Devoured
2019: 67: Budapest: Oral Rambling
2019: 68: Cape Town: The End is Nigh

2020
Epilogue

2018
Prologue
The engine of my Vespa stutters to a standstill, smoke from the exhaust blending in with the early-morning haze. It really is no time for a would-be bohemian to be awake. Needs must, however, and cafés rarely, if ever, open themselves. Metallic shutters noisily disturb the calm to reveal windows which once again seem in need of cleaning. I’m sure I only did them yesterday… It never ceases to amaze (and depress) how much time accelerates the older one gets, even in the small matter of windows, never mind life itself.
The key clicks in the lock and the door swings open into my world. Welcome to my five-roomed empire (five if you exclude the kitchen and toilets and include the courtyard), each rather small area named after a place I hold in deep affection.
Walls have ears, so the saying goes. Well, the walls of my café have very perceptive ears. That’s my excuse, anyway. Others will say it’s the café’s owner, yours truly, who is endowed with extremely large and intrusive listening devices, often known in my part of the world as lugholes and, perhaps more commonly, as ears. Whoever, or whatever, is to blame, the following pages are the result; stories from a range of people and a range of contexts, all exchanged in the hopefully convivial environment provided by The Café with Five Faces.




The author doing what the author does best (drinking coffee), outside Kafeterija in central Belgrade. Remember, additional photographs to accompany each chapter are on my website https://thecafewith5faces.com/2020/04/29/photographs-to-accompany-the-book-the-cafe-with-five-fa