St. Thérèse of Lisieux Church, Somerton Road, Belfast in December 2017

The chairs are stacked up in Caffè Nero, which is one of my favourite coffee shops at the bottom of Royal Avenue. It is located in the ground storey of a very famous Art Deco styled building called Sinclair House built in 1926. Needless to say it was closed in 1972 at the height of the Troubles. If you ever visit Belfast, and you want to view the Art Deco architecture, this would be a good place to start you tour. At the top of the building there is an impressive large clock and the hands are clearly visible as if pointing out that tempus fugit just as the blue watch did in ‘A Table of Desserts’ by Jan Davidz de Heem. Art Deco first appeared in the 1920 and was influenced by Picasso’s cubism.  Picasso reduced art to geometric equivalents and clean lines and muted colours.

Usually customers would be sitting sipping coffee, reading books or papers, or working on their laptops. Maybe their biggest decision was either to have an Americano, a Cappuccino, a Macchiatto, a Cortado, or an Espresso. Now their biggest concern is how to get through the lockdown and not go crazy or catch Coronavirus. I regretted that I never tried a Cortado or a Macchiatto but I made a mental note that I would be more audacious when the lockdown was over. In the meantime, I read the description of both these drinks. The Cortado is a coffee with more milk than a Macchiatto and more punch than a Flat White. A Macchiatto is made with a single espresso and ‘marked’ with a dash of steamed milk and foam.