The end of the affair - Redd Coffee is leaving me!

'I'm leaving you' says your beloved, and your world crashes down around you, tears filling your eyes. Life will never be the same again for you, that sweetness in the morning, the gentle lift of your spirits at the first touch, the buzz afterwards - all gone. What could possibly have gone wrong?

Before you start weeping for me, let me make it clear to you that this involves not a woman but coffee, and it is deadly serious. My favourite coffee shop - Redd Coffee, as you well know, observant reader - is leaving its base and relocating to other parts of Athens, a victim to rising rents (I surmise) by landlords who, after several lean years, feel that it's time to recoup some of their 'losses'. Redd are abandoning all their local lovers, their loyal customers and moving far away, to start a new life in two new locations with new people - if that isn't like the end of a love affair, I don't know what is.

And, as in any break-up, I'm in mourning for myself and my loss of convenience, of amenity, of pleasure... ah, all the sheer pleasure I am about to miss out on! Dear reader, you who have read my post on Redd will know how good their coffee is, and remember its single biggest drawback - that other coffees taste rather flat and ordinary by comparison. In my enforced exile from London I have at least had the consolation of an excellent cup of coffee or three at Redd on most days, indeed I've enjoyed coffee better than almost any coffee to be found in London. Now this is all coming to an end.

Redd coffee is walking out on me and starting afresh with someone new - in fact, with many new 'others' - and it is a cruel blow indeed. Yet I am blameless! And don't we all think/say that when love affairs come to unhappy ends?

I will follow Redd to their new destination, spy on them as they create new relationships with new people while silently crying inside. If I can - and it's a very big if - I may even attempt to rebuild our relationship from a distance, to see whether it can be made to work again like before....

You may not hold much hope for me, but what else can I do? Can a love affair be allowed to fizzle out so cruelly? I think not.