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More Ketchup than Salsa by Joe CowleyBook Review - Tenerife New Life StoryA new life story full of learning curves and big disappointments. Read a behind the scenes of a British Bar in Tenerife.
Joe Cowley and girlfriend Joy decided to leave the cold, murky and wet English weather and the smelly and slimy Lancashire fish market where they were working to head for the sunny climate of the Canary Island of Tenerife. They thought they would be leaving the moaning English customers behind but they were wrong, very wrong. More Ketchup than Salsa is a sad portrayal of the Brits aboard, as Joe and Joy soon found out. They had very few Spanish customers in the bar they bought - a "British" bar. There was no salsa and paella here only ketchup, Sunday roasts and rather drunken English people intent on "enjoying' their annual week or two of holiday. Britains AbroadBritish myself, the book is a huge embarrassment and why Joe and Joy would want to broadcast incidences with cockroachs, drunks and tons of chips is beyond me. Saying that they deserve to make it work, as work they do. It’s their punters that need changing. The only saving grace is that this book should be read to put off the hundreds or thousands of people who have dreams of living by the sea and running a bar in Spain, and to learn some lessons from those that have gone through with it only to return to England with a lighter bank account and far wiser. More Ketchup than Salsa droned on, long past its best maybe cut out a third of the trivial page filling anecdotes and the book would have been more concise, livelier and easier to finish. An English Bar in TenerifeThe Smugglers Tavern bar that Joe and Joy bought is on an urbanisation of over a hundred minuscule bungalows and two-storey apartments, most of which are owned by English and Germans. Joe’s brother and his girlfriend join them and the four are thrown in at the deep end, with only four days to learn the way around their new ship from the previous owner their fun starts. It was a little tedious having to go to the shops with them and cook an egg with them, also to pull a pint and try not to be rude to the customers – not too often anyway. If you hope for a glimpse at the real Tenerife through this book then forget it. It’s more a glimpse of an awful British package tour, without any enlightenment. The foursome learnt some hard lessons and between the local Mafia wanting to put the squeeze on them and one of the relationshi[s breaking up they had a tough time. Hopefully it has worked out for the remaining pair - no champing at the bit for a sequel to this story here! More Ketchup than Salsa is published by Summersdale Publishers with the ISBN 978-18402445011 with a price tag of $17.76.
The copyright of the article More Ketchup than Salsa by Joe Cowley in Biographies/Memoirs is owned by Rachel L. Webb. Permission to republish More Ketchup than Salsa by Joe Cowley in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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