Sunday 25 July 2010

Curry Memories

Formative experiences are usually defined by questions such as, what was the first album you bought or what was the first movie you went to see at the pictures?

My own curry memories are hazy but I do remember once being on holiday at my Aunt and Uncle in South Shields and my aunt had made a curry. I can't quite put an accurate time on it but it would have been the late 1960s or early 1970s at the latest and I would have been around 8 to 10 years old. After that curries were not really on the menu certainly not at home anyway where more traditional Scottish fare dominated. My next memory of a curry is probably a Chinese prawn curry. The family next door were like my surrogate brothers and they took me to a takeaway in Forfar where, not quite knowing what to get, I ordered a prawn curry and quite enjoyed it.

My first experience of Indian food most certainly was in Middlesbrough in 1976 (aged 14) and I know this because we had gone down there to play in a volleyball tournament that year. The team from Middlesbrough put us up and I was staying with a young Indian guy whose family made us a huge meal one evening. Unfortunately I was not able to take advantage of what must have been a wonderful meal and my only memories of that meal are chapattis and nearly choking on some meat!

However in the autumn of that year I again recall eating a Chinese curry, this time in Amsterdam, where again we had been afforded the hospitality of a Dutch volleyball team based in Hilversum, about 15 or so miles from Amsterdam. There were two of us staying with a Dutch family and the chap from the team I was rooming with was Chinese. So we had this unusual situation of me, Scottish, my team mate, Scottish Chinese, in a Chinese restaurant in Amsterdam trying read a menu in Dutch and then having to order in Cantonese because the waiter didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Dutch (not that I was saying anything!). However, we got there and again I had a curry, Chinese style.

Due to a knee injury shortly after that I had to "retire" from volleyball at the ripe old age of 15 and I can't remember much about curries until I started going out with a girl who worked in the same supermarket where I had an after school job. One of the places we used to go was a Chinese restaurant in the Perth Road called the Universal Garden (now The Fine Palate) which catered for younger people on Friday evenings by putting on a disco with your meal. Over the next couple of years I got quite used to eating Chinese takeaway, usually curry but sometimes chicken fried rice with a curry sauce.

As we got a bit older, e.g. 19 or so, one of my mates had an older brother in law, who along with his pal took us to our very first Indian meal. The place was in Commercial Street in Dundee and I think it was called the Ashra. The brother in law's pal would have been a good few years older than us and I remember that he was in his comfort zone and passing on his knowledge and experience to us younger guys. I recall being so impressed that he ordered Tandoori Chicken. Now although inexperienced, I was never squeamish when it came to spicy food and so I ordered a Chicken Madras, the first of many fine Indian meals, both mild and hot that I have enjoyed. Delicious!

Monday 19 July 2010

What is it about Banks?

I recently had occasion to enquire about a loan for the purposes of debt consolidation. Well there's a credit crunch on so I thought I might be able to bag a bit of a bargain. Well I was quoted 22.1% APR for a loan, a rate I associate more with credit or store cards. The bank assistant then asked who provided buildings and contents insurance, no doubt fishing for an opportunity to do more business after having the gall to charge and arm and a leg for a loan.

No let me say at the outset this is not a back street banker but one of the main players. Yes one of the band of big banks whose activities brought the country close to financial ruin. Not content with having now cost us taxpayers billions in rescue packages, they now want to fleece me personally. They want their cake and to eat it too.

Friday 2 July 2010

The Two Faces of Customer Service

The award for the most dour faced shop assistants must go to RS McColl in the High Street where I think they are trained to look as disinterested as possible, to talk to each other whilst serving you and to ask if you have anything smaller when you hand over a tenner.

On the other hand at Morning, Noon & Night there is a young guy who is so sycophantic that he is either trying to brighten his and your day, or he is pulling your leg.

The Changing Face of The Post Office

What is it about the General Post Office these days? I remember the old sprawling imposing Victorian building that seemed like going into an ancient library or bank. Well surprise, surprise that building is now a pub and night club whilst the GPO moved next door into a smaller building. That significantly smaller premises could service a population that has not decreased greatly is of course significant. It shows that the face of the Post Office is vanishing from the community.

I don't go into post offices very often. I sometimes go in to buy some stamps but I don't buy stamps very often. I sometimes go in to send parcels but I don't send parcels very often. I don't write letters very often - texts and emails have seen to that. It seems to me that the visibility of the Post Office is diminishing and several local branches such as the one on Clepington Road have long since closed.

The General Post Office has a new face. Indeed GPO could easily be branded the Giro Payment Office. Today, outside the GPO there was a skirmish among alcohol or drug fuelled customers (that drugs theme again) whose alliances and conflicts spilled out from the building to the street. I used to remember the GPO as sombre building where one would wait quietly and respectfully in line. Now it's a good place to go to see a fight.