The last luke

Nearly a fortnight ago now, what has turned out to be our last visit to St. Luke's for maybe a year. See the end of reference 1 for notice of its closure. Beethoven Op.59 No.2 and Mozart K156, given by the Modigliani Quartet of reference 4. French and just over twenty years old.

A day which looked mild and overcast, but I got out my duffel coat just the same, having been cold sitting at Raynes Park the day before.

At one point, it had looked likely that there was going to be a tube strike and we had thought to get a train to Farringdon and walk from there, maybe twice as far as walking from Old Street tube, so not very far at all. And it would have been a change. But in the end there was no strike and we stuck with travel via Balham which we knew and understood. There was also a more or less instant offer of seats on the tube at Balham.

Impressed by this inflorescence on our way to our bacon sandwich for him and toast for her at the Market Restaurant. It took a while to persuade Google Images this morning that I was interested in the plant rather than in the building behind, but eventually one of its suggestions was the grass tree (genus Xanthorrhoea), for which see references 2 and 3. It took a few attempts to get Google to pay attention to the plant, rather than the flats behind - but more work yet to be done on this identification.

The market restaurant managed decaff on this occasion. Perhaps it was being served by the proprietor which made the difference - a chap who remembers me as an occasional customer for a good bit more than a decade now.

While further up Whitecross Street, I had forgotten about the street art underneath the impressive row of chimneys. Unless, that is, that the street art is new.

And the hostel for working men, presumably now repurposed.

Being a little early, we also investigated the green spaces behind the church yard. Inter alia, a reminder that the people who built the post-war estates believed in providing bits of green space.

The oddly asymmetric public baths of Norman Street. Reference 7 does not explain the asymmetry, but I do learn that there are Turkish Baths and that the swimming pool was once important for the sport of diving.

The concert turned out very well, just our sort of thing. I think we got the Beethoven second, which would have been right. Musicians nicely turned out in dark suits, white shirts and no ties. Proper music on paper rather than computers. No encore, which suited us well enough. Why mess about with Beethoven's ending?

For lunch, we returned to Pasta Nostra of reference 5, which we have used two or three times in the past. 

Confused when we first sat down by the rather loud and strange music - which turned out to be the noise of the food mixer behind the counter working away on a large lump of bread dough. I noticed that he slapped the oil onto the kneaded dough, rather than putting the oil in with the flour in the first place. Or perhaps he had done that as well. Whatever the case, the bread which we ordered came as an entire small loaf and was rather good. A DIY version of the small sour doughs offered by Mitchells and Butler in their houses. But give these last credit for doing it at all. See, for example, reference 6.

Bread, as mentioned above, lunch special pastas, three Nastros (Peroni Nastro Azzurro?) for him and something orange and sparkly (S.Pellegrino) for her. My pasta was not veggie, despite the snap above. There was some pale sausage lurking below. All very satisfactory.

On to Old Street M&S to buy some bacon and some hazel nuts against some stuffing. Bacon yes, but no hazel nuts. Fancy nuts yes, regular nuts no. It was the same story in the Aldi more or less next door, a shop which seemed a bit scruffier than the rather newer Lidl in Epsom. It had also moved strongly into cupboards, echoing the ongoing move in that direction in our Sainsbury's.

The eco-roof over one of the smart new entrances to Old Street tube station. Looks good as you head west to St. Luke's too. Lots of pavement, lots of seats and lots of trees.

There had been a person on the line somewhere in the region of Sutton so we changed track to Waterloo at Clapham Junction, which worked fine. A better bet than possibly getting stranded for a bit with Southern. We changed at Raynes Park and there was an instant seat offer for BH when we got the train for Epsom.

Home to a refreshing cup of tea - plus the apple that I had picked up on the train the day before. Quite a large apple with attractive patches of a bright red. Tasted quite good too. But I did wash it, something I do not usually bother with.

PS: this morning I read of Krishna Maharaj, once a self-made businessman in the UK, who fell foul of the US justice authorities when one of his people in the US got murdered in connection with the drugs trade. Fell foul to the extent of a death sentence followed by 37 years in jail. It looks as if he was badly served by his lawyers at the time of his original trial and badly served by the system as a whole after that. I don't suppose that his hands were entirely clean, but it does look like justice running amok for all that.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/11/property-for-sale.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanthorrhoea.

