Steak and kidney

Around ten days ago, we paid a joint, middle of the day, visit to the Oaks Suite Annex. I thought it appropriate to walk there with the trolley, so the plan was to eat at Wetherspoon's afterwards, something we have not done in Epsom for a while.

Picked up a fine red rose somewhere on the Chase Estate, I forget exactly where. The telephone has not done a bad job on it, except that it has gone back to making the foreground object look as if it is has been pasted onto a background. Visual field integration has come unstuck again.

Then in town, we were reminded that the place that was Bill's for a while, across South Street from Wetherspoon's, is going to be Persian. Coming soon: the only catch there being that it has been coming soon for a while and I suspect a hitch. Hopefully they will make it, as the menu at reference 1 looks interesting. Not stuffy about alcohol either, with an interesting wine list, from where I associate to reference 2. Not that I have looked into the religious affiliation of these Persians: maybe if you call yourself Persian in the UK, you are probably some kind of Christian rather than a Muslim, Shia or otherwise. And Wikipedia suggests that there are far few fewer Zoroastrians than Christians. Never recovered from the Muslim conquest, at around the time that we were being bashed about by the then pagan Saxons.

Our business in the Annex concluded, we returned to town, to take late afternoon refreshment at Wetherspoon's. BH studied the interesting bakery item in the house magazine, snapped above, while I studied the menu. She failed to work out how it had all been done, but I settled on steak and kidney pie, a dish we have taken several times before, although I have wondered in the past whether three of them between two would be the right way forward. On this occasion I stuck at one as BH went off-piste with some kind of veggie burger - but added a garlic pizza bread instead, or something of that sort, visible left in the snap below.

Satisfactory, perhaps half the price of the Marquis over the road, but I felt that Wetherspoon's had been fiddling with portion sizes and so on to keep the price down - rather in the way that chocolate bar manufacturers fiddle with the size of chocolate bars so as to hold what they see as the right price to keep the punters coming. 

The plates were not part of the recent makeover as we remembered them from before.

There was a new carpet, looking a lot better in real life than might appear from the snap above, much better than the one that was there before.

A poster explained that it was especially woven for the job, picking up on various bits and bobs from the location. I suppose with computer controlled looms, specials are not as special as they might once have been. And I would have been more impressed had they bothered to involve the art college up the road, although young creative types might well have turned their noses up at floor coverings for a public house. I remember that they got a contractor in to do their house logo rather than knocking something up themselves. The job needed a specialist apparently.

Edward Dorling is to be found at reference 6, but I have found no connection with the Christopher Dorling of Dorling Kindersley books, the people that do a lot of educational picture books, books which were once found all over the place. Now swallowed up in some bigger operation although the name survives, along with a website (reference 7). This despite it being an unusual name and the older Dorlings having a printing business.

We also solved the mystery of what they do with the first floor. As you face the building from the market square, the left hand side is given over to the customer toilets, including very generous provision for the ladies. But I never worked out what the right hand side was used for, quite a large chunk of space to be standing idle. Was it staff accommodation? Do Wetherspoon's do that? On this occasion, I noticed a dumb waiter at the side of the bar and the barman explained that it connected the bar with the kitchen above, not the cellar below. So the right hand side is the kitchen, plus a staff rest room. Although users of this last have to come downstairs to use the main coffee machine if they want a hot drink. Obvious enough when you have been told, but I had failed to work it out for myself.

Quite busy with pensioners eating at 16:00, much quieter by the time we left at around 17:00.

Out to attend to the trolley, noticed at reference 5, picking up the plums snapped above, and then over the hill to home. 

The plums turned out very well, some of the best plums we have had this year. Wet, green flesh coming away from the stone, as it should. Two duds from the eight, perhaps to be expected if you are buying ripe: can't expect them all to reach the line at the same time. Making the effective price near 40p each, getting on for the price of a decent orange at Sainsbury's, of the order of 50p.

Some anemones looking really well in the early evening  light, although you would not know that from the snap above. A very popular flower just at the moment, with one coming across them all over the place - including our very own front garden. Parks are quite keen on them too, often planting them in masses, where they also do well.

And someone who wants to stay on the spot to keep an eye on the builder. Not something that I would want to do: much better to move out properly and keep an eye on things from a safe distance. Things which must be fairly serious as the house has since acquired a tin lid.

A late plum.

PS 1: we were impressed by the size of the veggie menu, snapped above. A bit longer and a bit cheaper than that at the Rubbing House, fine house though that is.

PS 2: also that the leader of Brent council is moving in on their infestation of ebikes.

PS 3: Thursday morning: I suppose we should be grateful that Starmer's clothing troubles are not in the same league as those of the Mayor of New York. For whom, at reference 8 we have: 'Eric L. Adams, a retired police captain who was elected as New York City’s 110th mayor nearly three years ago on a promise to rein in crime, has been indicted following a federal corruption investigation … Days later, in a dramatic scene on a Greenwich Village street, F.B.I. agents told the mayor’s security detail to step aside, climbed into his S.U.V. with him and seized his electronic devices'.

References

Reference 1: www.dibarestaurant.co.uk.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/07/boozing-in-iran.html.

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

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

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/09/trolley-726.html.

Reference 6: https://www.michaelchurchracingbooks.com/the-dorlings-of-epsom/.

Reference 7: https://www.dk.com/uk/.

Reference 8: Eric Adams Is Indicted After Federal Corruption Investigation: The indictment makes Mr. Adams the first sitting mayor of New York City to be charged with a federal crime - William K. Rashbaum, Dana Rubinstein, Michael Rothfeld, Edward Wong, Chelsia Rose Marcius, New York Times - 2024.