Gooru

December 2006
Life, Divorce And Mudanzas

It is said that the three most stressful things in life are weddings, divorce, and moving home. I am in the middle of number three: moving home. I have experienced number one, marriage - stressful, number two I am happy to report I have not and certainly will not experience first hand.

I have moved home several times in my life, the last time was from the UK to here nearly 8 years ago and, well, you forget just how appallingly stressful a time it is. Particularly if, like me and my family, you.-

One, never throw anything away;

Two, don't have military training and therefore don't quite plan it all well enough (it's those little details like moving your Telefonica bills that screw it up).

And three, think that you can carry on doing the day job normally throughout. What I am trying to say here is, that if this magazine is a little late this month, it may be partly my fault (Sorry Ed!).

The best and the worst thing about moving is the book, magazine, DVD and CD collection. My famous curvy and Gaudí-like bookshelves(unintentionally curvy and bendy, just don't use MDF for bookshelves!) have been consigned to the basura and so the worst thing is that now I have to very quickly build some (some? Tons!) of new bookshelves so that we can move around the new home without weaving our way round a maze of boxes.

La Goora, by the way, collects ceramics in the same epic quantities as my book-mag-DVD-CD collection, so there are as many shelves and a million or so nails to put in the walls for her too...

But, hey, here we are now in the centre of this wonderful city of Valencia talking about getting rid of one of the cars and walking everywhere and becoming fitter (fat chance with all those lovely cafés, bars and restaurants along the walk!)

The best thing is that, whilst packing, I kept rediscovering old favourite books that I had completely forgotten, I drove La Goora and Les Goorettes mad sitting reading when I should have been packing! This all means that I won't be getting new books for Christmas as they tell me I can properly read the ones I have rediscovered! So I will probably receive socks and other such sensible presents!

For those of you lucky enough to be able to present a Christmas List to friends and loved ones here is my pick of the books you should be asking for.

Comedy:- Linda Smith was a great comedian who sadly died too young earlier this year, The Very Best Of Linda Smith edited by Warren Larkin and Ian Parsons, is a mix of tributes and some of her best lines.

Blokey:- The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden. Everything a boy should (and shouldn't) know, subjects covered range from Conkers to Dog Tricks, Girls and the Solar system. I know fathers who have bought this for their boys (and girls) but having skimmed it have kept the book for themselves!

Spies:- Regular readers of this column will know that I am a Spooks (BBC Series) fan. So, if you haven't seen it, get series one, two and three on DVD but also get the TV tie-in Spooks. The Personnel Files. by Kudos. I know, I usually hate TV Tie-ins but this one is excellent, presented in the form of a series of letters, interviews, reports and profiles it presents a fascinating backrgound for the main characters from the first four series.

Literature:- A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka. It was the title of this one that intrigued me. Two Ukranian sisters who have almost no contact for years get together to repel the advances of Valentina on their aging father. Laugh-out-loud funny - and the title? Their father's Magnum Opus - a grand history of the tractor. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a deeply moving story that explores the prejudices and intricacies between Shi-ite and Sunni Muslims. It is the story of two friends divided by cast, status and wealth. A must-read. Finally, Ian McEwan's Saturday, the story of a day (15 February 2003) in the life of Henry Perowne, a middle aged London neurosurgeon and his family. Not a great deal happens and it has been said that it's a 300 page short story, but the quality of the writing is superb, McEwan at his best.

Ok, that's it for now, back to the unpacking. Maybe, just maybe we'll be sorted by Christmas...

Have a very merry one and a happy new year, see you then,
Gooru

November 2006
Am I Bovvered?

This month I have been mostly almost missing the deadline, Am I bovvered? Well yes, actually.

Why am I talking in Catch Phrases? I hear you ask. Well I have just returned from a little trip to the UK and was amazed at just how much people use phrases from the current hit comedy shows. It is almost impossible to have more than a small conversation with anyone without at least one or two popping into the conversation. This is all very fine if you have seen the shows they come from and therefore know what they are talking about, but it can be a little bizarre when they suddenly lift a hand and say something like the aforementioned "Am I Bovvered" in a voice not entirely their own. Last month there was an article in this very magazine about the Valencian obsession with the weather, in England it seems to be TV. At every dinner party or meeting in a pub or bar the conversation seemed to be dominated by what's on the box, what's coming up on the box or what was on the box earlier in the year. Not having a satellite dish the size of Jodrell Bank in my back garden, and therefore unable to watch most of what they were talking about, I was often at a complete loss as to just what people were discussing. In an effort to improve my (English) dinner party vocab I decided to go out and get me a few DVDs of hit series tv shows.

