Hello my lovelies!

It’s great to see all of you again for another Weekend Coffee Share!

Come on in, coffee is ready. And really, just for future reference, I’ll  show you around what I like to call “kiwi-style.”

See my kitchen? Well, there’s a coffee machine and a kettle. Coffee powder and filters are next to the machine. Teas, sugar and honey are on the shelf. Milk is in the fridge and glasses, cups and mugs are in the hanging cupboard. The tap water here is some of the best in all of Germany and definitely drinkable.

Got it? Feel free to help yourself to whatever you’d like. Basically, treat it like your own kitchen. (My kiwi friends would do this every time someone came to their house for the first time. Once they’d said “help yourself” they got kinda cross when you asked whether you could get yourself another cuppa.)

If we were having coffee today I’d ask that we’d meet at my place. Not because I don’t want to go round to your’s or because I’m skint, but because I just can’t move at the moment.

I spent most of the day helping a very dear friend of mine move house. Unfortunately, this was the umpteenth time she has moved (we all lost count) and she keeps renting top floor flats. Which means not only do we have to get everything down several flights of stairs, but also up to the top floor at her new place. I love her dearly, but we all suggested that she should go for a ground level flat next time if she wants us to help yet again. On the plus side, we got everything out and in within 4 hours and were well on the way assembling furniture when the sprinter carrying washing machine and armchairs arrived. We’ve had a lot of practice.

However, due to my back problems, carrying boxes up and down stairs was not the best idea. I am sore everywhere, so I have decided to dust off the garden furniture and sit outside in the garden for the first time this year and put my feet up for a while. If you want coffee, you’ll have to join me out on the terrace – I doubt I’d be able to get up if I tried at the moment.

In other news: I woke up to the notification this morning that Study. Read. Write has been nominated for a Liebster Award! I was nominated by millennialcreativity and this is my very first blog award. A proper post will follow later, once I have decided who to nominate to pay it forward!

If we were having coffee today, we’d talk about the A to Z Challenge. Are you participating? What’s your theme? Mine’s Postcards, and I’m writing a little bit about places I’ve been to. So far I’ve got Auckland, Alice Springs, Budapest, Cape Coast and Dublin. I wanted to do at least 2 per letter, but I ran out of time. With work, family and uni demanding most of my time, I haven’t had a chance to do that many blog posts.

If we were having coffee today, I’d also tell you about the movie happythankyoumoreplease which I watched last night. Josh Radnor (Ted Mosby in How I Met Your Mother) wrote, directed and starred in this indie film, and I am actually quite amazed by the writing. His protagonist Sam is a writer who had a bit of success with short stories but got his novel manuscripts rejected, and Radnor showed him being a typical writer – sitting at a table with a laptop, deleting things, getting coffee but not actually writing. If you’re on this blog because of NaNoWriMo, Camp NaNo, ROW80 or any other writing related linkage, then you can probably relate to Sam the same way i do.

Critics either loved or hated the movie. Some called it too clichéd, though I found its optimistic outlook rather refreshing compared to other indie movies and blockbusters based in NYC. If anything, I think the message of being grateful but asking for more of what makes you happy is quite profound. To say “Thank you for this, I appreciate it, keep it coming!”

(And in that context, I am very happy about the Liebster Award. Thank you. More, please! 🙂 )

But Radnor also wrote a piece of dialogue that went “I am so sick of optimism, it’s f***ing exhausting” and I can relate to that. To smile and pretend everything is peachy, and be optimistic even when you don’t feel like it, is exhausting. I found his characters really authentic, and I’d choose a rough-round-the-edges but well-crafted indie flick over a Hollywood blockbuster any day of the week. Plus the soundtrack by Jaymay kicks butt.

Oh, that reminds me: my friend used a brilliant expression this week and it is now my goal to use it more often is conversation. He said “you’ve been bustin’ my apple bag all day.” I love it!

If we were having coffee today then I’d invite you to stay and share your A-Z stories and talk travel and movies with me. If you fancy another coffee you know where everything is, help yourself.

Thank you for stopping by and having coffee with me. The other Weekend Coffee Sharers should be around here somewhere.

Same time, next week?