A Spoonful of Sugar…

"For every job that must be done, there is an element of fun - find the fun and snap! The job's a game…" (Mary Poppins, 1964)

A certain world-famous nanny, who was practically perfect in every single way, once trilled something about a spoonful of sugar doing the most magical things.
Household chores simply did themselves. Birds sang on windowsills.
In other words, a positive attitude could make all the difference to the dullest of tasks or days (but somehow, I don't think this song would've been as snappy.)

For some, dining out for breakfast in a cafe on weekends in Sydney is a real treat, and especially cherished when shared with interstate visitors. 

Last weekend, I eagerly led the way with my party of three to a cafe in Marrickville for this very purpose. It didn't look particularly busy - the perfect place to catch up.

And so in the doorway we hovered, waiting for one of three waitresses - less than three metres away, giggling and apparently all assigned to put away cutlery - to look up.

Bingo. Houston, we had eye contact - with one then the others. Somewhere, the ticking of a clock echoed through time. Crickets may have also been chirping.

I decided to choose our own table.

Minutes melted away. Eventually, one of the waitresses managed to find her way to our table and then very literally slapped down four cumbersomely oversized menus with four equally unmanageable wine lists onto the edge of the table.

With a scowl and a sigh, she spat,"I'll have to come back because there's too many of youse…"
Noticing the stunned silence, she added the disclaimer: "..in the nicest way."

And off she buzzed, leaving us to ponder on the surely multitudinous ways that the statement could be taken at its "nicest."

After 10 minutes of waiting for our nicest possible waitress to return, I tried in vain to hail her down in order to return the bulky breakfast wine lists and hopefully make an order before evening.

A middle-aged woman standing behind the register glanced over with neither a smile, nor evidently, interest, and just as swiftly, looked away.

At this moment, we decided to leave. We took our business only metres down the road but, as it turned out, to another galaxy in terms of smart business practice.

We were greeted at the door, and again behind the counter, by friendly, smiling faces. Menus were handed out individually, with witty smalltalk about the day-so-far on the side, followed by enthusiastic recommendations of blackboard specials.

It was the spoonful of sugar that had been missing. We were even thanked for our business when it was time to pay the bill.

You may not love your job. You may not even like it. But no matter what it is, there's the whole world at your feet and who gets to see it but the birds, the stars and the chimney sweeps.