I bought the following

Little Britain - every bit as good as it is cracked up to be by the entire British population and has spawned the following :- yeah but no but! , I'm the only gay in the village!, I'm a lady! and, Want that! - amazing how people can get these into a normal conversation.

League of Gentlemen - I know this isn't current but already a classic and now touring as a live show in the UK - I love the darkness of this one! Top phrases:- this is a local shop for local people! and we'll have none of that here!

Katherine Tate - I had never heard of this show until we arrived in England, but absolutely everyone was using catch phrases from this one - she is quite simply hilarious - beautifully observed and performed sketches and the most used catchphrase in the country at the moment - Am I Bovvered?!

I also bought a copy of the News of the World, chucked the paper but loved the free Best of British Contemporary Comedy DVD

So there you are then, a little list of the best in DVD TV comedy - for your viewing pleasure, and proudly standing on my bookshelves.

What with all this travelling this month I have had no time at all this month to read a book but I have got through a few - on my wonderful new toy - I've invested in an IPod Nano - this little gizmo is a wonder - almost a thin as a credit card but much prettier. Not only does it play hundreds of hours of songs but I have downloaded spoken word stuff - great novels and biographies and even radio shows. Just listened to Nick Hornby's Newie A Long Way Down - which has an interesting premise; 4 suicidal people meet on the roof of Toppers Towers, a well known suicide spot in North London. Well read by four different voices and a good story well told, but in my opinion it is not Hornby's best. Next up Kurt Vonnegut Jr (the Abridged Audio Collection). Nobody reads Vonnegut like Vonnegut - this is a great collection and includes Breakfast of Champions, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five and three complete stories from Welcome to the Monkey House. Just under four hours of that distinctive gravelly voice reading some of his best works - I love it! I almost downloaded the new Robert B. Parker, Schooldays, but luckily ITunes Music Store gives you the opportunity to sample the book first (around one and a half minutes) and a loathed the voice of the reader, so I haven't bought or listened to it! I love Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Ernest, and I particularly love the classic John Gielgud, Edith Evans (A Haaaandbaaag!) and guess what? Yep, It's available as an ITunes download and it is just as brilliant today as it ever was. There is so much available, of course, there is the complete (so far!) Harry Potter Series, and I will probably, one day, download it. On the subject of HP, I went to the cinema in the UK and the guy selling tickets was wielding one of the huge volumes in the series. He was half way through the tome, reading the entire cannon before the next movie comes out as a bet to his son. He wasn't expecting to either enjoy it or make it in time but was absolutely hooked and estimated he would finish them all with a week to spare. I still have the Podcasts to explore, so I'll leave that for another time. Whilst I love these audiobooks, there is nothing like the smell and feel of a real book.

And of course whilst I was in England the magnetic pull of the bookshops was far too strong for weak-willed old me, I bought another load including the new Martin Cruz Smith, Wolves Eat Dogs. The book that shot him to fame was the brilliant Gorky Park. Published in 1981, it had the worst first two lines I have ever read "All nights should be so dark, all winters so warm, all headlights so dazzling." I couldn't get past those two lines for a long time because I kept hearing a very Jewish accent in my head when I read them. I had been telling friends over dinner one night and we all got the giggles and the lines became a sort of silly mantra whenever we all met. I did eventually get past those first lines and it has become a favourite book of mine.

I flew there and back (with my IPod on - not during Takeoff and Landing, I promise!) on Ryanair, great airline, but not good if you are an expat who can't resist buying lots of lovely books to bring home with him! 7euros (yes, seven euros!) a kilo excess baggage makes even the best book bargains not quite the bargains they started out! - But hey, Am I Bovvered?!
Gooru

October
A pile of Good Magazines Great excitement at Casa Gooru this month as a new batch of books arrived courtesy of some very good friends who'd popped over for a long weekend. A lovely pile which I'll review next month as I haven't yet got stuck in to them. These good friends are in the process of buying a new (actually a very old) house to renovate, and we were chatting over dinner one night about interiors magazines, and how expensive they are back in the UK. I remarked that I actually still buy The World of Interiors here each month for 7.20€, which is pretty fair since it is already a pretty expensive magazine in England. Those of you who read this column regularly know I am a bit of a junkie when it comes to magazines and this dinner conversation prompted me to pop to the Papeleria to pick up some Spanish equivalents for my chums. I wish I'd taken the car or a trolley! Interiors magazines here weigh a ton! Casa Viva is a good kilo in weight with a whopping 482 pages this month. Arquitectura y Diseño and El Mueble aren't far behind, with almost as many pages of glossy (heavy) paper. And they all seem to come with some free supplement or gift - which just adds to the weight.

