More no score

Tuesday was a hot day and a day for batch No.726. Hot enough that the dough rises faster than usual. From which I associate to the remarks in reference 2 about how people once thought that reliable biological clocks were impossible because everything biological speeds up rapidly with temperature. Now we know better, even if not all the details have been nailed down. I might also say that despite starting off accessible enough, I am still working my way through this book more than six months after purchase.

The first rise went off well enough and the second rise went off over lunch time. Before lunch, all looked well, dough rising but still well down in its tins. At the end of our first course, I thought it was time to turn the oven on. A little early, but better too early than too late. By the end of lunch, it was too late. The oven had come to heat (225°C), but the dough had risen well above the rims of its containing tins and was bubbling up. Which meant that it collapsed shortly after going into the oven, the first time this has happened for a while, the newish Royalty flour being much better in this regard than the Alto flour which came before.

However, it recovered, at least partially, with the result snapped above. The loaves were not as big as one might have hoped, but they were not flatbreads. Traces of collapse to be seen in the sharp edges around the tops, particularly visible to the left of the left hand loaf.

After all this, and a short break, I thought that a stroll down town to replenish stocks of wholemeal flour was in order. It was still quite hot, so I settled for out by way of Meadway and back by way of Court Rec[reation ground]. Where neglect of the hedge between the parallel paths running across the eastern end of the rec meant that the section by the vets was infested with blackberries, with a handful or so to be picked from each side. Both hard and sweet, very good in fact. I had forgotten, taking nearly all our blackberries in the form of cooked blackberry and apple, that fresh raw blackberries can be very good.

Back along to the bridge over the stream where I had taken the first berries of the season, as noticed at reference 3. Where I was able to pick and eat another handful. Also very good. Perhaps the heat of the afternoon made them even more welcome.

Home to find that the bread, while not great, was perfectly eatable and, as it turned out, it improved overnight. This seems to happen quite often. Very fresh is not always very best. This being reliably true in the case of cakes like Dundee cakes, which improve over weeks. Which is not the case with bread...

Moral: try harder to avoid a second rise over lunch. Which I already knew, but there is no accounting for dough.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/no-score.html.

Reference 2: Rhythms of Life: the Biological Clocks that Control the Daily Lives of Every Living Thing - Foster RG & Kreitzman L - 2004.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/out-and-about.html.

Shanklin

Shanklin took the bronze prize with two visits into the course of our stay on the other island, both by way of the bus, and while we were tempted to walk down to the train on the second occasion, just for form, in the event it was quite warm and we settled for the much nearer bus stop.

Having arrived, our first stop on the first outing was Babushka Books in Regent Street, a well-stocked establishment where I was once able to buy a nice three volume edition of Clarissa, much better for reading than a giant paperback. On this occasion, a cheap copy of David Copperfield, rapidly superseded by the rather better copy noticed at reference 3.

This was followed up by a visit to a curio shop where I bought an entertaining history of the Royal London Yacht Club, penned by one Bernice R. Slater, PhD, with a forward by HRH Prince Philip, Duke, etc. Produced for the 150th anniversary in 1988 and as well as a history of the club includes all kinds of bits and bobs. An interesting bit of social history from the upper echelons of the yacht club world. With all the ceremonies, flags and rules reminding me of the Freemasons. With the middle echelons being full of swingers & boozers according to my informant from TB, a chap who got a great bang out of crewing for the principals, crewing which, inter alia, gave him the entrée to the après ski, as it were.

However, I checked one of the bits and bobs with Wikipedia this afternoon - references 5 and 6 - and found that the gloss on the affair offered by Slater was a bit thin, quite apart from her having got the wrong Hudson as captain. It seems that the whole thing was a publicity stunt to advertise a new model, galvanised iron life boat, carried sail appropriate to an entirely different kind of boat and had a thoroughly miserable crossing. The first, it seems, for a boat of its size - although I imagine that many Viking long ships were of the same order. The boats used by Columbus on his first voyage were perhaps twice the length of this one.

