I’m sitting at a table in a garden drinking tea, it is dark, the ambient light from the nearby cafe building spilling out on the people sitting here combined with a small oil lamp is the only thing that illuminates us. The early december air is verging on cool and in the background I can hear the noise of the nearby motorway as the walls around the garden do not block it out completely. Three women are sitting around me having a lively discussion is Chinese and one of the women’s son sits in front of me fiddling with a laptop. Suddenly a man comes out from the cafe and sets down a cup of coffee in front of each of us even though no one ordered it. I turns out to be a treat from the manager of the cafe. With nothing much to do except drink my newly acquired coffee it is kind of boring to sit here but it is not the panicky kind of boring that makes you anxious to find something to do. It is a kind of calm state of boredom.  The woman to my right turns to me to ask a question…