Wellingtonia 82

Another out of sequence Wellingtonia, with this one, chronologically, being between No.80 and No. 81. I dare say that now I have transferred a missing block of snaps from my telephone to my laptop, by hand, things will soon be back to normal. OneDrive does seem to have trouble when, for some reason or another, it misses a chunk of synchronisation at the proper time, that is to say overnight, then fails to pick it up later.

This snap being taken from the town side of the yard of the church of St. Andrew of Chippenham, looking towards the confusingly named St. Mary Street below and the River Avon further below.

This one from a slightly different angle and complete with fragment of umbrella top left. With a fine cedar to the immediate right of the Wellingtonia.

I think the yellow stone serves as a communal marker for people whose ashes are in the vicinity. An arrangement which is both dignified and sensible - at least for those who care to be laid to rest in consecrated ground.

PS: regarding St. Mary, I can find nothing about this church having once been dedicated to St. Mary and the only church of St. Mary that I can find is a Catholic church on the other side of town. So the mystery of St. Mary Street remains a mystery.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/wellingtonia-81.html.

Group search key: wgc.

Week five plus

The putative Ohio Buckeyes have not made much progress in the getting on for two months since I last reported on them (at reference 1). Not very triffid at all.

The small one at the back has more or less succumbed, while the two larger ones at the front seem to have got stuck at the four leaf stage. The lead buds, if indeed they are present at all, are small and not doing anything. Do I have to wait for next spring for more action? Was the initial spurt of growth fuelled by the nut, then given the hard, unforgiving clay, nothing further doing? Do Buckeyes like softer, sandy soil? Down in the many bottom lands of the Ohio river? Do they like more sun than they are going to get in this shady corner, overlooked by both oak and willow?

And then, in just the past few days, the two larger ones got hit by the drought. I think I noticed in time to get the left hand one back, but the right hand one might be fatally damaged.

PS: perhaps more so than the the older of the two Baby Blues, which has now lost of lot of older needles, after I failed to notice its need for water. But there is new growth and I dare say it will survive.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/05/week-four.html.

Group search key: tff.

Wellingtonia 81

Chronologically being scored before Wellingtonia 80, with this one being scored on the outward journey, that one being scored on the return journey a couple of days later.

Scored on Black Dog Hill, a little to the west of Calne, in Wiltshire. With the gate which might have allowed closer contact being very firmly shut. But at least one could pull in off the main road.

Possibly a back entrance onto the Bowood Estate of references 2 and 3, possibly the main entrance to a separate establishment called Buck Hill House, possibly intended for the dowager, the younger son or something of that sort. Maybe even the steward of the estate. In any event, reference 4 makes it clear that the property is within the Bowood Estate. An estate which runs to a pinetum and fancy gardens. 

Perhaps a place to be visited on another occasion, a stately home which is open to the public but which has, nevertheless, escaped the grasp of the National Trust.

PS 1: during my time with the Home Office, I sometimes used to stay at Wootton Bassett, now Royal Wootton Bassett. We now find that there are various Bassett flavoured places in the vicinity, including the Bassett's Moor in the the middle of the snap above. Was there a Count of Bassett who came over with the Bastard and gave his name to the various places in Wiltshire which were his reward for services rendered at the Battle of Hastings?

PS 2: and while I am on the subject, one of BH's paternal forebears had a shop in Wootton Bassett, with a picture of same once turning up in a picture book about the place.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/wellingtonia-80.html.

Reference 2: https://www.bowood.org/bowood-hotel-resort/.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowood_House.

Reference 4: https://www.bowood.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Buckhill-House-particulars-21.pdf.

Group search key: wgc.

Wellingtonia 80

Captured on the way home this afternoon, on the A4, on the eastern outskirts of Calne in Wiltshire.

Quite a good looking tree in the snap above, taken from Wessington Court, more or less opposite. 

Given that my short term memory not been great the last couple of days, I took the precaution of snapping the name of this bit of the A4, Quemerford, a sufficiently unusual name that gmaps had no trouble confirming that we were indeed in Calne. The view of the tree offered by Street View from Wessington Court, from 2009, is not very good at all, although it does suggest that there might be two of them. Something to be checked on the next occasion. Plus  Street View itself is not behaving very well just there, perhaps thrown by the junction of film from 2009 in the Court and film from 2021 in Quemerford.

In any event, this tree makes up in some part, for the tree I thought I saw on my right as we entered Calne from the other side, that is to say the west. A tree which I did not stop for and which I cannot now find in Street View. Something else to be checked on the next occasion.

PS: I read this afternoon that the US Supreme Court has opened the door to religion in their public schools (that is to say the ones paid for by the taxpayer, rather than those paid for by the rich, as in this country), thus breaking the longstanding separation of state and church, which many had thought was built into their Constitution. The right wing judges clearly thought otherwise. A right wing which now appears to be a coalition of coal lovers, gun lovers (the bigger the better), abortion haters and Jesus lovers. One supposes that a Muslim teacher who wants to say prayers in a public school would not get much traction, his constitutional right to the free exercise of his religion notwithstanding.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/wellingtonia-79.html.