For some reason, my note made at the time links this book with Copperhead, perhaps a coffee shop in Shanklin. This afternoon, I can find no trace of it, only turning up the rather better known north American snake, as described at reference 4.

Followed up with £1 for a DVD of Dr. Zhivago (Sharif style), just in case we tired of Miss. Marple (Hickson style). As it turned out, we didn't.

Coffee and a rather good tea cake at Poppins. Lavazza coffee not quite up to Olle & Steen, but quite satisfactory.

From there we strolled along to the famous Chine for our annual visit, with a view back up from quite near the top offered above. A rather old-fashioned seaside attraction, but one which we rather like.

Looking down.

Some kind of fern. Most impressive.

A  modest echium, a migrant from nearby Ventor. A object for phyllotactical study?

Rather to my surprise, Google Images had no trouble at all with a slightly cropped version of this image, turning in a near unanimous verdict for the right answer, Echium pininana, that well known borage from the Canaries.

Crab salad from the house, the Fisherman's Cottage, at the bottom of the chine. Taken with sparkling water and very good it was too. Double lemon for her, my never having understood this thing about squeezing lemon juice all over sea food.

From there, for a change, we took the lift, from the top of which we strolled to our bus stop and so to the bull ring at Brading. Tea and Dundee cake on arrival.

We did the High Street on the second occasion rather more quickly, failing to buy a data stick in Poundland but taking a toasted tea cake in the same establishment as first time around. And the derelict cash machine snapped above, not something I see at home very often. At least, I can't remember the last occasion.

Then more phyllotaxis outside a church.

Again, rather to my surprise, Google Images did not have much trouble with this one either, uncropped, with a verdict of  Aeonium arboreum. Another escapee from the Canaries, widely grown as a house plant and something of a garden pest in Australia. What you see here are rosettes of leaves; the conical yellow flower heads appear in the spring. See reference 12.

From there, down to the beach by road, rather than by chine, stopping to take in the aparthotel noticed at reference 8. We also got a free view of the chine.

More of same. Chine below, beach beyond.

Checked in for a crab salad and then took a stroll south along the fine beach, threatening sky notwithstanding.

Getting towards the point. A point we have rounded in the past.

The sort of log which might have interested the late Monica Poole, although she probably had plenty of her own, in and around the estuary to the Medway.

Our second crab salad came on a round plate, rather than an oval plate, and was arranged slightly differently. Clearly a different chef - but just as good. Taken with chips this time.

After which we walked north along the beach until we reached what I thought was the nearest point the bus came to the sea - and a conveniently placed path up the cliff. I dare say I would have been in trouble had I got it wrong.

Horsetails: a whorl rather than a spiral formation? But I shall look it up in due course to check. I did have ambitions once to grow them by the side of our house, where we never go or look, but it never came to anything and I dare say they would have needed more sun than they were ever going to get there.

Emerged at Winchester House, now a YMCA; quite an operation if reference 9 is anything to go by. Didn't look like one from the outside, but then it was largely screened by a tall hedge, although we did notice the buddleia growing by a chimney. While the various pink flowers we encountered on the way up prompted the post at reference 10.

Sudden urge for tinned apricots when we arrived at the bull ring, an urge which was satisfied by a couple of tins of Prince - but as it happened not consumed on the day at all, settling for more tea and Dundee cake.

PS 1: the only connection that Google turns up between Copperhead and Shanklin is the line dancing magazine at reference 11. Not relevant at all. But there is a Copper Kettle café.

PS 2: this morning (Wednesday), I make a quick foray into the world of horsetails, first reminding myself that they are not flowering plants, then into the trusty Lecointre of reference 13. Where I read of horsetails being quite near the beginning of land plants. Horsetails are Sphenophyta and the latest common ancestor with the flowering plants are the Euphyllophyta. Not to be confused with the aquatic look-alike Hippuris vulgaris, which is a flowering plant. There is talk of both spirals and whorls, which confused me. Then more confusion at Wikipedia at reference 14. Much more interest out there in the evolution, taxonomy and sex life of these plants than in their more botanical details. But maybe the botanical fog will lift if I can get into reference 15. Maybe there is more to the dichotomy between whorls and spirals than might at first appear. 

