"Brilliant book... very funny..." "If you buy one
book this year, get this..." "Fantastic, hilarious,
painful. Completely un-put-downable. Probably the best
book I have read this millenium!" "A great easy to read
story which sucks you in and keeps you wanting more." It
was while holding aloft a not altogether
pleasant-smelling mackerel that the decision was made.
The March rain hammered on the rotting tin roof high
above the market stall, where I had spent the last six
months pushing out dubious trays of marine life at three
for a fiver. After a two-week holiday abroad Joy and I
vowed that a life in fish giblets was not going to be
our destiny and a life in the sun, was. A complete lack
of catering experience, zero business acumen and the sum
of our vastly wealth barely reaching waist level of a
ceramic pig did little to deter our enthusiasm for
buying a bar on a sub-tropical island. “Where do we
sign?” we said. And then the whole silly, sunny saga
began... When Joe and his girlfriend Joy decide to trade
in their life on a cold fish market to run a bar in the
sub-tropical sunshine, they anticipate a paradise of
sea, sand and siestas. Little did they expect their
foreign fantasy to turn out to be about as exotic as a
wet Monday morning. Amidst a host of eccentric locals,
homesickness and the occasional cockroach infestation,
pint-pulling novices Joe and Joy struggle with the expat
culture and learn that, although the skies might be
bluer, the grass is definitely not always greener. A
hilarious insight into the wild and wacky characters of
an expat community in a holiday destination, More
Ketchup than Salsa is a must-read for anybody who has
ever dreamed about jetting off to sunnier climes,
finding a job abroad… or anybody who has even
momentarily flirted with the idea of â€doing a Shirley
Valentine’ in these trying economic times. |
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