Skewered again

A week or so ago, back to the Estrela for a spot of their skewered beef. A day which started bright and cool, but with the clouds gathering by the time that I left the house at 10:45 or so. In the event it stayed dry.

Much humming and harring about whether to get to Vauxhall via Clapham Junction or via London Bridge, with the latter probably being a longer run for the Bullingdon. On this occasion I settled on Clapham Junction, in part so that I could inspect the building which used to be Battersea College, now flats, last mentioned, in connection with double glazing, at reference 1.

Struck on the day by this curious juxtaposition of old and new at Epsom Station - but I dare say a painter of townscapes could have made more of it than my telephone, which makes the old brick tower look smaller in this image than it did in real life.

Not many Bullingdons at Grant Road - the stand in any case rather reduced since its hey-day ten years or more ago - but there was one for me. And so to Battersea Park Road where I decided that the windows were originals. Nicely restored, but original, with putty. Perhaps that was a condition of sale. But what about all the draughts?

Furthermore, when I come to check on gmaps, which I should have done before, I find that the advertising shot is of a building of very much the same sort, but a different one. So Battersea above, unknown at reference 1. A challenge for readers: find out the unknown, without phoning up the double glazing company.

Pushed onto Vauxhall, missing the turning which would have got me under the tracks to South Lambeth Road, and was carried right around Vauxhall Cross. At least five minutes down the pan. But a bonus was an interesting bicycle, with a cheerful young lady in the saddle, which appeared to be made out of box section plastic. Presumably very light. I remember it as being much less clunky looking than the one lifted from Wikipedia above, but neither Bing nor Google offer anything better. Fortunately, I can consult a correspondent on the matter.

Parked up opposite the Canton Arms where I took a breather, then onto to the Estrela. Being reminded on the way that I once bought some very fine kippers at Walberswick. Had anyone now living in the street tried them? I dare say someone there at least knew where the place was. Unless, of course, the name of the place was masked by the name of a local worthy of the nineteenth century. See reference 4.

Skewered beef, rice, chips and salad. Plus a spot of my regular white, noticed for the first time at reference 3. Called Alvarinho Deu la Deu, only marred by the hefty mark-up from online prices.

Admired a Ukrainian flavoured funeral which went around twice, once with a motorised hearse, once with a horse drawn hearse - with the motor bringing up the rear of the procession on the second time around. Lots of blue and yellow flowers.

Learned about the best place to buy goose liver entire, that is to say not stuffed into a tin. For which see reference 3. They also do a large selection of saucisson sec, not dear, but a lot of it the flavoured sort I don't approve of. Nevertheless, something to be looked into.

The next activity was taking a closer look at the concrete art previously sniffed at at reference 5. On this occasion I found it rather more interesting, even if rather badly sited, and started to wonder what it was actually made of and how it was made. Must give it more time next time. Maybe even find out where it came from.

And so onto Vauxhall Station, passing on the rather florid establishment noticed above. But one day I shall have to give it a go.

Onto the platform where I caught a flight of three cormorants, flying high towards the river. Plus plenty of ones on the aeroplane front - but no trains. There seemed to have been an incident between Clapham Junction and Vauxhall which meant that there was no train movement at all. And there was a complete disconnect between the news on the indicator boards, the news from the station staff and the facts on the ground. It looked as if the computer systems were still up but could not cope with disruption on this scale.

Eventually I got a seat on the very front of a train to Epsom, having thought that this was a better bet than the very back, despite being convenient for exit at Epsom.

Blenheim shut around 17:30 this Friday evening. Not a good sign at all. With an update to be found at reference 6.

PS: Fine Foods were sticking advertisements into my email box that same evening, just hours after I had passed on the good news about goose livers to a correspondent.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/01/trolley-555.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/08/battersea-beef.html.

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

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

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/02/hill-start.html.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-blenheim.html.