Group search key: wgc.

Ummm

I got a viewing of a flashy black Tesla Model X SUV yesterday, complete with what Tesla are pleased to call falcon wing doors, fully extended. Bing suggests that such a thing might cost you £90,000, roughly nine times what we paid for our Ford. On the other hand, apart from the silly doors, you have a state of the art entertainment system to amuse you on the road and the top speed is said to be around 150mph, handy for popping around the M25 from Epsom to Heathrow.

To my mind, a bit rum, given the state that the world is in, that we should be building and buying such things. Is it any wonder that quite a lot of people in other parts of the world think that we in the west have gone badly wrong, have taken the wrong road? While, at the same time, quite a lot of other people are risking life and limb to join in, to try for a slice of western pie. Nowt as queer as folk, as they say up north.

And while we are on rum, a bit rum that around 9% of our young men are economically inactive, that is to say between the ages of 18 and 24, not being educated, not working and not looking for work. Is is video games, selling drugs, stealing cars, mental health or lack of decent employment? While young women, some of whom might well have preferred to stay at home to mind their children, are getting more active. A lot of them, probably, in low paid work that young men do not care for. Perhaps care work. See reference 5 - which closes with a plea to return to the (publicly funded) employment exchanges of old. Very lefty of them. One can also go to ONS at reference 6, who look to know all about it, although I did not, in the few seconds I gave to the search, come up with a graphic as neat as that above.

PS: Microsoft are fully awake, are on my case. Following yesterday's post which features a Treehouse hotel, advertisements for same have already started feeding through into references 1 and 2. Along with the rather more modestly priced Sykes Holidays, the people who take us to Dartmoor.

References

Reference 1: https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/tesla-model-x-762bhp-7-seat-electric-gullwing-suv.

Reference 2: https://www.motorbiscuit.com/otherworldly-tesla-model-3-electrifies-consumer-reports-top-10-2021/.

Reference 3: https://www.tesla.com/. A very glossy website, particularly for the more expensive models, but I couldn't find anything about falcon wing or gull wing doors.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/03/tesla-comes-to-town.html. Tesla arrived in our bit of Epsom more than three years ago. And this one is still there, as glossy as new.

Reference 5: Young men are slipping quietly through the economy’s cracks: A positive employment trend for young women masks a rise in the proportion of inactive young men - Sarah O'Connor, Financial Times - 2022. 28th June.

Reference 6: https://www.ons.gov.uk/.

Treetops

A week ago to town to hear the new-to-us Agate Quartet (from France) give us Haydn (Op.20 No.2) and Beethoven (Op.130 with Op.133 ending, aka Grosse Fuge). This last being a work which we must have heard many times - although counting them up since 2006 is left an exercise for readers.

A cool and overcast day, which made a pleasant change from the excess heat preceding. But still no rain, at least not even to notice.

Had to grapple with slight changes to the train timetable, with times of the Waterloo trains moving from 19 to 23 and 49 to 53. All a but much for the older brain - so just as well that it had cooled down.

Train fairly quiet, tube a bit busier and hot. We have noticed before that the Victoria Line runs very warm between Vauxhall and Oxford Circus. Wouldn't like to get stuck on it. Oxford Circus quiet at around 10:45. But All Bar One was up and running, with smarties, even if the service was a little slower than usual.

Striking yellow and green flowers in the fairly full Wigmore Hall. A colour mix which was well attuned to the dark brown joinery. And probably involved some flower dyeing.

Music very good - including a power rendering from the young team of the Grosse Fuge. But at a little over an hour, quite enough for one session.

Something going on in what we took to be the garden of the Langham Hotel. Lots of filmy people up to something. But none of them near enough to tell us what was going on.

From where we pushed on to the Pizzeria Mozza, a place first visited back at the end of April and noticed at reference 4. An appendage to the Treehouse Hotel next door. Rather busier than on our last visit. We noticed a sitting at the bar option, overlooking the food preparation and cooking, for which there were at least two takers. Good quality napkins and cutlery.

A fine wine, from Soave, a suburb of Mantua, roughly half way between Milan and Venice. The people at reference 5. More of their sour dough toast, soaked in butter and garlic. For me a good looking pizza, but a little highly flavoured. To my mind, they were trying a bit to hard to have unusual toppings to their pizzas. But the pizza bases were good and my pizza was nicely cooked. BH settled for her usual chicken salad. Staff pleasant and attentive without being intrusive.

We asked if we would be allowed to take our coffee in the roof top bar of the hotel adjacent. After some palaver this did indeed prove to be possible, although we did have to check out of the restaurant, be escorted into the hotel and then check into the roof top bar - to which we took the special, non-stop lift. Everyone was very pleasant about it, but I thought a touch patronising. We were there on sufferance, by special permission. We were expected to spend and we were not expected to stay. We were clearly not quite the right sort of people. But there were very fine views in most directions.

