Gentle patters of laptops, a click, another click. Swoooosh. clink. gentle sea breeze music. Whispered words. oh a laughter. ‘Hello, what can I get you’. These faint noises melting into each other around me make me feel that there is life around me that is connected yet disconnected. I am safe since no-one will distract me yet everything distracts me. I zone into one sound only to get distracted by another. They twirl around me. the sounds have textures and feelings. Some shudder in me while others fill up inside me. These sounds and people make me feel like I am part of something. That feeling I get when I walk across London or Waterloo bridge with an army of suited professionals marching in their trainers. That feeling that I am contributing to the day and a sense of unity in our desire yet our resignation that we must spend another eight hours bored at our office jobs.

People in this space though are different. They seem like rebels to me, rebels to the cause, to society. They choose not to work so not to fit into the holy grail of office life. Yet when I look around their work seems really interesting. Some have graphs, others draw circles and cool designs. Everyone is deeply engaged with their work.

I become engaged here. I get on with my work amongst the faint buzz of coffee shop background noise. I feel distracted from myself and my earlier anxieties that I had when I woke up. It is powerful and motivating. It’s a shame that this costs £2 an hour. But that is the price I must pay for peace.