psmv5: Disaster

For the first time for months, I have been charged a Bullingdon supplement for breaking the 30 minute limit, a supplement which takes the total charge for the day to £4. I don't think there is any kind of annual rental for my key, so at least the charge for the day does not have to include its share of that.

The day in question was cold and damp, with a suggestion that it might rain, so it seemed best to carry my portable umbrella from Ottawa, a souvenir of our trip there back in 2014, so I shall be sorry when it finally conks out, not that it is showing any signs of wear yet and I still have the original bag. With the topical reference 1 being another souvenir. Which also reminds me that cameras in telephones have come on a bit since 2014. And where the talk of dual language prompts the suggestion that the Russians and Ukrainians should send a joint mission to Canada to find out how they deal with the vexed question of mixed language there. Now, I think, more or less sorted out after various troubles in the past.

On the way out, I dealt with the trolley which I had noticed the day before. See reference 2.

I then eyed the advertisement involving a horse from Lloyd's bank, the one that tells me that the black horse will always be with me if I sign up with them. Which prompted the thought that horses do not live very long, so perhaps Lloyd's are pushing it a bit. Checking, I find that 30 years is a long life for a horse. Contrariwise, it is unlikely that I will last that much longer, so perhaps their horse would be with me for what is left of my life.

Not much masking on the train and no Bullingdons at all at what is left of the once busy stand in Grant Road, on the northern side of the tracks at Clapham Junction. But the stand at Falcon Road did my business, and so off to the A3205 and Battersea Park Road. Where I got the buzz of a near miss from a blue VW beetle No.368 outside what I think used to be Battersea College, the place where the young FIL did a bit of night school at some point.

It took a few minutes to check, but I think the story is that it has been known as both Westminster College, Battersea and the Battersea Polytechnic Institute, it is a Grade II listed building (No.206986) and has now been converted into flats. Which explains the lack of the signage you would expect from a building that still did education.

Just past the Dogs' Home, I was surprised to get a fine view of the Shard to the East. Checking this morning, I find the spot in Street View and I have learned that the Street View vans work nights, in which case the image can be rather degraded. Rather dark and grainy, although it does not appear to be raining. But I think that it is the Shard in the middle of the snap.

Also surprised at the lack of signage outside the shiny new Battersea Power Station Tube. You were told that it was a tube station, but not which one. Which seemed odd.

Then we had 'The Duchess Belle' which looked as if it must have been quite a place in its time. Probably still worth a visit. Must factor that in to my next expedition to the area. No idea how old the snap above is.

Hung a right into Thessaly Road which took me between the Nine Elms Market and a big, old-style council estate. Old-style enough that it could still carry a reasonably healthy looking block of shops, which is more than can be said for a lot of the estates around Epsom.

Then having gone on about Springfields at reference 3, I come across another one at the Wandsworth Road. But beware: according to their website, Sunday evening worship has been plagued out. Unlike the people at reference 4, they presumably do not believe that our Lord will take care of his own.

The weights and measures shop in Wilcox Road. It would be fun to own a butcher's beam balance to cope with things - like joints from the butcher - that are two big for our kitchen scales. But then, they didn't seem to have one of those, and in any event, I suspect they would cost far more than I ought to be spending on a contraption which I would get out once in a blue moon. Even at a car boot sale. Pity about the reflection. Better luck next time.

The very nearly full stand at Teversham Lane. Although not clear why a stand in a remote part of the South Lambeth Road should be full. If nothing else, it suggests that stand maintenance during the day is not what it might be.

Snapped at the Canton. Seats old enough to have been shaped to fit - not something that modern chairs are likely to bother with.

Then, having my duffel coat, made from wool and looking rather substantial, I mused about the way that Simenon quite often notices quality English cloth. While the suits from our late lamented fancy gents outfitter in Epsom sold mainly German suits. Or very expensive tweeds from Scotland. And while I think of it, a lot of photographs on the Belfast (of reference 5) featured men in duffel coats - where I wondered about how wind proof the toggled-up front would seem in the Arctic. With the wind well able to cut into mine here in Epsom.

Moved onto calf's liver at the Estrela. Calf's liver on toast, the best such liver I recall having had. Really very good indeed. And on this occasion, I remembered to bring the unusual bottle back home with me as a souvenir. It stands on the window sill in front of me as I type this, along with another unusual bottle from Newlands Corner. Finding the reference to that one is left as an exercise for the bored reader.

More Vauxhall skyscape. Including, on this occasion, the end of the public house, now with a Brazilian rather than pint of your best flavour, where I first learned about slow roast oxtail.

More of same.

A drug dealer, heading for the lush pastures of Stockwell and Brixton? No point in having it if you don't flash it about.

Firmly shut, which was a pity as judging from the exterior, the interior would have been interesting, not to say impressive. Surprised to find that it was C of E rather than something more exotic, not that the website at reference 6 is much into architecture.

Spot of Monkey Shoulder at the Half Way House at Earlsfield, with the front bar busy with a Mum & baby group. One very cute toddler who was being very busy with her baby brother. Helping him to learn to walk, feeding him and so forth. Mum explained that this was the consequence of the four year gap. Just about right for that sort of thing. Plus the right arrangement of sexes.

Acquired a picture book about Judy Garland from the Raynes Park Platform Library. Of some interest in that we had watched a film about her fairly recently. Twice even.

Down the passage to TB for one for the road, as they used to say. Where things were a touch camp. A far cry from the days, maybe thirty years ago, when it used to be 'Gigi's', a sort of cocktail lounge, with a very attractive local girl as manager. She once told me that she found it a bit hard to be firm with people she had shared a playground with and she eventually moved to Hampshire to manage a house down there.

It seemed odd to be in a place which I had been using since before most of the present staff had been born and who would probably have no interest in my memories of that time. Perhaps it made me feel old.