Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Cupcake Grief

I had a bit of a weird experience today.

I'm on holidays from work and I decided to head out to Wynnum for a few hours, just to get out and about and as the weather was hot, I thought it would be cooler down there. For those of you who don't know Brisbane, Wynnum is a suburb out on the Moreton Bay side of Brisbane.

So I caught the train out there, wandered down to the central part of the suburb, bought myself a meat pie from Perrett's Bakery (not bad, tasty but not what I'd call fantastic by way of meat pies) and headed down to the esplanade for a bit. Found myself a picnic table, camped out with my book and read and had my lunch.

After awhile I decided I felt like a coffee, so I headed back up into the town part and spotted a nice looking place called The Olive Cafe. A pretty corner cafe painted in spring green, with yummy looking cakes and pastries and the coffee smelled really good. I ordered a coffee and a gorgeous "raspberry delight" cupcake, mostly because it looked so pretty. Here, check it out:

Photobucket

See? Isn't it pretty? Now cos it was pretty, I whipped out my iPhone (yes, I'm one of THOSE) and tweeted a quick picture to my tweeps. Then I got out my real camera (nothing fancy, just a Canon Powershot A550) and was taking a couple of decent photos, with the intention of blogging up how lovely The Olive Cafe are.

As I was snapping off a couple of shots, this old guy comes up to me from behind the counter and says "Are you enjoying the muffin?" I replied that I hadn't tasted it yet, but it was very pretty. He then said "Why are you taking pictures? If you're taking pictures you should give me money." I was a bit taken aback and I responded that it was pretty, so I like to take photos, to which he said "Then you should pay me!" And at that moment the other guy behind the counter, who I guessed was his son, spoke to him firmly in another language and he backed off.

But he spent the next five minutes giving me filthy looks until he and his wife left the cafe.

Now, tell me this people. I just bought the cupcake. With my money. Shouldn't I be able to do what I bloody well like to it once I've paid for it? I should be able to shove it in my left ear if I want to.

It really marred an otherwise lovely cafe. Because not only was it pretty, and the service I got at the counter from the other man and the young woman who made my coffee was lovely, but the cake was DIVINE tasting and the coffee (a skim latte) perfect.

I wonder if the old guy would have confronted me like that had I not been on my own? Or had I been a man? It was just really rude and unnecessary because I was actually planning to share the pictures and give his business some good blogosphere space. I would have bought a couple of the other kinds of cupcakes (which were as pretty as this one) to bring for a friend I'm seeing tomorrow but I was just really put off.

Well, since I took a few photos and it got me some grief, I may as well give you some more cupcake porn...

Raspberry Delight

Can you see why I took photos? It's GORGEOUS!

If you like good coffee and delicious cakes, definitely try the Olive Cafe at Wynnum. Hopefully you won't get harassed if you decide to take a picture of the pretty food.

8 comments:

BruganCampbell said...

How totally bizarre!

At least it was a fab yummy and tasted as good as it looked.

YourHeartsDesire said...

I've been in clothing stores before where they've barred customers from taking photos of themselves while trying on the store's dresses. Very silly. How can we trust a shop assistant's opinion?!

lilabris said...

STEREOTYPE ALERT:




Pffffffffffft, old people.





END STEREOTYPE ALERT.

Sleepydumpling said...

LOL @ lilabris. I think he was just a weirdo Mr Paranoid.

Ruthykins - that's absurd! Not only are you getting a look at how it is on you, but you could be getting pics to give them some blog love.

Anonymous said...

I am unsure as to whether Fair Use laws cover cupcakes.

I think the older gentleman acted inappropriately. I know that cafés and restaurants are sometimes quite cagey about people taking photos of their food (and menus!) just in case they're setting up a rival business.

Sleepydumpling said...

Yes Ronald, I think he's an old school dude who was concerned that I was stealin' his recipe or copying him or something.

However, I do hope the younger man gave him a good talking to later on about messing with customers enjoyment of their food.

Timothy said...

I guess older people aren't aware of the Twitter/Facebook/MySpace/Blogger lifestyle of recording every event and posting it on line to share.

I imagine the younger guy said something about how you aren't getting paid for cupcake pictures being sold so you don't have any money to share with or pay him.

My impression of businesses that post "don't take pictures" has been usually in stores where they may worry their only foot traffic would come from curiosity seekers rather than customers. Costume stores and theme shops, especially do that.

The only eating places I go must be aware of the internet becuase they don't even look twice when I'm taking pics of the food I get and sending out messages at the table. (Got to brag about my foods)

Sleepydumpling said...

Timothy I agree. But what if I was a tourist, just taking a photograph because it's pretty? They've been doing that a lot longer than Facebook/Twitter et al have been around.

Once you purchase the item (which I had done, I wasn't photographing it in the display case), it's yours to do with as you wish.

This is the first time I've ever had it happen, and I photograph everything cos I'm a big nerd! LOL!