Ol' boat sinking

Going through the main newspapers first pages you've possibly sensed a certain, pessimistic vibe coming out of the current financial analisyses. You certainly have read about the american big shots discouraging investments in England. That's why they deem this country condemned to some kind of Iceland-like bankrupt, a spiral that will swallow the entire public finances and us in it too.
Of all the european countries, England seems to face the worst degree of economic downfall.

I happened to think a lot about this lately and I really wanted to take a picture of my store today. It epitomises the spirit of these days: tables full of Johns dawdling along, sipping tall cups of coffee having their morning business meetings.
Business meeting in a coffee shop? (If you ask it's probably because you're a reader from another country. If you don't it's because your name is probably John)
Yes!!
Now you tell me where else in the world someone could have the ability of having a business meeting in a public space? In which country someone would be able to ignore the chatting, the noise, the walking, the clinging of cups, the ringing of phones, and carry on indifferently talking about the job?
I wanted to take a picture every half an hour and send them to some whatever newspaper and ask if are all these suits taking their jobs seriously? Or do they just give it for granted?Are the tasks they've been put in charge of suitable to their professionality?

We can complain about Gordon Brown's policy and measures to face the crisis all day long but if we don't understand that the engine that keeps the country going is the individual effort of any single person we're all well doomed to recession for a long time.

If these are the minds that have to take us out of the chasm........

Drink up your coffee fast and go back to work or I'll call your boss to come over and kick your ass!!

Changing subject: one John has been rude to one member of the staff today. I heard him mumbling with a mucus voice his disappointement about the coffee not being ready in 5 seconds but in 10.
It was a drink in. And he stayed in the house for one hour and half.
He was a pure breed John. He had nothing important to do of course (maybe a business meeting....in the coffee shop).
He was with another John dressed exactly like him.....looking exactly like him.

I was very admired to the barista for keeping it in his chest.
I went by the counter to mediate the situation but as soon as I got there I realised that it wasn't worth the waste of words.
I felt so sad for the customer.
He looked so pathetic, this mid-40 John in his average suit. A bald fat ugly man with puffy red cheecks and horrible skin feeling so important telling off a barista who's trained to not speak back in this situations.
You should have seen the smile on his face when he left the counter. He thought he'd been very brave and probably he bragged about it at the table.

Needless to say we spent the next hour calling him names. I came up with the most offensive one: I called him Silvio Berlusconi.