Hello, my lovelies!

If you’re joining me for this week’s Weekend Coffee Share, you’ll be joining me on the busy streets of London! Welcome!

If we were having coffee today, I’d first of all tell you about last weekend, as I was in Warrington and Manchester then. I had an absolute blast with my bestie. We spent all of Saturday shopping in Manchester, and returned to Warrington knackered but in an extremely good mood.

Véronique is the most generous person I know, and the flights to come and see her were her birthday present for me. And even then I had to stop her paying for my things when I was there. At Christmas, she’d sent me a parcel, though it was returned undelivered (our postie is an idiot). So she held on to it, and gave it to me when I was there. In it were British sweets and cookies, and a very book nerdy present.

It’s a desk tidy, letter-holder, made from a book and in the shape of a hedgehog!! This is sooo me!! It’s books and hedgehogs! After all, Véronique got to know my little Cactus last year, before he passed away. And I know, some purists will scream at the thought of a book getting mutilated. Rest assured, though. It’s not Jane Austen. It’s the screenplay for Boogie Nights. I think this one is safe to mutilate, it might actually serve a purpose now.

I can’t wait to see Ronni and her husband again at the end of August!

At the airport in Manchester, we bumped into a former colleague of ours, who was also travelling to Cologne/Bonn like me. But because another flight got cancelled, checking in took ages, and the queue at security was ridiculous. And if that hadn’t slowed us down enough, security checked every handbag by hand – I later found out mine was singled out because it was “cluttered.” Absolute dumbwits! I travelled with hand luggage only and went shopping, of course the bag is going to be cluttered!!

I bought two books, The Museum Of Extraordinary Things and The Shock Of The Fall in the UK, plus a few DVDs – I love secondhand places like CeX!

On my flight home, I sat next to an Indian lady who was also reading. I read Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh, which I reviewed here. When the snack was served I asked her what she was reading and she showed me Daughters Of Shame, and said she only had a few chapters to go – and offered to send it to me when she’s done, because it’d just collect dust on her shelf anyway. So I gave her the office address – and now we wait.

If we were having coffee today, I’d tell you that I didn’t get as much done in July as I was planning on. I got an extension agreed but it will still be cutting it very fine. But hopefully this trip will clear my mind a bit!

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I haven’t slept since Friday morning as I had a 4am start today to get to the airport. I got to London at 7.30am and have been on the go since then.

At 11 am I’ll be outside the British Library for Sacha Black’s Annual Blogger Bash, so if you’re heading there as well say hi!

And I’ll be seeing the first of three theatre plays tonight: I’ve got a ticket for the final performance of Constellations at Trafalgar Studios, starring Louise Brealey (you may know her as Molly Hooper from BBC’s Sherlock). I’m really excited. Almost exactly a year ago (26.07.2014) I saw Martin Freeman at the same venue.

If we were having coffee today, I’d tell you that I tried a local Thai Spa at home and had a classic Thai massage. While I now feel good, I was so stiff that I hurt for a solid 24hours afterwards. I also managed to catch a cold in the last week of July. Go figure.

I’ve joined a Midori Traveler’s Notebook group on Facebook, on the suggestion of Nisha, a school friend of mine from New Zealand. I explained that I am a travel journalist and will be using the Midori on trips (I’ve been running it in a bit) and I got asked what inserts I use. So I explained, but they asked for a flip-through video. So I recorded one. You’ll hear that I have a cold – breathing is difficult at the moment.

If we were having coffee today, I’d tell you that I have loads planned for London and my trip. I’ll be visiting a friend from university in Cardiff tomorrow, and we’ll go to the Doctor Who Experience. Back in London, I’m hoping to visit the Sherlock Holmes Museum and go to the Pub Quiz at The Grapes. Among many other things.

I can’t wait. I’ll try and find free WiFi in London every now and then, but until then, it’ll go quite here. I’ll review the plays – Constellations, Three Days In The Country, and Hamlet – as soon as I can.

I think that’s it for today. I’m off to wander the streets of London and feel at home again. Because there’s one thing I learned here last year:

Anyway, that’s it from me. Check out the other Weekend Coffee Sharers via Part Time Monster and the #WeekendCoffeeShare tag. I won’t have access to a proper computer, so adding my URL to the linky will be tricky. Could I ask you to add me on your way out? Thank you for stopping by. Same time, next week?