The choice of whisky. I went for Redbreast, which I don't think I have had before. Very satisfactory.

Much gin palaver. Mr. Sipsmith is clearly doing very well for himself - and hopefully make enough to be able to retire in comfort when the alcofashionistas move on to the next thing.

While the fashion in the washrooms was for naked copper with lots of compression joints. Quite a business to fit neatly, with copper scratching very easily.  Very easy, for example, to leave wrench marks on the joints. For which reason, if exposed, always painted when I was young.

I forgot to ask whether smoking was permitted on the outdoor terrace. I would guess in certain parts only, if at all. This despite being right up in the open air with lots of breeze, not to say wind and rain.

On the floor below there was a Mexican restaurant, possibly the source of the trickle of very flashily dressed young ladies visible from where we had been sat. I wonder now how such a restaurant makes a living, so far away from the passing trade on the pavement. Maybe the answer is that they charge a great deal.

Complemented by a change of bird in the lobby. One supposes that there is a special place down in the basement where they have a range of them, plus refurbishment and repair facilities.

Two genuine Minis heading for Oxford Circus, not the things which mostly pass for Minis these days. Seemingly on some sort of event and branded 'SCBC'. Tracked down to reference 7. Entrance to the posh boozer called the Wigmore visible right. Probably part of the Langham Hotel. Closed on Sundays.

And so to the train to Dorking from Vauxhall. Note the building on the left, a building on which the accommodation people in the Treasury did a lot of work, it being intended as a temporary home while Treasury Chambers was privatised and refurbished. But Gordon Brown arrived at a bad moment and declared that he had not waited twenty years to be Chancellor to be shipped off to the wilds of Vauxhall, miles and miles from the corridors of power. Work scrapped.

Work in which I was peripherally involved, supervising the preparation of detailed digital plans of Treasury Chambers. Ably assisted by an able young lady from the US, picked up from some agency in Victoria Street. I remember the change of tone when I explained to the agency that I was hiring rather than seeking work. Perhaps I was already a bit old for the latter.

Big Ben just visible in the middle of the snap, next to the green traffic light.

As it turned out, no rain all day.

PS: slightly too late for this visit, a correspondent has reminded me of Morse's plaque above the All Soul's clubhouse in Cleveland Street, a little to the east of the Treehouse,. An outpost of the church across the road from the Treehouse, a place where I could go to Jesus and do stuff. Not the Morse from Oxford, rather the painter and inventor from the US, the chap who invented the Morse code. And having had a quick peek at Wikipedia I find that there was a quite a lot to be done to make the telegraph work, apart from inventing a suitable code, and that quite a few other people were trying to solve the various technical problems. But he did win out in the end. Something to be inspected on the next occasion.

References

Reference 1: https://en.quatuoragate.com/. The quartet.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/02/artemis.html. The last outing for the Grosse Fuge. Noticed on that special day, 29th February.

Reference 3: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2010/05/beethoven.html. The first recording outing.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/05/april-cello.html.

Reference 5: https://www.coffele.it/.

Reference 6: https://www.scbc.org.uk/. Bing's top hit for 'scbc'. For the love of Jesus. Barking up the wrong tree altogether.

Reference 7: https://smallcarbigcity.com/. The right tree. And a registration plate nut: all the cars seem to have 'LDN' as the second half.

Reference 8: https://www.treehousehotels.com/london. The place with the roof.

Reference 9: https://allsouls.org/Groups/362840/Services/All_Souls_Cleveland/All_Souls_Cleveland.aspx. The place with the plaque.

Cruising to the breaker's yard

I was intrigued today to read of two giant cruise liners which are in trouble, Global Dream I and Global Dream II, the first of these being 90% built, the second 33%. They might not have been the biggest liners in the world, but they would have carried the most passengers - 9,500 plus 2,200 crew.

I imagine that the ultimate cause is the collapse of cruising during the plague, but the proximate cause is the bankruptcy of the German ship builder and the sale of the yard in which they are being built to another ship builder, Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, who want the yard vacated for naval work. That is to say the union of Thyssen (an early supporter of Hitler) and Krupp (of Big Bertha fame), for which see reference 4.

It seems that these ships were being built for the Asian market, the requirements for which are significantly different from those for the European market - and partly for this reason it is proving hard to find someone who will take them on. Global Dream I may survive but it looks as if Global Dream II is headed for the breakers.

With one of the features of the Asian market appearing to be the distinctive decorations of the hulls.

A quick look at the some of the fleets sold through reference 3, suggests that you get about 20 years out of one of these ships, during which time there is apt to be at least one refurbishment. Which makes it sound like an expensive business. In any case, definitely not for me.

PS: references 2 and 3 strike me as rather crude considering the prices of cruises. But plenty of YouTube suggesting that there will be plenty of clubbing available for pretty young people; a sort of floating Ibiza. Not the stuff of reference 5 at all.

