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/.