Champers

A fortnight ago, a festive day starting with the Škampa Quartet at the Wigmore Hall giving us Mozart No.19 (aka K465 and Dissonance) and Brahms Op.51 No.2. Sold out.

Starting with the day before, a snap which failed of the dahlias planted outside the front door of a house at the Sainsbury's end of Middle Lane, flowers which have given much pleasure over recent weeks and which have weathered the rain better than I had expected. But the telephone, for once, did a poor job.

Then the jelly lichen on the patio, brought out by the same rain. Clearly an autumn as well as a spring phenomenon. And still going strong yesterday.

Two lorries on West Hill carrying four strange vehicles, the last two of which are snapped above. It turned out afterwards that they were promotional items from the Ghostbusters film people, in town to help celebrate the opening of the Picturehouse cinema next to the library which had been hanging fire for months. In what now seems to be called Derby Square. I had thought Ebbisham Square, Ebbisham being Domesday-speak for Epsom or something. See, for example, reference 4. Sometimes misspelt here as Picture House.

Not impressed by a poster on the platform advertising a film which appeared to be offering vicarious fun from violent gangs on the streets of London. Not sure that this was a socially healthy subject for a film.

Even less impressed by an insulin bore on the train. I resisted the temptation to fight back with warfarin.

Some discussion about the proper pronunciation of Yosemite, with BH and a lady nearby opting for four syllables while I opted for three. A rather foreign sounding voice this morning says four at reference 5, with the stress on the second. Point for BH.

A building near the exit to Bond Street tube station which seemed to have gone up a few floors since we were last there.

A change of format at Olle & Steen. No more cups and saucers, just higher grade paper cups. And they had changed the name of the Kløben buns we take, perhaps to Cardamom bun. While BH was amused by a young lady in full (and expensive looking) Muslim dress who had to lift her veil with one hand in order to sip from the coffee cup held in the other. While I noticed that a serious amount of something metallic and brassy had gone into the trim - things like handrails to the stairs. Presumably, a serious amount of money too. Presumably, a left-over from a previous use of the premises.

Then at Bell & Croyden, a display from the same school of marketing-speak which gave us Fat Face and Smelly Betty. Trolley handle visible in reflection bottom right.

Kitchen robots still present, if a little hemmed in by the building works - of which Wigmore Street seems to get a lot more than its fair share. A street which will presumably become busier if the plan to kick oil fired vehicles off Oxford Street comes to pass. But what about all the electric bicycles mowing down innocent shoppers?

Wigmore Hall full and the flowers as good as they usually are. Scarlet anthuriums (the Wigmore florist seems to be keen on this flower) with green and off-white making up the background. A popular shade with lots of varieties if Bing is anything to go by. Both quartets were good, although I liked the Mozart better than the Brahms.

Out to find that Sunbelt Rentals of reference 6 had reached Cavendish Square. An operation from the sun belt of the US which seem to be popping up everywhere over here, with my having first come across them when the Lidl HQ was going up at the end of Jubilee Way, noticed three years ago at reference 7.

And a broken down bus being towed out of Cavendish Place into Regent Street. The breakdown driver misjudged the turn and had to back up a bit, a backing up which caused much bother and confusion with the driver of the car behind who did not have a clue what was going on. He got the idea in the end when the breakdown driver started shouting at him.

Pushing on towards the restaurant, a couple of rather faded looking plaques in Mortimer Street. Not clear from Street View why the left hand building, rather nondescript, should rate opening by the mayor. One supposes that the Cockney Rebel right visited by the Princess Royal right was the pop group of that name - but I don't suppose that the BKCEC mentioned was the British Knitting and Clothing Export Council. On a more positive note, Saki House was once the home of Saki, aka Hector Hugh Munroe, Edwardian writer of witty & mischievous short stories of which my mother and her friends were very fond when she was a student at McGill in the 1930s. Never tried them myself for some reason, although I once owned some of hers. A small red book with flexible covers as I recall.

Impressed by the liveliness of the southern end of Charlotte Street, the other end of which used to be the home of the once famous Schimdt's, long deceased. Of which reference 8 gives the idea.

Into Circulo, pretty busy this Sunday afternoon, where we decided to have champagne for a change, or nearly champagne. There was something about it being too organic to bother with the appellation business. Furthermore, by the standards of restaurants, it seemed to be very reasonably priced compared with what I would have to pay for it on the Internet. It went down very well. See reference 2, from where the snap above is taken.

They also managed a birthday card, presumably Google had told them, and I was pleased to be able to damp down any further manifestations - which seemed to be something of a speciality of the house.

Bread and ham good if a touch salty. Then we both had the crab flavoured pasta, one of the dearer pasta dishes, which I had had before and liked. But on this occasion mine at least was far too salty, perhaps because it seemed to come with the orange, oily stuff at the bottom of the plate, of which I seemed to have rather a lot.

I then made the mistake of having something which I thought was going to be lemon meringue pie, which I am rather fond of, but which turned out to be a large confection topped with a huge amount of white fluffy stuff, only very distantly related to the meringue I was expecting. At least I was spared the birthday candle on top that some other tables were treated to. We were also spared loudspeaker excess from the large loudspeakers hung at intervals along the walls and two of which can be seen next to BH in the snap above. Perhaps they get cranked up for special occasions.

Wrapped up with a spot of Armagnac, in lieu of the missing Calvados. A jolly occasion, even if a touch salty. Maybe it was the champagne, which I would certainly have again.

The wine bar we used to like above platform 1 at Waterloo was still in limbo, some years now after closing, although it has acquired an additional floor - with stairs which might be tricky with the rollator. See, for example, reference 9.

Good haul at Raynes Park, previously noticed at reference 10. Although the only book to see further use since then - so far anyway - is the one from Whitbread.

Confused by the Guildford via Epsom trained being billed as the Clandon train, which meant that we almost let it pass. Fortunately it dawned on me in time that Epsom was included under Clandon.

More confusion at Epsom Station where taxi driver solidarity was kicking in over a failure to start. Jump leads appearing out of odd places.

References

Reference 1: https://www.bigmammagroup.com/en/trattorias/circolo-popolare.

Reference 2: https://www.champagne-drappier.com/en/clarevallis/.

Reference 3: https://www.skampaquartet.cz/home-en.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/11/pork-stew.html.

Reference 5: https://youtu.be/UGGMBvo-pQ4. BE for Belgium. Why there?

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

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/12/triumphal-arch.html.

Reference 8: https://mark-kaplan.blogspot.com/2006/05/schmidts.html.

Reference 9: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/02/master-builder.html.

Reference 10: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/09/raynes-park.html.