There are certainly a lot of not so great things about working on such a day. You have to get up early while the rest of your house sleeps in. If it's nice and sunny it's depressing, because you should be out enjoying the sun like everybody else. (You know everyone else is out enjoying the sun. If you can't hear them through your concrete walls, you can certainly read all their updates on Facebook and Twitter.)
And then there are the buses.
Oh yes.
How are they running?
Why, on Sunday timetables of course!
It was Waitangi Day earlier this month, which meant having to catch a bus half an hour earlier than usual. Then because everybody was at home having a sleep in, rather than driving to work in their cars, the bus took half as long to get into town than it normally does. Result: super early arrival.
After two years in my current job I like to think I'm a bit of a veteran of the working public holiday game, and have it down to a fine art.
Step one: Wake up. Resist urge to stay in bed - there's not going to be another bus ten minutes later like there is on a normal day. Get up.
Step two: Feel sorry for self. Think cynically that the birds seem to be singing a little quieter today - some of them must be on holiday too.
Step three: Get ready and leave house.
Step four: Catch bus. Share commiserating smiles with fellow passengers.
Step five: Arrive in town. As near destination begin scouting for coffee places that are open and are not Starbucks.
Step six: See such a coffee place. Get off bus.
Step seven: Acquire coffee.
Step eight: Get to work 20 minutes early.
So this is what I did on Waitangi Day, and something AWESOME happened at Step Seven.
I stayed on the bus for an extra stop as I hadn't seen an open coffee shop yet. Suddenly something bright and green caught my eye. It was a coffee shop, and it was open. I frantically hit the red button beside me, and stumbled off the bus following the bright green facade. I made my way up to the hole in the wall and ordered my coffee.
The barista and I commiserated with each other about being at work, and he set about making my cup of coffee. I stared at the mug he placed own in front of me. It had writing on it, and it seemed familiar. In my yet-to-caffeine-myself-awake state I tried to think.
'Lucy looks into ...Where do I know that from?'
They say patience is a virtue, so after he had made a dud lot of milk, then a decent lot of milk, and poured my coffee, and after I had paid, I was handed the cup and I could look at it properly.
.
Narnia? What are you doing on my coffee cup? I mean, I'm glad you're here, but ... why?
Turns out it is a NZ Post promotion. I'm not sure what they're trying to promote, I think just reading.
You can learn more at readwritegrow.co.nz!
I think there should be more coffee cups with books on them. This might be a bit controversial, akin to the practice of reproducing great works of art on umbrellas, which many people abhor. But that is a subject or another post which may or may not belong on this blog. Why do I think books should be on coffee cups?
- It makes me happy! I love Narnia and smiled every time I looked at the cup.
- It's getting books out there to a wider audience - all publicity is good publicity, or something like that?
- It's a fun game of guessing what book will be on your cup.
- It makes people go back for more! I went back the next day to see if I'd get another book on a cup. Then I went back the day after that. That time, they couple manning the hole in the wall recognised me and gave me a loyalty card, which means I've been back again since and have now earned a free coffee. Win win for everybody!
Bonus: The next cup I got was the Little Yellow Digger.
.
And on a completely unrelated note, it's March 1st! I go to Adelaide today! I should really go to bed. The shuttle is coming in four hours, or to put it another way at 3.55am. Or to put it in layman's term, too bloody soon and too bloody early!
But I'm not complaining ... Adelaide Writers' Week, here I come!
