Dec 27th 2009
I knew there was a reason I’d not written a review from a meal we had in September. I’ve waited so long that the restaurant in question now has a web site and I can remind myself what we ate! As a treat for H’s 40th birthday, we made a trip ‘up North’ (ie round the other side of Manchester to my parents) for a curry with a difference. Having spent his student days eating and working in curry houses in London, and sampling the cuisine on his travels, H has always sung the praises of curries from South India, particularly the masala dosa. Until recently, this wasn’t a cuisine you could try round here as the Indian population in the North West doesn’t tend to come from South India.
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Oct 7th 2009
I know this is supposed to be a food related blog, but hey, sometimes a girl’s gotta rant.
Can someone explain to me why the police think it’s a good idea to carry out a traffic census during rush hour? I know, I know, they have to monitor the traffic or something, but they ended up causing it, not measuring it! Several people in my office, myself included, were late into work this morning. I personally sat for nearly half an hour to travel a distance that would normally take approximately 1 minute. There have been a few census points in the area this week, this is the first time I got caught and to my astonishment they’d set up two points in two different directions so there was no escape and the repercussions just fed back into the main traffic route.
Surely creating traffic, in order to monitor it, defeats the object? And they are not only causing chaos on the roads, but costing me time, money (in petrol) and damaging the environment by having hundreds of cars sitting in queues with engines idling for hours at a time.
And Cheshire isn’t the only area to be hit. I’ve seen reports online of a similar scheme being abandoned in Hull due to the gridlock it caused across half the city.
The police can get our addresses from the DVLA. They can send us a form to fill in at home if they’re that bothered. H and I have just completed a traffic survey for the DoT and Manchester City Council which we didn’t mind doing (especially as we are supposed to receive vouchers for doing so – although they’ve not arrived yet). If I received a traffic census form in the post, I’d fill it in. However, I’m afraid if I’m stopped in the coming week and handed a form, I will be tearing it up and throwing it away from pure irritation.
Rant over.
Sep 13th 2009
H & I unexpectedly found ourselves in Shropshire last week for a short break to celebrate his 40th birthday. (Unexpectedly as in, we should have been in Menorca – it’s a long story involving a lost passport, let’s not go there…). It’s a beautiful part of the country and, handily for me, we were staying relatively near Ludlow, apparently the centre of the Slow Food Movement in this country and marketed as a foodie heaven. [...]
Aug 17th 2009
With H out on a ‘networking’ evening last week, I took the opportunity to visit Jem&I with a friend. H had previously dismissed a visit there, as the veggie options were of the goats cheese tart/mushroom risotto variety. But while the cat’s away, as they say… [...]
