its a strange old world ain't it? (especially around these parts...)
and so i find myself quite surprised that i am actually quite gutted about the gutting of the shanghai fusion...
that mighty bastion of dudley, capable of emitting some of the most tantalising and also some of the most rancid smells known to man (often at the same time)... with its ever-diligent work-force, always happy to climb on the roof mid-service so's i could get my football back (true story)... the hordes of oft scantily clad teens doing their sixth form end of term parties there, hiding behind the bins to smoke, making a lot of noise and even in one instance - arriving in a pink stretch hummer...
no more but so...
although i can't help but notice the age old bank's sign from back in the day is still squeakin' like a mo-fo in the wind...
i never really got to know it when it was the salamander... scary old dudley people's pub (no they don't do students there) at the top of the campus, back in the day when nith place was just a road to get to the broadway, and needed a name cos there was a shop on there... when those new houses used to be a car-park!!!
(here's one of those handy-type link things, which will lead you to a page with some boring information... [fact-fans!!] http://blackcountryhistory.org/collections/getrecord/GB145_p_3823/)
but that closed down, they stuck some green tiles to the roof, experimented with cheap tall shrubs outside (which were constantly stolen) and re-opened as the majesty that is (was) shanghai fusion...
let's put this right out there... i never ate in there. first off... i've seen the kitchens, second (as previously mentioned) the kitchen staff used to climb on the roof to get my ball... nice guys they were, although i remain unconvinced about their restaurant credentials...
but nonetheless, 'the shanghai' (as it is affectionately known) has been a constant source of amusent/annoyance for years... admittedly more the former...
mainly because of some the nut-job planning permission requests that used to drop through the door periodically, my particular favourite being the request to build an extra-storey on top of the kitchen to house a taxi-office and conversion of the upstairs for use as a hairdressers salon...
there-in lies the all-inclusive night out... food, taxi and a haircut... right on
most of these planning permission requests seemed to relate the addition of made additional services alongside the already established all you can eat chinese buffet... i think the sixth form party people used to keep them in business, that sign on that picture (which i didn't take) stayed up for ages, until they just started adjusting the listed price with gaffa tape and a permanent marker...
they apparently did christmas dinner's too... i do remember smelling it, don't especially remember ever having seen anyone foolhardy enough to go in...
but alas now it is all gone...
the smackheads used the back yard as a hang-out for a bit, the police nailed a really big piece of wood across the gate...
now big burly men have come to clear the place...
and across the last two days the contents of 'the shanghai' have been reduced to two neatly-stacked (and another less so) skips, and a hell of a lot of noise...
soon it'll be flats (of some sort), although i'd imagine in the meantime it may go through a transitional phase of being flat (boom boom)... of course they're never gonna build one of them car-stacking car-parks round the back of my house, so soon there will be even less no-where to park...
happy time
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