Sausage stew day

We thought yesterday it was time to use up the small saucisson from Bastides out of Waitrose that had been sitting in the refrigerator for a while - having been surprised a few days previously by interesting white fluff growing on the cut end of a chunk of black pudding. I might add that we just cut the fluff off, along with a centimetre or so of pudding, and consumed the balance without any ill effects. While the saucisson had not been opened and should be good for a good while - proper saucisson being full of evil preservatives - but still and all.

Browned some garlic and freshly pounded black pepper - quite aromatic when prepared in this way - in rape seed oil at around 11:15. Added chopped onion. Dab of left over vegetables. Added orange pepper. Added tomatoes. Added a little celery. By which time it was around 12:00. No added water.

Around 12:50 added coarsely chopped sausage (200g) and chopped mushroom stalks. Around 13:00 added the mushroom caps - having quite forgotten about the cook separate option of reference 2.

Plus there were no potatoes and I switched from pasta to rice, this last the residue of having thought to make the stew into a form of risotto. Maybe next time.

In parallel, cook a cup full of rice and half a packet of spring greens. These last in boiling water for a little more than five minutes.

Served up around 13:10. All very good. We did most of the stew, all of the rice and greens. We could have done with a little more rice. A modest portion of stew left over, probably to be taken under bread later today.

Notice the puddle, visible bottom left in the snap above. A puddle which, given that no water was added, seemed to be the result of cooking driving a lot of water out of the mushrooms.

Dark, sweet grapes for dessert. Plus two small oranges, what Sainsbury's call 'easy peelers' without distinction of variety or place of origin. For once, these particular ones were quite good, sharp and sweet, not rather soft and watery as they often seem to be.

PS 1: the hawthorn presently in full floral splendour, with part of the crown being snapped through the front bedroom double glazing in the snap above.

Looks pretty good from the front drive, where there is also quite a strong perfume when the wind is right. Then this morning, BH spotted a couple of fat pigeons feeding on the blossoms, from which their stomachs can presumably extract the nectar. She also reminded me of the old country custom of making sandwiches from the bursting buds of the hawthorn; a handy supplement for the rural poor of old.

PS 2: the Bing search term 'saucisson bastides' did not turn up reference 1, just shops selling the stuff. It took the power of Copilot to remind me that the proper search term was 'bastides salaisons'.

References

Reference 1: https://www.sacor.fr/.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/02/trolley-641.html. The last stew appears to have been more than 35 trolleys ago, that is to say a couple of months. And regarding fluff, I think the sausage involved here was a purchase which did not include the present sausage.

Senior moments

A day for cheese and a day for visiting the RHS library at Vincent Square, but also a day for senior moments, some large, some small.

There were also plans for Bullingdons, and no longer knowing the area around Vincent Square very well - once the home of the late Richard Crossman - almost the inventor of ministerial diaries with his three fat volumes of same - I thought to take a map with me. I do have a map, but it is quite old and tatty and I thought that a tailor made map on the telephone might be more convenient.

But not caring to link my telephone accounts to my computer accounts, moving a picture from the laptop to the telephone electronically is a bit fiddly, so I settled for taking a picture of the laptop with the telephone. Various interesting Moiré patterns on the way, for which see reference 2, with the result included above. Not great, but serviceable. In the event, I managed without needing to get it out again. Perhaps the process of making the map had served as sufficient reminder of the geography of Vincent Square.

The next matter on the agenda was what to take to wear on back and face. The answer was nearly everything: Dannimac, three sorts of spectacles, gloves and the old-style sunhat, the sort you can just stuff in your pocket, with no hard peak to get in the way.

On the way to the station, I learned about the rather nifty Irish passport card scheme, whereby you can opt to get a credit card sized identity card to go with your passport. A card which helps with all those people who want to see ID these days. A scheme which us national-identity-card phobic Brits - several schemes for same having foundered over the years - might find helpful. If they didn't like or didn't want, the phobics did not have to play, but the rest of us could get on with our lives. See reference 3.

A first senior moment about the cradles used by people working on the outsides of tall buildings. Window cleaners and above. With this one involving a lot of clipping and unclipping of safety harnesses, which must have slowed things down quite a bit.

Not altogether clear what they were doing, but they did lift out one of the fascia panels. Reasonably heavy, but one man could manage once it was out. A senior moment in that I could not recover the name of the thing they were working from. The word 'cradle' only came back to me when I got back to Epsom Station later in the day.