I learn in the margins of all this that horsetails, which herbivores are not fond of, are close relatives of the rather larger versions from which we got all our coal. Also that horsetails do like the sun, so down the side of the house would not have done at all. Also that the whorls of green needles might be branches rather than leaves, which last are small and inconspicuous.

[Flamininus restoring Liberty to Greece at the Isthmian Games. Ex Wikipedia]

PS 3: while this morning (Thursday), I am prompted by the yachting book to investigate the origin of the term 'Corinthian', used in the late nineteenth century both here and in the US to denote yacht races in which the yachts did not have paid crews or captains. The idea was that the owner was captain of his own ship and did not delegate the function to the hired help. At the time, yachts were mostly pretty big, say twenty tons or more, and yachting was a rich man's sport. Show-off sport even. I had an interesting discussion with Gemini about all this and while there is some connection with Corinth, the Corinthian (or Isthmian) games, it is all a bit vague, and may well have been mistaken in the first instance. Athletes in these games may not have been professionals, but they did, after a more lowly start, involve substantial prizes in cash and kind. Not so unlike the progression of our modern Olympics. Once again, I have been impressed by Gemini's standard of conversational waffle, and while he may not have come up with a clear, checkable answer as to the origin of the term, I now suspect that there is not one to be had. Or, at least, if there is an answer it is lost in the archives of some ancient racing club in the eastern United States, possibly horse racing club rather than yacht racing club. But see reference 16 for a relic of all this which is very much alive and well.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/hms-marijuana.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/piano-88.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/ryde.html.

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

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red,_White_and_Blue_(ship).

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_L._Hudson.

Reference 7: https://shanklinchine.co.uk/.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/change-of-scene.html.

Reference 9: https://ymca-fg.org/isle-of-wight/.

Reference 10: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/invasion.html.

Reference 11: http://onlinedancer.co.uk/pdfs/213.pdf.

Reference 12: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeonium_arboreum. 

Reference 13: The tree of life: a phylogenetic classification – Lecointre and Le Guyader – 2006.

Reference 14: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum.

Reference 15: Polymerous Leaf Whorls in Vascular Plants: Developmental Morphology and Fuzziness of Organ Identities - Rolf Rutishauser - 1999. Note: downloaded file name starts as title.

Reference 16: https://www.royalcorinthian.co.uk/.

Back into the thicket

I see from reference 1 this morning that the Stonehenge tunnel scheme has finally got the chop, a scheme which to my mind was a victory of the heritage lobby over the bean counters. One of the many tips of the heritage iceberg.

As usual, I thought it would be nice to see all this at the horse's mouth, and as is often the case it took me a little while to find it, buried as it was among a heap of stuff on GOV.UK. But I got there, and I think that the definitive list of savings is the table from reference 2 snapped above, somewhat camouflaged in among a whole lot of worthy stuff about the restoration of public finances.

We learn that, as is all so often the case, that a good chunk of the advertised savings are to be made by squeezing departmental budgets. All kinds of public services like funding research into the more effective pollination of dessert cherries and funding book festivals up and down the land will no doubt vanish. And perhaps, given that departments have already had years of this, some rather more vital services, like all the building inspectors needed to keep an eye on things like the cladding of tall buildings.

A rather smaller chunk will come from means testing the winter fuel payment. One short term effect of which may be that the balancing winter food bank payment I have been in the habit of making might stop too. We shall see.

Stonehenge rates a few words near the bottom. Next to ducking the charging reform of adult social care, yet again.

In the short term, I dare that this is the best that can be done. But along with the analysts, I worry that, huge majority in Parliament notwithstanding, the more difficult decisions will be ducked and our public infrastructure will continue to crumble.