Reference 3: https://wildfloweringsart.com/2011/12/07/growing-a-grass-tree-xanthorrhoea-sp/. Some good images to be found here.

Reference 4: https://www.modiglianiquartet.com/.

Reference 5: https://www.pastanostralondon.com/.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/06/ealing.html.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironmonger_Row_Baths.

Frost

The first serious frost of the winter, as seen through the double glazing of the study window at around 07:18 this morning. 

The bird feeder lower right, which never came down this year, was recently emptied and refilled with fresh food. Not unused, but not much used so far.

The hole in the central oak tree is probably down to the willow tree which used to be behind, on the other side of the fence. A tree of middling size which died young and which was removed earlier this year. I forget what it died of, if I ever knew.

Maybe the frost will kill off the duckweed infesting the micro-ponds below the oak tree. At least until the spring, when I believe the spores (or something) rise up from the depths.

Bright and sunny at present, but I dare say cold. Getting out serious red jacket, woolly hat and so forth.

BH battling with frost covered car.

Trolleys 763 thru 765

Saturday had been designated a fish chowder day, by which I mean a type of fish stew made by BH involving fish, bacon, onion, potato and milk, so down to town bright and early.

Started with a couple of trolleys from B&M from the passage running down to the Rio Grill (reference 2) from Station Approach.

Followed by an M&S trolley lifted from outside B&M, not far from the bus stops.

While I was in M&S, I picked up some streaky bacon, described as dry cured, but shrink wrapped and cut nearly as thin as the stuff sold by Sainsbury's. Plus the fat wadge of newsprint called the Guardian Weekend. Which I discovered later included a whole lot of guff about how to curate my wardrobe: perhaps they ask their computer to generate it for them.

On to the market, where the meat van man appeared to be selling two large lumps of forerib to the same customer. Not his usual stock in trade at all, but it looked OK from where I was standing.

And the fish man was selling a good bit of stuff to the chap in front of me - who had clearly been a patron of those fish stalls you used to get outside public houses in his day. Including two chunks of octopus leg for £12. Maybe a couple of centimetres thick and four inches long. Looked a bit like crab in colour. I took a rather boring 400g of cod: I meant a bit more, but his cutting was a bit short and I did not think to ask him to top it up a bit. In the event, it was enough.

Followed by a slightly dented Sainsbury's trolley in East Street.

Complete with a little tag on the handle explain where some of the stuff was, under the new arrangements inside the store. Perhaps the noise of all the ladies moaning about how they couldn't find anything anymore had got through to management. So the tag showed willing, even if the print was a bit small for the older eyeball.

As it happened, a correspondent had been telling me about how the big shop was falling away in favour of shop on the way home from work, with the big stores adjusting their plans for big shops accordingly. A story which was supported by the huge supply of large trolleys outside the entrance and the very small supply of small trolleys.

Mine failed to stack properly, although I failed to see why.

And so home, down Middle Lane and through the Screwfix passage, to deliver the fish and bacon to BH. 

While I was waiting for my chowder, I took a look at the front part of the Guardian, that is to say the part which did not go on about my wardrobe. I was intrigued by the front page story (reference 3) about how much junk food is costing us - that is to say food from factories in fancy wrapping which is likely to contain a lot of some or all of sugar, saturated fat & salt (the three esses) and unlikely to contain much fibre. I have now had a peek at the (open access) report on which the story was based, reference 4.

It looks to be a serious and well written report, although I dare say one could spend quality time arguing about the numbers, in particular how one estimates how much of any particular health flavoured cost is reasonably attributable to junk food. There is some discussion of all this from page 19 of the report, 'Assessing the overall cost'.

Nevertheless, I dare say that the conclusions are right enough: we eat far too much and it is all too easy to eat far too much of the junk food which is particularly bad for us. Raw carrots do slow one down.

Jumping to near the end (page 33), I find that Big Food, evil though it might be, only makes about £20bn a year in profit in the UK. So taking a bite out of that profit is not going to pay for a move to healthy food. While putting a seriously deterrent tax on the purchase of unhealthy food would no doubt raise howls of protest. Made all the more difficult by the fact that the benefits of a healthy diet will take years to come through into the numbers above. If I was younger, maybe this is the just sort of issue I ought to take to my local Labour Party and try to fight it through to Conference. Or even to our shiny new Health Minister, the one that does not believe in dignity for the dying. Also rather keen on league tables for hospitals.