Ramp at Waterloo empty apart from a few broken-down Bullingdons, this being about 11:00 on a Wednesday morning. Luckily, as a regular, I knew about Concert Hall Approach, a small stand on the other side of the tracks, and was able to pull one from there. What seemed like a cold, stiff breeze from the north on Waterloo Bridge. Lots of people on cycles, some of them Bullingdons, overtaking me. Would never have happened in the olden days.

One of the free-market hire bikes infesting central London these days. With the nerve to park on a Bullingdon stand.

But I make it to the cheese shop in good order and do my Poacher business there. Heading off to the stand at Old Compton Street, I was amused to notice that some of the sprinkling of stalls on the way sport CCTV cameras in an attempt to deter light fingered tourists. But what would the police actually be able to do with a picture of a tourist pinching a souvenir handbag or whatever? About as much as they can do with Nigerian diplomats who pay no attention to the parking regulations in their diplomatic cars?

Pulled a Bullingdon and headed down - it was more or less rolling down to Parliament Square - to Vincent Square for the Lindley Library of the Royal Horticultural Society. For public, walk-in purposes a large modern room on the ground floor.

Not all that many books there, certainly no valuable old tomes full of careful colour engravings of plants, flowers and fruits, but there was a big computer screen with access to both the catalogue and the wide world (in the form of Google) which I could use to explore the borage family and the more botanical matter of merosity, the business of controlling the numbers of parts of flowers and related structures, a business which cropped up in my not very successful attempts to identify various alkanets and comfreys of said borage family, and for which see reference 4.

More Moiré effects, but quicker than writing it all down, for which last, I was not, in any event, very well equipped. Not properly tooled up for visiting a library at all. From where I associate to the fact that as an undergraduate I very rarely if ever set foot in one - unlike most of my fellows who found such places convenient for private study. Never mind the books, but you did get quiet and a table to work on.

What you did not seem to get here, even including the books held at Wisley rather than London, was plant identification guides for what I might call the serious amateur. Perhaps the sort of identification which requires careful examination of plants has been swept away by the magic bullet of DNA analysis of very small samples. Not so much need to bother with whole plants anymore. 

But I did turn up the guide at reference 4: a large format, handsomely produced paperback from the University of North Carolina. Furthermore, after a modest amount of administration, I was allowed to take the book out for a month. I am finding it both interesting and helpful. 

Secondhand prices very a good deal on Abebooks and eBay, but I think I have picked one up very reasonably from Mishawaka in Indiana, USA.

And I have a soft spot for places called things like North Bend and South Fork, for which we clearly don't have the right sort of rivers here in the UK. And there might be a bonus in the form of various interesting bits from the library it once belonged to. Whereas the present copy has little more than the return slip of the Lindley Library inside the front cover. A slip on which five borrowings are recorded, including my own, the other four probably all the same borrower over four months 2010-2011. Maybe I will be able to hang on to it until my own copy turns up.

I was also reminded of gadgets called book snakes, handy for keeping your book open at the right page. I use a short length of some brown tropical hardwood for the purpose - maybe twelve inches by three by one and a half - but I might go for one of these snakes, as Bing turns up lots of them on 'book beads snake'. Or I might just borrow some of BH's pearls. Much more classy.

In the margins I learned about the yew forest of Kingley Vale and the ABC model of flower development. The yew forest, near Chichester, is to be found at reference 6 and looks to be a worthy target of a short break later this year. Trees for me and mounds for her.

A lift neatly slotted into the stair well. Altogether a fine facility. Relaxed and open - if not quite as grand as the new library at Wisley. Long may it last!

Pulled the third Bullingdon of the day and headed down to the Tea House Theatre, which was more or less full. I took tea and a bacon sandwich. The tea was good, once again complete with strainer, caddy and all the trimmings. Except that I started with my second senior moment, by pouring my tea, through the strainer into the little stainless steel cup intended to hold the strainer, rather than into the teacup provided. I luckily I stopped before there was more than a very small puddle on my table, soon dealt with with the napkin provided. White damask, also very proper, as recently mentioned at reference 7.

The bacon sandwich was substantial and good, the only problem being that it came in that triple decker format, hard to eat daintily and I would have preferred the same amount of sandwich organised in regular format.

