A bit of a slow-down on the trolley front, with this one being the first for getting on for a month. Must do better! With this one, from the M&S food hall captured in the passage running up from Kokoro to Station Approach.
The outing had started with Ben the Butcher in Upper High Street, of which more in due course. From there to Pearl the Chemist where I found out, for the second time running, that my prescription had failed to arrive. Possibly a glitch associated with the move on the part of the surgery (now inhabited by people called clinicians) to a central, NHS flavoured prescription application from a more locally flavoured one. Sorted that out, acquired a Guardian and thought to take a morning break, for once in a while, in Wetherspoon's.
Which was busy and cheerful, mainly but not exclusively with pensioners, quite a few of whom were taking tea, coffee, breakfast or an early lunch. The odd face from my days at TB. It was rather as if Wetherspoon's was stepping into the gap made by the closure of a lot of the day centres for pensioners which used to be run by our local authorities.
From there to the Kokoro passage which started off empty enough, apart from the serious trench being dug in the not very old pavement, but which delivered on the last lap. M&S food hall busy enough, as usual, with plenty of Christmas goodies on offer, it now being within five weeks of the big day. Clearly time to start stockpiling chocolates, biscuits and booze.
And so home to study the mail shot from the Liberty Association (of reference 3) which had arrived in the mean time, an organisation I first came across on Westminster Bridge, in the person of an older gentleman, a Christian refugee from Iran, where, it seems, savage persecution of Christians continues. And while I had much sympathy for his cause, I have not yet made it to any of the various functions which they organise in and around London. They look quite fun with various foods and entertainments on offer - so perhaps it would be different if we had a more tangible connection.
BH reminds me that we once had a neighbour, an Iranian lady married to someone who used to work for BP in a non-oil capacity, someone who, according to BH, thought that mosques were evil - while being quite decent and ordinary on other matters. So it is quite possible that she was a Christian. As far as I know, she never visited her home country and now, widowed, she has moved away to be nearer her children. A tangible connection which did not quite make it.
PS: I wonder if the Earls Court Ibis goes in for the fake classical trim on view in the snap from the Liberty Association? A large new-build in what looks as if it was a regular residential street in Earls Court until not that long ago. Or was the fake classical trim from last year's venue? IBEC for Ibis, London, Earls Court?
References
Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/10/trolley-594.html.
Reference 2: https://www.bensbutchery.co.uk/.
Reference 3: https://iliberty.org.uk/.
No comments:
Post a Comment