At the Re-loved Tearoom ...

Last week, with Anne, I visited the Re-loved Tearoom, in North Street, Wareham -
Re-loved is a marvellous louche cave of brave oddments of furniture, lampshades, speckled mirrors and drifts of bright china - there are racks of used  postcards, with pictures of decorous hotels in Madeira, snazzy resorts on the Costa Brava, bothies in the Cairngorms - I can feel my eyes prick with tears when I read the poignant messages, hastily scrawled, or carefully penned, sent to friends or relatives -

There are heaps of books, too - you might pick up an Everyman classic, say, the Essays of Montaigne, or a book about koi carp -

1940's swing music will be playing on the sound system - racks of bright retro dresses flutter in the breeze from the garden - bright scarves hang from wires like signal flags -

A pre-Raphaelite beauty dreams next to the till - and now - to our delight, at the back of Re-loved, there are tables set out, with eccentric chairs - strings of fairy lights hang over photographs of unknown young men - table lamps, fit for a smokey nightclub, adorn each table -

A calm buxom girl, dressed a bit like a Lyons Corner House nippy, serves us tea and cappuccino - Anne sips her tea from a delicate cup - she pours out her milk from a tiny jug shaped like a spotted dog -  I marvel at my slice of lemon drizzle - Frank Sinatra starts singing - I remember how my dad had that album - Songs for Swinging Lovers - it's the same album cover -

Anne thinks Frank is over rated - I listen to his sexy gravelly voice - I decide I will buy that 1962 London Magazine -