References

Reference 1: https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/mv-werften-liquidator-still-seeks-buyer-for-global-dream.

Reference 2: http://www.dreamcruisespackage.com/. The once intended home for these ships. The source of the snap above.

Reference 3: http://www.vacation-hub.com/.

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

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/search?q=fch.

Oranges from Sainsbury's

Yesterday it was washing up liquid. Today it is oranges.

Now at Kiln Lane we might have a Tier 1 Sainsbury's supermarket with some huge number of checkouts, but they are not that good at fruit and vegetables. Generally speaking, they do have them but the quality is rather variable.

And earlier in the week, there was not much in the way of oranges at all, just nets of four 'taste the difference'. The level above 'basics'. This morning the net was supposed to provide me with my breakfast orange. The first one I tried was suspiciously light and had a very thick skin. It was dried out and inedible. The second, much the same. The third much the same - at which point I gave up.

Decorated with three unripe walnuts from one of the small trees in the hedge running between the path connecting TB with the railway station and Court Recreation Ground.

PS: and while I am on, I might as well mention apples. Apples which I imagine at this time of year have been stored for months in some atmosphere and temperature controlled warehouse and which are sometimes surprisingly good. But this one was not. It was perfectly sound on the outside, but the interior contained isolated blobs of brown, about the size of peas, in the otherwise sound, white flesh. Cut them out and the apple was quite eatable, if a little winey.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/watching-out-for-customer.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/09/walnut-tree-confirmed.html. One of the other walnut trees. What are they doing there? Who planted them?

Watching out for the customer

We have long been familiar with the waxing and waning of bars of chocolate in response to movements in the prices of the ingredients, particularly cocoa beans.

This morning we were alerted to the same phenomenon in washing up liquid. It so happens that Sainsbury's own brands are a lot less visible than they were before the onset of the plague, with one result being that BH is buying genuine Fairy Liquid rather than some own brand alternative. Bottle No.1 contained 383ml, while the almost identical bottle No. 2, a few weeks later, contained 340ml. While today Wilko do 443ml online, as snapped above.

One supposes that the Sainsbury marketing people have worked out that sales hold up better if people are not aware of price rises. Also that people like see-through bottles to look full - unlike tins of fish which are usually sold half empty. So this price rise has been contained by making the bottle slightly smaller all round. One imagines that in the olden days, changing the size of the bottle in this way would have been an expensive and time consuming business, but maybe nowadays with computers getting everywhere, such changes can be made by pressing a few buttons.

But still wasteful, in part because of the costs involved in changing the size of the bottle, but also because customers cannot respond in a rational way to price changes because they have been made more or less invisible. In a more lefty world, with washing up liquid sold by some fossilised & nationalised industry, the bosses would not have too much regard to what customers thought and would have just changed the price and left the bottle alone. Capitalism might produce the goods but there are some not so good side effects.

On a quite different tack, I have a new problem with Wellingtonias. A few days ago, we watched an episode of the Inspector Gently saga called 'Gently with Honour'. An episode which appeared to feature an impressive avenue of Wellingtonia. An avenue which must be up north somewhere, probably quite near the River Tyne, because shots of the avenue include the distinctive car which appears in places like Durham, and it is unlikely that this car would have been sent down south just for this shot. And being a fairly old saga, unlikely that the car would have been dubbed into some pre-existing shot of a suitable avenue

[Perhaps its most famous feature is the beautiful avenue of nearly 200 year old Californian giant redwoods which lead from the A68 up to the house]

The people at reference 1 were quite helpful, first turning up an avenue in Scotland (reference 2) which failed because there did not seem to be a road running down the middle. And second an avenue in a monastery, Minsteracres Monastery off the A68. A little to the south west of Newcastle upon Tyne the location is good, it has a road and is not yet ruled out, but it is not yet confirmed either. Further investigation needed, perhaps even a visit. 

References

Reference 1a: https://www.monumentaltrees.com/.

Reference 1b: https://www.monumentaltrees.com/en/gbr-giantsequoia/england/.

Reference 2: https://www.rbge.org.uk/visit/benmore-botanic-garden/.

Reference 3: https://www.minsteracres.org/. 'We are a Christian place of prayer with a resident community of Roman Catholic Passionist priests, nuns and lay people. The presence of the community gives the centre a homely atmosphere and provides a spirit of prayer and hospitality'.

Trolley 519

These two trolleys were collected from between two of the street food sheds at the entrance to Ebbisham Square. Among several others and a number of fast food delivery drivers. Returned to the food hall at M&S, via the Ashley Centre entrance.

Prior to collecting the trolleys, I had been paying a visit to the library to see if they had a Pevsner for Dorset, which as it turned out they did. The problem being a church at a place called Long Bredy containing a painting which neither Bing nor Google seemed to know anything about. And as it turned out, neither did Pevsner, although he did know about Long Bredy, a relative of the Littlebredy of reference 2. And I now know that there is plenty of stuff to go and inspect there.

