Not open

on Saturday afternoons?
I suppose it is because it is December and friends decide it is time to "catch up" for coffee and say things like, "Come on Cat, we are taking you out."
That's nice. I appreciate it. So yesterday I was collected by two friends and we went off to try and find - somewhere to sit and chat for an hour over coffee or tea or whatever else we felt like drinking which was not alcoholic and where it would be quiet enough to chat. 
We avoided the local shopping centre - because there would be people going past saying things like "Hello J...." and "Hello G...." and then, worse, "Hello Cat..." and stopping to talk to us when we wanted to talk to each other.
      "There's one down the road," I said when J... asked where we should go.
We go down there. No...it's dark. They are closing up. 
      "Right, I know another one," says J... and we are off again in her car.
No, that's closed.  It doesn't open at all on Saturdays. We go on.
There's a likely looking spot. Someone is sitting at a table reading the paper. 
We go in.
    "Sorry, we're just closing."
    "Right," says J...., "We are going to..... I know that's open."
And it is. 
We order. We are served. We sit and chat. It's fairly quiet. 
A while later I notice that one of the staff is gradually closing things up. I catch her eye . Yes, they are closing too.
She comes over to the table to collect our things and apologises.
    "I left you as long as I could."
And I know she has because everything else is clean and tidy. It's a slightly out of the way place but popular - and is it any wonder if that's their attitude towards customers?
But why were so many places not open on a Saturday afternoon? I know it is not always possible but two of the places we tried are in busy locations. They would surely do well then. Are Sunday mornings really busier than Saturday afternoons?
I don't suppose it matters. We found a nice place. We enjoyed ourselves... and I brought home a mince pie for the Senior Cat.