Author: aj

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A Golden Age? Methinks not!

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Northern Rail Clowns ?

On Sunday 4th May our fourteen year old daughter got on the 10:46am Northern Rail train at Whaley Bridge after a sleepover at a friends, coming to meet us at Heaton Chapel, the station after Stockport. She purchased a single ticket from the guard on the train to Heaton Chapel and paid the child’s single fare of £3:30.

As we arrived at Heaton Chapel to meet her we get a frantic phone call to say “the train hasn’t stopped”, we agree to meet her at Levenshulme and set of in pursuit. We discuss if the train will stop there, and as we are deciding we get a second call to say, “it’s not stopped at Levenshulme either”. We tell her that it won’t probably stop now until Piccadilly and say she should get off there and get the next train back that stops at either Heaton Chapel or Stockport.
Firstly she is evidently told there isn’t a train back till 3;15pm (what nonsense!) and phones me to say she is going to the ticket office to buy a ticket. I say “no-way, you’ve already paid to travel to Heaton Chapel, and that’s all your trying to do, get on a train back!”
 
Forty minutes or so later we collect her from Stockport Station, only to discover that, when she got off the

 

Ticket to ride
Ticket to ride

train at Piccadilly, and tried to find how to get back, she was stopped by a ticket collector, who couldn’t speak English properly and was too dim to understand anything about the fact that here he had a customer, a child, who was not where she wanted (and had paid) to be but at a major City Station where she had never been before, and somewhat upset and distressed.

 
Instead of assisting her and getting on to the correct train back this idiot made her pay for a ticket from Heaton Chapel to Piccadilly and then left her off the platform!! (and charged it at the Adult rate £2:30)
 
What about the guard who had sold her the ticket in the first place? surely he knew that the train did not stop at Heaton Chapel, shouldn’t some part of that ticket sale have included “this train doesn’t stop at Heaton Chapel, you’ll have to change at Stockport“?
 
At this point I escorted her back to the ticket office at Stockport Station, to “give them a piece of my mind”, only to be met by “Kate”, the hardest faced, least customer friendly, employee (at least I hope they haven’t any less empathetic people!) of, evidently, Virgin Rail, who told me I needed to address Northern Rail, not Virgin. Apparently Virgin take no responsibility for matters at Stockport (they’ll sell you a train ticket, but I suppose you’ll have to go home and print out a platform ticket or boarding pass on-line!). She supplied us with a prepaid “complaint form” for Northern Rail but was totally unable smile, be concerned, or helpful. Apparently Northern Rail have no local representatives, or possibly don’t work on Sundays, or maybe they can’t speak very much English, I don’t know?
 
This happened on the day Ed Milliband was urged by prospective Labour MPs to re-nationalise the Railways (YAY!) and left Julie and I reminiscing about when we were younger and traveled widely by rail, and always were fussed over and looked after by the railway staff (is that why they were called Guards?)
all_aboard
Romance ? or neglect and inefficiency ?
Where here was any sort of “duty of care”, basic human kindness, customer service ? It was not a major incident or any real danger to anyone, but had it been, would any of the people and organisations concerned been up to it, or perhaps even interested in helping rather than saying “its not my job”
You then get to think about all of the industries and companies that the Thatcher Tories “privatised”, The Railways, the Gas and Electric and Water industries, Nationalised Banks, Postal Services.  Competition would mean they would serve their customers better, become  more efficient (i.e cheaper!!), Well have they done? or in fact are these not the industries that have all been in crisis ever since?, rising prices, less employees, less service and no profit for anyone (even in many cases the shareholders have taken a beating?), sorry that is of course excluding the senior management who have managed to see their payments swell massively whilst the average Joe’s have gone downhill?
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Shimmy No More

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We recently logged into Shimla Pinks Website and got this message:

image

A real shame…

and one of the problems doing reviews is that things change, not just that places improve or deteriorate, Managements change, redevelopments and of course closures. This makes restaurant reviews a poor guide to what you will find today.

What we will do therefore is

make our reviews shorter, date them and have “top-up” articles as and when we re-visit somewhere, possibly an on-going story rather than a “point in time”

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Ikea DisService

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Being members of the IKEA “Home Club” we received a mailshot offering us a £10 discount plus a free salad bowl (worth £9.99 – subject to availability) if we visited soon. Needing a new cabinet for the bathroom plus a display case for our showroom we collected Grandma last Sunday and set off.

1Although known as
Copyright Gerald England. Click above for more information.

Grandma always grumbles that she doesn’t want to go to Ikea, this might have something to do with us telling her that we don’t want to buy anything, we are simply going to give her some exercise.