I also now know that Penguin have sold the Pevsner rights to Yale University Press, who appeared to have reissued them in a slightly larger format, with colour pictures, rather than the black and white of old. The pages have changed shape, so one supposes that they have been reset, rather more of a business than a photographic reproduction. An important bit of our print heritage departed to parts foreign. 

And rather than being printed by William Clowes and Sons Ltd of London, Beccles and Colchester, we now have an anonymous printer in China.

Furthermore, I had thought that all Penguins were printed by Richard Clay of Bungay (a town in Suffolk, not that far from Beccles), but checking I find that this is not so. Worse, this company may no longer exist and Penguin seem to use, or at least have used, a number of other printers, including as well as the Clowes just mentioned, Hazel, Watson and Viney Ltd of Aylesbury and London. This last became the British Printing Corporation but got mixed up with Maxwell (the father of the notorious Ghislaine) and is now lost from sight.

Back through the underpass by Screwfix at Blenheim Road, to find that someone had already moved the trolley parked up opposite the Ford Centre, noticed a day or so previously. Is it now in one of the industrial sized dustbins scattered about the industrial estate or has another trolley walker arrived on the scene?

Onto Manor Green Road where an industrial sized mobile crane was parked in someone's front drive. I should have asked the driver what lift he was on. The last such thing, in our own road, was rather bigger and was for a hot tub, then all the rage. See reference 3.

Closed the proceedings with the fake of reference 4.

PS: somehow, Ordnance Survey managed to drop my subscription to their (very superior) map service, despite my having been a subscriber for some years. Not the sort of thing that ought to happen. Let's hope I have not now paid twice. Let's hope also that they get around to providing a better entry point to the service than the one they offer just presently. Even HMRC do better.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/trolley-518.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/08/littlebredy.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/07/big-bath-2.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/fake-145.html.

Group search key: trolleysk.

One segment

Following my remarks about fusion a few days ago at reference 1, I was pleased to get some pictures this afternoon of the first of the nine segments making up the heart of the ITER Tokamak (in the south of France) being lowered into place. A fairly tricky bit of heavy lifting it seems, not least because the inevitable pendulum swing of the segment is of the same order of magnitude as the clearance. In the snap above, more or less there.

Tokamaks were, I believe, invented in what was the Soviet Union and Russia is a big player in the ITER consortium. Let's hope that that is not a problem.

PS: I had forgotten that ITER is building a Tokamak. It's CERN which does 30km underground rings, aka accelerators.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/is-it-green.html.

Reference 2: https://www.iter.org/.

Reference 3: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2015/08/big-doughnuts.html. Earlier notice of same.

Fake 145

Another fake gate, although not as fake as the one noticed a couple of years ago at reference 2.

So we have a gate post (left) of white wood, that is to say some kind of pine, stained brown for durability. Then we have a gate (right), seemingly made of solid endangered species, that is to say some kind of tropical hardwood, with a new-to-me black hinge fitting above.

But the vertical element of the gate, immediately below the black fitting, is not solid at all, rather a composite, with two outer pieces and one or more inner pieces. Not sure whether the point of composite is that it is actually stronger than solid or whether it is just to avoid the bother of cutting mortices. Perhaps both?

While the thin lid, presumably intended to deter water from seeping into the joints of the composition, looks a bit silly. They might have done better to make a proper feature of it.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/fake-144.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/02/fake-99.html.

Group search key: fakesk.

Fake 144

The ivy growing up the railings of the church in Bryanston Place, noticed in the last post, reference 2, was faked. One might have thought that a church with such a fancy interior would do better on the exterior.

But then the Catholics are not shy about all kinds of clever visual effects. From where I associate to the view of the back of the altar to be found in the middle of the post at reference 3.

References 

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/05/fake-143.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/seymour-place.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/10/at-lyme-regis.html.

Group search key: fakesk.

Seymour Place

A week or so ago to Seymour Place, an early 19th century offshoot of Seymour Street, named for an heir to the Portman Estate, founded by Sir William Portman, Lord Chief Justice to King Henry VIII, but not build until the mid 18th century. I think no relation to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, aka Lord Protector, aka Viscount Beauchamp of Hache, aka Earl of Hertford. Executed as the loser in some religious flavoured political punch-up in 1552. The place was once home to a well known public baths, possibly now rebranded as the Seymour Leisure Centre. See reference 1.

Two amusements on the platform at Epsom. First, trying to do something about the chin strap of my cycle helmet. Given the way the strap has been assembled, not very successful. Not possible to get the thing to lying flat and snug to the jaw. Second, prompted by some overheard youthful conversation, trying to think of all the filler words we use in conversation. This one not very successful either, not getting further than umm, hmm, basically, literally and like. Perhaps some more will come to me this evening.

