Bread and cheese

About ten days ago, time once again to replenish cheese supplies. A cold, clear day, but not cold enough to deter the bearded indigent from his station outside the station. Where he appears to sit, cross legged, for hours on end. I couldn't do it.

There was a Waitrose trolley nearby but in these days of half hourly rather quarter hourly trains, I left it. Still there when I got back, some time later. Still there the following morning when I arrived to gather it up, as per reference 1.

Cheese cut very straight and neat on this occasion, with the experience counter-hand getting the weight at 10% more than I asked for. Which she may have rightly thought was about as far as she could safely go. She also observed that some new team members took a while before they were able to wield the cheese wire in the approved fashion.

Pulled a second Bullingdon for my run down the super highway to Clapham Junction. Low flying sun a bit of a nuisance, sun glasses notwithstanding and I almost missed one of the turnings on the Elephant & Castle by-pass. But, in the event, all was well.

Along the way noticing that Clapham still rates a Post Office which does not double as a convenience store, while we in Epsom lost ours years ago.

On this occasion, settled for Soif for a spot of lunch. Their bread seemed to have improved since last time, so that was good. Two portions taken with mussels which were very nicely presented, including a sensible amount of white sauce. That is to say, not a lake of the stuff. Mussels also pretty good to eat, with just somewhere between 1 in 5 and 1 in 10 having the bleached colour that I associate with elderly mussels. But I came to no harm eating them. Italian white wine rather good, in carafe format, but probably something to do with reference 4. Almost a slight fizz, the sort of thing I used to like about some of the white wines from Terroirs.

The only real downer being a large chap sat about 12 feet in front of me, dressed for the beach and rather spread out. With his rather more dainty and rather more properly dressed lady and her 12 week old baby - not that I would know, so I asked. She also had a rather dainty way of eating her mussels, as if they were oysters. While he had one of those very large city voices and I took an instant dislike to him. I suppose that lots of people like him have moved into the once ordinary, not to say blue collar. housing of Battersea Rise.

By the time I had finished my wine, I was very puzzled by the large glass container full of raspberry liqueur or something of that sort, the bottom third of which appeared to be full of some rather large and very white popcorn. Closer inspection revealed this to be a trick of the bubble glass from which the bottom of the container seemed to be made, its impression of something (I forget what) behind. Or maybe it was the something behind that was made of bubble glass.

I also puzzled about my table number, which, with the split four, I found very difficult to read upside down. I also puzzled about what sort of place would run to 242 and more small tables.

After which I thought I deserved a spot of Calvados, which turned out to be rather good. Again, rather like the stuff I used to get in Terroirs. And in a well polished glass. The waiter explained that Soif was actually owned by the wine people in Guildford that we had used during the plague, not just connected with them. The people at reference 5; people who believed that the point of wine was to be drunk and who tried to price in a reasonable way, with a smaller mark-up than is normal in the trade, to try and reach as big an audience as possible. Maybe it is time for me to see if the discount code I earned during the plague still works.

Then just as I was leaving, I spotted a chef carrying a large head of greens into the kitchen. Someone, somewhere was using a proper green vegetable, which is unusual in the sort of places that we usually patronise. But definitely a good sign.

From a short stroll up to Clapham Junction, stopping on the way to admire the branch of Metro Bank, large, same format as Epsom and not very busy. More or less opposite the Falcon. Are they still haemorrhaging money at the same rate as they were the last time I read about them? How long can they keep it up?

Viewing conditions for aeroplanes on the platform good and I managed to find the right lamp post, so that the aeroplanes dropping down the flight path to Heathrow just dropped down the post, make it easier to keep track of them while swinging around 180° to try and catch the next one. But just the one two and a couple of ones. One of which managed to come in over the Junction from a direction which I was not expecting. Always room for surprises in the aeroplane department.

There was also the lifetime first spotting of a class 73 loco, rather unusual, as explained at reference 7. Unusual that it can run using the third rail system which dominates suburban railways south of the Thames. This one well out of the third rail zone, in Dawlish, and lifted from reference 8.

Managed to give someone directions to someone for the Shepperton train without explaining that they left from the platform next to the (Epsom) one that we were standing on. Hopefully he worked it out eventually.

Home to bleed the bedroom radiator, which failed to give out the usual, tell-tale hiss while I was so doing. But the bleeding seems to have worked as the matinal bubbling noises have vanished and the radiator still gets hot.

PS 1: not just here in the UK that we have lost all kinds of once grand public buildings. The building above, started life as the Milan Stock Exchange before becoming something postal. Now sold off, with one of the occupants appearing to be Starbucks.

PS 2: not clear why Google has just sent an advertisement to my gmail box about what looks like an expensive restaurant chain. Not as if the advertisement included a bogoff coupon or anything like that.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/11/trolley-540.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/10/cheese-and-other-matters.html.

Reference 3: https://www.soif.co/.

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

Reference 5: http://lescaves.co.uk/lescaves-home.

Reference 6: http://lescaves.co.uk/assets/files/wine-list.pdf. 416 pages of wine list and tasting notes.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_73.

Reference 8: http://www.dawlishtrains.com/class-73.html.