I bought a great selection for them and by the time I got home the blood had stopped flowing in my fingers and the carrier bags had almost given up the ghost. But they are so cheap! Casa Viva - very chic and very modern- is only 2.90€. It, and the others, to varying extents, are beautifully designed and produced and make great browsing material - they are the monthly equivalent of a good coffee table book. My friends were extremely impressed and actually carried them home, unfazed by the fact that they might have had to pay excess baggage for them.

Sources tell me that there is a new Sunday morning car boot sale on the exit to Lliria off the CV35 - apparently it is great for books - I can't tell you I have been and had a look myself yet but it must be worth a visit if there are English books to be had cheaply!

I mentioned last month that I'd read a good Jeffery Deaver - forgot to tell you the title - Garden Of Beasts - it's a thriller again (of course!) but set in the Berlin of Hitler's Olympics. It is a better than average book and the sense of period is pretty good. The central character, Paul Schumann is a hit man (with, surprise, surprise, a heart of gold) who is hired by the American Government to assassinate a key member of the Third Reich. It's all very plausable but you do get very fed up with ach! in every line of dialogue.

I am now on volume two of the excellent autobiography of Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stone's creator. It is proving to be as compulsive reading as the first volume. Interspersed with comments (some very disparaging) from contemporaries, Loog Oldham has written a brilliant and candid book. If you are at all interested in the birth of one of the world's biggest bands, then beg, borrow or steal a copy of Stoned. And if like me, you just want more, go and get 2 Stoned.

That's it from me for this month - lots more books next time
Gooru

September
Mysteries and Murders

It's been a mystery to me ever since I arrived on these shores to live all those years ago, why the Valencians have Casas de Campo (country houses) and travel maybe only an hour away by road for the summer when there is a whole world out there waiting to be discovered.  Well, the mystery is now solved. For me, at least. This August, we, the family Gooru, took to the hills above Sagunto to a Casa de Campo, not 20 minutes by fast car from the centre of Valencia. We had a great holiday!

Last summer we booked a holiday in Oporto at the new luxury Melia there. A few days before we were due to leave La Goora nudged me in the middle of the night, almost giving me a heart attack, to tell me that she had dreamt that the hotel had no pool and not only that, but that it was miles from a beach.  "You'll have to phone the hotel in the morning, to check" "But darling, it's a five star hotel!" "Phone in the morning!" She roll over and went back to sleep leaving me to ponder through the rest of the night how stupid I was going to sound asking a five star hotel whether they had a pool on the strength of my wife's dream. I phoned. "My wife had a dream...." "Yes we do have a pool sir..." "ah! Good!" "But, sir..." "Yes?" "I'm afraid it won't be filled until two weeks time!" "Oh! But you are by the beach?" "Ten Minutes!" "Walking?" "No sir, by car!" We changed the booking and ended up in the Algarve in a pretty nice hotel by the beach(crowded) , with a pool (postage stamp size and distinctly cloudy water by midday). Leaning over our sea view balcony the first evening I remarked to La Goora that It was strange the way the Portuguese stood paddling on the shore and so few of them were swimming. Next morning I ran down the beach and in to the water. IT WAS SO COLD! I couldn't breath, I couldn't swim, I couldn't move! August and the Atlantic is as warm as it gets! it took me an hour to get the circulation going again! We got tired of the sardines by day two, ended up eating in the hotel's excellent Indian restaurant almost every night of our 8 night stay. Paddled a bit and tried to sight see. We enjoyed the week but decided that next year we'd try Valencian Style.  And. It is all so simple, load the cars up with what you think you'll need, and if you've forgotten anything, just pop back and get it! Then just sit back and forget all that is happening in the big city. The temperatures are lower, (we were all astounded that we weren't continuously 'leaking') the air is fresher and cleaner and we explored and found great beaches and good restaurants and even went to the Roman amphitheatre to see a (pretty awful) rock-flamenco ballet. We had half the stay with friends, who joined us from England. 14 of them the first weekend. (Just amazing how many trips to a bottle bank you can do in a weekend!) diminishing to 3 for the rest of the first week (Just amazing how many trips to a bottle bank you can do in a week!). Then it was just the Goorus. And we all read books, loads and loads of them, whilst we sat round the huge pool.

