psmv5: To the mole

That is to say the establishment once known as the Amato, last visited on Derby Day, as noticed at reference 1. The Amato is remembered by me as a supplier of fine meat rolls after a Derby, some years ago now, while the Grumpy Mole of reference 7 is regarded by ladies as a place to lunch - this despite any proper arrangements for parking.

A warm day and a fair step, but we thought we would walk there. There was always the option of a taxi back - door to door if I could face dealing with the dispatcher at Clocktower Cars (of reference 3) who likes to be supplied with the postcodes of both departure and arrival points, something which is apt to seem difficult after a more or less liquid lunch. That apart, an efficient operation, well integrated with my mobile phone and with much smarter cars than the one we drive.

The new prefab on the way to the station is coming on apace, timber framed like the slow English effort in Manor Green Road, unlike the slow German effort in Christchurch Mount. See references 5 and 6.

Quite a lot of rather sad looking bushes and shrubs in Rosebery Park, a park named for Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery. For whom see reference 4.

Reached the near empty mole, this despite various reminders by email and text of our booking. Reminders presumably put in place because when they are busy they don't want to waste tables on no-shows. But amusing in the present context. The dining options seemed to be bar, dining room, veranda or garden. If we had known what we know now, we might have opted for veranda, on which one was well shielded from both sun and rain, but as it was we had opted for the handsome dining room.

The food was good, the white bread particularly so, although they were a bit mean with it and I got through several portions. Mussels for her, calves' liver for me. Which came with much better mash than public houses usually manage and with gravy on the side. Which is right and proper, given the rather rich gravies that are served in places of this sort. Marks for including a dab of cabbage with the vegetables, but marked down for adding too much butter (or whatever). Maybe I should have asked for that on the side too.

Wine satisfactory. Bing turns up 'Domaine Berthelemot is the creation of Brigitte Berthelemot, who is, by all accounts, something of a tour de force. Brigitte has, in a very short space of time (starting in 2006), knocked together a domaine of 15 hectares, spread over 45 parcels. / The basis of this spread was Domaine Garaudet in Pommard, but then they also took over Domaine Allexant. Charles Allexant was a bouilleur de cru (distiller of marc) who went round the villages plying his trade and who knew the Côte well, and also the vignerons for whom he distilled. In 1957 he bought a first vineyard in Volnay, and others followed, so that he built up a patchwork from Gevrey to the Côte Chalonnaise', so we get a mention of the marc which turns up so often in Maigret. I think I have tried it once or twice and not greatly cared for it. Berthelmot to be found at reference 8.

Curiously, the mole charged about the same amount for the wine as it would cost me on the Internet. What happened to the 500% complained about at reference 9? Perhaps I am doing something wrong.

No Calvados, so rounded off with a spot of Bells. Too full for dessert, at least for any of the desserts on offer. Bring on the jellies! Bring on the stewed fruit!

The new-to-me estate, glimpsed on the other side of the heritage wall as we set of for Smiths to buy a joint anniversary card. What is called, in planners' jargon around here, 'back land development'. Something that some people get very excited about.

The statue of John Gilpin doing the 'Spectre de la Rose', usually outside the Playhouse had gone missing. A statue I rather dislike, but it was not clear whether absence was down to vandalism - one might have thought it a target for late night drunks - or planned maintenance. No idea how it got to be there in the first place.

The nearby box hedges were showing signs of stress. Probably the caterpillar which killed the rather larger box bushes in our back garden - along with many others.

The sick trees outside Wetherspoons. Maybe it is time I asked to see the manager about watering them. Terrace busy, so we took refreshment inside, where we found a bit of vanity publishing from the noisy Mr. Martin, founder and probably still proprietor of the chain.

It seems that he is very upset by negative coverage of his chain's behaviour at the beginning of the plague. As far as I can make out, the coverage was a bit unfair, but what on earth can he expect after his rather noisy backing of Brexit, which apart from being a mistake, was odd coming from someone who employed so many people from Europe? Why is he so touchy?

Perhaps I should add that I continue to use the places, and, although we do not eat in them very often, both food and drink represent very good value for money. Furthermore, they do a good job on repurposing big old buildings. And picking up one point from inside the booklet, one might argue that they didn't kill off all the boozers of old, that was the Tories abolishing all the tied & tenanted houses. They just moved into the then empty space in the drinking economy of our towns.

Guests on Fair Green. Long since departed, I am pleased to say. If they continue to make so little mess and to stay for so few days, one might stop minding them so much.

Home to a water meter hole (of reference 11) which had been back filled and finished off and do to a spot of hand-held hose. Didn't like to do too much of it then, a couple of weeks ago now, and as things are now, no hose at all.

PS 1: it so happens that we have been watching, yet again 'Topsy Turvy', a DVD that has earned its keep, and that BH has taken up the biography of Arthur Sullivan noticed at reference 2. In the course of which she noticed that he was born and bred in Bolwell Terrace in Lambeth, snapped above.

It seems that the street was demolished in favour of council housing in the 1960's, by which time, from the snap above, it appears to have lost whatever it had in the way of blue-collar gentility. I am reminded of the way that lots of the inner suburbs which are now rather dubious, some of the point of being gentrified, were once decent areas for decent, middling sort of people. Including the Pooters of the world, brought to us in a book appropriately co-authored by a star of the G&S stage.

PS 2: we have owned Topsy-Turvy since 2015 and must have watched it a quite few times in the interval. See reference 12. Although I found on this occasion that I had forgotten quite a few of the scenes. And, as I observed back in 2015, for me the film about the show is better than the show. One take-away from this viewing being the amount of hard work, patience and discipline that goes into the production of musical shows. What looks so neat and clever from the auditorium is the product of much prior labour. Another being what must be the very intimate collaboration between Gilbert and Sullivan, intimacy which meant that Gilbert could write words that Sullivan could successfully score.

PS 3: in the course of all of which, I was reminded that we have had Puligny-Montrachets before. Most notably one served by a Polish waitress from Silesia in what used to be our branch of Café Rouge. A wine which, sadly, vanished long before Café Rouge itself vanished. See reference 13.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/up-hill.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/09/sullivan.html.

Reference 3: https://clocktowercarsuk.com/.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Primrose,_5th_Earl_of_Rosebery.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/03/back-to-abbey.html. See very end of this post for the water works.

Reference 6: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/search?q=prefab. Lots of the express prefab, rather less of Manor Green Road.

Reference 7: https://www.thegrumpymole.co.uk/.

Reference 8a: https://domaineberthelemot.com/.

Reference 8b: https://domaineberthelemot.com/en/wine/13/puligny-montrachet-les-levrons/2020/.

Reference 9: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/08/battersea-beef.html.

Reference 10: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Spectre_de_la_rose.