24 Monday Jul 2023
Tags
Since I moved to the present Casa Azahar, and downsized (including getting rid of about 80% of my books), I am being very selective about any new book purchases. But I couldn’t resist this one, written by César Saldaña, the president of the Regulatory Council Sherry Academy (and one of my teachers during the Sherry Educator course I took in 2015). So this arrived today and, although I’m just a few pages in, I can already tell it’s going to be a profound and enjoyable experience. ¡Salud! 🥂
11 Thursday May 2023
Posted in books, books & writing, friends, sevilla
I’ve known Lola Rubia for many years and so I was happy to be invited to the book launch of her first novel, Ni Ruido Ni Silencio, which took place at La Carbonería. Look at that face! Lola was so happy and later said it was the best day of her life. I mean, what an accomplishment. On the way home with my signed copy I stopped off at a bar for a snack and the waitress asked about the book sitting on the table, read the back cover blurb and immediately wrote down the name saying she wanted to look it up. I think this bodes well. Best of luck, Lola!
03 Wednesday Feb 2021
Posted in books, food & drink
So this just arrived! And it’s fabulous. But there is quite a story behind it. Back in August 2013 I was scrolling Twitter one evening and saw a tweet by Niamh @eatlikeagirl talking about needing to meet her Kickstarter goal in order to get her Bacon The Cookbook project going. If I recall correctly the deadline was that night. And well, I’d been following Niamh for quite awhile, and I also love bacon, so I decided to invest and hoped she reached her goal – which she did! Great. And for 30€ there was the promise of a copy of the book – if all went well we would be receiving our signed copies by Christmas. Which, well, obviously didn’t happen.
Thus began a series of group emails from Niamh to all of us investors, explaining the various glitches and upheavals (personal and professional) that were keeping her from completing the project. And at first I thought, okay, no problem. I mean, it’s a cookbook about bacon. I wasn’t going to die if I never got it. Also, I’d never done a Kickstarter thing before. I just figured it’s like any investment – you pays yer money and you takes yer chances. There are no guarantees. Continue reading
06 Thursday Aug 2020
It’s taken three months to get here (don’t ask) but I have finally received my copy of The Wines of Northern Spain written by my friend Sarah Jane Evans MW. I ordered it back in April when the publisher had a special offer going and I had this rather naïve notion that I would be spending LOCKDOWN doing a lot of reading. Ha.
Have just had a quick look through and, man, this would have been so useful before I went up to Galicia last summer to do research for that Decanter article (in fact, it was Sarah Jane who first recommended me to Decanter, bless her!) but I had very short notice for that trip so there wasn’t time to order it then. Especially with a more than three month delivery time.
Actually, that was a mix up with my address. Three times. When I got in touch with the publisher after a month he wrote back saying the delivery company had come to my place twice and left notices for me to pick up the book at their drop off point. Well duh. Not likely since I was home all of May and June. Anyhow I got in touch again and they offered to give me a refund, but I was really keen on having this book, so they sent it a third time. This time they also took my phone number (don’t know why they didn’t do it in the first place) and last week I got a call from a guy who lives down the street saying his cleaning lady had taken in a package addressed to me. At his address. Duh. Anyhow, I finally got round to picking it up today because the guy said they were only at home in the evenings, and I don’t go out in the evenings, so we worked out a plan whereby he’d leave it at the shop across the street from me. But then it turned out they were leaving on holiday today and would be at home at midday… and so I finally have my book. Now I just have to get my brain out of lockdown mode…
05 Wednesday Aug 2020
Tags
Well this made my day! And made me laugh out loud. Gary Larson has come out of retirement and is producing new material on his website. While it isn’t a return to daily cartooning (at least not yet?) it’s great to have him back. Also didn’t realise he had this website, so I can go there anytime now for my own daily fix.
I actually “met” him once (for all of 30 seconds) at a book signing in Toronto. He looked a bit like a cornered wild animal sitting at that desk, but hey, he spelled my name right. If you’re not familiar with his work then have a look at the website’s front page.
casa azahar 