PS 1: I might also say that I do not care for the loud banner at the top of the snap above. We abandon the common civilities in our public life at our peril, as should be obvious enough from just glancing across the pond.

PS 2: and being cynical, one wonders if provision for reforming the charging of adult social care was ever actually made. Is this a real saving or a media saving? But I am not going to dig into that one, it being nearly time for breakfast.

References

Reference 1: Axing of Stonehenge tunnel raises uncertainty for industry, warn analysts: Cuts to infrastructure projects cast doubt over Labour’s growth strategy - Financial Times reporters - 2024.

Reference 2: Fixing the foundations: Public spending audit 2024-25 - Presented to Parliament by the Chancellor of the Exchequer by Command of His Majesty - 2024.

Blackberries three

Three of us took half a tray of blackberries before lunch this morning, from a clump on the western side of our very own road. Location snapped in rather unfortunate lighting conditions from Street View this evening. But there is something to be seen if you click to enlarge.

The berries are slated to appear at the bottom of an apple and blackberry crumble this day week. With hot custard, naturally. Must wean the other two off their habit of taking custard cold from a packet a bit like a milk carton. At least we have got them off sprinkles.

I can also report hearing, for the first time for quite a while, the hooting of an owl overnight Sunday-Monday. No idea what sort of an owl it might have been.

While today closed with YouGov asking me for my views, such as they were, on the sponsorship of sporting events. Beyond indicating my disapproval of gambling and cryptocurrency companies, I am sorry to say that my answers were not very informative - but I did get my 35 points, probably worth less than 3.5p in terms of the gift vouchers they send me from time to time.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/blackberries-two.html. A full tray.

No score

There were a few blackberries yesterday, off plants which had invaded the low shrubs lining the side of the Screwfix shed you pass coming out of the underpass. Half a dozen or so of which I ate: sweet and rather good, but then they were facing the afternoon sun.

Before that, I had passed the mysterious solicitor's van which is usually to be found in Station Approach but which, this Sunday morning, had moved up to Meadway. See, for example, reference 1. The usual handsome hollyhocks coming up to the right of the van. 

I then learned a little more about Paracetamol. First, you are allowed to buy two boxes of 24 500mg tablets while you are not allowed to buy three boxes of 16 - I failed to notice until it was too late that the larger box was also fizzy, which I did not really want. I think it was also a good bit dearer by weight. Second, the additional active ingredient in power Paracetamol appears to be caffeine. Which accords with the fact that early morning tea seems to be quite effective at damping down early morning back pain.

And while we are on drugs, it occurred to me yesterday that the seeming blanket ban on Valium, stuff I use for certain dental purposes, must encourage people to look for alternative, probably illicit, supply. I can see that blanket ban is cheap and easy to enforce, at least at the surgery end, but it does not give a very good result.

Next up, that Wagamama have taken the end High Street slot occupied for a short while by Prezzo, a chain we had liked well enough in the past, but had not been taken with this particular branch. Layout not right and staff rather inexperienced. While Wagamama we have not much liked in the past, despite a liking for wet noodles. We shall have to try it again and see if we can order the right sort of noodles - although I am not greatly encouraged by reference 2 which talks of 'the ultimate bowl of comfort. A steaming pot of spicy broth packed with crunchy veg + tteokbokki'. Spicy not being a word which attracts me, at least not in an Asian context.

Lastly, I offer two more snippets from the same number of the NYRB which feature in the last post, a better number for me than we have had for a while.

First, concerning televised debates, we are reminded of the old adage that it is best not to wrestle with pigs. You get dirty and they like it. 

Second, from the abusive world of competitive swimming, that in order to swim from Cuba to Florida (or something of that sort), you need to be in a shark cage which has been covered with a mesh fine enough to keep out the jelly fish. One chap went further, donning flippers and snorkel, but he had no ambitions to get into the record book.

