So what unites us is that none of us want to live in Spain?
And a meet up would not happen in Spoons but in an Italian Cafe where we sit at different tables eyeing up each others footwear.

‘And a meet up would not happen in Spoons but in an Italian Cafe where we sit at different tables eyeing up each others footwear.’

Compromise and go for an old school Italian Formica caff offering builders tea.

Most have now gone. Andrews in the Grays Inn Road seems to have been recently gutted and the Calthorpe Arms pub further up the road has changed hands and will never be the same.
http://www.classiccafes.co.uk/index.html

Moribundia can be just as enjoyable as optimism.

'I'd happily live in a small city like Gerona - if I could speak the language and fully appreciate their culture.'

That's where I'd be. Fantastic place. And still proud of their anti Franco opposition. I suspect you'd have to learn to avoid the hoards of 'Game of Thrones' spotters too though.

Mark Toney in Grainger Street Newcastle is a fantastic place. Not all shabby or run down though. Great breakfast. Then you can walk down the road and have a pint in Woof’s 4 storey Wetherspoon, opposite the railway station. Hash browns are a reason to avoid Spoons breakfast; though surprisingly Wetherspoons Eggs Benedict is very good.

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/mark-toney-boss-explains-decision-20717018

People in Derby still talk about the old Kardomah: the enticing aroma of coffee beans.

The old Harrington shop in Guildford was down a narrow passage way, at the top of the cobbled High St. The shop that was at the top of the passage way was a coffee importers where they would roast all the coffee beans, the smell was amazing. Weirdly I associate that smell with Ivy league clothes and shoes. Unfortunately the coffee importers has long gone, last tenants were a chain of Barbers, it's now empty.

Yes Runninggeez. I still miss that smell whenever I wander up that way. If the wind was in the right direction it’d fill up the whole High Street. You’d get a caffeine hit long before you reached the wonderfully named ‘Jeffries Passage’

AFS (and anyone else): next time you're in Beeston try The DoughMother, Central Ave. A Greek caff, admittedly a bit out of the way. Their bread and pastries are excellent and the coffee is decent. Seems to be very popular. Well worth the journey (by foot in my case) to an otherwise unremarkable council estate.

I'd like to try that place in Beeston.  I don't know if it's still there, as I rarely venture into dismal, depressing Derby, but there was a good Greek cafe in the market.  Order Greek coffee and they seemed delighted.  It took a while to prepare but was worth it.
Living near the English is bad enough in England let alone Spain.  Mind you, the people who populated the hotel I stayed in near Gerona did a good deal of yelling at one another.  A highlight of one afternoon was reading Philip Roth while a couple shagged noisily in the next room.

Carwardines had a chain of coffee shops in the West of England, I think there are still half a dozen left but at one time all the larger towns had one, they had the roasting machines in the windows with the drums rolling around emitting smoke and, as has been said, the smell filled up the nearby the street. Inside you could have a cup of coffee or buy freshly roasted beans to use at home.

You would love the place in Beeston. Being off the beaten track the prices aren't extortionate and it really does attract a wide variety of people. Their bread is the best I've had since my return to England. By a long shot.

I have plenty of friends and family who are Brits. I just find the country a little oppressive and not really my cup of tea. When I am overseas I often enjoy the company of Brits and other non-locals when in small amounts. After settling into the tropics I did on a number of occasions help tourists - from all over the globe - with advice and sometimes by showing them around. At the same time, I also enjoyed spending most of my time amongst the locals. When in Rome . . .

'Lots of Cubans have ancestors who came from the Canary Islands.'

Likewise Puerto Ricans. Hence the way Spanish is spoken in the Canaries is very similar to that of Cuba and PR. (Probably true for the Dominican Republic too.)

There's one thing you should never miss in Derby: the train that takes you out of the place.  Ian Nairn looked it over in 1967 and declared it a mess.  It's main problem is its fraught relationship with Nottingham, which it both envies and despises.  Try attending a Derby-Forest match and you'll soon find out.