Entertained by music from Classical FM Requests, which was not that loud and could have been a lot worse. Including a piece by a chap called Zimmerman requested by a lady who explained that she used it when doing marathons. Something soothing and string orchestra as I recall, but I am not sure now that it was the late Bernd Alois Zimmermann, rather than the Hans Florian Zimmer who has done lots of film music. In any event, I completely fail to understand why people doing outdoor exercise feel the need to stop their ears with music or anything else - which seems to me to be a very odd thing to do. Much worse that having it on in the background while one is supposed to be concentrating on a bacon masterpiece.

Followed up by a hefty slice of something described as a Victoria Sponge, something which BH is rather good at. I suspect this one of having seen the inside of a freezer, which did it no favours, and it came with a very large amount of jam and goo, this last a rather heavy form of butter icing, maybe a centimetre thick and probably made with vegetable oil rather than butter. Plus the red jam was nothing like the same quality as the stuff from Bugden's that they sell in pots.

Foreigners seem to be able to make goo which is probably just as calorific, but which is a lot lighter in the mouth. The sort of cakes sold in tea shops in Piccadilly, at some remove from this one.

A piano in a corner. Not scored first because I am sure I have noticed it before and second because one cannot lift the lid to check the maker.

From the tea shop to Vauxhall Station, from which the top of the Shard was visible in among the cloud. Plenty of challenging behaviour from delivery cyclists on the way there. Only the one aeroplane, as a train to Dorking pulled in more or less as I reached the top of the (many) stairs up from street level.

Did the trolley at reference 8 on exit from Epsom Station. Which came with my third senior moment as, when I was in M&S I remembered that BH was not able to get pearl barley on her last visit to Sainsbury's. So I wondered around for a bit, all ready to settle for 'ready meal joint', when a young lady directed me to the dried vegetable department, where they did indeed have pearl barley. Which, in due course, I duly and triumphally presented to BH to be told that it was tea that was the problem, not pearl barley.

From there to the Marquis. Now a member of the Mitchell & Butler family, very quiet compared with what I imagined Wetherspoon's would have been, but comfortable. On this occasion, well worth paying the extra for my glass of wine.

The bar where I have, in the past, played 'shut the box', was shut off with white goods below and a portrait above. And while I was contemplating same, the house was visited by a council inspector, the first time I have noticed such a thing. Amongst other things, he was interested in the cleanliness of the glasses, here marked down a bit, probably because they were not using a detergent in their glass washer which could cope with our hard water. He also went down into the cellar.

To my right a scene from old Epsom, a scene from which I was unable to get rid of the reflection. Furthermore, I have been unable to work out were the shot was taken from. I had thought the town end of East Street, where there are some buildings of this vintage, but which I have been unable to match with any of those above. Something else for a rainy day.

To my left a table which was a stretched version of the table in the dining room in BH's Exminster home. While that in my Cambridge home was a little newer, pale brown rather than dark brown, something from the wartime economy range. The sort of table which contained a good deal of recyclable oak and which could be picked up for next to nothing - perhaps 10/- or a £1 - at jumble sales in the 1970s. I have had quite a few of them over the years.

Walked home, taking the shorter route via Meadway, rather than going right over the hill. Having forgotten to take my midday potion, despite having carried it about all day.

PS 1: the heavy rain overnight has pushed up the jelly lichen on the back patio splendidly.

PS 2: and inspecting my email, I find another invitation from Silversea cruises to join in a spot of global warming in a spot not yet infested with tourists. But Silversea are working on it.

References

Reference 1: https://www.rhs.org.uk/education-learning/libraries-at-rhs.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moir%C3%A9_pattern.

Reference 3: https://www.ireland.ie/en/dfa/passports/passport-card/.

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

Reference 5: Guide to flowering plant families - Wendy B. Zomlefer - 1994. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.

Reference 6: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/woods/kingley-vale/.

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/wet.html.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/trolley-674.html.

Reference 9: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/tax-gap.html. More musings from the Marquis.

Cod Lacey

About a fortnight ago, on a bright, warm and sunny day, we made it to Polesden Lacey, our first visit of the year, with the last visit, the festive visit, being noticed at reference 1.

The weather and the school holidays meant that Chessington World of Adventure was on the move, and their queue stretched back through the Malden Rushett crossroads, most of the way back to the motorway.

And following the sighting noticed at reference 2, we spotted plenty of cowslips in the verges along the way.