It also struck me that having middle aged male coaches spending a lot of time with scantily dressed fifteen year old girls was something of a recipe for disaster. In much the same way as not letting Catholic priests marry.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/03/double-paella.html.

Reference 2: https://www.wagamama.com/.

American descent

Picked up the piece at reference 1 this (Monday) morning, by one Ben Rhodes, a journalist who moved into politics, becoming a White House staffer under Obama. Now back in journalism.

An article built around a book about the arrival on the world scene of a depressingly large number of populist leaders - the wannabee fascists - and another about the far right in the US, starting around the time of the First World War. There is also the rather earlier book by Rhodes himself.

I found it an informative piece and I almost pressed the buy button on reference 2, thinking that I could probably cope with a modest 250 pages, but was held back by a sense that the piece gave very little air time to the various failures of liberal, rules-based systems. To name but three: the skill with which some are able play those rules to amass great wealth or power; the failure to get to grips with pressing needs like building more houses that ordinary people can afford or building more prisons; and, the commissioning of far too many resource-greedy public inquiries which often achieve next to nothing, beyond playing the whole sorry business concerned into the long grass.

We shall see. The trigger finger has not quite stopped twitching.

PS 1: irritated this morning, not for the first time, by the ease with which one lands in the NYRB shop rather than in their site proper. The online version of our National Trust where all roads lead to the catering and retail outlets?

PS 2: another piece in the same number of the NYRB reminded me that the US really needs to do something about its Supreme Court and about their fixation on their Constitution as a governing text. From which I associate to the large number of people in the US who believe in the literal truth of every one of God's words, as they are to be found in the right edition of the right Bible.

References

Reference 1: American Descent: Donald Trump and right-wing strongmen like him around the world are using grievance-based nationalism to gain power. When does this sort of populism tip into fascism? - Ben Rhodes, New York Review of Book - 2024.

Reference 2: The Wannabe Fascists: A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy - Federico Finchelstein - 2024.

Reference 3: America Last: The Right’s Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators - Jacob Heilbrunn - 2024.

Reference 4: After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made - Ben Rhodes - 2021. 

Blackberries two

Late yesterday afternoon, après siesta, to Stamford Green Pond, to see what there might be there in the way of blackberries. To find that there were quite a few, well worth picking, on the green-side fringe to the pond, as snapped above. Pond just about visible, middle right, to the right of the rushes.

More or less filled up the same small tub as I used at reference 2, which just about accounted for the berries to be had at this particular spot. But must (get BH to) dig out a bigger tub for some more serious picking, my custom being to pick into a very small tub for periodic transfer to a big tub, safe on the ground somewhere. Less to hold and less risk of accident.

No ratty on this occasion, but we did have a heron, not very successfully snapped above - the same sort of magnification having done much better on the woolly bear caterpillar of reference 1 for some reason. And there were a couple of brown geese, probably Egyptian geese, guarding their brood of four or five goslings, sat in a brown feathery clump in the middle of the path. Pigeons and suchlike approached at their peril.

The Cricketers was providing some kind of live entertainment out front, harmless enough at a distance, although BH had been annoyed earlier in the week by their need to pump rather loud musak outside at lunchtime. Loud enough to interfere with conversation. Blackberries off-snap to the left.

The frozen results the following morning, awaiting bagging up for storage at the bottom of the freezer. Oddly, they look much pinker frozen than they did fresh, when the overall impression was a shiny black.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/woolly.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/out-and-about.html.

Sea and sand

Yaverland took second place in the holiday stakes, with visits on three days, the first of which has already been noticed at reference 1. While the second and third of which were the last two days of the holiday, the weather having turned warm and sunny.

On the Wednesday, I had PayByPhone well under control. No flap at all. And we elected to walk north, towards the red cliff. BH went so far as to take her shoes off and have a bit of a paddle, with the red cliff being visible roughly in the middle of the headland to her left.

