If we were having coffee I’d greet you with a hug and possibly a kiss on either cheek, as they do here in Germany. I’d tell you that this is the first post of Weekend Coffee Shares, an idea brewed up and served with foam and chocolate powder by Part Time Monster, and that I am excited to see how it goes.
If we were meeting at a café in town, this would be the point at which the waitress comes over and I order a large Cappuccino.
Settling into our armchairs, I’d tell you about that performance by the New York Gospel Stars I attended at Lutherkirche Solingen last night. I am not religious and I’d had an extremely busy day and got there storm-blown and drenched from that nasty, fizzy, drizzly rain that doesn’t look like much but leaves you soaked. I’d tell you that listening to Gospel brought back memories of living in Ghana with a pastor and attending his church in Achimota. How stiff the German audience seemed compared to American and Ghanaian ones I’ve witnessed, where people would have been dancing in the aisle by the third song. How much I miss Africa even though my Gap Year was 8 years ago.
I’d tell you about their opening act, Irish singer Róisín O, and how I found her music more impressive than the Gospel songs and ended up buying her debut album The Secret Life of Blue. How I ended up doing a short interview with her in English (which I shall publish soon) and she believed me to be British as we talked and she signed an autograph for me. How she made an effort to speak German to tell the audience she’s going to tour the country as a headlining act soon.
But I’d also tell you about what being a journalist means to me and how I still cannot comprehend the attack on Charlie Hebdo. How I have a lot of respect for Uderzo, who came out of retirement and drew his famous creations Astérix and Obélix bowing in tribute to the fallen and how he followed it up by drawing Astérix who sent someone flying shouting “Moi aussi je suis un Charlie!” (I am a Charlie as well!)
I’d talk about how I hope that people will realise that this was the work of extremists looking to justify their cause and that these people don’t represent what the vast majority of Muslims world-wide is like.
By this point I’d probably need another cuppa, as I count coffee as one of my major food groups. Once my Latte Macchiato arrives (and you sense that I like my coffee milky-creamy) I’d switch to lighter subjects.
I’d tell you how excited I am to finally have a fridge again after my old one gave up the fight in early November but I couldn’t afford to replace it until now. How I celebrated by going shopping and buying perishables. It’s sad, I know, but this is my life. Welcome to it, by the way.
I’d tell you how it thrills me to be able to finally announce that I will be reviewing TV shows X-Files, Buffy and Angel on Emily Ecrivaine Reviews from now on. I grew up watching the X-Files (back then I only knew it as Akte X) and my gran recorded every episode for me on VHS, although she managed to tape over a few in the process. How my VHS that had one of my favourites at the time on it, sixth season episode Triangle, fell behind the cupboard in my old room at my parents’ flat and was never seen again (because the furniture is bolted in place and can’t be moved).
I’d tell you about me writing Angel fanfiction in Year 8, my first creative attempt to write a novel in English, back before I knew fanfiction was called fanfiction. How as a teen I loved Buffy as it had such a strong female lead, and how I, along with thousands of other girls, swooned over Angel and Spike, as pubescent teens did in the year 2000.
We’d probably also talk about Sherlock; that filming for series 4 started this week and that I hope the writing returns to Series 1 and 2 standards. We’d swap theories of who dies how next and whether anyone else on the show faked their death as well. I’d tell you I’m not surprised at the news that Benedict Cumberbatch will be a dad because I had an inkling that might be the case after he changed his official relationship status within 2 months from “in a relationship” to “engaged.” I’d tell you how I can’t wait to see Benedict live as Hamlet later this year in London and how I’m currently scouring the internet for more films and shows with Rupert Graves in them, as well as waiting for Martin Freeman’s latest film The Eichmann Show to air on January 20.
If all this TV talk hasn’t put you off, I’d tell you how hard I find it to study by distance learning. I recently realised that although I have lived alone before (as in: moved out of my parents’ flat into student accommodation, then a shared house and then stayed in the house but only shared with my ex before returning to my very own flat in Germany), I’d always either had house mates or course mates to provide background noise and keep me on track. I miss that a lot. I constantly pull overtime at work, and that stresses me to no end as it plays havoc with my carefully drafted study schedules. How late and all-nighters are the norm; how I learned to function on 4 hours of sleep per night and how I really need to get back to it in order to finish a paper on time.
This coffee break with you has been a much needed sanity break for me. I didn’t have to think about deadlines and the APA style for a while, and I got some coffee in the process which is always a good result for me.
People always seem surprised by how much I can talk when I want to. They’d already know if they only cared to listen now and then.
Part Time Monster started it all. If you follow the link and scroll down to the blue box (unfortunately not a TARDIS, though I live in hope), you’ll find the other Weekend Coffee Sharers.
Study. Read. Write. 
This was a fun post–thanks for joining in! And congrats on that new posting gig—three great shows to review!
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Thank you very much! I can’t wait to get started on the reviews. Great excuse to watch them all again! “For Science!” hehehe.
Thanks for hosting the link up! It’s a brilliant idea!!
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🙂 Thanks for joining it!
And yep—I do a lot of reading and watching just so I can analyze it. Sometimes that makes the guilty pleasures oh-so-much-more fun.
