Enterprise Nation

San Sharma's fallen out with Starbucks and into a place where everybody knows his name: the pub! Find out if there's any room at the inn for him and his home business and whether he managed to get any work done in his latest adventure working outside of the home office.

The honeymoon period is over. In fact, I've pulled off my garland, kicked off my flip flops, I'm heading home. The jilted bride was a coffee shop called Starbucks and the groom, fed up with expensive and unreliable Wi-Fi has already moved on. I'm going where everybody knows my my name: I'm going to the pub. Cheers!

It all began, like so many of my relationships, when I was far from home, stranded and alone, desperate for some kind of connection. I panicked, walked into a Starbucks and shelled out £40 for one month's access to its T-Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot, thinking it might be useful if I ever fancy working away from home in, what I'd described in a series of articles, as a '3rd Place'.

Quite quickly the relationship began to break down. Starbucks became quite noisy, distracting, there were lots of people coming and going. I began to resent that £40 I'd paid up front, especially when the connection kept dropping. It got so slow! For some of the time, it was like it wasn't even there...

And then I found... the pub - The Harlequin in Islington, to use her full name. Free Wi-Fi, a selection of ales and - get this - freshly-cut sandwiches for £1! Hopefully the offer won't bring in too many new customers, since the pub - right by the Sadler's Wells theatre - is so quiet! For most of the day, it's been just me and the bar maid, a sprightly American, who sings along to the alt-country CDs she keeps popping on and promising I'll love.

"You'll love this one!" she says. She's usually right and I do. In fact, and this might be the ale talking, I love this place, I might even love her. And the next time I'm far from home and need a connection I might try a local pub. So many of them have Wi-Fi now, they're usually quiet in the day and what better way to celebrate a piece of good work than with a good pint.

That's what I'm going to do now! If you've ever worked in a pub as your 3rd place, how did you get on? Is it something you do often? Did you find that the Wi-Fi was free? Or that the real cost was to your liver?! Let us know in the comments below.

San Sharma is a creative thinker, blogger and designer, as well as a writer on popular culture, technology and business.

• www.sansharma.com