No Japanese Buns Today
It's been hyped up.
'China in London', thanks to the Mayor.
Cold weather. Trafalgar Square where son won't be able to see a thing in the crowd? No, thank you.
We all headed down to Oriental City in Colindale instead.
But every other Chinese person and family seemed to be doing the same. We were stuck in grid-lock traffic on the access road to the carpark. It didn't help that huge lorries were parked on one side and other cars were parked on the other.
Cars heading out were blocked as cars heading in wouldn't give way.
"All it takes is someone to give way. Let someone else go," husband said.
So he waited as we could see some drivers struggling to edge their cars past the lorries.
Toot-toot. Drivers behind us were getting impatient. We kept waiting, knowing that we couldn't go anywhere further than thirty yards away any way.
Toot-toot. He's had enough. Swung the car round us and went ahead of us.
"Brilliant!" fumed my husband. "What next? Where does he think he's going?"
The precise answer is: no where fast.
So we edged forward bit by bit. It was clear that the situation ahead was not rosy. The thing was we could not even turn back at that point as cars were pouring in and blocking the way out.
Many minutes later and a little further on, young men with fluorescent yellow jackets tell us "the car park is full". Fine, we already suspected that and were resigned to the fact that there was no room for us at Oriental City on Chinese New Year's Day.
But they also closed the entrance to the car park so that we could not turn the car around either. Tempers frayed. More inconsiderate, well more like idiotic, driving, and son at the back burst into tears.
"Why does this always happen to me? Why can't I simply get my Japanese buns [from the Japanese bakery -- no where else can he get these buns]. Huh-huh-huh."
Thankfully I had my brother seated next to him who calmed him down. (Usually son sits in the back by himself.)
Eventually we managed to get ourselves out of the area where traffic actually flowed. Fuming husband had a few choice words for Ken Livingstone.
"Where are the police? Can you imagine organizing a major event at Wembley Stadium and not organizing the traffic properly? Why weren't people stopped from parking on the road?"
So on and on this ex-Wembley resident ranted.
"It wasn't just poor organization. It was NO organization."
Back at home, even before I took my coat and boots off, he was on the phone to the local Chinese takeaway.
Non-Chinese man want Chinese food on Chinese New Year's Day and he wants it NOW!
Thankfully our local does the authentic roast meats (saam siu: siu yoke, siu ngap and char siu*) on weekends. They even gave us some deep-fried peanut puffs as well. Which kind of made up for my disappointment.
We hope Ken gets his act together in a fortnight's time or there will be a repeat of this at the close of Chinese New Year fortnight. We are also hatching other plans such that we won't be caught out again.
*roast belly pork, roast duck and honey roasted pork fillet
Back to Organic-Ally.
'China in London', thanks to the Mayor.
Cold weather. Trafalgar Square where son won't be able to see a thing in the crowd? No, thank you.
We all headed down to Oriental City in Colindale instead.
But every other Chinese person and family seemed to be doing the same. We were stuck in grid-lock traffic on the access road to the carpark. It didn't help that huge lorries were parked on one side and other cars were parked on the other.
Cars heading out were blocked as cars heading in wouldn't give way.
"All it takes is someone to give way. Let someone else go," husband said.
So he waited as we could see some drivers struggling to edge their cars past the lorries.
Toot-toot. Drivers behind us were getting impatient. We kept waiting, knowing that we couldn't go anywhere further than thirty yards away any way.
Toot-toot. He's had enough. Swung the car round us and went ahead of us.
"Brilliant!" fumed my husband. "What next? Where does he think he's going?"
The precise answer is: no where fast.
So we edged forward bit by bit. It was clear that the situation ahead was not rosy. The thing was we could not even turn back at that point as cars were pouring in and blocking the way out.
Many minutes later and a little further on, young men with fluorescent yellow jackets tell us "the car park is full". Fine, we already suspected that and were resigned to the fact that there was no room for us at Oriental City on Chinese New Year's Day.
But they also closed the entrance to the car park so that we could not turn the car around either. Tempers frayed. More inconsiderate, well more like idiotic, driving, and son at the back burst into tears.
"Why does this always happen to me? Why can't I simply get my Japanese buns [from the Japanese bakery -- no where else can he get these buns]. Huh-huh-huh."
Thankfully I had my brother seated next to him who calmed him down. (Usually son sits in the back by himself.)
Eventually we managed to get ourselves out of the area where traffic actually flowed. Fuming husband had a few choice words for Ken Livingstone.
"Where are the police? Can you imagine organizing a major event at Wembley Stadium and not organizing the traffic properly? Why weren't people stopped from parking on the road?"
So on and on this ex-Wembley resident ranted.
"It wasn't just poor organization. It was NO organization."
Back at home, even before I took my coat and boots off, he was on the phone to the local Chinese takeaway.
Non-Chinese man want Chinese food on Chinese New Year's Day and he wants it NOW!
Thankfully our local does the authentic roast meats (saam siu: siu yoke, siu ngap and char siu*) on weekends. They even gave us some deep-fried peanut puffs as well. Which kind of made up for my disappointment.
We hope Ken gets his act together in a fortnight's time or there will be a repeat of this at the close of Chinese New Year fortnight. We are also hatching other plans such that we won't be caught out again.
*roast belly pork, roast duck and honey roasted pork fillet
Back to Organic-Ally.
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