Friday Five

Paul and I attended the "mandatory first night curry" with the Players last night. Only it turned out to be not quite so mandatory after all, with most of the cast and crew crying off having "already eaten" or "thinking they'll go tomorrow." In the end it was an intimate soiree with four of us in total. If Paul & I hadn't come out specifically for the curry it's certain no-one would have bothered. Added to that, owing to the lateness of the hour we had to use the Azad Manzil: the only curry house that will serve after 11pm and even then they were all stood around the till tutting as we left.

When I first came back to Chorlton 8 years ago Azads was a really good meal. Not sure if it's changed hands, but the quality has gone right off. My "chicken madras," while full of large meaty pieces of breast meat, was soused in an indistinguishable bright red sauce that tasted of nothing but hot. Like they'd simply amalgamated whatever sauces they had left over, and splashed in some chilli essence to bring it up to Madras temperature. Disgusting. I won't be going back there. After years of listening to people say how much better Asian Fusion is, having now tried it twice I have to agree. For a local curry, that's my preference from now on.

After an abnormally long outage caused by various trips and computer kerfuffles on the part of my "source" for these Friday Fives (*wink*), here we are again:

1. What song frequently gets stuck in your head?
I don't have a single ear-worm, but I DO remember being told years ago that the way to clear them was to hum the theme from Hawaii Five-O. And it works! For some reason this song doesn't simply replace the one you had stuck and get stuck itself. It's a bit like mental Febreze!

2. Choose one line from a song that sums up your life thus far.
I drove all night, to get to you. Is that alright?

3. Do you have one all-time favorite song (if so, what is it?) or do you skip around?
I skip around, but in a small pool. In common with most people there are songs that evoke particular memories or times in my life that will always be my favourites (even though in some cases they may not be especially "good" songs!). Some that spring to mind, although not because they are necessarily *more* significant - just the ones I can think of right now - are: Seven Seas of Rhye, Have I Told You Lately That I Love You, Samba Pa Ti, Baker Street, anything from T'Pau's Bridge of Spies.

4. How do you listen to music most often (pod, radio, etc)?
At home: MP3s off the PC*. In the car: short journey - radio; long journey - iPod via iTrip Auto FM broadcast.

5. American Idol: fantastic show or overrated?
Love it. Missed the first two seasons but I've been an avid fan ever since and am currently glued to Season 7. Just a shame the results show airs here two days later than in the US, so we have to stay away from online resources to avoid spoilers.

*Stop Press: Since drafting this, I've bought a Logitech MM50 speaker station for my iPod, so I can use that in the house now too :o)