Foreign parts continued

Good start to the evening in Cambridge with a large full moon rising in the east as I strolled down to the Empress in Romsey Town, previously noticed at reference 1, paying the place a total of two visits. We did not think to ask about eating there and inspection this morning fails to reveal a website, never mind food, although there was a suggestion of pizza on Facebook. Perhaps the place is one of the near extinct breed of public houses which lives off its sale of beer and beverages.

Snap above misleading, to the extent that both exterior and interior are festooned with Christmas lights, with the exterior looking very different at night. With no apparent regard for the energy crisis, which one might think the eggheads of Cambridge would be alive to. Didn't notice relays of beefy students on breaks from rowing on icy Fenland rivers pedalling away on generators in the garden, off snap right in the snap above. For which, see, for example, reference 14.

Instead of attempting the pizza, the next stop was the branch Carluccio's in town centre, an outfit I thought had succumbed to overreach in a difficult market, but find to be alive and well at both Cambridge and reference 2. From which I also learn that there are at least two branches within reach of us here at Epsom. BH used to rather like them, so clearly we need to investigate.

On the way, pleased to discover that our very own photo booth operation, headquartered on Blenheim Road in our Longmead Industrial Estate, just across the road from where I occasionally come across pyramid orchids, as noticed, for example, at reference 4.

On the way also, started to get the hang of the taxi operation in Cambridge, pretty much in the grip of Panther private hire people of reference 3, to the exclusion of black cabs plying for hire and with a poor supply of old-style taxi ranks. And like the rather smaller operation here in Epsom, the dispatchers are very into post codes. No good saying that you are at the corner of such and such roads, or outside such and such public house, what they want is a postcode that they can type into their satnav. Not so easy when you have a prehistoric mobile phone like mine and it is a cold, dark night. But moans aside, when you get the hang of things, cars do turn up very quickly. Let's hope that the drivers make a decent living - after they have paid the HP on their swanky, if rather cramped, vehicles.

Carluccio's fairly quiet, although by no mean empty, when we arrived at around 19:00. We settled for a bottle of Gavi which was quite satisfactory. And, unusually for mid range wine from a chain, the search key 'enrici serafino' turned up the maker without any fuss at all.

Bing even turns up a poster which appears in the depth of the website. I was impressed. Perhaps Sig. Serafino has paid for a premium subscription with Microsoft.

Lasagne, OK, but not great. Apart from anything else, a bit overcooked. Like tiramisu, another foreign dish am I fond of, it seems to vary a great deal from place to place. Presumably generic recipes both, giving plenty of latitude to the cook, be that in a kitchen near to the point of consumption or in a factory further afield.

Greeted in the morning by what appeared to be some kind of robots outside the lift. Nicely placed for tripping over them. From the people at reference 6. Perhaps I ought to check whether they include on-board surveillance cameras, something I think that the FT was - quite rightly - making a fuss about yesterday.

More of them outside the co-op in Perne Road. These ones, an enthusiastic taxi driver told me, will deliver your groceries, provided also that you have the right app and know how to us it. Sadly, I did not see one in motion, so was not able to follow one on its travels. Too cold too wait for some action. But to be found at reference 7: an Estonian company headquartered in San Francisco, whatever that might mean.

And just in case you had forgotten you were in Cambridge, home to all kinds of exotica, perhaps some kind of a temple or prayer hall. I asked a couple of mums passing by with their buggies, but neither of them had a clue. However, this morning, I ask gmaps and turn the place up at 280 Coldham's Lane - a specialised member of the Abbeyfield family, catering especially for the older Vietnamese. Abbeyfield being people we know all about here at Epsom, with BH even having operated as a volunteer cook for a while. See reference 8.

Another unusual operation, websited at reference 9. Where on earth do these charismatic types get all their money from? Did some ancestral operation make a lucky purchase of rough land on what was then the outskirts of Cambridge, with most of it now sold off to pay for the building above?

The impressive looking Christmas tree holder outside Addenbrookes. Not clear how it is tied to the ground. Perhaps there is a lot more of it below ground than above ground.

Leaving Addenbrookes, I finally got the hang of Panther. You pick up the free phone hanging off the side of the main reception desk and one turns up in minutes. There might not be a taxi rank, as one might expect in such a place, but once you are in the know, there are taxis.

