Leatherhead

Following the rain, we thought on Saturday that it was time to take a look at the Mole at Leatherhed. A place where the river has been known to rise far enough to threaten the nearby houses of Minchin Close. Although looking at it yesterday, it must take a lot of rain to push it up a couple of metres or more, given the flood meadows. See flood pole right in the snap above.

According to OS maps, a pin dropped in the river, just the other side of the bridge is 30m above sea level. Although is not clear what they are measuring to. The bottom of the river perhaps? Whatever the case, it look as if the pole is measuring above sea level too, with it rising to near 4m above normal.

Interested to see that the ducks did not seem to have to paddle that hard to counter what looked like a strong current. A walk rather than a run. Maybe the feet were each beating at about 1Hz. Perhaps what little of a duck's body is in the water is very well designed.

Passed on the Running Horse, or perhaps held it in reserve, and wandered up through the rough gardens to the Mansion, hung a left to pick up some leaflets from the theatre - which appeared to be staffed by volunteers - and then hung a right into the High Street. Plenty of eateries, some closed, some open and some busy. The odd club.

Passed on Wetherspoons, one of the rather dark and shabby ones, and settled instead for the Sunshine Café, more or less full when we arrived. But the service was good and we were soon in receipt of tea, liver, bacon, chips and peas. Jolly good it was too, the first time we have had liver for a while. 

Although checking, I find that we do seem to manage liver two or three times a year, although never at home these days. Including a couple of occasions at the Forest Inn at Hexworthy, on the edge of Dartmoor, more or less closed for practical purposes since the start of the plague. While when I was a child, floured liver fried with a few onions, then topped up with carrots and water and stewed for a bit was a regular item, as was, for many years, something similar under BH's management. I think she added bacon to the mix. Then more recently, a few goes of calves' liver from Pinnegar's, the butcher of Cheam. I forget why home cooked liver fell out of favour. Perhaps some now forgotten dietary fad.

All for £20 including the tip, which I thought was very good value. The sausage, egg and chips department looked pretty good too, from what we could see of it at neighbouring tables. And for those who wanted something exotic there was a choice of pancakes or waffles, but we were too full after our liver for anything of that sort.

Quick foray into the Swan Centre to find that the intended destination, W H Smiths, was temporarily closed. The place looked alive enough, so presumably some local staff problem. Have to get back in a week or so to check.

PS 1: plenty of both standing and running water in our back garden this afternoon. Including a modest trickle coming out of the brick compost bin at the very back. Not usually this much water about until February or March. At least the ground is getting a good soaking before the long hot summer which may be on its way.

PS 2: I have just been reminded by an article in the Mirror, brought to me by Microsoft News, that it looks as if our defence chiefs have managed to spend more than £3b on what was intended to be near 600 AJAX fighting vehicle from General Dynamics, a vehicle which will probably never see service. Beyond the 25 or so being used for training and testing purposes. I imagine that AJAX was grossly over-specified by generals who had been on far too many fancy beanos: maybe we should have taken a leaf out of the Russian mantra of the second world war: build cheap and cheerful, but build lots. At least the share price of the US parent company is holding up OK.

PS 3: I remember a piece by Simon Jenkins somewhere, sometime about how the public service seems to be a sitting duck for big companies selling big ticket items. Big ticket items come with a big sales budget and money talks - in one way or another.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/09/leatherhead.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/search?q=liver. Liver, liver everywhere.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/09/yougov.html. The only previous notice of the AJAX fiasco.