I am perfectly aware that this is just a very quick snapshot, not accurate at all. But sometimes what matters is seizing the moment.
Meet Tina. Tina is Portuguese and is one of the waitresses, all Portuguese, of the Portuguese café where we go for breakfast almost every morning.
In a way it is like taking a little trip abroad, immersing yourself in the pleasure of being lulled by a different culture.
In fact, most of the regulars are all Portuguese too.
Mostly workers and bricklayers, electricians and installers who work in the surrounding area.
You may not know it, but here in Switzerland there is a break in everyone's working day which is simply called "nine o'clock".
It is typically a break between twenty minutes and half an hour, during which workers take their time for a cup of coffee and a snack. If you come to this Portuguese café at the right time of the day, you find yourself enveloped in the chanting Lusitanian idiom.
Ah, I forgot to tell you that the café I'm talking about is called "O Bom Gosto", that means "The Good Taste".
Believe me, it's a fitting name.
Tina is a key character of this nice café. All the other waitresses are just as kind and diligent, always smiling, and the pastry chef / baker, who works hard to bake cakes, croissants, bread of all shapes and colours and, of course, the famous Pastéis de Nata (Portuguese custard tarts), despite his vaguely grim appearance, is a very sweet gentleman. But the fact remains that Tina is Tina.
Here in Switzerland, there has never been an obligation, in these difficult months, to wear any mask outdoors, but Tina and her colleagues continually go inside and outside, from inside the café to serve the customers who are outside, on the terrace. For this reason, they often keep the mask on their face, to avoid having to put it on and take it off all the time.
In this snapshot I present Tina, who has just brought us a tray with our coffees and our usual breakfast (the waitresses just give us a smiling nod from inside, asking for confirmation. "The usual?").
"Thanks, Tina. Can I take a picture of you?"
"But with great pleasure! Wait just a moment for me to take off this mask."

And then she immediately gave us her wonderful and spontaneous smile that you too can see here.
Smiles, freed from every screen, have even more value and warm the heart of those who receive them and those who make them.

Every day, during this month of September, I will try to share with the visitors of this photo gallery some pictures and some little stories of my daily life.
In case you are curious to also see the images of the previous days, instead of taking a look only at the most recently posted photo