Very few Bullingdons on the ramp at Waterloo, but, as it happened there was one in working order at the pole position. For some reason, two of the four lanes of Waterloo Bridge were devoted to bicycles. Both Drury Lane and High Holborn full of more or less stationary cars. Emerging into New Oxford Street, struck by the spire of St. George's of Bloomsbury. Otherwise, according to Bing, the Beasts of Bloomsbury. See reference 2.

Closely followed, for no apparent reason by a rather different kind of beast.

Oxford Street busy too, with plenty of cycles and plenty of infractions. Took the last slot on the stand outside the Portuguese Consulate in Portman Place and proceeded to the Cock & Lion, it being the hour for an apéritif.  Irritated by the street litter somewhere near the Wigmore Hall. Why do we have to put up with it?

Amused the our Economic Secretary to the Treasury, the in-house moniker for whom is EST, thought himself sufficiently grand to have a personalised number plate on his official car. Which, as it happens, I had thought had been replaced  years ago by hire cars, the official car pool having been enormously expensive to run.

While at the Cock & Lion I noticed that the time zone clocks above the bar, last noticed three years previously at reference 3, were missing, although you could still see where they had been. I suppose I could have asked the barman, but being young, foreign and probably new, he would probably not have had a clue, even if he was able to work out what I was talking about.

Moving on past the lush and empty Portman Square. Given that the buildings around the square are no longer houses, not clear who gets a key. Guests at one of the swanky hotels? At least it is spared the tawdry sheds presently occupying Cavendish Square.

And so to Vinotec of Seymour Place, a rather more modest affair than the branch at King's Cross which we visited a couple of years ago in the course of a visit to Kings Place, noticed at reference 4. Will we ever visit either again? All seems a long way away now. But I do remember a splendid moon one evening, high over Coals Drop Yard, presumably a relic of the steam age.

The waiter was rather concerned that the wine I chose was too sweet and too warm. But a brand and a grape that I both know and like, and it served well enough. Makers of fine wine for more than 400 years. For which see reference 4. Finding the four notices in these pages is left as an exercise for the reader.

White bread much better than average. The black pudding was well enough, but it would have been better had they bothered to skin it before cooking it. And the bed of red lentils on which it was served would have been better hot than cold. The chicken which followed was good enough, but a few too many herbs for my palate. Moaning apart, a satisfactory meal and I would give the place another try.

Church of the Assumption in Bryanston Street firmly shut. Perhaps I should have tried the nearby West London Synagogue for a change, said by gmaps to include an Arts Café, which might be supposed to admit Gentiles, but that was not to be seen at reference 7.

No.16 bus to Victoria from the top of Park Lane. Unsightly decapitated horse at the bottom of Park Lane, which I had thought was at the top, but it would have been a bit of a performance to move it. Best melted down as far as I am concerned.

Almost scored two aeroplanes from inside the train at Clapham Junction, one to the west and one to the east. Might have done had I cared to get out and wait for the next train to Epsom. Also a fine view of the once grand grand.

Lots of football action on Court Recreation Ground when I passed through. Must have been hundreds of boys there, of various ages. All to do with the Epsom and Ewell football club. Good for them.

TB quiet but not empty at 18:30 or so. The day of the beer mats, already noticed at reference 8.

References

Reference 1: https://www.bathsandwashhouses.co.uk/archive/your-local-buildings/london/seymour-place-public-baths-st-marylebone/.

Reference 2: https://wmf.org.uk/Projects/st-georges-bloomsbury/. 'Nicholas Hawksmoor, protégé of Sir Christopher Wren, built six churches resulting from the 1711 Act of Parliament, which demanded 50 new churches in London. St. George’s Bloomsbury is his most idiosyncratic work, marrying baroque splendour with classical references, and topped by the most eccentric spire in London – an architectural gem and celebrated London landmark since its consecration in 1731, certainly one of the country’s most important churches'.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/06/trouts.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/04/kings-cross.html.

Reference 5: https://www.rollygassmann.fr/en/. Be patient: takes a while to load.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/11/via-sutton.html.

Reference 7: https://www.wls.org.uk/.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/preparations.html.

Gallions Reach

A story about a chap who has to cut and run from his job in some kind of a shipping company in the City of London, who ends up catching a ride on a steamer going to the Far East. The steamer goes down with modest loss of life after a storm in the Indian Ocean. The narrator winds up in Malaya on a hunt for tin in the jungle, from which he switches to trying to escort a famous but elderly ethnographer, on a hunt for the Garden of Eden (as it were), to safety. Ending up back in the Penang Hotel where he catches a ride home. Near 300 pages.

I now know that Penang is now a very busy and prosperous island off the west coast of Malaya, once a rival to Singapore. Also home to several world heritage sites. But no ‘Penang Hotel’ that I can find. Perhaps this hotel was in Singapore.

Having just finished this book, I think of other books about jungles that I have read from about the same time, including one by the present author and another by Lévi-Strauss. Perhaps, the Poles having been dealt with, the jungle was the last frontier – apart from Himalayan mountains.