Actually, the pool brings me to the only blot on our idyllic landscape. And it's another Valencian obsession - Pine Trees. Why surround a beautiful pool with bloody pine trees? The needles get in the water, the filter and you! Add to this the fact that there were two belligerent red squirrels who watched us madly skimming the pool and who took great delight in sitting in a tree ripping pine cones apart and chucking the bits in the pool where you weren't cleaning... it all adds up to almost a full time job. The Forth bridge comes to mind.

When I wasn't cleaning the pool or doing some much needed research on a new project the Gooru's are involved in 'en famille', I sat down to attack a pile of beach/pool reading, so don't expect Literature (with a capital PH) this month...

First up was the latest from Patricia Cornwell - Trace. Another Scarpetta novel - Whilst I enjoy her novels I do wonder why this woman Scarpetta is employed by anyone, as, whatever book you read involving this coroner, it is ultimately her that the killer is always really after, and it always seems to me that if they just took her out of the picture there wouldn't have been any murders in the first place. It's the usual unputdownable thriller though and I do enjoy the ride with Cornwell. Next up (because one of the bags I forgot to put in the car was full of books I wanted to read and I didn't feel like driving that day) was Dan Brown's Digital Fortress, you all know how I felt about The Da Vinci Code, This was just as bad - and good. I still think he writes the worst dialogue but the racy plot kept me reading and I quite liked the theme of the central plot, the idea of someone coming up with an unbreakable computer code that, if successful would be given away with every computer.

I can't remember if I've mentioned the next Author before but Lawrence Block is a particular favourite of mine. I got the latest (for me) Scudder novel, A Ticket to the Boneyard in Carrefour's new, small, English book section(L'Eliana, Paterna and Campanar). Lots of books at bargain prices amongst the usual best sellers. Block is great, this one is about a guy Scudder framed some years ago to get him off the streets, he is out and going to kill all Scudder's women and then him. Beautifully written. Click the lawrence block logo to the left to read samples of his books before you buy on his web site.

The next book was Kathy Reich's Deadly Décisions - said to be better than Cornwell. Can't tell you why the word decisions has an accent or much about the book because I got thoroughly bored by chapter two and gave up - sorry.

Last of this months books is Peter Robinson's Aftermath, (this was another of my Carrefour bargains) grizzly to the extreme, about a serial killer of young women, I couldn't put it down. It said on the cover 'move over Ian Rankin' and for once the blurb was right. I had never heard of this writer, though this is his twelfth novel featuring Inspector Banks of the Yorkshire Police, I will be looking for more...read excerpts of nearly all of his novels on his web site by clicking his logo to the lefthttp://www.peterrobinsonbooks.com

Ah! but there is a Mascletà starting in five minutes and everyone knows how much I like a good Mascletà, so later on I will tell you about the surprisingly good new Jefrrey Deaver and the appallingly bad new David Baldacci, so see you soon...
Gooru

july-august
Gooru in the summer

Well, the heatwave never really materialised, though the temperatures are a little higher than the seasonal norm, and the thunderstorms have been fairly spectacular. It's always very fair, I think, of the Valencian Government to schedule them in the evenings...

I popped over to the UK a couple of weeks ago and arrived on a sweltering summer's day.

Before I get to the point about the visit let digress a little. I flew into Bournemouth International Airport, which is a series of cheap conservatories bolted on to even cheaper nissen huts - the entire airport has the feel of a garden centre without the plants. The whole airport is also cordoned off into snaking lanes where you can and can't walk, so you constantly feel like you are in a giant theme park queue forever passing the same people going the other direction to you. Three flights arrived at the same time, all from European destinations and it took over three quarters of an hour to pass through passport control (it's all EU, why the fuss?), but hey, it was a cheap flight so I suppose I shouldn't complain.

