Spanish Chicas and Japanese Writers

Costa Conversations

It started in the baking hot streets of Zaragoza, Spain nearly 20 years ago. Who would have thought that Dann would still be teaching English! It all got more serious in 2010 when he returned to study at Harrow college and was awarded the Cambridge CELTA. Now it is official he can teach English for a living.

Who was that young girl in one of his first lessons who fell off her chair and hurt her head? It nearly ended then before it even got started. So many Spanish names all of them forgotten now. What about the gorgeous housewife in her black leather pants? Dann and his two flatmates fancied her and she cheered up Monday afternoons for sure. There was Pilar, and the Inter-Cambio girls.  Fat Susie was always on their minds too. The most memorable girl Dann met was Dove! What a name! How could you ever forget it? Paloma that was her name, or was it? Still today we can't be sure.

Today Dann was in Costa with the 3 writers, Taibgh, Jali and Yohan. “You should be a writer too,” one of them said.” You just need to start writing a short story and go from there.”I don't know, maybe,” Dann replied,”my brother is a writer now he has written a book of poems but he hasn't sold many books so far”.

Jalel went on to tell Dann about his recent book and, without being asked, he went and got a copy for him from his car. He signed the inside cover and proudly handed it over. Now Dann owns two signed books one from his brother Stan and one book from Jalel Two from Libya.

So where does the deer fit into this story?

A deer not to be messed with

Dann read the blurb of his new book and left it down in his car and thought no more about the 3 writers he met in Costa coffee shop. Later that same afternoon he was out cycling in Richmond Park admiring the wide open spaces and the gorgeous Autumn colours when he came across a fully grown stag looking for action. Dann knew that it was mating season for deer and he had read about stags attacking people who tried to get too close, to take a selfie. Maybe I can ride close by, take a photo quickly and pedal like crazy before the beast knows what`s happening, Dann thought. "How fast can they even run? " He said to himself. What a way to die speared in the chest by a randy stag chasing a man on a mountain bike. Forget it no photograph is worth that kind of risk, he decided.  The stag was not available for comment. He just carried on eating grass contentedly.As he was cycling around Richmond park he thought more about what makes a good photo and how far would someone go to take one. What about the photo of the Chinese student in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square,The Twin Towers on 9/11 or the image of  first man on on the Moon?
“I want to be a writer too,” David exclaimed,” It sounds like fun and it can't be that difficult ,surely.” “Aye why not.”Terry replied, in his unmistakable Glasgow patter.” You`d make a great writer but it`s a lot of work.” “I have a short story in mind about a bored English teacher who decides to move to Saudi Arabia to work as a private tutor.”Terry looked up from his mobile and smiled, “aye you may as well what ya got to lose?” They continued to chat and while away the afternoon in their usual coffee shop in Ealing. Outside the street lights were coming on. Just gone five and already it was dark. It was going to be another long Winter teaching in that school, David thought. Maybe this time I will just take off and see what life is like somewhere else. Anywhere else.

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