So I saw an excellent blog post recently, and I feel like a
terrible person because I can’t remember where
and I wanted to link back to it so as not to just be an idea stealer.
Although, I’m pretty sure they’d seen the idea someplace else anyhow so perhaps
it’s ok, and it’s not like I’m taking credit for it anyway, just sort of saying
‘kudos, that’s awesome, I’m going to have a go at that….’
The feature was called If
We Were Having Coffee and it’s pretty much just a chance for me to talk at
you about things that are on my mind that may not always be book related
because sometimes I like to try and shake things up a bit. Who knows, if I like
it I might make it a semi regular thing. I say semi regular because hello look
at my blog please, there’s nothing regular
about it: I am shamefully sporadic at best.
Anyhow, I'm not in the office today (hurrah for having Friday off) so it seemed like as good a time as any see how it goes. Grab a coffee – tea, hot
chocolate, whatever - and a cake (MMMM
cake) and let’s chat.
If we were having
coffee I’d probably mention the mahoosive spot on my face that I know you’d
have noticed but be too polite to mention because you’re a darling. I’d draw
attention to it because I’m feeling self-conscious about it and that’s just the
way I roll. I swear though, it’s massive. I asked one of the boys in my office
if he could see it from his side of the room. He could. Probably you could see
it from the moon. I’d blame my hormones and how shit is it please that I am
almost 34 years old and I still have to suffer these breakouts every month. I’d
probably also blame the fact that I’m using a Neutrogena cleanser instead of
the one I’ve been using for a while because apparently my skin likes change
about as much as I do which is not very (I use a Decleor micellar water thingy
usually, if you’re interested, because the bottle is pretty and it smells
nice.)
If we were having
coffee I’d probably be ridiculously happy about the hopefully excellent
latte I was drinking because coffee.
I’d tell you how the Nescafe Azera I drink at home and the Gold Blend I drink
at work just isn’t the same and that I actually take my own travel mug to the
Costa machine when I’m walking to work most mornings because that third cup of
coffee on the walk to work actually makes all the difference and (and it says Luke’s
on it which means I get to pretend I live in Stars Hollow.) I’d ask you if you
thought I had a problem. Although tea is not coffee, is it. & my first
beverage of the day is usually tea, which is weird actually because I used to
hate tea. I’d ask you what you knew
about coffee machines because I want one and I am currently torn between one
that makes coffee like this one fromKitchenAid or one that will make me a latte like this Dolce Gusto pod one. I’m
torn.
If we were having
coffee we probably would end up talking about books because this is me
after all. I’d tell you that I just re-read Handmaid’s
for about the sixth time and still think Margaret Atwood is the Queen of
Fucking Everything and that it’s actually eerie how relevant her work is and if
you told me that actually you haven’t read The
Handmaid’s Tale I would demand you did so right away because it’s SO GOOD.
I’d tell you started the new Sarah Pinborough last night
which I’m majorly excited about, partly because I loved The Death House and really liked Thirteen Minutes and partly because her publicity team have done
excellent work on Twitter with #wtfThatEnding. I’d tell you that actually
that’s why I’m so sleepy today, because I stopped up too late reading it.
I’d get you to fangirl with me about The Book of Dust – can you even believe we have an actual date -
and remind me that actually Northern
Lights hurts my soul every time and that maybe I should remember that
before I pick the series up to reread. I’d point out that I probably won’t
listen to your advice on that.
& of course I’d ask you what you’re reading right now.
All the recs all the time please.
If we were having
coffee I’d probably compliment your outfit because you look lovely today
and I wouldn’t say it out loud but secretly I’d wish I had that kind of style.
Pretty much everybody I spend time with ever makes me wish I had a personal
stylist. Ha.
If we were having
coffee I’d tell you about walking to work and about how my fitbit might be
the best gift I’ve ever been given because I was so lazy. Not on purpose so much, but because I had a sedentary 9-5
job and so I’m sat all day and then I’d get home and grab some food and then
just be so tired. My fitbit makes me
challenge myself: I walk to work and back most days now; I go for a little walk
at lunchtime; if I don’t have plans at weekend then I get off my arse and go
for a walk and I feel better for it. & I get a bit of a kick actually, out
of looking at my 7 day steps and watching that average creep up. I’m at 7k per
day right now and it’s bugging me because two weeks ago I was at 11. I’d ask
you if you had one. & I’d invite you to a workweek hustle if you did
because we’re all in this together.
If we were having
coffee I’d probably mention Donald Trump because it’s a thing that’s at the
back of my mind all of the time – mine and most other sane people on the planet
I guess. The guy is a horror show. I find myself laughing sometimes because
seriously how is this shit even real and then I remember it is real and my laughter dies in my
throat. I wouldn’t want to get overly political because I know not everybody
likes that but as we sat drinking coffee and eating cake I probably wouldn’t be
able to help but tell you he makes my skin crawl and that every time he opens
his mouth he scares the bejeezus out of me and that with all his fake new BS
his big ol’ Sweden blunder this weekend was a joke and that impeachment would not surprise me.
If we were having
coffee I’d tell you that my BFF has gotten Wimbledon tickets again this year
and that the prospect of another minibreak to London with her, a couple of days
of tennis and theatre and wine has me positively giddy because when I think
about the best five days of my life two of them have been spent in London with
her – the first when we went to Wimbledon the first time and drank Pimms even
though she hates it and saw Roger Federer do this thing, and the second two
years later, when it rained and we sat under an umbrella outside a pub and
drank rain til the sun shone. It took a while. We were happily drunk.
If we were having
coffee I’d ask you about you
because I want to know all the things, please. What’s been going on in your
world – where have you been and what have you been doing and what have you read
and watched and seen and what plans have you made? I would want to know it
all.
