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?

I am so sorry for missing last week’s Weekend Coffee Share but I wouldn’t have been much fun to be around. I came down with a major cold last Saturday and I’ve spent the entire week on sick leave. I’m better now, my voice is still a bit raspy from my cough, but I definitely won’t pass anything on to you – except your hot cup of coffee of course.

If we were having coffee today, I’d tell you that I’ve been redesigning and updating my CV. My sister is overlooking applications at her job, so I got some advice from her  and I think the final version is pretty neat.

If we were having coffee today, I’d tell you that once my eyes stopped being sensitive to light (and the glare of a computer screen) I finally made some progress updating my book inventory. I’m making a list of all my books (so I don’t buy duplicates at shops and flea markets) and next to Title and Author, I’m including the date my version of the book was published, and a mark whether they are First Editions, Signed Copies, whether I’ve read them and whether I have reviewed them. That way I can work my way through the list eventually and add reviews to this blog and keep up to date with my TBR pile. I’m picking up every book I own, and I’m also adding my embossed “Library Of” seal to them. I’ve only done 1 shelf and my Kindle library (with 2 floor-to-ceiling shelves and 2 stuffed Expedit cubes still to go) and so far I’m up to 410 books, 41 of which are first editions and 8 of my books are signed.

If we were having coffee today, I’d tell you that I received a postcard from my TBTB Secret Santa telling me that my parcel is on its way and if the post stamp is anything to go by, it’ll come from The Netherlands. I can’t wait!! It’s so exciting to do a bookish Secret Santa. As for the gifts I’ll be giving my Secret Santa: they’ll get books, homemade journals, a calendar, stamps, a sew-on patch, homemade Berlin Bread (Christmas cookies) and German Christmas sweets, as well as a little something for their pet. I sent my parcel off yesterday, so it should get there next week (it doesn’t have too far to go and it’s tracked). I actually figured out I have another Secret Santa, because at the same time the postcard arrived, I got a mystery parcel.

The other day I received a Funko Pop vinyl figure of Captain Malcolm Reynolds because apparently I “need a guy in the house” hehehe. I know who that was from. Then this new parcel included a Funko Pop figure of John Watson, and it did take a bit of Sherlocking (figuring out who I’d given my actual address to as I usually give out the office address, who’d know me enough to know that I 1.) didn’t have this figurine and 2.) love John Watson, and who fit all the criteria and lives in the UK) but I found out that my bestie had sent me this little Baker Street Boy. To be fair, we have a history of sending each other sneaky presents so I had a pretty good guess from the start.

All in all, I didn’t get as much done this week as I had hoped. Obviously, I was sick, but I still wanted to spend my time being productive and catching up on my reading and reviews. I guess that’ll have to wait for the actual Christmas break.

If we were having coffee today, I’d tell you that I went to a 75th birthday celebration today for a lady who has been a friend and sort of mentor to me for the last 20 years at the Naturfreunde group here in town.  After a week in pretty much solitary confinement it was great to see some of my best and oldest friends today, have coffee and cake, good conversations and a good laugh. I’ve missed how easy it’s always been between us, no matter whether we’ve seen each other lately or not.  I had a bit of an emotional wobble at the party, though. Birthday lady requested we sing a few old songs, and one of those songs was “Der Wanderer” by Gerd Sorg. I know it’s not my usual cup of tea, but I love this song. It was my granddad’s favourite and the last time I’ve heard this was when his choir (Die Wupperhofer Men’s Choir from Solingen) got special permission from the pastor to sing a rendition of “Der Wanderer” in church at my granddad’s funeral 8 years, 11 months, and seven days ago. So I sat there with goosebumps up my arms and tears in my eyes. My gran still loves this song (it’s her favourite as well) but she hasn’t dared to listen to it since my granddad passed away. My favourite part of the song is the chorus, in which the wanderer or vagabond replies that “you’ve never counted the stars, the beauty of the world remained a dream for you. You’ve never missed the sun, because even when it shines, you barely notice it.” And I’ve got goosebumps yet again.

I know you won’t understand the lyrics, but this is a men’s choir version of “Der Wanderer” as my granddad would have sung it:

So, what have you been up to this week? If we were having coffee today, I’d tell you that this is it from me for now. Check out the other Weekend Coffee Sharers as well, I’m sure they’d love to see you!

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