PS 1: then today we get a flier for some expensive-looking home sushi from some people called 'Little Fish', to be found at reference 7. They look to be strong in Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire. They can do you a festive platter for £125, but a substantial snack for two for £35. We do not do sushi, but I wonder if it counts as junk food in the context of the report at reference 4? I would guess not: not much fibre and some salt, but not much sugar or saturated fat.

PS 2: not being very happy with resting on Statista for GDP, I tried to dig a bit deeper. A paper from the House of Commons Library (HOC) dated a few days ago says 'In cash terms, GDP was £2,720 billion in 2023', which suggests a typo at Statista. Moving onto National Statistics, they seem to be much more interested in growth than levels - reflecting our (unfortunately) growth driven society - but the statistic I want might be called YBHA. I fail to find a definition, but I do eventually find an annual total which agrees with HOC. Time to try Google's Gemini. He is reasonably helpful, ending by suggesting that one adds together the four most recent quarterly estimates, which he makes £2,420 billion. Which is what I get too, so perhaps his arithmetic has got more reliable since I last tried it, some time ago now. On the other hand, his quarterly figures seem well adrift of those from National Statistics. To which Gemini responds that he 'will strive to be more diligent in the future'. So clearly, one still needs to be careful with his numbers.

I have also been reminded that computing these sorts of interesting economic aggregates is difficult. Much worse than saying 'how many people live in the UK' - which I did used to know something about.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/11/trolleys-761-762.html.

Reference 2: https://www.riogrillepsom.com/.

Reference 3: Addiction to junk food costs UK £268bn  year - Denis Campbell, Guardian - 2024.

Reference 4: The False Economy of Big Food and the case for a new food economy - Tim Jackson, Food Farming & Countryside Commission - 2024

Reference 5: https://ffcc.co.uk/. 'An independent charity, we were set up in 2017 to help shape the future of food and farming, land use and the countryside. Our purpose is to bring together people and ideas from different perspectives to find the practical and radical solutions which also tackle the climate, nature, health and economic crises of our time. We curate the latest research and evidence, involve citizens in deliberations, and tell the inspiring stories of people taking action in their businesses and communities'. Further evidence of the impressive penetration of the word 'curate', unheard of 20 years ago outside of museums.

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Jackson_(economist). Looks like a respectable pedigree. And he writes plays.

Reference 7: https://little-fish.uk/.

Group search key: trolleysk.

Trainer time

I have been going with two pairs of my trusty Merrell branded trainers. Known as Moab 3, made in Vietnam and I am pleased to say that the identical trainers, which have served me well, have been going for years. Long may they last!

However, they don't last for ever and both pairs were getting a bit down at heel, one quite badly, which I dare say was not doing my feet any good. So time for at least one new pair.

Cotswold Outdoor as efficient as ever, with trainers ordered online early Sunday evening turning up before noon on Monday. The pair top left have now been dumped - I think not recycled given their tricky composition - and the laces, which seems as good as new, are on their way to my stash of same. Perhaps, in time, to do their time holding my stick to the back of Bullingdons. For which see reference 1. Previous purchase, just about a year ago noticed at the beginning of reference 2.

The trainers have now had their first outing, reminding me that one of their virtues is that they do not need breaking in, in the way of trainers of old. But my heels did feel a bit funny at first, presumably being pushed back into their proper positions.

The only fly in the ointment had been checking my old email in gmail to check what size I bought. Gmail turned up all the old emails OK, but unless one took care with the search key, the results were swamped by junk mail from some people called Wowcher. They don't seem to appear in my live email anymore, but I one point I did, foolishly, allow them to send me stuff.

Companies House offer me a thirty page report, in the depths of which I notice that Wowcher is owned by Excalibur Holdco. Companies House offer me a forty page report for them, from which I glean very little, beyond their having the same address in Dalston as the company they are supposed to own. While Wikipedia tells me that Wowcher was sold on to the DMG Group in 2011, the people responsible for the Daily Mail. Although, according to Acrobat, the string 'dmg' does not appear among the forty pages.

Enough. Let's hope that I have not poked Wowcher back into life.

PS: if I had built a money making business and wanted to sell out for a quiet life, would I sell to the Daily Mail? I suppose the answer is yes, but then I was never in the money making business. And logic tells us that you can infer anything from a premise which is false. For which see the anecdote at reference 6.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/10/morley-college.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/10/mainly-sonatas.html.

