Hello my lovelies!

It’s lovely to see you! I’m glad you could join me for our Weekend Coffee Share today!

If we were having coffee today, I’d invite you in for a late lunch before we have coffee. You see, I started a new diet last Saturday and it’s going really well, but I had to dash to the shops earlier to get stocked up on veggies and I haven’t had a chance to eat yet.

In fact, as I am writing this, my new creation is still in the oven. It’s chicken, with celery, tomatoes, red bell pepper, and white champignons, topped with grated zucchini (courgette), a bit of garlic, salt, black pepper and tomato-mozzarella spice (at least that’s what it’s called here, it’s the usual mix on Insalata Caprese) as well as fresh mint and basil and a tiny bit of linseed oil.

Today marks the first day in a week that our meal plan allows meat and poultry again. Over the last week, I’ve become quite adept at some vegetarian dishes. The problem is that I’m not allowed dairy, peas, flour, maize or anything like that, so my favourite falafel recipe for example is out because it includes chickpeas. I have found ways to substitute things for potato or sweet potato, though. And I’m marking first successes. It’s only been a week but I’ve lost 2kg already (my scales are old and analogue and don’t show grams).

If we were having coffee today I’d tell you that Study.Read.Write has been nominated for the Creative Blogger Award and I’m absolutely thrilled! The acceptance post is still forthcoming.

I’d also tell you that I’ve got quite a bit of studying done already this week, due to Thursday having been a bank holiday and we closed the office on Friday. I’ve still got loads to do today and tomorrow, but I already got some stuff back graded and I got 95% on two assignments, so I’m very happy with that! I also passed the final exam on the Modern Middle East II course I took on MOOC provider Coursera, and got an overall of 88% for the course. Considering I knew next to nothing about the Middle East beforehand and keep confusing Arabic names, that’s not bad at all.

Speaking of MOOCs: Did you know there’s currently a course on eDX by the Smithsonian Institute on The Rise of Superheroes in Pop Culture? It’s all about comic books, you’ll have to write a few scenes yourself but the best part is: it’s taught by industry legends Michael Uslan and none other than STAN LEE! As a writer, I shouldn’t find it so hard to create a protagonist from scratch, but having one with superpowers is new to me as I usually stick to the realistic side of things. It’s a challenge though. And you don’t need to be able to draw. You can write as well and team up with someone who’d rather draw if you can’t do both yourself.

If we were having coffee I’d ask about your week. What have you been up to? It’s been gorgeous and warm here the last two days, so I moved everything onto the terrace to study and get a bit of a tan. The sun is making all the difference.

And I’d like to know: have you come across meal plans you can stick to? Mine is surprisingly easy to adhere to for now, even though I’d sometimes like those two sugars in my coffee or just a quick bite to eat I don’t have to cook beforehand.

Anyway, lunch is ready. And then I need to get back to my studies. If I can finish the bigger assignment today I only have two small ones for tomorrow.

Thank you for stopping by and having lunch and coffee with me. Same time, next week? In the meantime, check out the other Weekend Coffee Sharers.