....take aways on the way out?

I read in today's newspaper that there are about 10,000 curry houses in the UK and 10% face closure in the next few years or so.

This is a result of rising costs and the changing immigration policies which make it harder for Bangladeshi owned businesses to recruit new staff from the sub continent.

Like most things there is a bit more to the story than just costs and immigration laws. How about a Polish curry house chef? And perhaps eating habits are changing such that we are tiring of having our tonsils burnt out every Friday night.

I reckon one of my best friends is the champion curry connoiseur of these parts. Some of you know him well. I guess he may have seen quite a few of those 10,000 curry houses in his time.

I can always tell when he has had a special blast. And it is not the noises off I am thinking of. It is that tell tale circular motion of his hands over his stomach. Clockwise for a top class treat which he savours 24 or more hours later ; but anti clockwise when the experience has left him with a gripe or two or may be three, being the most polite way I can put it.

I often wonder if all this would be reversed if he went to taste the curry houses in Oz.

Curly Al and I enjoyed his company this lunchtime in the Halfway House and not a curry in sight. Come to think of it too he mentioned having a Chinese later in the day.....

.....so may be it is not just newspaper talk after all and the curry houses are really on their way out!

Terminal 5

I usually begin the day with my breakfast, sitting in our back room looking out over the garden.

One morning this week I rubbed my eyes and rubbed them again in a kind of disbelief as I saw what looked like a triple decker bird table which seemed to have sprouted from nowhere in the garden overnight.

How can this be I wondered. When was the public inquiry? Who granted planning permission? Has the Queen called to open it in my absence?

Later that day in her casual matter of a fact kind of way practised by all the female of our species Teapot happened to mention it. It needs moving she said, implying of course that we now have another terminal chez Tardis where the birds of the neighbourhood and far afield can land, feed, shower and bathe to their hearts content.

I accept that from time to time one or another runway may be out of action. Like in the picture when it doubles up as a siesta spot for Tiger the cat. But we must be close to saturation and bird traffic control be at breaking point. At least Tiger can be relied on to do his duty in that regard.

This morning I noticed an enormous jumbo pigeon had landed on the new terminal and seemed to be in for a feeding binge on the bird seed designed to make sure he never took off again. Teapot soon put that right with another deft adjustment to its layout. Jumbo pigeons are not welcome here. She then waved at me to join her in the garden to look at some mallard ducks which had landed on next door's roof.

Now I wonder what a duck table would look like?

John Wayne...

...McCain rode into London this week to boost his presidential campaign and met the Prime Minister in Downing Street.

In fact it is Gordon Brown who needs a touch of the cavalry from over the hills more than the 71 year old senator from Arizona. Our Gordon has more and more the look of one of those wild west bankers in the cowboy films just after Jesse James or some other desparado blew a hole in the safe, emptied the lot and headed for the hills or in our case Northern Rock. But that is another story.

I mention Senator McCain because I decided to write some pieces from time to time about the American presidential election and he is now the Republican candidate.

John McCain is a real life John Wayne. A larger than life boys own comic kind of hero with a maverick reputation in his own party and a reputation for a short fuse. And the chance of his becoming President is growing week by week. If elected he would be the oldest President to take office.

His time as a PoW in Vietnam for over 5 years and with 2 years in solitary confinment has left him so he cannot raise his arms above his head. He has opposed the use of torture and other inhumane treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to the irritation of GWB.

He joined with Senator Edward Kennedy in proposing comprehensive reforms to immigration laws. Unlike most of the rest of his party he sees the need for serious government action on climate change.

He has always supported the war in Iraq but has criticised the way it has been managed. He is an enthusiastic supporter of the present "surge" and would stay in Iraq for a 100 years if needs be.

And there is the rub. John McCain belongs in those black and white cowboy and indian films of yesteryear where the goodies and the baddies are clear for all to see. And of course the Americans were always the goodies......

.....when as we know after Iraq and GWB that is just no longer so.

Therefore for me Barack Obama is still the choice whatever his difficulties at present with Pastor Jeremiah Wright. Yet if the Democrats are crazy enough to pick Bilary Clinton, John Wayne McCain begins to look a very attractive option from this distance across the pond.