Curry Capital of the UK

I've discovered something - England is buccolic! Unbelievably, unendingly so. And I had more than a decade's worth of scenic pastoral England on my train journey from London to Glasgow. Five mind numbing hours of green fields with fat, brown flecked white sheep -all looking damp and dismal. So much so that I actually cheered up when I saw Glasgow. (The Greenpeace types will probably feel I'm betraying the faith. Happy to see the urban jungle, especially one that grew out of shipyard industry? The horror of it all!)

Yet I did enjoy wandering around Glasgow. Wandered into GOMA (I forget what the O is for, MA for musuem of art and G is obvious). GOMA was a mistake (to wander into that is). My Neanderthal brain cannot process abstract modern stuff. I was highly entertained though by this fixture (or whatever artists call their things). Got it installation. It was about the 2 local football (or rugby) teams who are the local India and Pakistan cricket teams but worse (imagine!). They are unimaginatively called the celtics and rangers. There were posters with some African king in a pro celtics poster and for the rangers was Mangal Pandey!

I then went to the Glasgow School of Art which confusingly (at least to me) talked all about this architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his work. I had to read the pamphlet (to avoid showing my absolute ignorance about this guy) and found out that he had designed the school and is rather belatedly recognised as a big cheese in the architectural world. So took the tour of the school and learnt a bit more. To be honest it was quite interesting though the guide was over bubbly.

I better talk about curry at least to justify the title. The nice people on the tour bus informed us that Glasgow is the curry capital of the UK. Strange, I would have thought London but no the Scots love their curry. The tour guide actually pronounciated garam masala and curry quite clearly. And I did see many Indian restuarants around town. Even ended up going to one! Not bad but rather oily North Indian food.