A noisy curry

One of the funniest nights we had out in Macau was at the Aruna curry house. It is on Taipa island, and had only just opened up. In fact, when we visited, it wasn't yet officially open, but was having some 'trial' nights. We'd only been sitting for a couple of minutes, and had just ordered drinks, when this unholy racket started up. Banging and crashing above us, we could barely hear ourselves speak.

Our hostess came over to our table and explained. It was the old lady in the flat above the restaurant, she said, who had taken a dislike to having an Indian restaurant underneath her. What a clatter that old woman managed to make. Every five minutes the noise would die down for a few seconds, and then she would start up with a different sound, as if she had an array of noise-making implements at her disposal. One minute it sounded like a stick being banged against a wall, the next like a heavy stone being dragged around on the floor.

I'll say one thing for the old dear, she had some stamina. She kept the noises up throughout the whole of our meal. The hostess called the police - and as we were the only guests in the place, we could hear her side of the phone call. This was hilarious, as she was trying to make herself understood in English to what seemed some very unsympathetic police. Eventually two Macau cops arrived, but typically, the old lady must have seen them because the noise dropped for a while.

All this was very entertaining in the end, and we didn't let it spoil our meal, which was very good.