In a moment of weakness a friend recently signed up to the British Red Cross through a street vendor. A week later he received this card from the woman who talked him round.





I don’t see this level of service from my bank, landlord, insurers, accountant etc and they take considerably more than a fiver a month from me. I’ve heard investment banks struggle to do this for clients that spend 7 figure sums every year.

A small commitment to remember a few points from a 5 minute conversation goes a long way. That’s service.

Good bits

• Oxtail casserole and a 1930’s world cup board game.
• Pre-christmas roast goose and first attempt confit and terrine.
• After dinner chocolate truffles and coffee (whilst drunk).
• ‘Too many bananas’ banana cake and the cinema.
• Christmas eve Beef Wellington with Welsh Rare Black Beef.
• Hangover Oysters.
• A sunday night Jalfrezi from Ganges Tandoori.

Bad bits

• My first Thai Green Curry at home.  Sorry Nigel.
• Chicken Soup from a boiling chicken (To be revisited)
• Shin of beef casserole.  (Should have bought it on the bone)
• Hangover juice at Pure California.

An endearing unsubscibe email from the Hackney Freecycle group.

Dear Freecycle(TM) Alumnus,

Thanks for having helped to make The Freecycle Network the special thing that it is. Now that you have unsubscribed, please realize that it can take Yahoo Groups up to 3 days to process. Our apologies for the delay.

Trying to unsubscribe or switch to “no e-mails” or any other change generally delays the process even more (add a day for each additional change). Best advice: grin and bear it and you’ll be free soon to continue your life beyond our little community online.

May all your journeys be safe ones….

Les Moore @ Hackney Freecycle

Restaurants in London that I deserve more than one visit.

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And then here’s my List of reviews on UrbanSpoon. I’m a bit behind here.

It started well, their iPhone (new window) site leading me right to the door. No queue on arrival, immidiately seated at communal benches (good for nosing neighbour food) and a one page menu which is always a good sign, sort of ‘we don’t much, but we do it well’.

“Here’s your meals…….there’s also some fresh chilli and a dish of lemon and ginger…..The chilli’s not hot so don’t be afraid and the lemon is reallly good with the houmous………Enjoy”

Didn’t expect the extras and the advice somehow made all the difference. Something about instructions with your food is reassuring, it tells you they’ve eaten the food and they enjoy it. To the business it’s almost free but it as a customer it’s priceless.