We didn't actually make it to the red cliff on this occasion, but returned for our first picnic of the holiday, the usual modest affair of bread, cheese and bits. No hampers or champers for us. But there were plenty of family parties having a good time on the beach in front of us.

After which I made a short foray to the south, taking in a very fine sand castle on the way. Battlements style rather than water works style (this being my style), but very big, maybe covering a three metre square. Children relegated to the margins.

There was also a talkative lady with a dog with views about dogs on beaches. I learned that the council had forgotten to put in the necessary paperwork to the courts and was not, in consequence, in any position to enforce the by-laws set out on posts at regular intervals along the beach. By-laws which the talkative lady got quite excited about.

Back to the beach café, where they could only manage the one of their excellent rock cakes to take with our tea, but that, is it happens was enough on this occasion. After all, we had not been swimming or anything like that.

Giant motor bike in the car park on exit, with two back wheels, a partner's throne above and a reverse gear, which last did not, apparently, stop it counting as a motor bike for tax purposes. A local, rather than a long range chap. I think I would have noticed if it had been a Harley, but the snap above does give the general idea.

Later on, put off by the giant gas works at the Yarbridge turning, as previously noticed, we settled for the Bugle again. Returned the Richard Church book that I had borrowed and then, previous pie notwithstanding, I went for pie again, menu pie rather than pie-night pie, and remembering to ask for gravy on the side. And to take chips rather than mash. Which all worked out well enough, while BH was happy enough with her pork belly, getting a rather more substantial portion that she would have got fine dining in Surrey. Yellow mash not so clever.

A place we rather like and it is certainly convenient. Noticing for the first time the interesting overhead bookshelves, with the heavy timber shelves presumably attached to the much lighter cladding behind by brackets hidden behind the books.

Back to Yaverland the following morning, which was warm and hazy. Very little in the way of water sports, apart from paddling and swimming that is.

On this second visit, one of us at least made it to the red cliff, leaving BH to mind what looked like a fairly fresh earth slide.

The red cliff. No raptors above on this occasion.

As I approached, noticing a large chunk of rock on the beach, speculations about the interesting geology which accounted for the unusual shape, cracks and so forth, until getting rather closer, I realised that it was a chunk of red brick work, fallen down from above. I thought that perhaps it had been perched over the edge the year before.

But looking again today, maybe not. A very substantial bit of brickwork, bigger than the percher, which had looked like part of a shed or hut, perhaps rather once part of some fort or gun emplacement.

Back once again to the beach café, where we took tea and rock cake, one each on this occasion, plus two to take away, to take the place of the traditional Bounty Bar on the ferry the next day. I was self-indulgent enough - given my low-fluid diet - to take two teas. The whole followed by half a picnic on a bench overlooking the beach. Plenty of people both down there and wandering up and down to keep us amused.

Followed later by three Pukka pies between the two of us. Greens and pies from Tesco, heat from microwave. Not the sort of thing we make a habit of, but we thought that the Pukka people did rather well, getting the consistency inside and the various textures just about right. For the money, one would have to be very keen to attempt to better it - or even match it - DIY.

Washed down with some English cherries. Which I have not liked as much this year as the Spanish ones.

For the last time, pondered about the kitchen table, which certainly looked like some kind of block-board, I thought perhaps the obeche that used to be used for things like drawing boards when I was young. I still own one. But one can never be too sure these days, with all the clever fakes there are knocking around the furniture and furnishing shops. BH was suspicious of the hard, smooth finish, not very organic, let alone ecological, at all.

I didn't go as far as turning the table over, but the zig-zag joins in the top looked OK - one of which might be visible upper right in the first of the snaps above - the with-grain and cross-grain edges looked OK and the underside felt OK.  While the snap immediately above and the story at reference 2, from which it was taken, made availability of this pale timber from Africa in large planks, rather in the way of our own whitewood pine, seem entirely plausible.

I settled for not fake.