Hotel closed for lunch, so we took lunch in the nearby Pizza Hut, a chain we used to use maybe thirty years ago, at which time it was the in place for people who fussed about their pizzas, not as widely available then as they are now. 

Packing the following morning, I made the interesting discovery that one's laundry took up far less space if you folded it up, rather than just stuffing it into a plastic bag. It has taken a long time, but I get there!

Taxi turned up very quickly, particularly given that it was the rush hour. Panther might have got something of a monopoly, but they do provide a service. On this trip, a cheerful young driver who lived in Bar Hill who knew all about foraging, that is to say gathering fruit, nuts and mushrooms. Knew all about the yellow stains of reference 10. Possibly from somewhere in eastern or central Europe - who had been over here for twenty years or more. I think he quite liked the cold, reminding him of home, although I did not get to find out where that was.

At the station, a rare glimpse of a Class 45 locomotive, a rather scruffy example of the breed that used to pull maybe half the trains when I used to commute between Cambridge and London. Not the one lifted from Pinterest above. But see reference 11.

Train full by Letchworth. Field full of some kind of standing greens and sheep. No idea what the greens were. No Wellingtonia to be seen in the grounds of Alexandra Palace, the sort of place you might expect them. But offered a glimpse of an unusual block as we came into Kings Cross, one wall of which appeared to have been faced with concrete filled sandbags. 

The chap opposite me thought the whole thing had been sculpted, by hand, from sand & cement rendering, but I think my vote is for actual bags. No idea whether they would count as structure or cladding.

Not best pleased at Vauxhall to find my usual platform out of action due to a conjunction of signal failures across the network. That is say more or less all the South Western Trains network. Down the stairs, along the underpass and up the stairs to catch a train to Clapham Junction. From where, probably with more stair and underpass action, I was able to catch a train to Horsham, via Epsom.

First class on Southern Trains - which I tend to use on commuter trains when available, using my regular senior ticket - comes with privacy enhancing windows. The only catch is that the privacy works in both directions and it is not always obvious where one is and it would be easy enough to miss one's stop, particularly if one had been dozing in privileged comfort.

Trip closed with an unusual sighting of an aeroplane coming in to land from west to east, this on the Horsham train somewhere near Balham. From the Waterloo trains, we only ever get to see aeroplanes coming in to land from east to west, against the usually prevailing westerly wind.

PS 1: thinking of the near demise of Carluccio's, the FT had a piece at reference 12 yesterday about the demise of Camisa's of Old Compton Street, one of the last, if not the last, of the fine Italian grocers that used to be sprinkled through Soho. Although, if the website at reference 13 is anything to go by, it may live on in the virtual world of clicks rather than bricks.

PS 2: the reference above to the Financial Times regarding robot vacuum cleaners was a memory error. The reference should have been to the MIT Technology Review and a piece by Melissa Heikkilä. The offending robot was not the one snapped above, but something rather similar made by the people at reference 15, a company about to be owned by Amazon. See also reference 16 - from which I learn that the robots in question were development versions and everybody involved knew what was going on and had signed appropriate disclosure agreements. Hmmm.

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/12/foreign-parts.html.

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

Reference 3: https://www.panthertaxis.co.uk/.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/trolley-516.html.

Reference 5: https://www.enricoserafino.it/.

Reference 6: https://www.i-teamglobal.com/en/products/Cobotic/Cobotic-1700.

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

Reference 8: https://abbeyfield.com/sheltered-housing/an-lac-house-vietnamese-in-cambridge-at-cb1-3hn.

Reference 9: https://thec3.uk/. 'At The C3 Church we are committed to our mission of reaching and shaping a generation with the message and cause of Christ'.

Reference 10: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/11/dangerous-games.html.

Reference 11: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_45.

Reference 12: Mourn the passing of Soho’s Camisa deli but share the blame: The closure of the much-loved Italian institution in London tells us about our own choices - Joy Lo Fico, Financial Times - 2022.

Reference 13: https://www.camisa.co.uk/.

Reference 14: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/10/a-stroll-in-fens-one.html. Took a while to track this one down. Brute force rather than cunning search key.

Reference 15: https://www.irobot.co.uk/en_GB/roomba.html.

Reference 16: A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook: Robot vacuum companies say your images are safe, but a sprawling global supply chain for data from our devices creates risk - Eileen Guo, MIT Technology Review - 2022.