The Aardvark Blog

Life's a Grind, Christmas comes early at Aardvark Books, the Return of Dutch Lewis
1/11/2025

My very thoughtful brother in law ( Ethel's brother) often spends a good amount of time before sending me a well considered  birthday present. This year he signed me up for a year's coffee subscription to a trendy coffee emporium called Grind. I confess when I got my first email from them I did worry what sort of establishment they were, but when the confusion was overcome and the coffee arrived I was impressed. They have artful pink packaging and your first order comes with a stylish pink tin to put your designer low roast speciatly coffee beans into.

Having had such a good initial experience I was excited when they sent me an email to say that my next coffee installment was on its way. Imagine my disappointment when I got home last Tuesday and discovered a bashed up package - secured by an artful designer rubber band - that only contained half of the coffee sent. Still I had got home a bit earlier than usual and thought I would be able to quickly rectify matters by calling them to tell them what had happened. My first deflation point came when I realised that they are one of those modern companies, who in the interests of saving money, go out of there way not to provide a publically available telephone number. Still undaunted I went on their website and filled in their contact form to tell them what had happened, confident that they would leap into action to rectify the problem. Two days went by and still no message, so I sent them another message at Thursday lunchtime. We are now Saturday and there has been no response from my trendy designer specialty coffee supplier. I  cannot say this too many times. It is no use having a good product if your customer service is pants! If I still have not heard from them by Monday I will need to invest in a designer specialty carrier pigeon.

As you get older birthdays and Christmases do not hold the same magic as they once did. One is obviously thankful to still be here enjoying turkey or veggie Wellington ( delete to preference), but somehow the thrill has gone ( to quote Chet). But once a year here at Aardvark we have a secret event that combines all the pent up feelings of excitement from years goneby. This is the arrival and subsequent rapid opening of the pallets of books purchased by your crack Aardvark team at the Frankfurt Bookfair. Such is the whirlwind nature of the few days we spend at the fair that I often have no real idea of what will be in the pallets. One is too concerned with preventing them being stolen and making sure that they are properly secured for their journey back to the UK. So when the boxes are opened and the wonderful books spill out onto the tables, it is truly like being transported back to my younger self ( see tasteful artist's impression to right).

And most amazingly of all these incredible books are available to our customers at our usual unbelievable prices. It is not unusual for me to go to take a book that has been purchased out of stock, only to find that a certain online giant is charging many times the Aardvark price.

Finally having been out this week for a few days with a filthy cold, I returned to Aardvark HQ only to be handed the phone by Lucy and to discover at the end was that stalwart of Aardvark Christmas celebrations Dutch Lewis. Last year due to my usual disorganisation we had a Dutchless Christmas event and I have to tell you that great though it was, something was definitely missing. Dutch has played with some of the great names of British and American Jazz, and the musicians he brings with him are always out of the top drawer. What our French cousins might call Le Gratin du Gratin or if you want to be boringly accurate  Les Meilleurs des Meuilleurs. So make a note in your diary now and make sure that you can join us on the 7th of December for our last event of the year. And did I mention the free mulled wine?