Flower Power.

Braced for the busiest days of the year the stalwart and delightful staff at Flower Corner are ready to sell, wrap, listen, advise and deliver thousands of blooms this weekend. It’s quite a risky business. All those flowers will fade rapidly if not shifted over the next three days. Those who plan in advance were in today ordering the best, tomorrow will be the last minute’ers and Sunday morning will be those in the shit trying to bail themselves out of a tricky situation. My pals Naomi and Steve run a florists in Gloucester, Steve seems to end up doing a lot of the deliveries, like Paul, the owner of Flower Corner. Steve told me he was amazed at the number of girls who, when he knocks on the door with a lavish bouquet ask him to tell the bloke to shove them where the sun don’t shine, and slam the door in his face! Strange creatures women.

R.I.P Vicbag

Vicky Keens-Soper, aka Vic-bag, or Vicky Keen Groper was our first employee at TJ’s Hamburgers when we opened back in 1982. Vicky was a little older than us and a member of the much revered Clarendon Park Women's Army. A group of women who all went through divorce at about the same time and were feared throughout the area. Vicbag was a star though, and a good friend as well as model employee for about 7 years before drifting off into a thing called a career. Social Services, working with ‘lifers’ in prison, from memory. However, she was always at her best flirting with the young chaps and this picture was taken at Clive Millac’s 40th a couple of years ago when she was in full flow with Clive and Leon Fisk. Vicky was always good at listening to the problems of others. Hence the career listening to prisoners. Maybe her own colourful life equipped her for that. It seemed to have many phases. First the Mum, living in a Chateau in France bringing up Robert, Alex and Gus, then a vague cultural existence with Maurice 2nd in Clarendon Park, then her ‘wild’ days working for us and sharing her life with Doug, before settling down with Stephen in Devon and starting a whole new life. It all adds up to far more ‘life’ than most of us manage and yet she embraced it all. It was last Autumn that I had a call from Splev (Ian Splevings) to say she was not well and in Hospital. Things were apparently ‘not looking good’ and just today I bumped into her old pal, Lynne Smith, who confirmed Vicky had died last week. A great loss. Many fond memories, but one that sticks in my mind is when I had completed a basic food hygiene course and felt I should assert the importance of hand washing before starting work to all the TJs staff. “There’s no need for me to wash mine, they are perfectly clean already” was Vicky’s predictable response! R.I.P.

Curry Bashing.

Staple diet of the English.... Curry. What better after a few pints than a couple of Popadom’s, some hot pickle, Onion Baji’s and a red hot Ruby Murray, washed down with Indian beer, probably brewed under licence in Birmingham? Following three lovely pints of Timmy Taylor's each last night, three of us ambled over to Queen’s Tandoori starving. It was busy. Usually is. Giggling like school boys we ordered a mixture of dishes, none of which I can remember, but all were good and we ate the lot, complimented by a bottle of Cobra each, just to be polite you understand. The bill was £55. Very reasonable for Popadoms and two courses to follow, whatever it was. The downside of consuming so much beer is that I clean forgot to photograph the meal itself, casually getting my camera out when it had all gone and we had licked up the gravy.

Resident's Parking.

We have seen a victory for common sense here over the last week. The council was planning to impose a residents parking permit system. £25 to park outside your own house - no guarantee of a space, a quid a go for visitors, local businesses wiped out as shoppers unable to park and everybody getting thoroughly pissed off with parking tickets when they forget/don’t give the visitor a voucher/left the second car out by mistake. There was a heated meeting on Wednesday 3rd, as about a quarter of the residents would like a residents parking scheme. True. It is very difficult to find a space, but that is the price we pay for city living, for having good bars and restaurants on the doorstep, for a range of excellent local shops. Without free parking they would all loose custom, we would loose the ‘buzz’ of Queens Rd. and the whole area would slip back down the popularity scale. Those of us who have been here a while can remember the empty shops of the eighties. One pub and a couple of takeaways. The plan has been shelved for five years. Great.

He's here.

Still November and the first sighting. Thanks God he can't see. Wake me up when it's all over.

çok tesekkür ederim!

We should give a warm welcome to the Turks who have brought reasonably priced fresh food to Queens Road. Lurking between two Queens, Indian Restaurant and Chinese Takeaway, Zesty’s is, strictly speaking, a takeaway, but it has seating and if one happens to sit down, through tiredness you understand, the guys who run it will bring your food over, to save you the effort of walking three feet to collect it from the counter. Once comfy, you may as well eat it there, to save walking home and allowing the home made bread to go cold. Three of us ate eight mezes. Three of which were stuffed peppers, as they are so good. Washed it down with a pot of tea and walked out having spent under twenty quid. This is fantastic value as every mouthful is delicious. They seem to be open virtually all the time and always greet one with a smile. Good for them. Babalas don’t seem to mind one popping over there to use their loo, especially if it’s their Timothy Taylors one is rejecting from the bladder.

One to take the edge off.

Friday night and spoilt for choice. All within walking distance. Starting foreground, left there is a fine selection of cocktails and bottled beers at Bar Dos Hermanos, our local Cuban Bar. Big and always busy. Great atmosphere. Draught beer tends not to be quite so well kept and are always a tad disappointing, but they serve quite the best G&T. Double measures of Bombay Sapphire, stacks of ice, lime and Schweppes. Moving on down there is Sansomes. Bit brash and yet to hit the spot with the locals. Mainly lagers and this new Marstons Pedigree ‘Smooth’. It’s a keg beer - easy to look after. It sounds harsh, but Sansomes is just not quite Clarendon Parky enough. Maybe cruise over the road to Babalas wine bar. Cosy and full of atmosphere. The sort of place you can peer into and usually see a familiar face, if solo drinking. My personal favourite thanks to a good choice of wines and the all conquering - Timothy Taylors Landlord draught bitter. Could then stay on the same side of the road and ease on down to Olives Bar on the first floor of the corner premises, above Subway. Not been in and I find there is a mental barrier about entering somewhere that you can’t see into. Final option would be to walk up the end of Montague Rd and visit The Clarendon. Rather naff 30’s building. About 15 years ago The Clarendon was the ONLY bar here, served great draught beers and was rammed, but has had to try very hard in the light of such tempting opposition. As it’s just a stumble too far, I’ve not been in for ages. That’s the drinks sorted. Food blog next time.