We decided against carrying our picnic to the summer shed at the back of the orchard, last noticed getting on for a year ago at reference 3, settling instead for a picnic in the old stable yard, quite near the car park.

Following the imperial doubts expressed at reference 4, no doubt about the crown imperials to be found not far beyond the stable block. I wonder how long it will take the Guardian to launch a campaign for changing the insensitive name of these plants: possibly irritating for those hailing from the subcontinent, by heritage if not by birth?

Closely followed by what we took to be a splendid specimen of a white honesty, some relation of the bank of regular honesty (Lunaria annua) growing at the back of our garden. A diagnostic that Google Images was happy to confirm with white-flowered honesty (Lunaria annua var.Alba).

More cowslips, in among the blue bells.

And I rather liked these blue flowers - quite often preferring the more modest flowers to the more showy ones - like, for example, camelias. Google Images is reasonably confident that it is navelwort (Omphalodes cappadocica var.Cherry Ingram).

Another member of the borage family which is causing me so much bother. Wikipedia more or less agrees at reference 6, but Bentham & Hooker has a more complicated story. I smell taxonomic controversy, perhaps now died down, just leaving a few echoes.

One of the various benches on which we took the sun on was at the side of the splendid croquet lawn. A game which I understand is very good for apparently demure young ladies to get off a spot of steam. Quite an aggressive game really and FIL was rather keen on it. The snap does not give much of the idea of the lawn, but it will serve as an aide memoire.

A clump of Camassias, going a lot stronger than the comparatively weedy ones in a pot on our back patio. Maybe they will come to something yet. Google Images not very confident about this one, with the majority vote going to the ribwort plantain, aka narrow leaf plantain (Plantago lanceolata), which is quite different.

Does better on a head shot snapped out of the original, again not completely sure, but with the majority vote going to Camassia leichtlinii var.Caerulea. I had not noticed the dark flower stems before, present at Polesden Lacey, but I am not sure about our patio.

The centrepiece of our picnic was a couple of the substantial Scotch eggs to be had from our Manor Green Road butcher. Better, bigger and dearer than the Sainsbury's offering.

All in all pleasant and relaxed visit.

Followed up by a visit to the nearby fishmonger, Fowlers, who was just closing. No entire lemon soles (as notice eighteen months ago at reference 5), but he did fish a couple of bits of cod out of an ice box for us. A little disappointing in the event, pushing out a lot of water when baked and ending a bit soggy. Perhaps we should have drained and then dried a bit in the oven before serving. Perhaps buying at the end of the fishmonger week not so clever.

PS 1: in parallel with this post, batch No.718 was on the go, coming to a successful conclusion just before 15:30 having started out at around 09:30, six hours previously. One loaf in the freezer, the other about to be cracked open. Probably to be taken with a spot of Poacher.

PS 2: while next door, the triffid aka aloe is on the way out. Last noticed at reference 7. Must take a proper look and have a go at working out whether the florets could be described as being in a helical formation. Doesn't look much like it from this snap, but should be clearer with the real thing.

Kitchen not yet put back in its box, although progress is being made.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/12/polesden.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/indecision.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/06/rose-festival.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/tulips-at-hampton-court.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/11/autumn-lacey.html.

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphalodes.

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/trolley-674.html.

Time greedy trivia

Fiddling around this morning I turned up the book snapped above, reference 1, more than 400 pages ot if, the sequel to the best selling reference 2. Both the sort of cookbooks for achieving improbable success that they seem to like in the US. As explained at reference 3.

But where had it come from? Was I prompted to read it by something that I was already attempting to read? Was it a pick-me-up from the Sutton or Raynes Park platform libraries?

Some clues was conveniently tucked inside: the label from one of those wrappers used for postage by second hand book sellers and a business card from the eBay seller called 'Family_book_shop'.

But first I tried gmail, searching for the book directly, and drew a blank. Second, armed with the date of December 2023 from the label, I tried searching my purchases on eBay. Which turned out to be that snapped above, substantively noticed at reference 4. With this book being from 10 years before the present book. Furthermore, the earlier book does not appear in the index of the later book. From which I deduce that the clues were not clues at all. A pick-me-up which I can safely consign to the compost heat: I waste quite enough of my quality time already.

