Hello my lovely booklovers,

how are you? Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, a blog hop by the lovely Diana over at Part Time Monster. Every weekend we get together for virtual coffees and a little casual chat. How has this past week been for you?

If we were having coffee we’d meet in town, because it’s our annual city-wide flea market “Zöppkesmarkt” this weekend! I love a good flea market, and I’ve put aside a few hours today to browse around for English-language books. I’m really trying to limit myself – the last two years, I bought about 40 books each time, but most were German and I still haven’t read those. But I know a few stalls that usually have English books, so I’ll go straight there. We’ll stop for waffles at the local church (no visit to the Zöppkesmarkt is complete without their Bergische Waffeln, in my opinion), and maybe get some Bratwürste to go later on. There’ll be all sorts of knick knack and I love going through all that stuff, but this time I’m on a mission (English books), don’t have much time (got a thesis to complete), I’m trying to save money (basically, I’ve only budgeted for books) and the only thing I’d make an exception for is a retro typewriter.

(Update: Found 14 English language paperbacks for €8 total, including 8 Classic Penguin Books, the oldest from 1953. My feet hurt. Inhaling the icing sugar on your waffles is never a good idea. Town is packed, so be prepared to shuffle along in 28°C basically brushing against people every step of the way… I think I need a cold shower.)

If we were having coffee, I’d ask R U OK? Thursday was R U OK? Day in Australia, and you may have seen my post about why I fully support this campaign. Reaching out to people and asking them whether they’re ok can make all the difference.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you about a party I went to last night. One of my high school classmates turned 30 yesterday, and she had invited me to her party. I’m not sure what I expected, but somehow I didn’t expect a leisurely backyard BBQ. My friend’s husband was also in our class (although they weren’t high school sweethearts), and I hadn’t seen him since we graduated. Back then, I don’t think we’ve exchanged more than 10 words in 9 years unless we were forced to on group projects. So imagine my surprise when he gave me a proper bear hug, like so tight he kinda squished my glasses. In hindsight, he may have had a few to drink. We’ll all go for coffee soon to catch up properly. There were two other friends from school there and to be honest, if someone had told me 10 years ago that I’d spent the loveliest evening with this particular group of people I would have laughed. I liked them back then well enough, we just didn’t have anything in common to talk about, so to finally meet them and get to know them better now we’re all grown-up was very nice. My friend (the same one I went to see David Duchovny live in concert with back in May) also had the most epic playlist for those of us having grown up during the 90s. The music ranged from Vengaboys, No Angels, Tic Tac Toe, Backstreet Boys, Loona, Spice Girls and Robbie Williams to Britney with some token Bon Jovi thrown in. Needless to say, everyone there knew every song by heart! I’m sure the playlist at my 13th birthday party was similar.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that my thesis is almost done now. Just a few things to tidy up, a few things to add here and there, format and then it’s off to three friends who have kindly agreed to proof-read for me. I hope that the writing part is done by Sunday night if I can get stuff done today and work through the night to get everything done. I’m so close, I can feel it! Writing the case studies was the hard part. The rest is child’s play, I just need to tie everything together.

If we were having coffee, I’d leave you to browse the market stalls some more, while I have another waffle. I’m sure you’ll find something you like! Check out the other Weekend Coffee Sharers as well, I’m sure they’d love for you to stop by!

Thank you for having coffee with me. Same time, next week?