So, back to the story, Sweltering heat in Britain. I was there for a couple of days to go to a film festival in Winchester. Short films made by graduates of various film schools in the UK and Russia. Some pretty good films and a couple of stinkers but overall an interesting festival. The heatwave unfortunately meant that the audience stayed away in their droves because it is so rarely hot that everybody grabs the opportunity to get some rays. During a break in the screenings I took the opportunity to trawl a couple of bookshops and the charity shops to stock up on some reading material. In one well known (airconditioned) bookshop I overheard one assistant say to the other, "f***k innit hot, do you remember that day we had like this last year? It's too much to work in, innit?"

I got me some books though! The first (from Oxfam for a quid) a great beach read Sick Puppy by Carl Hiassen, which made me laugh out loud a lot, like most of his books. A book about crooked property deals and dodgy political 'fixers' and it all, once again takes place in Florida and is madcap easy reading.(Hiassen, by the way, once himself an award winning investigative reporter, still writes a regular column for the Miami Herald and it is well worth a read - click on the miami herald logo to the left - you'll need to sign up - but it's free and worth the effort.)

I also bought Andrew Loog Oldham's Stoned and 2stoned, Bored with helping Brian Epstien manage the world's biggest pop group, The Beatles, Oldham decided, at 18 years old to find another band to rival them. Loog Oldham was the guy who brought the world the Rolling Stones. I am actually only halfway through the first volume but it is great stuff, written in sound bites and using quotes from friends such as Mary Quant, Terence Stamp, it is a book about the Swinging Sixties, Particularly in London. Hard to believe the guy was so young and so sure of himself - this is nearly as good as the Bob Dylan'S Chronicles I mentioned last month.

I love art books and good photography books and snapped up a copy of New York in the 70s by SoHo News Chief photographer Allen Tannenbaum. It's a great book, stuffed with photos of the famous (Andy Warhol, of course, the Stones, Patti Smith, Mapplethorpe etc.) and the bizarre (Nightclubs, Sex Parties, Clubs, performances) with an introduction by Yoko Ono and foreword by P.J.O'Rourke, it's a fascinating peep into the mores and excesses of New York. Click on the Soho Weekly News logo to the left for a taster of the pics.

So, enjoy summer, do your best not to get burned, or dehydrated. If you're in the city in August take advantage of, for once, being able to park, or cross streets without grazing shins on double parked cars parked too close together. I am fascinated to see just what happens in Valencia this August when everything, as usual, shuts down for the month, even though t last count there will be nine flights a day into VLC from the UK alone (loads from other destinations as well). Lots of people with very few places to go. They'd better bring some books....

April
Gooru post Fallas

So, those of you who were here for Fallas may have been like me, and hardly picked up a book to read - I know, you don't want to read another article about Fallas! You want to read about books... Just hold on though, I have book news for you! It concerns this great idea I told you some months ago, Bookcrossing. I am very pleased to tell you that there is now a bookcrossing group in Valencia. They meet on the second tuesday (7 pm) of each month at The Lounge, and there are 58 members who appear to be very active - What has that got to do with Fallas?, well, they stage events and the last was called Mascletà de Libros where they 'released' 140 books in a park in Central Valencia. Interested in more information? Here's the web address http://artax.bookcrossing.com

When I was searching for more information on Bookcrossing Meetings I came accross a website called meetup.com - and there are no fewer than 66 meetups in Valencia - ranging from reading and literary groups (Paul Auster, Harry Potter) to new in town groups and pop fan groups and even a wiccan group - so if you like groups, now you know where to go!

Now, the other great thing for me in Fallas, was meeting up with old friends who had come over to see the festival and bought me new books for my shelves! Amongst them was a great little book from my friend Barbara, Toast by Nigel Slater, anyone who has read this column in the past will know that this guy is a favourite cookery book writer of mine, This is an memoir of his childhood and it is extremely funny and also very touching, his descriptions of his mother's utter hopelessness at cooking are particularly funny. It is actually quit an odd book and I found it a little strange in parts and could never quite make up my mind whether I liked it or not in the end.

