Takeaways operating during the lockdown

[seahermit]

Just eaten a spicy chicken and chilli meal, courtesy of "Seahermit's Ristorante", but I do like to be lazy sometimes and pick up a local takeaway. The fish and chip shop in London Road (opposite the Co-op) seems not bad, not in the top league. Heard good reports of the one at White Rock, so will try that one soon and enjoy eating on the beach whilst this good weather lasts. Presumably the best ones are in the Old Town - wonder if anyone has any favourites?

The Chinese takeaway at the top end of Norman Road (on the way to the Horse and Groom) is really excellent - run by a very nice, friendly family and the food delicious. Not found one as good in Hastings/St L. so far.

[Richard]

The 'great unwashed' eat far too many takeaways and cheap fatty food, they become obese, Q.E.D. (Quod Erat Demonstrandum).
No! Not you seahermit, you are not a fatty boy and neither are you unwashed - probably, but who knows what goes on behind gaudy-coloured plastic curtains

I believe most Asian food is at its best transferred to plates and bowls; eating a curry and rice from the plastic boxes it arrives is unnecessarily hard work. Whereas decanting fish and chips onto plates is not right somehow.

[seahermit]

Part of the enjoyment of takeaways is the illicit guilt - you know it's lazy and not that healthy! Well, not every day of course, but once in a while it's a welcome relief, especially if you want to rush home and scoff it in front of a good film ..

I could eat twenty Mars bars and wouldn't put on an ounce of weight .. but I will be showering again soon, now that summer is coming on.

Fish and chips is somehow delicious out of paper, not so good out of a box and, if you turf it all out onto a plate and eat it from that, the chips always keep straying onto the table cloth!

[Richard]

Cheap 'fast food' is surely the most dangerous and deliberate downfall (addiction) of 'modern' society.
Drugs of a recreational nature and viral diseases are but a side-show!

[seahermit]

Ah, what a long and noble diatribe one could embark upon, re: not just fast food but press-button entertainment, motorised transport and easy living! All these things have helped to make humans lazy, very dependent on technology and disinclined towards or even incapable of using their own physical and mental skills.

I don't believe it is just nostalgia on the part of older people or reluctance to embrace new technology. In the quest to make daily living easier and automated in all sorts of ways, humans are paying a heavy price, becoming a race of docile dummies, unhealthy and lacking the challenges which are necessary in order to develop physical and mental capacity.

I have a TV on in the corner - total rubbish on there. Instead I am enjoying myself fitting up a new curtain pole (the old one crashed to the floor yesterday because of a plasterboard wall!). In the other room, a door is propped up against the wall awaiting some repairs, then I have my plants to fiddle with and writing to get on with.

That's not to say my life is ideal (( whose is?) but I do seem to be very busy at present!

[Richard]

Noble diatribes have had no effect at all, seahermit, even so far back to the times of the ancient civilizations; the Greeks were especially curious and philosophical about such matters, as well as to the sensible quests for true human happiness.
On a more practical level family units (as we know them) ancient and modern, can only exist in civilizations where technological, welfare, education and medical advances serve to support them.
Yet numerous great civilizations have invariably fallen:
From the collapse of ancient Rome to the fall of the Mayan empire, evidence from archaeology suggests that five factors have almost invariably been involved in the loss of civilizations:
1 -uncontrollable population movements;
2 -new epidemic diseases;
3 -failing states leading to increased warfare;
4 -collapse of trade routes leading to famine;
5 -climate change.
It’s hard not to feel that we are now encountering some of the same kind of forces that have traditionally been involved in the fall of civilizations, which leads us to the question: are we doomed?
If so many are supported, as mentioned above, and especially into old age by modern medicines, beyond their natural life-span, it appears that number 2 -epidemic diseases or possibly number 5 -climate change may be our true Achilles heel.
Modern wars will never be the same as of old and the economy is fragile but not critical?
Uncontrollable population movements are quite worrisome but maybe not disastrous.

Happy Days!

[seahermit]

You are absolutely right, there has always been questioning by philosophers about the moral direction of society and the dangers which eternally threaten (from within and without) – from Socrates to modern times. Equally the voices of caution often do not prevail against e.g. the inevitable march of technology and the progress of “civilisation” (what a misnomer!), despite what we now recognize as the downsides of industrialization – mass uprooting of traditional lifestyles and community living, mass dependence of workers upon organised employment from huge international companies, the blandness and homogenisation of mass production, health and environmental concerns ..

But you have managed in a few words to encompass even wider issues! It is quite true that, however sophisticated or technologically advanced a “civilised” society becomes, it is ultimately vulnerable to uncontrollable world-wide changes – climate, population migrations, diseases, conflicts over land, resources and food. We have been living through a century of aggressive materialism and acquisitiveness – surrounded ourselves with comfortable living and a host of completely unnecessary possessions. But the idea that this is now a “normal” way of being or a height of civilisation is of course arrogant and stupid – at any moment our society could be devastated by an invisible virus more deadly than Corona 19, or our way of life could be overturned by further conflict with militarised and power-hungry states. Either will turn people’s attention sharply to what is really essential in life i.e. just surviving at all.

It is inevitable that there will be challenges and conflicts ahead, it is part of human nature and human existence. The Ancient Greeks knew about the precariousness of life – it only needed one unsuccessful war with a neighbour for all their values, art, society structure to be swept away in a moment, population enslaved and cities razed to the ground. As happened of course all through Greek history.

[Richard]

Fortunately the Greeks won the Battle of Marathon against the Persian Empire in 490 BC, which served as a vital pillar upon which the entire Classical Greek civilization was built.
Before that date the Persian Empire, under the leadership of Darius the Great, was emphatically the greatest empire on the face of the earth.
Greek civilization ended up forming a crucible in which our western civilization was brewed, influencing all of the Mediterranean and European history for two millennia. Had the Greeks not won it is unlikely that the “golden age” of Athens would ever have started.

[seahermit]

Unlikely too that Greek cuisine would have culminated in delicious takeaways. I buy those too sometimes.

Many "what if's" in the unpredictable course of history.

[Richard]

Not sure exactly what genuine Greek takeaways are available in Hastings.
The local Italian 'family' restaurant takeaways are nothing to get excited about.
Domino's 'chain' Pizza's are not my idea of heaven either.
The American fast-food 'chains' are really not worth trying.
Indian takeaways are possibly okay.
Morrisons are rumoured soon to be sending out their Cafe meals as takeaway food - dished out by a couple of their burly and surly 'school dinner-lady' types dressed in black, no doubt!

I'll stick to 'Chinese' takeaways - at least they try to please.