“Brolly good of you,” Caracoli shelters Gift Shop Moira from the rain
Hush, hush, sweet Moira!
Cressroads’ most mature model sits in the rain smoking as many as six of her Marlboro Lights in quick succession before – camera; lights (or lack of); action on the tabled sidewalk outside Caracoli’s, Broad Street - a great-grandmother packing out four-score-years-and-then-some poses for Gail Nichols’ digital camera to add the gamp of gamps to the website for the coffee house and increasingly successful brand of family business.
“My dear, they are my first cigarettes in two days,” mitigates enigmatic Moira.
“Easier on a rainy day, mind you – but, because of the smoke - they always find a table for me and my filter cigarettes away from any children. Heavens above, dear. I’ve smoked since the days of the war. Bletchley Park and all that. And then engaged to marry Richard, who went solo within a week of learning to fly with the Fleet Air Arm.
“May you? Of course, Gail,” Moira agrees to model the £21 Caracoli gamp.
Enduring a wet beginning to the start to the Easter break, but determined to survive the elements and enjoy her cup of morning coffee - 22,483 Caracoli cappuccinos sold in 2008 - with a Marlboro or two or four or six.
“Would you like to see me with or without a cigarette?” Moira reminds herself to buy another pack on her walk home.
Thirty years ago, Moira and her late husband Richard, proprietors of Alresford’s popular Gift Shop, numbered in the 101-strong cast - including a judge, two policemen, pie salesman, airline captain, barrister, chemist, dentist, engineer, farmer, gardener, handyman and illustrator – for MGM (Matt, Gail, Mike) presents The Godparents, introducing Matthew Dylan Irving.
FIRST BABY IS A BIG PRODUCTION AS WELL reviewed the Daily Mail - Femail checking on the man who made his wedding guests pay – and with mother quoted as complaining: “When the time came to plan the christening, I begged: ‘Darling, we don’t want a fuss - not this time’ - but to no avail.”
“And no wonder, Bloggy. Little surprise, Gail left you,” smiles Moira. “Your third wife, was she not? And, yes, rain or shine, when is my godson going to join me for Caracoli morning coffee? None finer, you know.”
” Coffee!” decodes Blogsbody.