We took what will probably be the last real rock cakes of the year on the ferry. Only let down by all the granulated sugar which had been sprinkled on top of the hot cakes not long after they came out of the oven having by then stuck on. One had to eat it, rather than tap it off, in the manner of Hornblower's weevils. For those that did Hornblower when young. Or perhaps old.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/yaverland.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triplochiton_scleroxylon.

The future?

[The vice-president boards Air Force Two in Houston, Texas, this week. Harris’s candidacy for the White House has given fresh energy to what had been a downbeat Democratic party © Brendan Smialowski/POOL/AFP/Getty Images]

A striking shot of the new Democratic candidate for the Presidency to be found at reference 1. From a photographer who appears to have an eye for it, but does not seem to need to trouble to put a lot of effort into his website.

PS 1: maybe President Biden got the timing of his decision just right after all. Reflecting the fact that he is a very experienced operator?

PS 2: the next piece, at reference 4, was not so encouraging. Just business as usual, with our hospitals, prisons and so forth continuing to fall apart, with Labour no more able to bite the tax bullet than the Tories before them?

References

Reference 1: How Harris turned the tables on Trump: Many voters had been dreading a rerun of the 2020 election between two ageing men. Now they are being presented with a much sharper contrast - Lauren Fedor, Financial times - 2024.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Smialowski. How much time did he spend on his ancient history?

Reference 3: https://smialowski.org/.

Reference 4: Reeves to delay infrastructure projects to address ‘fiscal hole’: Chancellor’s problems exacerbated by recommendations that public sector workers should get pay rises that are well above inflation - George Parker, Sam Fleming, Gill Plimmer, Sarah Neville, Jim Pickard, Financial Times - 2024.

Out and about

First up, some heavy plant involved in the resurfacing of a road near us. They must be doing a bit more than just putting a skim of something on top. With a non-scoring Wellingtonia behind.

At least one non-scoring trolley in the Kokoro Passage.

Then I find that our local Majestic has shut up shop, there having been warning signs some weeks ago now. One the chaps left behind to finish stripping the store out explained that the owners of the site had been trying to get permission to build a block of self storage units for some time and had finally got it. Whereupon they gave Majestic two weeks notice: presumably Majestic had been happy to operate on a short-notice tenancy agreement. Their staff have been redeployed and they have hopes of reopening in nearby Banstead. Not so convenient for us and I guess we will start going to the outlet at Leatherhead. But who is going to occupy these self-storage units? One might have thought that there were plenty of these places around already, not least on nearby Blenheim Road, but presumably they know what they are doing.

While the chaps putting up the fence snapped above managed to shut in another non-scoring trolley, this one from Sainsbury's. No way to get at it that I could see.

Down through the Screwfix underpass to notice an outfit on Blenheim Road called the Mould Growth Consultants, with a logo including a microscope. I thought maybe something vaguely pharmaceutical, but no, actually they are a specialised cleaning company. Mould, lichen, moss and all that sort of thing. Indoors and outdoors. See references 1 and 2.

And lastly to my first blackberries of the season. Not many, but as the supermarket tells us, every little helps. And Bing tells me that eBay will sell you both the bag and the t-shirt.

When and where will the next ones be? If last year is anything to go by, I have a month in hand. See reference 3.

So far, I find wheeling the Rollator (noticed at reference 4) a bit like wheeling a superior, lite-weight shopping trolley. Having bigger wheels helps. Having (two) brakes helps. Having only the front two wheels on swivels helps, although I can see that, in the aisles of a shop, one might take a different view. And a pavement which slopes perpendicularly to the direction of travel is still a pain - something there is a fair bit of on our residential, rather than on our retail streets. So far, so good!

I imagine that Mums with prams and push-chairs know all about sloping pavements. Not to mention the declining number of people who still wheel themselves by hand in wheel chairs. Known, I believe, as 'wheelers' among themselves.

References

Reference 1: https://www.mgcltd.co.uk/.

Reference 2: https://www.trade.mgcltd.co.uk/. 

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/09/blackberries-2.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/trolleys.html.