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I’m simply baffled by this rain you speak of. Ha! (What?! I live in the desert. We know very little about rain.)
Glad to meet you on this weekend link-up. Meeting new and awesome writers is a blast.
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Nice to meet you as well!
I’d prefer the desert, that’s for sure. I’d happily move to Australia’s Outback. Hot, dry air and lots of sun is just within my comfort zone! 😀
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Thanks for the coffee and chat! I love talking tv shows, and it’s awesome that you will be reviewing Buffy and X-files. I enjoyed both (and Angel by the way). I’m so glad DB went on to star in Bones because I missed having him on my television screen – vampire or not! I haven’t seen Sherlock, but one of these days I’ll give it a go. I watch Elementary and love Johnny Lee Miller’s interpretation. Robert Downey Junior was pretty fantastic too, in the movies. Have a great week 🙂
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Hiya!! It’s always lovely to chat with you! Hope you liked the coffee! It was sooo weird seeing DB on Bones out in the daylight for the first time. I just went “Oh, so you CAN get a tan after all” hehe. RDJ is fantastic as Holmes, never really got into Elementary although I quite like Jonny Lee Miller. I’m sorry, but Watson is not a woman! If you check out Sherlock now at least you won’t have to wait too long for the next season. We get 3 episodes (à 90 minutes) per season and a 2 year wait in between seasons. But I for one think it speaks for the show that Martin Freeman was prepared to turn down The Hobbit to continue filming Sherlock (in which he is the snarkiest Watson of them all. I mean, he’s a snarky little shit in real life by all accounts but as John he’s brilliant. Sorry, I’m fangirling) until Peter Jackson moved the entire production schedule for him so he could do both.
Have a lovely week! 🙂
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Wow! I did not know that. I love Martin Freeman and knowing he’s in it was the reason I’ve been meaning to give it a go. Now my interest is really piqued and I must go find it! The only thing that held me back is Cumberbatch, because he irritated the hell out of me in the Star Trek movie and I just can’t get that out of my head! I thought if I gave it enough time, I’d forget and be able to see how he approaches the role 🙂 It’s weird how one role can sometimes stay with me. It happened with Christian Bale. The poor guy has done nothing wrong, but I watched one movie where he scared the hell out of me and it almost tainted my enjoyment of the Batman movies. I couldn’t watch Michael Cane for a while either, and he’s a phenomenal actor. But when I saw him in the Hand, that’s all I could see! I suppose it’s a testament to their acting skills, or that I get way too invested!
By the way – will you be posting a link to the reviews on your site, and if not, how can I make sure I don’t miss them? 🙂
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Cumberbatch is great as Sherlock in my opinion, though it’s the chemistry between him and Martin Freeman that really does it for the show. I think Cumberbatch is an excellent actor, especially on stage (I finally got to see the recording of Frankenstein with Jonny Lee Miller in November, the reviews are in my archive) but I thought his Star Trek performance was too stiff. He’s brilliant at playing geniuses but he’d struggle to play the guy next door, whereas Martin Freeman is brilliant at playing the Everyday Man and then he plays someone extraordinary and it blows you away because he steps up his game. And he’s fantastic on stage as well. Got to see him in Richard III last year and his performance was nothing short of amazing. I better end this discussion here, because I could talk about Martin Freeman for ages. 🙂 *hides the Pinterest board*
I do get what you mean though, about roles staying with you. I can’t think of anyone at the top of my head (but I’m putting that down to the fact it’s 3am) but I’ve been in that situation before as well.
I’ll be posting the links on here, don’t worry. The first one (The X-Files “Pilot”) should go up soon, I’m just finishing it now. My first draft was a bit too technical. Ooops. It’s weird to review a show spoiler-free when it first aired 22 years ago. I still need to steal the Buffy DVDs off my sister. And find VHS, because the first two seasons of Angel are still on VIDEO! *gasp* 🙂
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*muffled giggle* I had a few of my favourite movies on video until last year. I finally got rid of them because I have the movies on DVD, but it was hard! I had memories attached to them and I have a tendency to hoard my treasures! Not quite Golem from Lord of the Rings, but it’s pretty close 🙂
It’s good to hear that I’m not the only one going to bed a ridiculous’o’clock. I’ve had quite a few late nights and my exhaustion is going to take me out any day now!
I’m glad to hear you’ll be posting the links – I’ll look forward to catching the pilot review. I’m looking forward to reviewing Arrow in a few weeks time, but mine will be resplendent with spoilers because I just want to open up a discussion. – with people like you who enjoy talking about their favourite shows as much as I do. It’s great to find a kindred spirit 🙂
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I’m drinking coffee RIGHT NOW!!! Kismet!
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Haha, enjoy your coffee!
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I honestly don’t think I could live without my fridge for more than a few days!
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I didn’t think I could either until I had to. I’ve done it before in Africa, but there we went to the market every day and didn’t stock dairy products etc. Sooo glad to have my fridge back though!
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Happy blitz day!!! Great meeting you!!
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Great to meet you as well! Thanks for stopping by!
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We all need a good coffee break! It was great meeting you. Happy Blitz Day!
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I can always do with a coffee break! 🙂
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