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AsidesDinner for OneWellington

More Ebert

By January 11, 2009One Comment

Roger Ebert on the per­son­al, private places he loves (and the joys of being alone with them, as well as the occa­sion­al pleas­ures to be found in shar­ing them):

I first vis­ited the Moscow Arms near Pembridge Square in 1970, when the room fee at the hotel now named the Blue Bells was £4 a night. I have nev­er met any­body in that pub. I always sit in the same corner booth. There is a man who comes in every lunch­time, tat­tooed, bald, and wear­ing a motor­cycle jack­et. He is nearly 40 years older now, but he is still there, and it looks like it’s still the same jack­et. Has he noticed me cross­ing his field of vis­ion 50 or 75 times in his life­time? Certainly not. But if he still comes at lunch­time every day, it is my duty to bear wit­ness, because by now I have become the only per­son in the Moscow Arms who knows how long he has been doing this, or cares. I believe this includes him.

I too enjoy sit­ting alone in cafés, res­taur­ants and bars. Indeed this very morn­ing I took brunch at The Cheeky Pipi in Island Bay and, des­pite the average-ness of the cof­fee and the meal, I enjoyed the sit­ting, the read­ing and the watching.

One Comment

  • Robyn says:

    God, Ebert is such a great writer.

    I love plonk­ing myself in a corner of a café and just sitting/reading/watching/thinking. It’s fun over­hear­ing a snip­pet of someone’s con­ver­sa­tion and try­ing to work out how it fits into their life. I felt like a bit of an old lady recently when I found myself wish­ing that a par­tic­u­lar café would turn down their music so I could eaves­drop more efficiently.