Next stop was the book at reference 5, a book I have been trying to read since it was first published in 2021 and did post something about at reference 6 in 2023. I keep getting so far, then getting diverted. The book opens with the rising sun, a category of event defined by their needing to be a point of view; a rising sun has no existence without there being something or someone to watch it. From where I associated to a correspondent who took a lot of interest in perspective, something which, as I recall, he thought there was far too much of. Interest which had resulted in a substantial Word document. I probably had a copy on one of the computers retired to the loft - but could I put my hands on it? This time the gmail search feature did the business and I was able to recover a draft of the document, from over a decade ago. All most impressive.

Plus, I will reread reference 6, so that bit of the time spent of trivia was productive.

Last stop was reference 7, which came to me as a result of my taking an interest in Ainscough cranes, following the report about one of their cranes from Stoneleigh at reference 8. More than 800 pages of pdf. The first part given over to crane tutorial, the second part to a series of specifications of their cranes, a good part of which is tables like that snapped above. All to do with how much lift you get at various distances and heights. But working it all out is clearly going to have to wait for a rainy Friday afternoon, when things are a bit slow after a heavy lunch.

Not all that much in the way of impressive pictures. For that you need the Liebherr website at reference 9.

Time to get up properly.

References

Reference 1: A passion for excellence: The leadership difference - Tom Peters, Nancy Austin - 1985.

Reference 2: In search of Excellence - Tom Peters, Richard Waterman - 1982.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_Excellence.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-relaxation-response.html.

Reference 5: The hidden spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness - Mark Solms - 2021.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/05/a-reprise-of-chips-life.html. 

Reference 7: Ainscough crane hire: Fleet Guide - Ainscough Crane Hire - 2021.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/piano-82.html.

Reference 9: https://www.liebherr.com/en/gbr/start/start-page.html.

Trolley 678

A bent M&S trolley from near the top of the Kokoro Passage. Despite the bent handle, it wheeled fine, all four wheels squarely on the ground.

On the way, what one might have thought was an inoffensive eucalyptus tree coming down. It looks as if it is on or at least near the stream line, so water would not have been a problem. Who can see the chain saw?

Then heading on to Ewell from M&S, this line of delivery scooters outside McDonalds's. There can be a lot more of them and they can be a bit of a pain - but I don't suppose McDonald's are going to complain, even if it does irritate some of their walk-in customers. While I wonder how many of them fail to meet the payments on their scooters: there are so many of them that it is hard to see how any of them make a decent living.

Onto Bourne Hall for a further inspection of the fallen tree, first noticed at reference 2. Crossing the tape to take a closer look. I suppose it must be a lateral root, heading away from the water, that one can see snapped off there - but not at all sure about it. It looks more different from the two angles than it ought to...

I suppose it must have come down this way, given the state of the railings, with some of the wrought iron bars - say half an inch square - snapped clean in two. Poking around the litter, I would say oak leaves, from which I deduce oak tree.

Plus a fine greater celandine, as previously noticed. Flanked by green alkanet, also as previously noticed. Good park, Bourne Hall.

While the next day, around the back of Epsom Hospital where there is an impressive collection of huts and containers, housing all kinds of services, I came across this superior cycle rack for the use of the staff, not like the one the public get to use at Ewell West Station, as noticed, for example, at reference 3, at all. But then, that one has been there for near ten years now - and I get to snap the eco-roof from above from time to time.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/trolley-677.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/trolley-675.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/search?q=cycle+ewell+station.

Group search key: trolleysk.

My vanished world

This being notice of a short memoir from a daughter of the man who went on to be the last Sawbwa (otherwise Sao Hpa) of Lawksawk, one of the 33 Shan States, then to the east of Burma proper. The Shan State as a whole being most of the high ground to the east of Mandalay in the map above, an area of around 50,000 square miles and with a population at the time of around 2m, now near 6m people. For scale in the snap above, Mandalay to Taunggyi is about 75 miles.

China to the north east, India to the north west. The Shan population is mostly derived from various waves of migrants from China over the past two thousand years. Shan as in Assam and Siam, also known as Tai as in Thailand.

Mandalay is at latitude 20°N, a good deal nearer the equator than London at 50°N, but the Shan plateau is around 4,000 feet above sea level, so the climate is warm, about right for oranges, but not as hot as the lowlands. 

Government

After the British invaded Burma in the late nineteenth century, they allowed the hereditary Sawbwas to continue, with a thin layer of supervision being exercised from the town of Taunggyi, perhaps mirroring the arrangements in next door India with its (rather larger) princely states.