Reference 3: https://www.wowcher.co.uk/deals/london.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wowcher.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMG_Media.

Reference 6: https://www.nku.edu/~longa/classes/mat385_resources/docs/russellpope.html.

Property for sale

I have noticed the garage conversion project in Hook Road from time to time, perhaps for the first time at reference 2 and most recently at reference 3. It has now turned up at Bernard Marcus at reference 1.

Possibly due to some quirk of the postal system rather than error, it has been assigned to the next-door Chase Road rather than to Hook Road proper. But more important, I have learned that it is an upside-down house, with most of the bedrooms downstairs and the living area (with balcony) upstairs.

Described as new-build, while in gmaps today it is still rather old-build, with the image there being dated 2022 and looking very like that from 2020 to be found at reference 2. This last being a day which was notable for dropping the BH car key in a muddy car park (without noticing at the time) and then going back some time later to find that it was still there.

The bend in the road rail hasn't changed!

PS 1: there is a kind, if rather depressing, review of the book by Rory Stewart noticed at reference 5, in the New York Review of Books at reference 4, marking the publication of the US edition. Is the sort of decent, representative, party politics which served us well enough during the second half of the 20th century falling apart in the new one? Not least under the onslaught of digital rubbish and worse?

PS 2: and I had thought that the Greens were a bunch of duffel-coat wearing, middle-aged eco-warriors. But it turns out that they are really a bunch of nimbies, dropping leaflets through doors about how awful it is that Epsom want to build some more houses. But there is not much to reference 7 and it does not seem to contain the offending leaflet.

PS 3: next to the piece about Stewart in the NYRB, there was a piece about the 19th wheat business in Algeria, giving me the impression that France was a big importer of Algerian wheat at that time. However, other sources, including references 8 and 9, suggest that while pre-colonial Algeria was self-sufficient in food, that has ceased to be the case and Algeria is now a big importer of wheat, a lot of it Russian. On the other hand, the Algerians did step up to the plate when France had serious trouble with its vines in the late 19th century. Perhaps part of the story is the ruler of Algeria, the Dey, nominally subordinate to the Sultan in Constantinople, was selling wheat from his lands to the French, at the expense of his own people, who went hungry. To be fair, there are now a lot more of them.

PS 4: I learn this evening that LSO St. Luke's is going to shut for getting on for a year for a major refit. Given that I quite like the place as it is, I do hope that they know what they are doing. I remember a correspondent who used to get in quite a wax about how it was easy enough to get funds for capital projects for the arts - but next to impossible to get funds to help meet running costs. So will they be able to afford to put on decent lunch time concerts in their shiny new venue? Will they dare push ticket prices up a bit - from their current rather low levels? And what am I going to do about the fine bacon sandwiches to be had from the Market Restaurant in Whitecross Street?

References

Reference 1: https://www.barnardmarcus.co.uk/properties/20078519/sales/EPS109053.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/01/herald-copse.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/11/trolley-741.html.

Reference 4: A feigned reluctance - Jonathan Freedland, NYRB - 2024. Freedland is a journalist with the Guardian.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/10/politics-on-edge.html.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-places-in-between.html.

Reference 7: https://molevalley.greenparty.org.uk/.

Reference 8: Is wheat self-sufficiency in Algeria a myth? - Bahia Bouchafaa, Hanya Kherchi-Medjden, Khaled Rouaski - 2023. To be found at  https://armgpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/5_SEC_1_2023-1.pdf.

Reference 9: Invading the Village Common: the Origins of Algeria’s Modern Rural Crisis, 1870-1914 - Peter Von Sivers - 1987. University of Utah. A rather different sort of study. To be found at https://www.persee.fr/doc/mom_0295-6950_1987_act_2_1_3788.

Reference 10: https://www.lso.co.uk/about-us/lso-st-lukes/future-ready/.

Trolleys 761 & 762

Friday, as noticed at reference 2, was furniture moving day in the study, which knocked out the morning circuit. But, having recovered from that, an afternoon circuit produced four trolleys scoring two.

Two from the M&S food hall - the second being off-snap to the right - and two from B&M. The second being just about visible to the right of the concrete pillar, by the back entrance to the Cappadocia restaurant. Kokoro Passage, naturally.

Home via the Screwfix underpass to a fluky win at Scrabble, scraping home by a couple of points or so. Combined score something over 500 but well short of 600, which last we do not seem to make very often. Most recently April just past, as noticed at reference 3.