 We got there and did the “Ikea Walk” (a bit like the Okey Dokey Shuffle – from Beverley Hills Cop 3 – but far more tiresome) and eventually got to the Warehouse Area on the ground floor armed with a few bits and pieces and some written details of where the flat packs of the cupboard and display unit we wanted where located, these of course were wrong, when we got to Aisle 34 there wasn’t a location 57b. Monster took great delight in running to the Computer in the middle of the store, locating what she thought was the product and sending us in search of ever more exotic “locations”, then we had the issue of whether the cabinet we wanted part of the BJÖRKEN range or the GODMORGON. (where do they get these names I’ve watched Mama Mia and no-one there has names like this?)

Eventually we located our cabinets, put one on our trolley and decided that the other one was far to big to fit in the car along with us and Grandma (despite Monsters suggestion that her and / or Grandma could be strapped on the roof rack, we felt this might cause a unwelcome interest from the local Gendarmerie) and decided it would have to await another visit.

 Now whilst the trolley and Management joined the interminable queues at the checkouts (it’s my opinion that Heathrow terminal three was modelled upon Ikea) yours truly was sent to get our ”FREE” Salad bowl worth £9.99! from the Oasis Department. It seemed to me that this would be near the checkouts so you could collect your freebies on the way out,  I collared a guy in a yellow shirt who had no idea what I was talking about (note if your sad enough to spend your day off shopping in Ikea don’t wear a yellow shirt), next I tried a couple of yellow shirted guys first making sure that they also had badges saying Ikea, they didn’t seem to have much more idea anyway, but suggested it was at the warehouse entrance near the bottom of the escalators, as this area had lots of plants etc. it seemed a good bet. When I got there this was clearly wrong and eventually I found some staff hiding behind the undergrowth, they said it was on the first floor. A trip round the first floor found no sign and another Ikea employee said perhaps the second floor.

 On the second floor no-one knew but suggested it was near the checkouts and, if not. the customer information centre there would get it for me!

 When I got back to the checkout area our trusty team where now within hailing distance of the checkouts, and the young man there directed me to an information centre in the middle of the warehouse area, the operator there tapped some keys on his computer and told me the Oasis Centre was on the first floor and that they might have some of the bowls left.

 By this stage I had twigged that this Oasis was obviously a mirage and that Ikea are probably in league with the department of Public Health to keep us all permanently knackered, no salad bowl worth £9.99, or not, was worth another trip round the store.

 Upon getting home that evening I eagerly started unpacking my new Bathroom cabinet, as all the outer frame is coated with mirror effect covering (and according to the instructions quite easy to scratch when they are new) great care was taken removing all the cardboard and polystyrene packaging and pushing it into a bin bag, finally the four glass shelves were unpacked and two of them were  completely crazed and promptly fell onto the carpet as a large pile of glass diamonds!

 An email to Ikea complaining mainly about the broken shelves but also the missing “bowl” (worth £9.99) elicited a reply on Tuesday morning that the whole unit should be taken back to the store and exchanged. We responded that this was difficult as

  1. Packing the whole thing up was impracticable as we had damaged some of the packing and anyway who can ever package things up the way they manage in the Chinese factories?

  2. It mean’t a round trip of 20+ miles, surely they could take our word and simply send out the broken and missing bits

  3. Anyway returning the undamaged bits improperly packaged was more than likely to result in further damage.

Ikea’s response was that they didn’t send things out and that we must return the whole unit.

 I now fully understand why it’s called DIY and it’s much simpler to forgo my £9.99 bowl and get a couple new glass shelves from a glazier

 But “Ikea family”?? no way, mine are much more helpful (even grumpy Grandma)

 

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Shimla Pinks – Manchester

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Shimla Pinks
View on Google Maps ★★★★★

Dolefield, Crown Square, Manchester M3 3HA
www.shimlapinksmanchester.co.uk

View on Google Maps

It makes you think, why? ***

We have always thought we knew our Indian and Asian Restaurants, but we discovered this one with some difficulty!

We had a customer who left us with a note of his requirements on the back of an A5 menu, we read and thought yum

BUT… the only clue we had was the above logo printed on the page, well come on that’s what the Web is about, quick Google and we’ll find it…. Half an hour later we have found a Shimla Pinks in Birmingham, then we find a website for two restaurants in Leicester and Nottingham, clearly it’s a chain, eventually on the basis that “John did not journey far afield” we find “Shimla Pinks in Crown Square in Manchester” (note here Jazz & Co – “Flash websites” might look, well, flash but they are not very search engine friendly.)