Obituaries are not usually the stuff of comedy, so it was a pleasure to laugh out loud at Carl Hiaasen's Latest Basket Case. It centres around a once a hotshot investigative reporter, Jack Tagger who now bangs out obituaries for a South Florida daily newspaper and stumbles on a 'fishy smelling' scuba accident of a once famous rock singer. It has several sub-plots - the strongest being Tagger's obsession with living longer than his father, very hard for him to know as his mother won't tell him at what age he died. So if you want a whodunnit with a lot of laughs on the way - this one is for you! Hiasen, by the way, once himself an award winning investigative reporter, still writes a regular column for the Miami Herald and it is well worth a read - click on the miami herald logo to the left - you'll need to sign up - but it's free and worth the effort.

I have just taken delivery of the entire shortlist of this year's Booker Prize books so maybe I'll give you a taste of those next month.. bye for now
Gooru

Gooru's (damaged) Bookshelf

Did Santa bring you all you wanted? Did you get lots of lovely books? Any disappointments?

Well, thanks to the royal mail, I had a major disappointment. I ordered a shed load of books for friends and family in time to be delivered to a friend in the uk for her to carry, well drag actually, on to a flight here. The parcel got delivered to her the day after her flight to these shores, so I now have to wait until she, or someone else mad enough to carry this huge and weighty parcel, comes again.

And here is another disappointment (oh yes, the year ended badly!) We (that's me and the family) took a trip up to Madrid prior to the festivities to visit Ikea and get (amongst a multitude of other things) some new bookshelves.

'We deliver to Valencia!' exclaimed the friendly assistant, 'very inexpensive for your 300 articles!'

'In time for Christmas?' I enquired.

'No Problem!'

No Problem?

10 days later the van arrived with two surly delivery men who first of all refused to carry the goods up the stairs to our humble apartment (even though the delivery note clearly stated it was apartment with no lift) and then, once they had relented, delivered crushed cartons and damaged packs, and scarpering before we could blink. Before we had even checked the goods against receipts, we realised that around a third of the order was missing, most of it, you guessed it, Christmas presents for friends and family. And DAMAGED Bookshelves.

Several hundreds of euros of phone calls later to the decidedly surly Atención al Cliente department at Ikea, we are still waiting for them to deliver the rest of the order (anyone got a use for Christmas paper napkins now?!).

It's a damn shame that Ikea won't be allowed to open here in Valencia...wouldn't have to rely on their poxy delivery service if it was closer.

I did get a book or two for christmas, in spite of everything. And very good they were too. One was the extremely expensive and decidedly gorgeous El Bulli cook book. Beautifully presented in a slip case and even at 120 euros, a great buy. Sumptuous photos of works of art calling themselves food. Their website (www.elbulli.com)says they are now fully booked to eat there for 2005. Waiting list only, confirmation a week before.

I am not suggesting anything here but I remember a now famous restaurant in England that was struggling to get bums on seats in its opening months and advertised 'fully booked' in all the press, only to be swamped by phonecalls begging for reservations and they have never looked back....

A couple of thrillers for you to finish off, The first is good old Minette Walters, Disordered Minds. Consistently good is our Minette. This one is about a miscarriage of justice in a murder case and the quest to find the real killer some years later.

The second is Firewall by Henning Mankell. The Grauniad reckons he 'is the most impressive voice in the Genre since Rankin' - well, he ain't Scottish, he's Swedish, and he doesn't incessantly quote obscure record tracks and bands... but it is a damn fine book. You might guess that it has something to do with computers from the title but its also about murder, a death that might just be another murder, and then another murder or two. Gripping stuff, well written, and here is something that hadn't occurred to me until recently, a very good piece of translation from the Swedish by Ebba Segerberg. I don't speak or read Swedish, you understand, but appreciate reading good writing and this is very well written. After some serious encounters with translations both to and from Spanish for various projects I'm involved in, I know how hard it can all be.

There are big ps's to the IKEA Story PS The replacement delivery took place this week (15 Feb 05 - 2 months and 10 days after we set out on the buying trip!) Half the stuff is still missing and we are now the proud owners of 3 toilet seats we didn't order! (so if anyone needs a new loo seat (white, still in original packaging - email me!)

PPS It would now appear that IKEA ARE to Open this year in good old Valencia)

And a PS for the nondelivery of books story -  You'll be pleased to hear that they finally arrive tomorrow courtesy of a friend of the family who is popping over to our fair city for the weekend!!
Gooru

Much shorter version of these articles appeared in 24-7valencia-the magazine - published free, monthly and available all over town.