A book old enough to have mould marks on the paper, that is to say close packed horizontal lines left by the wires of the moulds in which the paper was made. 

I shall now have another go, and see how it bears a second reading.

PS: Tomlinson was roughly contemporary with Galsworthy of Forsyte Saga fame. Younger than Conrad and older than Lawrence. I own a number of his books in consequence of my father’s eldest sister holding him in high regard. A chap whom I notice from time to time. Gallions Reach was his first novel.

References

Reference 1: Gallions Reach: A romance – H M Tomlinson – 1927.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.com/2013/12/ss-rockingham.html. The first time, I think, that Tomlinson gets an outing in these pages.

Reference 3: https://www.pla.co.uk/assets/325MSC.pdf. Gallions Reach, as surveyed in 2011. The stretch of the Thames running between, say, Woolwich Arsenal and Beckton sewage treatment works.

Peanuts

I comment from time to time on allergy affairs, for example at reference 1. Moved to comment again by a piece in the June 16th number of the Surrey & Epsom Comet, our freebie from Newsquest of reference 2.

The piece in question being a half page item  about a fourteen year old girl from Tooting who went into anaphylactic shock on a plane from Antigua to Gatwick, seemingly because someone was eating peanuts ten rows in front of her. Now the person concerned appears to have behaved rather selfishly, continuing to eat his nuts even when asked not to by the cabin crew.

On the other hand, I wonder whether a person who can be sent into shock in this way has any business shutting herself up in an aeroplane for eight or more hours. And if the flight really was essential, maybe she should have considered wearing some kind of  gas mask - which could presumably have mitigated the threat.

PS: I might say I do know about anaphylactic shocks, being sent into one, from time to time, by injections. Luckily for me, the mere sight of a needle does not do the trick. It needs to be stuck into me when I am sitting or standing up. Lying down usually OK.

References

Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-worry.html.

Reference 2: https://www.newsquest.co.uk/. Proud to be a member of the Gannett family of companies.

Reference 3: https://www.gannett.com/. Of Tysons Corner, Virginia. Home to some large roads (one of which, Chain Bridge Road, is snapped above) and two super regional shopping malls. An edge city. Full marks to readers who know what one of those is without looking.

Never never land

Prompted to thoughts of UK doom and gloom by the piece in the FT at reference 1.

Inflation

Presently driven by forces outside of our control: the price of oil and the price of grain. Which to my mind means that we either borrow even more and our standard of living goes down in the long term or our standard of living goes down now.

Privately, governments might quite like inflation as it drives down the value of their debt – at least that part of it which is not index linked. Another side of that coin being driving down the value of old peoples’ savings. A wealth transfer from old people: perhaps not such a bad thing, given all the circumstances.

Interest rate

Looks set to rise after a more than a decade of near zero rates. Will young people, mortgaged to the hilt to cope with high house prices, soon be feeling the breeze?

Exchange rate

Rates might float these days, but a weak currency is still a bad thing. Inter alia, a falling pound drives UK inflation up.

Balance of payments

Has been dire for half a century and more. Cushioned in the past by remittances from overseas earnings from our days as a rich manufacturing country. Whereas now the remittances go the other way, to all those foreigners who have bought up UK assets.

Debt repayment

When I was young, something known as the PSBR was a big deal, the public sector borrowing requirement. Getting bigger was thought to be a bad thing. And it must have got a lot bigger over the past couple of years to pay for the plague.

Cost of repayment might become a problem as interest rates rise.

Distribution of wealth and income

Apparently bad and getting worse. Rich people get too big a share of the cake and there are far too many poor people struggling on crumbs.

Curiously, not a phenomenon which translates into votes for the left. Rather, into right wing populists, helped along by campaign contributions from the rich. Some, more or less criminal.

Living beyond our means

The bottom line seems to be that this country continues to live beyond its means, with various groups – such as railwaymen or bankers – fighting for a bigger share of a declining cake.

PS: to add insult to injury, for part of the time of writing, the usually reliable ONS site was unavailable, at least from this laptop. Now back up and running.

References

Reference 1: The British should stop being so relaxed about the weak pound: Devaluation carries a cost, one which has potentially increased over time – Nicholas MacPherson, Financial Times - 2022. MacPherson is a former permanent secretary at H M Treasury.

Reference 2: https://www.ons.gov.uk/search?q=national+debt. 

Reference 3: Debt management report 2022 to 2023: Information on the government’s financing plans for 2022 to 2023. – H M Treasury – 2022. The plan for the year to come. Nicely presented, but not for the faint hearted, probably not for those without inside knowledge.

Reference 4: Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up – J M Barrie – 1904. The ultimate source of the snap above.

Trolley 518

More trolleys in the Kokoro Passage this morning. I took the M&S food hall one back, emptying the half full bottle of pop onto the ornamental grass in the bedding box at the other end of the passage, before dumping the bottle in the bin provided.. Hopefully the pop - colourless - will not prove too strong for the grass. Still n o cherries that I could see in M&S.