We like the ideas on the website and along with what we had seen on the “Gourmet Banquet” menu and decided to investigate, however being a Yorkshireman I had to first wait for the “Privilege Card” which I signed up for from the website, I mean even if the prices are low, a 15% discount, well…

The card came soon and last Sunday evening we went to Manchester, located our target and the troops headed inside whilst I went “to park” the car. Outside the restaurant there were three empty disabled parking spaces, but the other slots where taken, so I did a couple of round the block circles gradually getting further away, but the only spaces were disabled ones (plenty of them too! – I think disabled perking (sic) perhaps needs a re-think) Eventually I went into the NCP at Kendal Milne’s ( as I, sadly, still think of it!)

On return to the restaurant I found we had managed to find a nice relaxed seating area and drinks had appeared and a conversation with the waiters and two Indian gentlemen sitting alongside us was in full swing, oh yes and by the way Shimla Pinks has it’s own Car Park…

We decided against the Buffet Menu that was going on at the other end of the restaurant, as the Senior Management felt that having done some cooking and stuff on the occasional evening we don’t go out it was their due to have the food brought to them!

Not only that but they insisted on an upgrade from the merely Gourmet Menu to the Executive one (they claimed it looked nicer with fish and things on it – but I reckon they felt Executive more fitting to their status).

Nonetheless it was a good choice, we in fact had a discussion about what to order largely because we normally get lots of everything and have what we don’t eat as a take-away, even if we don’t get to finish it, our cats enjoy the less spicy bits! Shimla Pinks explained that they don’t do this with the banquets as you end up with little dishes galore, (I guess understandably, they don’t do it on the buffet either!) So we were advised that two portions would be adequate for us rather than three, but nonetheless we ordered extra paratha bread and rice with currants, nuts and cream

Papadoms to start were light and crisp, followed by a selection of Starters including Murgh Malai Tikka (Chicken marinated in cream & cheese and grilled in the tandoor) Fish Amritsar, Vegetable Pakoras, Cubes of homemade cheese with mint and fennel, Minced Lamb Kebab and Aloo Tikka. Unfortunately the Monster decided she liked all this rather than just the papadoms and rice she normally eats at Indian restaurants, this of course mean’t less for me.

We moved on to main courses and again a nice selection, C hooza Makhani, (tandoor grilled chicken in a tomato and and meat sauce), Chicken Nentara (Chicken Cubes in a spicy tomato, coriander, fenugreek sauce with spring onion and ginger), Harrey Masaley Ka Gosht, ( Lamb cubes in a wonderful sauce – look at the menu on the website for a less accurate description!), Prawn Rogan Josh (management’s fish fetish again but good anyway), with Aloo Gobhi Bhuna and Vegetable Jalfrezi, Paloo Rice and Naan. Plus of course the Shahi Pulao (£2.50) rice and Lachcha Paratha (£1.75) we had ordered originally. Again even the monster decided there were several things she liked here and tucked in, frankly the menu descriptions don’t help here, a bit more “cuddly spring lambs” and “ chirpy Easter chickens” might make her think twice.

The Shahi Pulao rice (The finest of Basmati rice cooked with pure flavours of saffron and kewra then replenished with fresh cream and dried fruit and nuts ) was applauded, but all in all everything was good or better, nicely presented with prompt but not too quick and very pleasant service.

The highlight of the meal however was that rather than an Indian sweet ( I am not a pudding man, and generally prefer the savouries anyway) you get an option of a liqueur!!

The Gourmet Menu cost £14.95 and the Executive menu is £19.95

The low point of the evening came when we got back to the car and had to pay a ransom of £13.50 to NCP to get it free, honestly I only wanted a parking space I hadn’t intended to buy Manchester

*** The two Gentleman whom we spoke to before we had our meal turned out to be Jazz Pannum and his father. Mr Pannum Senior is the owner of Shimla Pinks and from them we learnt that the name is a reference to the Indian equivalent of our “Sloane Ranger” and went along with the idea of blending the contemporary with the traditional, which you can see is very much their style with food prepared to high standards and modern standards of décor and ambiance.

Mr Pannum had started out in Scotland and established a chain of eight Shimla Pinks restaurants across the country although now the other restaurants are operated separately and only the Manchester branch is directly run by the family. The spectacular Bar is shown below:

Saving the Best for last it seems that within a few weeks the Shimla Pinks in Crown Square will be closing…..

But a new and even more spectacular Shimla Pinks will be opening nearby, we will keep you updated

*For anyone who is interested this item has been written using OpenOffice “writer” software and posted directly from that program using an extension created by Sun into our WordPress Blog, (way easier than Ms Office)

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Something Fishy ?