I have not checked, but I imagine that British rule brought a degree of peace and stability to what had been a rather unsettled region. The British also maintained a decent balance between the Burmese majority and the various minorities strung around the lowland centre, a balance between lowlands and highlands. The language of government – and higher education – was English rather than Burmese, which suited the Shans – at least those rich enough to have a higher education – well enough.

In English terms, in size, most of the Shan States would be somewhere between a district (like Epsom & Ewell) and a county (like Surrey).

The Shan aristocracy, on this account, come across as being rather like the county families of 1900 England – with this family at least having English given names as well as Shan names. Some of them were educated in schools and universities in the UK.

Burma became independent as the Union of Burma in 1948, but in 1962 the country was taken over by the Burmese dominated army in a coup and the Shans became an oppressed minority. The Sawbwas went to prison, losing most of their property and income in the process – the income which was what paid for education in the UK for their children. A large fraction of the Shan aristocracy left, leaving most of their former wealth behind.

The present author, in England at the time, married and stayed here, ending up, before she and her husband retired, in a Cheshire village bakery.

Odds and ends

In the olden days, the Sawbwas were polygamous, with several wives and lots of children. Children who jostled for power and position, not always peacefully, rather in the way of Saudi princely children now.

Lawksawk was occupied by the Japanese during the second world war and while there was some bad behaviour by their troops, this ruling family got along well enough with the occupiers – having got along well enough with the British before them.

The author went to a Catholic girls’ boarding school – seemingly one of a number in Shan State at that time – and then to Rangoon University, where tuition was in English. After 1962, this changed to Burmese and standards, at least on this account, fell. By this time, the author was in London, having got a scholarship for further study at University College (UCL).

She comes across as someone who is interested in food – with Chinese takeaway being something of a favourite from childhood. We are not told what propelled her into village bakery in Cheshire; a bakery which I failed to turn up in either Bing or gmaps.

Conclusions

An interesting, easy-read memoir from the end of the Shan State. Now not very happily incorporated into Greater Burma, that is to say Myanmar. 

We are given what one might call a rather cosy view of life among the Sawbwas. But I dare say there are Shans now – perhaps in exile or perhaps chafing under the Burmese army, greedy and crude as it is – perhaps not that different as far as that goes to the Japanese occupiers of the 1940s – who take a rather different view of life under the Sawbwas; from among the labouring masses who fed the comfortable life of said Sawbwas and their families. And I dare say there was change in the air in the 1950s, before the rule of the Sawbwas was brought to a crude and abrupt end by the Burmese army in 1962.

Now moving onto reference 3, one of the few references at the back of the present book.

PS 1: in the course of posting this, I thought to take another bacon sandwich from the caravan in Longmead Road. Sadly, no bread and I had to make do with a bap, which was not very fresh. In the course of which bap, I learn that there is a kitchen and joinery operation, called Benchmarx, part of the Travis Perkins family, with a new branch housed in the new Travis Perkins Yard in Roy Wickens Way, nearly opposite the caravan. I dare say we would have given them a look when we were choosing our new kitchen had I known that they were there. See reference 4.

PS 2: some days later: poking around the population statistics, I am reminded that it is all very difficult. Are you counting the people in what is now the Shan State, the Shans in Shan State or the Shans in Burma? What about all the army units stationed there? And I have failed to find any decent historical runs of data. I dare say they are there, but I have not yet found them. Somewhere around 2m in the 1940’s and 6m now is about the best that I can do.

References

Reference 1: My vanished world: The true story of a Shan princess – Nel Adams – 2000.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/in-transition.html. My last substantive notice of Burma.

Reference 3: The Land and People of Burma – C. Maxwell-Lefroy – 1963.

Reference 4: https://www.benchmarxkitchens.co.uk/. 

Trolley 677

Having scored the now rare Waitrose trolley at reference 1, I headed off up East Street. I was unable to resist what has become another rarity, a couple of trolleys from Sainsbury's in front of the creationists' accommodation block there. Pushed up the hill to Kiln Lane and returned to their stack.

At which point, I decided that the footbridge and Blenheim Road was the way ahead, rather than doubling back to East Street and continuing on round the rather longer Ewell Village anti-clockwise.

To find these large ivy leaves in the passage. I have noticed them before, but the point here is that these are new leaves, new this year. So being a large leaf is not the product of being an old leaf - not that I have any idea how long one might expect an ivy leaf to last. Gemini suggests up to three years or so and further prompted goes on to say:

Points two and three look promising - unchecked for the moment, but something to try to pick up on on my next visit to an RHS library.

