Fi Phillips

My latte and bag of Lush goodies Today was a good day. The sun was shining. My children were at school. I had some boring chores to run in my home town (Chester) but once those were over, I had a couple of hours to myself to walk around the city. I did a spot of window shopping, popped into Lush (bath bombs for me and my children) and then headed back to my car. On the way, I discovered a new cafe. Well, it's new to me anyway, the Cinderbox Coffee Shop . There was the usual choice of hot and cold drinks, cakes and some friendly, polite staff - all that you would expect in a coffee shop. There was also this. Photo courtesy of Cinderbox Coffee Shop This is the coffee shop's book swap corner. The writing on the wall reads, to take one away, you must... leave one to stay. So not only have I discovered a lovely new place to sup my favourite hot brew, but I can also drop off a (read) book and pick up a new one, for free (well, the cost of a latte). Genius....

Well, three, if you add Joseph Fiennes . As you'll probably have guessed already, I love a good cup of coffee. What you may not know is that one of my favourite novels is Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy - a classical novel of romance, passion, tragedy and how the passing of the seasons can rule our lives. So when I found out that the coffee maker Carte Noire were featuring on their website podcasts of actors such as Joseph Fiennes, Greg Wise and Dominic West, reading from classic books that include 'Far from the madding crowd' and ' Sense and Sensibility ', I was delighted. Carte Noire will even send you a free sample of their coffee and a bookmark, if you fill in your details here . Cue my first session this morning of coffee and Joseph *sigh*, what a girl will do to get a little culture.