Trolley 558

A report which conflates three separate outings to town, that is to say Epsom rather than London.

First, I captured another M&S food hall trolley, this time in the passage leading from the High Street to Ebbisham Square, more or less outside the Creams outlet of reference 2. A outlet which has been there for several year now and I still fail to see how they are making a living. A big premises in which I rarely see more than a rather thin scattering of customers, if any. Perhaps they make their money in the evening when I am safely tucked up at home. Maybe all those young people from parts east studying with the creationists like this sort of thing.

A passage which the council tried to make into a street food destination, but is actually a herding ground for some of the food delivery drivers who operate from Epsom town centre. And I still fail to see how they make a living either. But perhaps they know all about these rooming houses which pack in half a dozen or more bunks to the room. Rooms which must either have strong natural smells or strong chemical smells.

Second, I admired the more or less finished frame house in Meadway, the water leaks from the ground and the gas leaks from the pipes having been dealt with along the way. It all looks rather well now. A house which first came to my attention about 18 months ago, although BH tells me that they have been trying for it for years.

One caveat, being a comment from a passer-by about the gravel, which he alleged was something of a nuisance, getting everywhere and needing a fair amount of attention. To which I countered with the observation that when our estate was built, many of the houses had twin track concrete for the wheels, with inch and a half shingle between and around, thus getting best of both worlds. Inch and a half shingle being quite hard to get now. Reason unknown.

Four legal sheds, one of which may well contain our wills. Let's hope appropriate measures have been taken.

New trees in Longmead Road. I wish them well.

A common form of corporate-speak which I find rather irritating, not to say dishonest. It's not my network, it is a network which belongs to the shareholders and creditors of British Telecom - and I just pay for a very modest amount of access. It is not my network.

Furthermore, a BT subcontractor who happened to be driving past actually took the trouble to stop and wind his window down, wanting to know why I was photographing his colleague - who might have been a real BT employee.

Turning to those shareholders, if Yahoo! Finance is to be believed, there are no dominant shareholders. No oil Sheik or Siberian oligarch sitting on 26% of the shares. But they also tell me that 30.13% of the shares are held by all insiders (whoever they might be), 31.30% of the shares are held by institutions, 44.81% of the float (whatever that might be) is held by institutions and that there are 412 institutions holding shares. So I am some way off the full story.

Food labelling is similarly irritating. BH was out at lunchtime today and we were going to eat properly later, so I thought to take some beans on toast to keep me going. Which tasted a bit thin.

Inspection revealed that we had the no added sugar, no artificial sweetener version, no doubt healthy, but not very tasty when one is used to the other sort.

Looking at the ingredients list in small on the back of the tin however, I learn that the beans contain both sweetener and naturally occurring sugars. Perhaps they use minced sugar beet to build the texture of the sauce, just like Old Mother Hubbard of old used to do.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/03/trolley-557.html.

Reference 2: https://www.creamscafe.com/our-stores/epsom/.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/09/trolley-428.html.