Bison coffee

I'm not sure why York University runs fun-sized terms but it's already time to go across and pick Izzy up for Easter. It's almost exactly the same distance from the cottage to York as it is to where Charlie and Hannah live in Manchester, so I do feel bad that I visit them more often than Iz. However, there are two principle reasons for this: firstly, I'm often down Manchester way visiting the Minx, anyway, and, secondly, when you drive to York, you have to get through Harrogate.

I worked in Harrogate, but on the far side, for a couple of years from 1991, just after Charlie was born,  and it was just as much of a pain in the backside to get through back then, too. (Funnily enough, I worked about 50 yards away from one of my best friends, Keith, but I didn't know him at the time.)

Today, at least, I had Milly for company. She passed her driving test, yesterday, and, for a moment, it looked as though she would drive today but I think the prospect was a bit stressful, so she opted to be my co-pilot instead. Being able to drive will be absolutely liberating for her, as it was for her sisters, because she lives in a very distributed rural community with no way to get about by public transport for the most part.

That said, I remember when I passed my test in 1983. Although I lived in London and there seemed to be plenty of buses and trains, I was still surprisingly limited on where I could travel to on public transport. Getting to Kingston or Sutton was easy enough on the bus and, of course, I could get up into town on the train, but when I learnt to drive, my God, it was fantastic! My mum used to accuse me of "joy riding" because I'd try a different route every time I went anywhere. In those days, petrol was cheap - about 70p for a *gallon* - and the roads were far, far emptier. Good times for a boy who loved to drive.

Back to today, though, and our journey across to York. We were peckish by the time we got to the outskirts of Harrogate but Izzy encouraged us to hang on until we got to her. Thus, I had a bacon and egg roll from the greasy spoon just down the road from her house - which dispelled some (perceived!) mild tetchiness and also my shaky arms - and then we went for a coffee at Bison Coffee, also just along from her house.

Here, in this lovely little coffee shop, we had lattes and Americanos while Milly also had a bagel. It was run by two splendidly beardy men who gave off the air of being proper coffee nerds. Speaking as someone who, thankfully, no longer has to live on a student budget, I could spend a lot of time in a place like this. I just need to find one a little nearer to home.