To please Chanel, I signed up at the local gym. But I always walk straight past it and settle down in The Coffee Spot instead. My favourite table is in the right-hand corner, near the trough of plastic succulents. If it’s occupied, I take the corresponding table on the left. But on a Monday morning the few other customers are likely to be young mothers with preschoolers. They prefer the bigger tables in the middle where they can get together and there’s room for strollers and highchairs. If by chance neither of my preferred tables is free, I take it as a sign that misfortune is headed my way.

As a child, I liked to count the mynahs pecking at our lawn: One for sorrow, two for joy … Australians apply this rhyme to magpies, so now I do the same. This morning there were seven magpies in Blue Nun Road. Seven for a secret never to be told. That was a good omen, on top of which my table at The Coffee Spot was free. Dalma lifted her eyebrows when she saw me, and I waggled my fingers in return. She brought me my latte and almond croissant almost as soon as I’d sat down. ‘How are you today?’ she asked. ‘Good?’ No response was required. That’s what I value in Dalma. She exudes warmth, and you bask in her atmosphere without being held to a rendering of accounts. Dalma could be ten years younger than I am or ten years older. Her movements are efficient yet without haste. Sometimes a toddler upsets a cup of juice or jabs another child in the eye. Dalma is there instantly, a monument of calm. She mops up and soothes, and the commotion is over before it’s begun.

An old man used to come here quite often. He liked to sit near the coffee station, his stick hooked over the back of a chair. He’d just sit there, his cup in front of him, staring straight ahead. Dalma never hurries anyone out, so he could well have sat there all day. He made me uneasy from the start. Whenever I thought of him, I’d picture him in a brown plaid dressing-gown with yellowish stains. It was always a little shock when I saw him tidily dressed in slacks and a woollen vest.