Waterworld

This morning, after all the rain, to see the River Mole at Leatherhead, a place where it has been known to flood from time to time. As it turned out, a good strong flow, but no flooding on this side of the bridge.

But there was a senior moment at the car park. Seeing the RingGo sign, I thought it time to give one of my car parking apps a go. But on my way in, I failed to correctly recall my own mobile telephone number, got in a muddle and had to resort to looking it up. At least I remembered how to do that. First time for this particular lapse. And then, after all that, it turned out that this particular car park was free on Sundays. RingGo did know that, but did not tell me when I first told it where I was: it waited until I got stuck into buying my ticket. BH had the last laugh.

But the water had been higher, and a hire bicycle from Lime had got caught up in it at some point, just about visible in the mess lower right. I have often wondered how many bicycles they lose, with their not being secured between hires. But that said, I suppose they are secured to the point of their wheels not turning round, so it would be quite awkward to pinch one. Not something a passing drunk would take on for a laugh.

Tea and coffee - but no tea cakes to be seen - at Stories café up the hill. A place which looked as if they could do quite a decent lunch. Not unlike the place at which we took liver last year, on much the same errand as today. See reference 2.

We noticed that, despite the centre of Leatherhead looking a bit tired and it being a quiet Sunday morning, that there were three or four substantial and busy cafés. That sort of trade was alive and well.

A new-to-me brand of drain cover, captured on the way back to the car park at the bottom of the hill.

Bing not so hot on this occasion. Not rubbish, but not helpful.

We had not tried for liver as the menu at home had already been arranged: Brussels sprouts à la gratin. Otherwise macaroni cheese with the macaroni swapped out in favour of sprouts. Jolly good they were too.

Recipe notes: one and a half ounces each of butter and flour. Maybe three quarters of a pint of half and half milk and stock. Brussels blanched for a couple of minutes. Cooked at 175°C for half an hour or so.

References

Reference 1: https://www.li.me/vehicles/electric-bike.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/01/leatherhead.html.