No, I didn't stumble across some profound concept of making everyone see eye to eye about the Islamic school or the traffic lights, nor did I unearth some great insight about how to fix the petrol prices and clear the vandalism that keeps on popping up everywhere.

It was more mundane and unsettling.

As I was ordering (chai latte with soy, hot but not boiling), I came to acknowledge that some 15-year-old girls should wear more clothes on freezing nights and that some 15-year-old

boys should not swear so badly. I also noticed that some people finish from the gym late and that some kids have dance lessons way after dinner time.

What I realised was that I was attempting to enjoy a coffee with my two closest friends at McDonald's - a place for eating greasy food at 2am and not the place for a quiet little midweek hangout.

So why is it that we are such an accomplished little town yet few places of business and no lovely little coffee shops seem to be open past 5pm?

I remember a couple of years ago two aunts of mine, from Los Angeles, stayed in Camden.

They fell in absolute shout-it-from-the-rooftops love with ``the little place'': the antiques, cute buildings, lovely people and ``the great little, quaint coffee shops''.

``So much better than Starbucks!'' my aunt exclaimed in delight one morning.

If this is the reception these ``quaint little places'' get from two city slickers from LA, couldn't they justify staying open for just a couple more hours so we caffeine addicts can come out at night?

Camden is a place that is beautiful, we all know this, and it should be enjoyed for all its unique beauties, day and night.

It could be a flourishing place of cultural activity! Just imagine the streets lit with dim lights, the smell of coffee and roast vegetables in pesto, the sound of hushed conversation and the look of smiling faces, all these things interlacing, displaying another dynamic of our community.

I'm putting a major romantic spin on it but at least think of the atmosphere.

Community isn't just something that happens on lunch breaks and before deadlines. It's something that thrives day and night.

This is just a brief comment about the issue, and I'm the first to admit it's wildly idealistic to think that if we all spent more ``downtime'' near each other somehow we may get along better.

If that's not the case then at least I won't have to go to Macca's to have a quiet coffee.