Note how polite Gemini is. Your question is always fascinating, helpful and so on.

A bit further down, a couple of clumps of wild garlic. Not noticed before, so perhaps a recent arrival from somewhere. Not quite in the same league as the great banks of them on Devon roadsides, say around Holne.

And a fine thistle pushing through. Definitely one to keep an eye on. Let's hope no-one takes a stick to it.

Finally, no pyramid orchids but a few cowslips in the grass bank outside what was the Tchibo warehouse. Last noticed here more than 100 trolleys ago at reference 2. Much more recently, maybe a kilometre up the road, at reference 3.

Celebrated later with a new white wine from Majestic. A brand we have used before, but not this particular label. It did very well. And with a little more effort I suppose I could have got both labels and containers the same size. As it was, I thought containers was better than labels.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/trolley-676.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/04/trolley-567.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/indecision.html.

Group search key: trolleysk.

Grub up

A visit to the Wigmore Hall which, in the event, involved rather a lot of food. Plus, for me, a rather unusual programme: Szymanowski and Poulenc rounded off by a bit of Schubert (D895).

A concert which might have been put on by the Young Classical Artists Trust (of reference 9), given that I take the DIY programme to mean that it is not something put together by the Wigmore Hall, they just hire their hall out.

But not so DIY that they do not appear in the archive at the hall, as snapped above. Perhaps from musicians point of view, getting into the archive seals their appearance and they can include it on their CV's. We are also told that 'Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux is a joint YCAT-Concert Artists Guild Artist, and in 2022 was nominated as a Rising Star by Classic FM. She led the Quatuor Confluence to First Prize at the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival in 2021. Highlights this season include a chamber tour with Sinfonia Cymru, recordings of Schubert for Delphian Records, a return to the CBSO to perform Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending and a lunchtime recital in the Konzerthaus Berlin'. No mention of Havlat. But quite a lot of previous appearances at the Hall between them.

All of which, in the event, all turned out rather well.

A day which, however, had started out cold and overcast. Rain was a possibility. Furthermore, my telephone was playing up and was reporting problems with its SD card, inherited from the Microsoft telephone which came before the Samsung. So leave a bit early and pay a visit to the O2 shop in the Ashley Centre where I am attended to. The camera is redirected to main memory, which seems to solve the problem, and I learn that SD cards are rather old-speak. Temperamental and manufacturers no longer bother with them much, main memory have got big enough for the need to be much reduced. O2 no longer sells them, let alone attempt to do anything with one which is on the blink. Sir had better try one of those mobile joints on the High Street. 

Taking it out probably not a good plan in the short term as a great swathe of pictures will go with it, but maybe that will be sensible in a month or so's time. They are all backed up elsewhere and I rarely look at old pictures on the telephone - not least because the part of the user interface which I know about is not very good at history. All of which meant that I ended up at Epsom Station a little early for my intended train and decided to opt for Victoria instead.

Where it was a bit damp, but that did not stop me pulling a Bullingdon there. 

Another large hole in Victoria Street. Once again, not able to recall what was there before.

Whitehall OK, but it did seem like a bit of a pull up to Piccadilly Circus from Trafalgar Square and I was glad enough of stops at lights to catch my breath. Another hole in Oxford Street, on which the Samsung had a bit of bother focussing properly.

Took a beverage at the Cock & Lion where the seating had been reorganised since my last visit. Instead of a low bench and sensible chairs, there was a raised bench running along the wall opposite the bar, with high tables and high chairs. Not my scene at all, but there was still the odd low table left.

At first (this morning that is) I was unsure whether the table lower right was genuine timber or some sort of plastic veneer. However, zooming in on the edge trim, the grain of the trim follows that of the top. So my vote is for timber - with another for the power of zoom. Visible here on a laptop if you click to enlarge, possibly on a telephone too, where I think you still get some zoom.

Onto the hall which was around half full. Some masks among the older regulars who like to sit at the front. Flowers dominated by yellow pompoms and orange strelitzia, balanced by plenty of mixed green backdrop. One very groomed older gent with very combed blonde hair. Possibly involving the hair dresser's art. One lady with a lot of brown hair - but with a striking core of emerging white when she looked up.

Musicians young. Computer for the violin, pages and page turner for the piano, except the piece which he had arranged himself and for which a second computer was needed.

