Yesterday I had not one, but two encounters with greatness. My morning began with the mail from our post box. My daughter handed me two parcels with my name on them before taking the rest of the mail to Moshe.

One parcel was a thin A4 yellow envelope, and although it was intriguing because of the beautiful tape on the back of the envelope, I went instead for the larger heavier parcel that I knew were my books that I’d ordered from the Book Depository in the UK (that offers free international shipping). If you remember from my 4th July post, I’d just ordered late last week a couple of books. One was City Quilts, which unfortunately was not delivered yesterday. The other took my breath away.

ENCOUNTER WITH GREATNESS No.1

I love cookbooks. I have shelves of them. Some kinda ordinary-looking, some little precious paperbacks, like Jane Grigson’s Good Things, and then there are those lovely, lovely cookbooks with glossy covers, lotsa pictures, and fabulously explained recipes. My experience with the book I took out of the packaging yesterday morning was different, it was an encounter with greatness. From the fabulous dust jacket with its detailed design that I just have to copy and embroider on something, to the silver-edged pages, it just looks so impressive! Not having time to look through it right then, I put it on the shelf with all my other cookbooks, as you do, for use… well, some other day, right?

George Calombaris' Greek Cookery

At lunch, Moshe and Sarah and I sat in around the kitchen table, and I pulled the book off the shelf to show Moshe. As I flipped through the pages, the book fell open at a double-page spread in a hand-written font, and as I read the pages out loud, I got so moved. George Calombaris shared about his family, his Greek heritage, and his passion for his family, his roots and his craft.

“What is it to be us? It’s a sense of adventure, duty, pride, humility and the determination to survive and let the people transcend all time. And of course the love of living. Never take any day for granted. …. It’s a state of mind, a way of thinking, a thirst to excel in humanity and communicate with and love one another. …. To be truly Hellene one must have seeking eyes and an open heart. The more you embrace the more unique life can be. I guess that’s why I am in hospitality and if ever I was taught humility it was from my parents. I was born to serve and what is ‘to serve’ but to give a little happiness.”

So inspiring!

detail on dust jacket

beautiful silver-edged pages

sharing his story

I put the book back on the shelf, and went about my day. I’ll come back to this EWG in a minute.

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ENCOUNTER WITH GREATNESS No.2

Around 5pm, I remembered I hadn’t opened my other parcel. Now, I know you’re expecting me to rave now about this one, right? Not! I opened the parcel, expecting to see my Oliver+S pattern, and the divine trims I’d bought with it. Remember them? The ones that kinda fell into my shopping cart? Well they were nowhere to be seen. I did have my Ice Cream Dress pattern, and a really cute postcard with a stuffed rhino on the front, but the trims weren’t there. I quickly emailed Amy at Badskirt to thank her for the superfast delivery, and to ask her about the missing trims. I figured they’d just been forgotten.

You know when you come across someone who goes that extra mile to provide the very best service? That’s who I met in the numerous emails back and forth about the trims. Isn’t it just so refreshing to do business with someone who has you, the customer, and your shopping experience as the most important thing of the moment! Without going into too much detail (I think I should keep those between Amy and me), I have to tell you that she went completely above and beyond to make it up to me, and to ensure that I would be completely satisfied at the end of it all. She said the trims I’d ordered with the last bits on the spools, and she kept offering me things to make up for it, and then offered more, thinking she might not have offered enough. I could tell that I was dealing with someone who was really serious about her relationship with her customers, she took great pride in her long, up-to-now perfect, record of order accuracy. Mostly I think retailers are interested in their customers’ overall satisfaction, and generally do what they can to maintain that. Then there are those who, in the words of Red Butler, they just “don’t give a damn”. Like shops who, when you call them to say that your left slipper squeaks when you walk on it – I know, that’s bizarre in itself, right? – and they say “Hmm, contact the maker about that”, or those you email to say “my US$100 order from your store hasn’t arrived, and it’s been five weeks, can you please contact the USPS”, and they say “sorry, but they don’t do tracking, it should still come.” Just really ordinary!

Amy is absolutely gorgeous, and she really took great care to provide excellence in service, such a start contrast! I had to give her and her store a plug. And she’s oh so smart! I’ll be back shopping at Badskirt as soon as I can. Well, as soon as my current shopping ban is lifted.

To top it all off, in the end, can you believe it, she actually found the card with my trims on them, and I expect I’ll have those in my hands tomorrow. Woohoo! Thanks so much Amy!

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back to EWG No.1

That evening, I hopped into bed, watched a recorded episode of Medium. OMG isn’t Sofia Vassilieva’s hair superb! After that, still not sleepy, so I went and grabbed my new book to browse through. Well, I began with the first page, and then read every single page, all the recipes, all the notes about his family, what’s important to him, photos of his grandparents, his great-grandparent, until I reached the end. Nearly 300 pages. I read all the recipes, in detail. I mean each and every one. I read all his notes throughout the book. Everything. I’ve never, I mean never, read a cookbook from front to back like that! I was just so engrossed in what he had to say, and what he shared with me, the reader. I don’t think I’ll ever look at another cookbook the same way. George Calombaris has changed my take on that pasttime completely. If you haven’t got the book, I highly recommend you buy it. Whether you like Greek cooking or not. And if you don’t, after this, I seriously reckon you will.