Greg Bruce is a multimedia journalist with The New Zealand Herald. OPINION It was 2011 when I first walked into landmark Mt Eden cafe Fraser’s with my laptop, insufficient funds for anything more than a coffee and no intention of leaving the Auckland establishment for several hours. I had just started a non-lucrative career as a freelance writer and needed somewhere to work that wasn’t my freezing cold flat.
Every weekday for the next few weeks, I walked into Fraser’s with my laptop, ordered a large flat white, and sat there for most of the morning. Once the staff knew my order, I started feeling a bit uncomfortable, so I added three other cafes to my rotation. For the next three years, those four cafes were where I spent most of my weekday mornings.
Not once, during any of the hundreds of visits I made to those cafes over those years, did I buy more than a coffee, and never did any of the staff suggest I do so, which was lucky, since I couldn’t have afforded it. Had they done so, I would have been too embarrassed to ever return. That probably wouldn’t have made much difference to their business, but it would have made a big difference to me.
My visits to the cafes of Mt Eden made me feel more productive and more a part of the world. They played an important role in maintaining my mental health. It was uplifting to feel part of the buzz of life, of something bigger than me, at a time when I was otherwise isolated.
It made me feel good. You could argue it’s not a c.