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On Monday night, intent on making Fish Soup, we raced into the Morrisons branch, in Chapel-en-le-Frith, to get some Fish Stock, this store is really too small to be a Morrisons, but does at least have a Fish Counter, obviously the place!

We seached in vain, they had several types of Beef Stock, Chicken Stock, and vegetable stock, but no fish stock.

In desperation we went to Tesco in Whaley Bridge, once descibed to me by a local as a “mean little store”, the fish counter here suggests they have more or less given up trying to sell fish (nobody actually cooks any more do they?) except mainly, the processed “fish finger” type, ( am I only person who has never actually never seen a fish that has any “fingers”). Not really expecting much luck here we found at least three type of Fish stock, with cubes, powder, and best of all liquid stock ( also loads of other choices, and even Pork stock.)

Is this odd or what, or is it a sinister plot to make us drive from Store to Store frantically trying to complete our shopping list?

Score 7 for Tesco and 3 for Morrisons (lack of “joined up thinking/products” – to put it into modern terms)

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Best Value Veg

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On Sunday, we went towards Manchester, and had a reasonable list of veggies we needed, we called into “the Indian Supermarket” (as we call it,) in Longsight and we purchased:

  • Box of good Tomatos (£2.99)
  • Box of Red peppers (£5.99)
  • Bunch of Coriander
  • A Butternut Squash
  • 6 nice nectarines
  • 1Kg Pack of dried fried Onions
  • bag of Chewra Mix (Bombay like stuff)
  • 4 Green Peppers
  • 2 Bulbs of Garlic
  • 2 Red Onions
  • 1 Cucumber
  • 1 Galia Melon
  • 5 Bananas

All for less than £19, agreed the peppers are well ripe and strangely aren’t all the same size colour and completely unblemished, and they did not have the cardboard trays and plastic film that the supermarkets grow them in, but you know they seem to taste better despite that?

Serious recommendation, get out and try your local Asian or Chinese etc Supermarket, try some of those strange things like Mulfi, Okra, or some Goat (makes wonderful Curry) – people there will tell you how to prepare them if you ask. You will not only find it hugely cheaper than the Sheds, but tastier and more exciting.

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I Like Morrisons White Grapefruit Juice!

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Each morning as some attempt at “5 a day”, we all have a glass of fruit Juice, in my case I like grapefruit juice ( I guess as a child itwas nicking the breakfast juice, small glasses of Britvic from the tables at my Uncles hotel?) Anyway part of the thing about grapefruit is that it is a “tart” taste, and I suspect that’s the way those who like Grapefruit want it, however the “industry” has relentlessly pushed to make sweet sickly (usually pink) girly grapefruit.

The effect seems to be that many smaller stores don’t even bother to stock grapefruit Juice, the only choices being Co-op Grapefruit Juice, which is OK (despite dodgy packaging changes in their range meaning that you have no clue from the picture on the outside as to which juice it is) and going to more expensive “Tropicana” ranges.

Wonderful then to find in our local Morrisons a choice of Girly Grapefruit , and “White Grapefruit Juice“, this a first rate product, really good taste and (so far anyway) it tends to be in stock most days. A pat on the pack to Morrisons who are not normally the most innovative of stores.

However, I couldn’t not find something to grumble about, and it’s the stupid “plastic ring-pull” that comes after the plastic cap is unscrewed, get rid of it on all juices, it’s unnecessary, useless, usually breaks and I end up attacking the carton with a sharp knife, (not wise when still half asleep). What does the ring pull achieve, the screw caps are sealed and I don’t miss the ring pull on the few brands that don’t use it, meaning that as a prevention of malicious contamination it’s still useless, how are the elderly and blind supposed to open these things?

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Zuri – Bar, Hazel Grove

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Zuri is a bar that is related to Benvenuti Ristorante in Hazel Grove in Stockport. In our opinion these are really chalk and cheese, Zuri is an up-to-the-minute Bar with a function room above, nicely furnished and showing the best of Italian Style (try the antipasto – it is to die for! ) Benvenuti, is an Italian Restaurant of the old age, reminding us of the first wave of Italian Immigration in the 1950’s. The food is not bad in any way, merely lacking the style and taste that most of us associate with a modern Italian Restaurant.

18/7/22 – Zuri is no more – it closed some years ago, and has been replaced by a series of nightclub type bars that are of little interest to us.
Currently it is “Tahiti”, but judging for the piles of timber outside we assume it is not opening
Strangely however Benvenuti across the way has seemingly be re-invigourated, , and whilst the decor is still olde worlde style Italian, the food on our visit in summer 2021 was excellent, more on this subject soon