It got a bit busy this week...

Barone 192 -193, Shoreditch High Street, London, E1 6HU. Tel 0207 729 8049

Not about the job, which is a step back in my life that I don't think I want to take just now, but afterwards when I thought I would try to drive across NE London around the congestion charge area heading towards St Katherines Dock which is a good place to park for a day and get a no 15 bus to my university. So nosing along Shoreditch High Street (don't ask, I have no sense of direction!), My beloved mercedes did what it often does in these circumstances - overheated and started to smoke from under the bonnet. I was loking to see where I could turn off, and a man rushed out from a nearby cafe to tell me to 'Stop - or your engine will explode!!!'

Any way he made me come out of the traffic and park on a bus stop right by his cafe, put a piece of old cardboard over my number plate so that the cameras on the intersection wouldn't read it and send me a traffic ticket, put up the bonnet so the car engine could cool down and had me (dressed in my interview suit and bag) in his coffee and lunch place with a lovely cup of Camomile tea while I waited and he organized water for the radiator (I didn't know how to tell him I had a bottle full in the car boot ready for this particular emergency!)

So, as I rang my daughter to tell her I would not be coming round to her place in South London, I enquired the nationality of my rescuer. He was, as I had guessed Latin American - from Chile. The other chap there was Portuguese, who made me a lovely tuna baguette for my lunch. And next door was a very interesting shop with Che Guevera t-shirts and Latin American flags and things for the trade. So another little Luso- Hispanic place to visit...

Its a long time since I was last in Shoreditch - I used to work in the area about 25 years ago, when it was very different!! So I was thrilled to find such lovely kind people, I have said my best thank-yous in Portuguese and Spanish, and have found a photo of the cafe for you all, because it is clean, smart, comfortable, lovely food, lovely people - you can sit and use your lap-top there and I can highly recommend it! Barone 192 - 193 Shoreditch High Street.