LeICEster- Not boring

Not beautiful, but not boring.  Which would you prefer?

Before my Uni course started I got a job with a tool hire company and drove  flat backed lorry around Leicester in a bright red 'Unirents' nylon suit. 

On one job I delivered a set of tower scaffold poles to a decorator.  I discovered that he had only the use of one arm, so I helped him erect the tower.  This was trickier than I thought and I found myself swaying dramatically from the roof story. 

One day I delivered a diesel generator to a farming Country Fair.  The field was bustling with burly farmers setting up marques.  I loosened the rope attaching the generator to the bed of my lorry.  Immediately the weigh of the thing overpowered me and it slowly rolled off the back of the lorry and thumped onto it's side.  A group of farm labourers gather around this sight, intrigued to see what I would do.  I knew they were not on my side.  I pulled hard on a strap and amazingly the generator righted itself.  Then I turned the key to see if the engine still worked.  There was a loud bang, and a billow of black smoke, and the thing started up.  I was in the cab of the lorry and off in no time.  I never went back to collect it.

Having got to know a number of Iranian refugees, I was delight to be invited to their first Nuruz party.  Most were living in the International Hotel, a condemned building in the centre of Leicester.  For the celebration they had persuaded the hotel owner to allow they to use their allocation of food money to make and prepare their own Iranian celebration meal.  Then in the basement of the hotel they held a party, and many other Iranian's and Kurds joined them.  The music was largely home grown, with lots of dancing in two distinct areas, male and female.  At one point, we all sat down and Hamid, an 50 something man, sang folk songs.  These were intensely powerful, and I noticed the men I was sitting with were crying.  I asked someone I was with, who happened to be a computer science lecturer at DMU, what was so upsetting.  He said through his sobs, "It reminds me of my mother."

Regularly, sights in Leicester prove that you don't have to travel far to see the world.  Down one alley-way I see boys in rows, at small desks, learning the Koran by heart.  Then in the car park of a youth centre in New Parks, a group of people in white robes, looking like extras straight out of Oberammergau.  Are they preparing to leave to go on pilgrimage to Mecca?

Our Indonesian friends gave us a dish of Tempe and noodles when we visited them.  Tempe is a special fermented Indonesian tofu.  Where did they buy the Tempe?  Across the road of course in 'Yours' supermarket.