A young performance and I got on rather well with most of the programme, but I must have been dozing off at one point as I found myself seeing the violinist in double, one next to the other. Something which happens sometimes when I am tired, but which is usually dissipated fast enough by a bit of blinking. Not so easy on this occasion and it seemed to take a little while to clear it. All very odd. No encore, which I thought was fine after the Schubert: he did not need capping.

Pulled my gear from the cloakroom and headed off along a windy Wigmore Street to a fairly busy All-Bar-One, where I opted for a double paella. With the waitress coming back after a while to check that double meant double: she looked just a touch sheepish when I explained that the portions were rather small. Part of one of the portions being snapped above. And inverting a plate over the other portion to keep it warm, I was pleased to find that the plate was actually made in England rather than being imported from somewhere in the Far East. We do still make some stuff at least. In this case, Steelite by name, to be found at reference 1.

A website which supports something called a mood board. Presumably something needed by someone putting together an integrated decorative package for a fine dining experience.

Paella still good, if a little marred by a puddle of reddish oil (chorizo dyed) oozing out at the bottom.

Out to stroll down to Soho Square. With the first item of interest being the handsome six-potter snapped above. One fire for each floor, counting one of the two mansards and a sub-ground?

Notice how they have made a feature of the shrinking number of flues inside as you drop down the building.

Then a representative of a chain we once used to have in a rather cramped premises in South Street in Epsom. My memory being that it was a chain which started in Edinburgh, grew to overreach itself and then collapsed back into a rump. With the Epsom branch being a bit pretentious and a bit expensive for what it was. Reference 2 not much help, but reference 3 confirms my recollection on this occasion, adding the new news that it was a franchise. While reference 4 tells of a rather messy bankruptcy, involving a moon light flit to Paris in a rented van. Presumably the Dean Street franchisee survived the crash.

Amused by a public house, done up from its old Soho days, with a board outside saying that it was selling traditional pub food. Perhaps not run by someone old enough to remember the days when public houses did not sell food, other, perhaps, than the odd sandwich knocked out by mine host's wife, out of sight of the tax man. An oxymoron?

The sister establishment to the Toucan that we used to use near the Wigmore Hall, now a Be-At-One, this one just by Soho Square. Pulled a second Bullingdon at this point with a view to Vauxhall. Mostly downhill this way.

Ukrainian flags flying from the top of the Cabinet Office, the FCO and what used to be the Treasury building (GOGGS) in Whitehall then Parliament Street.

There seemed to be lots of police in and around Parliament Square, but perhaps that is normal these days.

Came across a rather shabby building behind the Albert Embankment called the National Crime Agency, a 'non-ministerial civil service department', but looking from reference 5 to be police rather than civilian and possibly carved out of the Metropolitan Police in some fit of re-organisational zeal. Nothing to do with the CJIT whom I was once with.

And so to the Tea House Theatre to take tea. The people at reference 6. Quite busy at 16:00. What appeared to be real flowers on the tables. Perhaps the marble cake was a bit much after the double paella. Decent enough in its way, but including rather a lot of butter icing, or perhaps chocolate flavoured margarine icing.

Stocked up on strawberry jam from Bugden, as first noticed at reference 7.

The road by the arches I once used to walk every morning on my way to the Home Office HQ on Horseferry Road. In the days when the back entrance to Vauxhall Station was open in the mornings. And sometimes some curious sights in and around the arches.

For once in a while, a trick of the light made me think that the stainless steel art over Vauxhall bus station was quite impressive.

A crowded train, with a quite a few children. Without BH, no-one thought to offer me a seat and so I was standing until Stoneleigh or Ewell West. To think that once I used to make a game of standing in the train without holding on - a game which took me a bit of practise to get any good at. But then, I had years and years of it.

Home to the trolley at reference 8 and news of a funeral skirmish at TB.

References

Reference 1: https://www.steelite.com/.

Reference 2: http://www.pierrevictoire.com/london/restaurant/.

Reference 3: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/victim-of-the-chain-gang-1166693.html.

Reference 4: https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/pierre-victoire-restaurant-chain-returns-after-spectacular-collapse-1719175.

Reference 5: https://nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/.

Reference 6: https://www.teahousetheatre.co.uk/.

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/tate-and-pie.html.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/trolley-669.html.

Reference 9: https://www.ycat.co.uk/.