One Pint of Lager and Several Packets of Crisps

Up and walked up the hill to Fairfield Park, to my favourite Bangladeshi curry house and take-away. I ordered a couple of poppadoms, a vegetable samosa, rezala lamb with pilau rice, nan and cauliflower bhajee. And two pints of lager and no packets of crisps.

The Haldi Tandoori was once the Fairfield Arms, run by Ted and Mary. Mary gave up the licensed life several years ago, after Ted sadly died. The pub was then converted into a restaurant with a bijou bar area to cater for a small coterie of regulars, and Paul. And me, an irregular.

This is Alec, one of the two owners, slopping out as the beer was lively tonight. I was reading the local paper, whiling away the time until the arrival of my peripatetic platter of sub-continental culinary delights would be heralded by the wafting odours of almond, chillies and cumin. I was half-way through my pint and had just remarked to Alec about the headline on page 3:

In the Chronicle
'Campaign group in gull cull call'
caught a jaundiced eye