Remembering Cafes

Cafes were brick-and-mortar businesses present in almost every town and city across the country. While many cafes served coffee and (often avocado-related) foodstuff, their primary function was to provide free Wi-Fi. The modern cafe replaced both the office and the library as a place of work and study, and whether it was part of a vaguely continental themed franchise such as Caffè Nero, or an independent establishment with a Scandinavian style interior consisting of exposed lightbulbs and wooden benches, every cafe’s raison d'être was ultimately the same: to offer a safe haven for Digital Nomads (also known as ‘Laptop Owners’).

There were several cafes in my city, and I was extremely popular with the staff at all of them. My daily routine went as such: I arrived at my chosen cafe at 9am and asked the barista at the counter for the Wi-Fi password, to which they affectionately responded along the lines of, “flatwhite, one word, lowercase.” I then selected a table by a power outlet and t…