Curry; car maintenance; local history

This month’s Book Group book was Rosie Thomas’ The Kashmir Shawl, which I had chosen in my usual scouting around at the last minute for good ideas sort of way, and also Mum had recommended Thomas as a decent author. Indeed, a damned good read, and it seemed to have proved a popular choice with everyone, which was gratifying. We met at the River Spice by Caversham Bridge, only newly become an Indian after having been a general ‘modern British’ type restaurant for some years. Great spot by the river; its previous incarnation as the Riverside probably suited the location better, but perhaps there’s more of a tendency these days for curry houses to want tasteful décor, river views etc. Slightly sad that the days of garish décor and loud twangy music may be numbered.

Most garish Indian restaurant of my experience is still a restaurant Ray and I once found ourselves in in an unassuming suburb of Leicester (no memory of why we were in Leicester in the first place, but we had driven around the city for some time without being able to find whatever it was we were looking for, and eventually parked in a huff on a side street and ended up in what was presumably the Indian restaurant equivalent of a local. I don’t remember the food, just bright colours.) For a garish Chinese, the Peking Palace in Caversham is good – lots of padded satin on the walls. Also love the fact that their homepage spells ‘Peking’ as ‘Peeking’.

Milton Keynes Central Library

Recently had to book my car in for a bit of attention, as Mum reckoned she could hear the brakes grinding when I drove her to Hay and back over Christmas. Used the terribly useful OU intranet noticeboard to find a garage recommendation, and ended up at Anglo Continental Cars (apparently ‘Anglo’s’ to locals) on the Mount Farm industrial estate. Unassuming-looking premises but they were very good and apparently checked the car out, phoned me to say they couldn’t find anything wrong with the brakes and didn’t charge me any money. Score.

Spent last weekend in MK to get my flat in order after the Christmas break. Took the bus into CMK on the Saturday morning and paid a visit to the monolithic public library, which I duly joined and spent a bit of time browsing around, before withdrawing a book called Memories of Milton Keynes, as I thought I should find out a bit more about the history of the city. Some really interesting reminiscences from people involved in the New Town’s development and from people who moved to MK in its early days. There are a number of quotes from people who evidently left London for a better life in the new city – was there a push, in the 1970s/early 1980s, to persuade people to relocate? Here’s the ‘Red Balloon’ ad for Milton Keynes, released in 1982.