Trolley 640

Two of the trolleys available were returned to the M&S food hall.

It had been a cold start to the day, with a frost over the extension roof, garage roof and back lawn. But a frost which had completely lifted by 09:00, that is to say a couple of hours after this snap was taken.

Then there had been a discussion about the fate of our double boiler, snapped above and rarely, if ever used. Eventually we decided that this was not my mother's double boiler as her top half was a lot deeper (making it more likely that the bottom half would boil dry) and, as I recall, it was made by Swan. Whereas this one appeared to have been made in Merton up the road.

Crown Merton, a company which might have been owned by Corfield-Sigg and which I got to via the Imperial War Museum and Grace's Guide, from which last I have taken the pictures above. From left to right, from 1945, 1951 and 1954. Big in the saucepan world at that time. Based somewhere in Merton Abbey Mills, which we knew as home to some fine secondhand book shops. All long gone.

But the dates fit my own theory that all these aluminium saucepans, around for the first half of my life, were the product of recycling alumimium from World War Two aeroplanes.

However, the saucepan in question appears not to be that featured at references 2 and 3. Leading to the theory that in one round of house clearing we got rid of my mother's. In a fit of nostalgia bought another from a charity shop or a car boot sale. Got rid of that one in another round of house clearing. In another fit of nostalgia bought the present one, now resident in our local tip. Will the series ever come to an end? Not that any of them got used very often, perhaps because we do not make lemon curd anymore and BH does not put flour in with mince made from left-over Sunday roast.

I might say that, in the margins, I found that eBay and Etsy have plenty of the things. Definitely collectible.

After all this, into town for the trolleys. After which I was struck, by some reason, by the roofscape snapped above, complete with the reflection bottom left which I did not notice at the time. The sort of thing, with its confusion of roofs and chimneys, that the right sort of painter might make something of. The building second left used to be the 'Wellington', quite a decent public house, one of the last to sell things like pork pies and rolls from a plastic contraption sat on the bar. Never really settled to anything else since it closed.

Then up East Street some clumps of white violets. Plus some violet violets and the first of the dandelions.

Then in Ewell Village, we find that Ewell Castle School, a private school in Ewell (complete with a Wellingtonia which I have yet to score, being in the middle of their grounds, as noticed at reference 4) has taken over one of the shops in the main street.

I thought perhaps a sales outlet, but BH says that she has seen what look like sixth formers coming and going. Maybe retail rents are so depressed that private schools can afford to take on empty units and repurpose them as classrooms. Then what about change of use - something that planners used to make quite a fuss about?

As often happens when a shop front changes, I don't have a clue what was there before. And Street View has been updated too recently to be helpful.

On into Longmead Road, where we had this vehicle from the gas depot perched above a hole in the road. A giant suction contraption, looking very like something I had seen a year or so ago up on Meadway. There it was Thames Water with the wagon from Carney plant hire, whereas here we have one bought, or at least leased, from the people at reference 6. German, naturally. Probably something from the bottom half of their Dino range of suction excavators.

Last up, I thought that BH might like a copy of the Observer, no doubt full to the brim with stuff of interest to ladies, as indeed it was.

The queue forming up by the booze section, I noticed this bottle of Fleurie, a wine which we discovered in the 'Bugle' of Brading and have been buying from time to time, from Waitrose, ever since. Jadot being a respectable name, I thought we would give it a go. I think the first wine I have bought from Costcutter: whisky (Bells) and sherry (Harveys) yes, wine no. I learn this afternoon that 'Fleurie «Poncereau» is fruity as well as floral. It is mellow and elegant but also a racy wine. It has a silky texture and and finesse. Full, ripe red fruits are balanced by a supple freshness and acidity on the palate with a long finish' - also that I paid a premium of a bit more the 33% for the convenience of buying it so near home. Which is entirely fair enough.

We shall probably take it with roast pork over the weekend to come. Plus, in the case of BH, apple sauce. A traditional supplement to roast pork that I am not that keen on.

I should add that I did learn from the Observer that Keir Starmer's background is unusually ordinary, in the sense that he came from an ordinary Surrey family. Born in Southwark, mother a nurse and father a toolmaker, raised in Oxted and went to the same sort of direct grant school on the 11+ that I went to. His parents were Labour people to the extent that they named their son for Keir Hardie, and he went on to be a Labour man from youth. Not an Eton boy at all - and only went to Oxford as a postgraduate. Bit of a workaholic. Musical, at least he was. Snap above lifted from his Wikipedia entry.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/02/trolley-639.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/01/error.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/01/health-safety.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-one-that-got-away.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/06/paused.html.

Reference 6: https://www.saugbagger.com/.

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