ARTY BEES BOOKS NEWSLETTER
20th June 2005
Argh!
(Brrrr?)
June already.
Short days, biting cold temperatures (even on those pretty, clear winter days we've been having), insane cats with cabin fever due to a reluctance to 'go' outside, colds and flu, burgeoning central pudge settling in around the waistline in all but the most fervent gym members and of course, time for another newsletter again.
It seems like only yesterday that I wrote the last newsletter, but it was nearly a month ago and I'm trying my best to stick to a monthly newsletter timetable.
So far this will be the only sort-of on time newsletter in over a year, despite my best intentions, but I suppose it could be worse.
We have had a cunning new plan since the last newsletter though, of a listing on our homepage of What's New in the shops.
The idea is that as we, (read "Muggins Robynne" here for "we") are so slack at getting a newsletter up more often than once every 8 weeks, that we should have somewhere where we can put up quick little notes about yummy new things that have just come in.
Otherwise by the time that I come to write a new newsletter we have often already sold the aforementioned yummy new items and it's too late to tell everybody.
(It has also been pointed out that the Newsletters can on occasion be less news and more waffle, a charge to which I can only, in all honesty, plead guilty to.)
Of course by the time I get home and boot up the computer to add new things to the page it can often be too late as well.
A case in point is Harry Potter, a series of books published in such extreme quantities that you would expect them to be easy to find.
Which they are, if you have good timing.
I had planned on writing a quick pitch for the generous selection of Potter titles we had at both our Arty Bee's and Bizy Bee's branches last week.
A quick phone call this morning though confirmed that the bulk of them have gone again, and while I have no doubt that somewhere between three and a dozen copies will probably pass through our hands before the end of this week, with the new installment in the series out in less than a month, they are slipping out the door like jellyfish on a well soaped waterslide.
So, my advice for anyone who is currently on the scrounge for copies of…
- The Da Vinci Code and anything else by Dan Brown,
- Harry Potter books,
- LOTRs,
- Phillip Pullman books,
- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold,
- or Michael King's Penguin History of New Zealand
. …is to ask at the desk.
We often don't even bother to shelve these titles as they can be gone again 10 minutes later. And if you've just missed out, remember you can always leave your name with us for the next copy that briefly resides with us.
Anyway, on with the news of the month.
Some of you may be aware that we had web server problems at the end of May which resulted in our website being down for nearly a week, which was a headache to say the least. As well as the website going down our email was also off-line, so again, our sincere apologies to anyone who may have tried to contact us during that period and got no reply.
In addition it also means that our long awaited, (and short-lived) Online Catalogue went kablooey and will now need to be remade from scratch, but we are older and wiser and this shouldn't be the painful process that the first one was.
And we are now with a whole new web host provider, Kiwi Web Host, who are fabulous and we can thoroughly recommend them. If you are in need of someone to host your site, they have some of the best rates around, lots of in-house amenities and friendly, helpful staff.
We weren't just swayed by the free chocolate bars. Really, we weren't.
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Our newest staff member, April, unfortunately has turned out to be one of our shortest staff members, and I'm not casting aspersions on her height. (Five foot four inches is a very respectable size thank you very much!)
Unhappily for us at least, after less than 2 months with us, her partner was offered an amazing job in London and as I write this they are probably unpacking and trying to sleep off some jet lag.
We would wish her all the best but now I have the unenviable task of finding someone just as bubbly, efficient & delightfully nuts as she was.
Not an easy task I can assure you
— the Aprils of this world are hard to find. We hope to see her again sometime nonetheless.
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Finally, on the ever changing book shelf front, Matthew and I are planning a monster purge on the cookbook section at Bizy Bees this week as we hope to reclaim at least a third of its space back.
It's been steadily growing like a massive banana & Marmite sandwich, left in a staff refrigerator until it's green and hairy enough to require shampoo and conditioner, and no one can remember who originally owned it. (Or will admit to it anyway.)
Suffice to say it needs a really good sort and tidy, and we will hopefully have a new and improved cookbook section at the end of the process and some room for other books!
The other byproduct of all this exertion however, will be an exciting and exhilaratingly cheap selection of cookbooks at bargain sale prices. And they will only be available for a limited time, so get in fast all ye cooking fiends.
Also, in honour of this event we thought we would share one or two of our favourite recipes with you.
Matthew in particular has spent the other (non-book) half of his adult life working in kitchens and likes to torture people with tales of delicious things. Occasionally, if we're lucky, food will appear, usually the result of a weekend's experimental baking. Mostly he's just a tease though.
So follow this link for my Deluxe Triple Chocolate, Double Decker, Banana Cake and any other recipes I can bully the guys into supplying over the next week or so, and until next time, bon appetit.
Robynne aka the BGH
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