Walkabout

A week or so ago, there being a need for cheese and there being uncertainty about the wisdom of Bullingdons, I decided that the way ahead was to take the rollator to London Bridge, buy the cheese, top up with some white bread, and then walk Cycle Superhighway 7 to Vauxhall, cutting across to the Estrela at Dorset Road, just past the Oval. This may not have been the best route, but it had the advantage of being one that I knew and I would not have to think about it. As it turned out, it was surprising how different it was by foot and all the different things that caught one's attention. It also turns out that the Cycle Superhighways have been rebranded Cycleways, although this rebranding did not extend to the CS7 markings on the roads.

Walking took around three times as long as riding, this last being around 25-30 minutes.

The day started off quiet enough, with no visible action, the first time for a long time, at the newish flats across from the platforms at Epsom Station.

Lots of irritating announcements on the train to London Bridge, but not so loud and irritating as to stop me dozing for a good part of the way.

Out to buy my cheese, where I was advised by the cheerful lady there that I ought to profit from my upcoming expedition to Holne to visit Ticklemore Cheese of Totnes, makers of blue cheeses which can be bought at Neal's Yard Dairy. I am sorry to say that we were not able to make a suitable window in our busy schedule. Maybe next time.

A white loaf from Olivier's. Probably sour dough, quite chewy, lots of bubbles. I liked it, although I do not think that I would want it as an everyday bread: teeth not up to it any more. About two pounds of loaf done in well under three days.

Out to inspect the fancy conversion, now completed, in Redcross Way, a conversion first noticed at reference 3. Traced today by gmaps being out of date enough to give me the name of Converter Hawksmoor. Not yet worked out how many flats or houses we have here, but there are flats in this general area costing around £1m.

I had already decided that there was not enough time to visit the nearby Korean show of reference 4, 'Pulse Beyond Delight', which was probably an hour's worth or more. Probably noisy visually, possibly also fun. Maybe next time.

Left at Southwark Bridge road and headed south, to find what looked like the busy HQ for Forest Cycles underneath a railway arch. The people at reference 5 and one of their cycles well off-piste (or at least seeming so) on the Jubilee Way run at reference 6.

An unlikely spot for a sunflower near Elephant & Castle. It being a bit late in the year, will it come into a ripe flower, with seeds to chew?

Note the much older doorway at the far right of the snap. A very mixed area as far as that goes.

A posher plant with bins, this one in Kennington Park Road: a substantial house which appeared to be in single household occupation. Marked down for the apparent absence of off-street parking, but maybe that is around the back. And the tube station is not far away, so maybe they don't bother.

We don't do blue bins for houses in Epsom, so this bit of London must have a different colour scheme. A bit of local discretion where the local authority is actually allowed to decide something, sovereignty of the House of Commons notwithstanding.

Next up was a vacuum hole excavator for the gas company, large size. With the hole concerned being large enough to rate being propped. Smaller versions of which excavators have started appearing around Epsom. See, for example, reference 7.

Next up was a white police van, parked about six feet from the kerb, blocking the progress of a small red car. Half a dozen or so policemen standing about. One fat white car driver looking slightly bemused. Not clear what he had been pulled over for and one did not like to ask.

Now having passed Kennington Park what it probably a hundred or more times over the years - it used, inter alia, for a while, to be on my cycle route into college - I have never been inside. So on this occasion I ventured in. And a very fine park it was too; much grander than anything we have in Epsom.

Was it some relic of the second world war? Possibly underneath, but actually skate park according to the ticket I found on the other side. The one I know in Epsom is not as grand as this one, but it is still quite busy, certainly at weekends - but maybe fashions move on a bit faster in town.

Bench with shrubs. An area which is civic minded enough to run to a park protection society.

Swinging round, some of the many mature trees.

The relic of a once elaborate fountain.

'... Made of pale, terracotta stamped with the famous mark of the Doulton Potteries in Lambeth ... Designed by G. Tinworth and representing “The Pilgrimage of Life,” the work was destroyed by vandalism in 1981, leaving the headless column that can now be seen by one of the park entrances on Kennington Park Road...'. Protection not quite 100%.

The Derby. Perhaps the sort of house from which a herd of locals, appropriately fortified, would walk up to Epsom Downs on Derby Day, subsequently renamed to celebrate the fact. I failed to sample the ale.

I had worried about the lack of flowers on the rather better specimen at reference 8. But at least there was a stray flower on this one.

And so into Dorset Road. I don't usually like this sort of thing, but, oddly, I did quite like this one. Perhaps it helped that it was still in pretty good condition.

The first time I have come across an abandoned and damaged Bullingdon. It must happen a fair bit, so they must usually be quite efficient at tidying them up - probably the best way to reduce the incidence.

The first pub in the road, a conventional one, had been converted into a couple of maisonettes. While this one, much newer, struggles on as a community hall. I have taken the odd jar there in the past - a place which I remember as being rather sad and quiet.

And so to the Estrela, where the chicken stew was substantial, although the chicken was rather dry. The chicken tasted as if it had once been roasted some time previously, then added to the sauce on the day. Not a proper stew at all. But the Deu Deu white  - properly Alvarinho Deu la Deu - was all present and correct.

And they could manage a fruit salad without dairy trimmings, albeit in the wrong sort of glass. One of the simple desserts which I moan about being missing from most restaurants.

Opted to stroll back along the embankment to Waterloo, an embankment which seemed much busier with tourists than the last time I made the walk, noticed at reference 9.

But this commemorative flagpole, a gift from Canada, seemed rather lost. A pity they could not find a better setting for it.

At one point I used the lift at the Southbank Centre, to be thoroughly confused by the bottom level being called Level 1. I subsequently learned that hospitals do it too.

Then the steps down to the road level by the Mandela bust, where a kind young lady, already encumbered with a couple of young children, offered to help me down. Declined, I hope gracefully.

Back in Epsom I picked up what seemed like a monster supply of Furosemide, but actually just the usual two months supply. And then I had a craving for something fizzy and orange, so took a double something in the Marquis. With ice. Not something I do very often. Must have been the longish walks in what had been a warm day drying me out.

Then both tea and lemon squash when I got home, lemon squash made by squeezing a lemon and adding water. Didn't seem to want the usual sugar.

PS: in the margins I learned about connecting my laptop to the Internet using my telephone, a wifi trick called mobile hotspot. Which, after a bit of poking and scraping about, is now working well in Holne, thick stone walls notwithstanding. A big plus for the cottage in question, it having long irritated me that there was a large Internet flavoured box near the top of the telegraph pole in the road outside, but no Internet inside. O2 have so far charged me around £10 for supplementary data, which is well worth it. While BH's phone, which has a very small data allowance, has conked out for data purposes and she prefers me not to buy her a supplement. I might also say that while O2 are very efficient at selling me the supplementary data, their various messages and emails about same are rather out of sync. Confusing even. Furthermore, the drill is that your data allowance is reset at the start of each charging cycle, that is to say around the middle of each month in my case - so any supplementary data which you do not use is lost.

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cycle_routes_in_London.

Reference 2: https://ticklemorecheese.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/04/tate-trimmed-cheese.html.

Reference 4: https://delightexhibit.com/london/pulse/.

Reference 5: https://www.humanforest.co.uk/.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/11/sundays-snaps.html.

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/07/trolley-575.html.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/08/chops.html.

Reference 9: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/08/brunswick.html.