While the two trees outside Wetherspoon's are still looking a bit behind, not to say a bit frail. This despite the attention noticed about a fortnight ago at reference 2.

I passed on all the various trolleys which had gathered outside the creationists' pad in East Street.

And so on to Foody Fest in Ewell Village, last noticed at reference, which I was able to admire while I took a break on the nearby bench. I learned that they are open 09:00 to 23:00 at the end of the week, so clearly looking to do some drinks trade. Plus a few snacks. A sort of suburban version of Terroirs. We will see how they get on - but probably a bit far for us to walk of an evening these days. Would they be difficult about smoking?

Down West Street, over the footbridge over the railway, and into the passage running between the gas depot and what used to be Epsom Coaches, now a branch of the French company, RAPT, the heirs of the founder, Roy Richmond, having sold out. The point of interest being the plants growing in the narrow crack between the pavement and the red brick wall of the bus garage.

It reminded me of a small tree which suckered all over the place in our front garden in Cambridge, which BH was able to tell me was called sumac, probably the staghorn sumac of reference 5. The nearest I got was 'sedum', another short word with two syllables starting with an 's', but otherwise quite different. We will see if this stuff attempts to flower before it is chopped down.

A bit further along, a quite different and more varied flora. Mystery how it all takes root in such an improbable place.

Home to a mixed meat Lancashire Hot Pot, better known to me as Irish stew, inter alia using up the rest of the neck noticed at reference 6. Also to play spot the difference between this BH version and my version.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/trolley-517.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/trolley-515.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/pond-life.html.

Reference 4: Epsom Coaches: a driving force since 1920 - Richmond, Roy & Richmond, Andrew - 2003. A bit of heritage turned up by Bing when checking the name of the founder, shortly to be mine from ebay for just over £2 including postage. Can't be bad.

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

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/a-tale-of-two-joints.html.

Group search key: trolleysk.

A very able lady

This morning, I come across Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, presently director-general of the World Trade Organisation. A lady not that much younger than myself, born and raised in Nigeria but spending a good chunk of her adult life in the US, taking citizenship there in 2019. She also managed several stints in government back in Nigeria.

Her father was another big cheese, inter alia a minor royal, being Obi of the Ogwashi-Ukwu. For whom see reference 2. Obi seems to be a word with many uses, being variously a rank or position, a place and a family name. Not got to the bottom of that one at all.

PS: in the course of this post, I learn of the arrival of a second dose of a new-to-me sort of junk mail. A bit dubious looking, so archived unopened. Do I have lots more of it to look forward to?

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngozi_Okonjo-Iweala.

Reference 2: https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Extras/Okonjo_reminiscences/. Some entertaining reminiscences from an old man.

Reference 3: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24492437. More royals.

Reference 4: https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/dg_e/dg_e.htm. The (rather long) story from the WTO.

Trolley 517

Captured in the Kokoro passage. Not that far to M&S so I took both of them, with two young men helpfully giving way at the entrance to the Ashley Centre.

On the way, what appeared to be a Polish camper van, somewhat scruffy with Spanish/Portuguese flavoured graffiti. Perhaps a sun loving Pole? Maybe just a wannabee surfer, there being no obvious provision for carrying boards. Perhaps only at the level of inflatable boards, which can fit inside? Starting from a low base, given that Poland has no sea side with surf?

Having returned the trolleys to their stack, had a look in M&S for cherries, but failed to find any. The cherries in the market looked well enough on display, but there was a queue and I remain a bit wary of market cherries, those at reference 2 notwithstanding. So settled for two packs, at a fiver the pack, from Waitrose. Spanish and rather good, no duds. Bought on Saturday, just the four left as I type this Monday morning.

Decided that I needed a spot of wine and water on the way home, so stopped by at TB, where the nasturtiums (nasturtia?) were doing very well. The water came in a half litre glass from the Swedish cider people to be found at reference 3, where the very same glass can be seen containing various coloured and decorative confections. Perhaps this is the latest fad in cider. Perhaps I am showing my age by remembering when the Irish branded Magners was all the thing. I also vaguely remember reading that they sometimes have to import apples from the big island. Or perhaps they even manufacture here, to save the shipping across the water.

It did not turn out to be a very productive afternoon, although I scored a strong win at Scrabble.

PS: I am reminded this morning that the market cherries at reference 2 were rather cheaper than these. £7 for two pounds, say 900g, rather than £10 for 1,200g. £7.77 the kilo rather than £8.33. An I learn that the standard 256 character set offered by Microsoft does include the dotted numerals needed to properly signal recurrence. And even the usually resourceful BBC have to resort to little bits of image to do it.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/trolley-516.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/05/trolley-514.html.

Reference 3: https://www.rekorderlig.com/.

Group search key: trolleysk.