M.Truly awful music played from an ancient jukebox. A decrepit postcard taped haphazardly to the register sternly proclaimed:“In God We Trust.All Ot...hers Have to PAY!”That card had been taped in place by the owner, who still lived but rarely came around. A formerly rich stockbroker humbled by a serious of disastrous investment schemes, Richard Brooks had used his last remaining savings to buy the diner. He had renovated an old property that he had taken in trade for a long forgotten debt and. Ordinarily, I don't drink, but I accepted the beverage the waitress brought and it was pretty good....delicious in fact."What is this?" I inquired."It's called a pina colada", she replied.I sucked it down rather quickly and ordered another, not realizing it had a double shot of rum. Before I knew it, the concert was over and I'd put away four of those pina colada 'things' and wasn't feeling any pain."Are you ready to leave" I asked."Sure," she said. "Want me to drive?" No, that's okay", I. " Take you out to eat?" Where to?" Bike, drive, boat ... no boat, it's hauled, fly, train?" Bike or walk." The Greasy Spoon?" We haven't been there in weeks. Great idea."We walked into Best's Cafe, they've been in continuous operation since the early 1930's and they know breakfast. Not very imposing but the police and van drivers eat there. Anywhere the commercial drivers eat is bound to be good. In the few months we've been in Dunedin, Best's have treated us like humans.It might have had. It didn’t always work, of course, but as a way of strengthening my resolve, not to mention my self-confidence, it became something of a mantra. I’d not been for an interview for a teaching job for many, many years, but as I arrived at the school and was introduced to the other candidates, Dad’s words came back to me again. ‘Work out who the competition is’ – that was easy – one candidate of the four seemed far too young to be sufficiently experienced, and one other was clearly petrified of the.