PS: 38 trolleys to go to hit the end year target. An average of around one a day seems a bit strong, but I suppose it is worth giving it go.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/11/trolley-760.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/11/trolley-758.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/a-flawed-victory.html.

Keeping trim

Feeling the need to keep in training, following the bad-back outage, a run from Clapham Junction to Waterloo. There was also a requirement to return the three, more or less new, French comic books (noticed at reference 3) to the platform library at Raynes Park. Composting them down did not seem right.

First leg, Clapham Junction to Vauxhall, where I took a comfort break. Second leg, Vauxhall to Waterloo. On the way in, down York Road, I noticed a slightly scruffy look place calling itself a Polish Kitchen. But the Bullingdon stand on the left a bit further on was full, so I pushed on to the ramp, making it a fair step back to the Kitchen. So I stopped at the All-Bar-One for one of their paellas, to find that they had changed the menu and that paellas had fallen off. I chose something chicken that was on the menu to find that was off too. At which point, I cut my losses and pushed on to the Polish Kitchen, that is to the say place at reference 2.

Just before I got there, I passed a drunk, passed out, more or less in the middle of York Road. Or perhaps a druggie, or perhaps just a worn out indigent. Luckily a lady was in attendance and a paramedic - a lady in a pickup of all things - was very nearly there. No need for me to do anything.

Big plate - kiełbasa sausage in a roll with chips, little plate and beer. Little plate came with the big plate and entitled you to a go at the salad trolley. I took beetroot (good) and a couple of small gherkins (not so good).

Beer excellent. My first pint of beer in a very long time. Or, at least, 500ml.

Sausage substantial. Much better bread than is usual in such a dish, at least in this country. With onions, the melted cheese suggested was quite unnecessary. Presumably the sausage was a relative of the ones noticed at reference 4.

A substantial and very reasonably priced snack. Along with maybe a dozen others, under one of the Eurostar arches, in a place which was clearly geared up to process much larger numbers of people.

Pushing back towards Waterloo, I found myself in the graffiti tunnel, a huge spaces under the arches given over to a dynamic display of higher grade graffiti. A bit smelly with all the fresh spray paint, but clearly the sort of place which has featured in the Guardian weekend arts supplement.

Then there was a big Brewdog operation and an even bigger Wetherspoon's. Various other eateries, then it all faded into vacant slots and concrete emptiness as one got nearer Waterloo Station. What they are pleased to call the Sidings and what they clearly hope is going to turn into another Kings Cross or London Bridge.

Caught a train to Raynes Park, along with a small party of 15 year old (?) school girls with their teacher - who confiscated the phone of one of the girls for some phone-flavoured infraction or other. Another of the girls was fooling around with a rather nice looking apple, only to leave it neatly on the floor when they left at Earlsfield. None the worse for wear as far as I could see, so gathered up.

I thought maybe a private school, so asked Bing, who on the key 'private girls school earlsfield', gave me a school in Bath at the top of the list. Next up was a private special needs school in Earlsfield for those of primary age. Barely in the frame. Decided I was not that interested and gave up on that one.

Returned the comics, taking the September number of 'drinks business' in exchange. I share a couple of snippets.

Texans and Texan bars have taking to adding salt to their beer - it seeming that salt is a good way to improve the flavour of an otherwise nondescript beer. Also a good way, I imagine, to get you to drink more of it - a trick that was already known to the author of reference 5, in which I think it appears.

And the fancy wine noticed at reference 5 looks cheap compared with a fancy whisky being released by Balvenie. A limited edition of 125 bottles at maybe £50,000 a go. But it is 50% and does come with a 14ct gold display stand. What a con! Talk about the emperor's new clothes. See reference 6.

Home to a spot of macaroni cheese and what were perhaps the first Brussel's sprouts of the season. Plus tinned peach halves.

PS 1: I dare say this whisky costs a lot to make, and a lot more to pack, distribute and market. But it is still a very expensive way to get plastered.

PS 2: viewing the above snaps in picture mode is still playing up. And the invisible 'X' (top right to exit) now seems to be absent altogether.

References

Reference 1: https://brewdog.com/.

Reference 2: https://mamuska.net/.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/11/schumann.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/09/lidl.html.

Reference 5: The Good Soldier Švejk - Jaroslav Hašek - 1921–1923.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/11/trolley-745.html. 

Reference 7: https://www.thebalvenie.com/.