Good morning, welcome to another edition of #weekendcoffeeshare. It looks like it’s going to be another cold one today. So please come in, hang up your coat and join me with a hot cup of something. I’m having my usual today – coffee with no sugar, no cream with a just a dash of unsweetened almond milk.
If we were having coffee, I would tell you a shortened workweek is worse than a regular workweek because you must get everything done in four days as opposed to five even though you were already having trouble getting things done in five days. Just so happens, this week was health wellness week at work. There were activities (socially distanced, of course) everyday this week. We were encouraged to participate as we would earn points for each event which will go toward a raffle drawing next week.
It’s nice to get a break from the monotony of work but somehow, this week felt like it was the worst week to hold these events. Aside from participating in these events, I had work meetings almost everyday this week and they were all about one thing – debt collection. My boss often tells me and my teammates, “Just a few more months of this and we’re done.”
How many months exactly? Mind you, he said this middle of 2020.
If we were having coffee, I would tell you the best day this week was Thursday. I usually head into the office on Wednesdays but due to a big snowstorm that blew past the night before, I woke up on Wednesday morning to whiteness. The commute is going to be chaotic, I thought, better go in tomorrow instead.
Quite a few people – 5 others to be exact – from my department showed up in the office on Thursday. Maybe he’s feeling guilty of bombarding my email inbox and all the talks of debt collection, my boss – the CFO – decided to treat us to a lunch. It turned into a impromptu small gathering of 6 people. We ate, we talked, we laughed. It reminded me a little bit of what work life was like pre-Covid.
If we were having coffee, I would tell you I spent the week listening to Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I’ve had this audiobook for around 2 years and finally committed to listen. It’s long – 49 hours – and I am now a quarter through. So far, I’m not seeing the appeal of the story and not exactly loving the character of Scarlet O’Hara. She’s coming off like a spoiled person who’s trying to steal somebody’s husband, and let’s not mention when she’s miserable, she likes to make sure to make the people around her miserable too, sort of like my mom is this aspect.
I’ve seen the movie and thought somewhat of the same thing. I thought about quitting the book but if I stop now, I can’t claim I’ve read/listened to Gone with the Wind, can I?
Beside listening to Gone with the Wind, I’ve been spending a little time each night reading aloud Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth Jr. I need to practice my enunciation of English words as I’ve been having trouble speaking lately. It’s probably because since the pandemic, I haven’t had many people to talk to other than the family who only speak Chinese. Mom speaks English but her English is terrible and it makes me wonder how people manage to understand what she’s saying when I can’t.
If we were having coffee, I would thank you for joining me in this edition of #weekendcoffeeshare and hope we’ll both return next week.
This is Another Story 
First time visiting from Natalie’s Coffee Share!
We are in for another two weeks of lockdown here in Toronto. I’m fine with it but miss getting out and about with my BFF. Simple things.
I am an English speaker and have thought the same – when I read out loud to my husband I am trying to enunciate the words properly.
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Hello and thank you for dropping by. I’m sorry you’re still in lockdown right now. I feel lucky as I haven’t experienced a lockdown since my work has been deemed essential. After reading aloud for a last week, I think my enunciation is definitely better than before since I’m so focused in pronouncing each word correctly when I read.
I thank you again for visiting and have a great week ahead.
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I have never read Gone with the Wind although I did see the movie, and I loved the book Cheaper by the Dozen. Two good stories to keep your mind interested during this never-ending pandemic, Yinglan. If you are looking for another really good audiobook, try “The Alice Network.” Great character development!
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I’ll have to look up this one. I got Cheaper by the dozen during my book haul of 2018 and it’s such a fun story written by two of the dozen kids. I’m hoping to get through the books from the book haul this year and then do another book haul in 2022. Crossing my fingers.
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👏👏👏
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Hello YingLan, I’m thrilled you are listening to the full version of Gone With the Wind. I all but hated the movie for all the reasons you cite above but the book, I loved reading it even though it was very long. Here’s the thing about me and that book. I love good historical fiction and GWTW is wonderful historical fiction. It very much puts you someplace surrounded by events that actually happened (not the family scenes of course, but almost everything around the family. Note what blind jerks people were and wait until you hear about them in the final chapters. The racism in all it’s forms come out and this is who did the things that we are still paying for today. There were so many good people, hard working people who ran into the war with such poor understanding of what they were running into and then what the victors put the south through to punish the people further . . . It is eye opening and rich history. With the right expectation, I hope you enjoy the last part more than you did the first. Please don’t abandon it. The end is better and the whole thing is so much better than the movie.
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Hi Gary, I love historical fictions too, but only if it’s done right. I’ve read and listened to so many historical fictions that left me just down right bored.
I’m currently on Chapter 17, just the beginning of part 3. I could’ve gone further but Audible messed up my place and made me listen to Part 2 again without me realizing it. I thought I’ve gone crazy for a moment because everything felt so familiar, as if I’ve heard it before. I think I might have to watch the movie again after finishing the book as the movie was too long and didn’t make an impression on me.
I agree, the book is definitely more detailed than the movie in describing the Civil War. It fills in quite a few gaps from the shorten version learned in history class. I’m looking forward to the end of the book as the end of a book is always the best part. 🙂 Thank you for visiting and have a great week.
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Nice coffee share. I think it’s great that you ended up with an impromptu non-lockdown type lunch. We need to get over this!
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I agree. Thanks for visiting.
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Hi dear, if you are interested I can email you a copy of my Canada Book Award winner, Soroosh to get a review on your blog. Let me know. Thanks.
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Hi Laleh, thanks for the offer. I would happily read your book. However, I don’t do book reviews on my blog but I can write a review on Goodreads or Amazon.
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You’re amazing, perfect. Email me your email, lalehchini@yahoo.com
🙏❤️
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