Ten days ago to the Wigmore for some violin sonatas from Hana Chang (violin) and Jonathan Ware (piano). Mozart K306, Elgar Op.82 and more Elgar for the encore, Op.15 No.2. The Mozart was the draw for me, having been fond of his violon sonatas for perhaps 50 years now.
A gray start to the day. Settled for a rare outing for the Banana Republic tweed jacket, made in Hong Kong, but probably sourced from the Oxfam shop which is still at the top of Exeter's South Street, not far from the cathedral. Topped up with stick, duffel coat, etc.
Not being sure now whether you can call something tweed which does not come from Scotland, I looked it up and the answer seems to be that the name is usually used for coarsely woven, woollen fabrics from the periphery of the UK. And there is a link, albeit an erroneous link, to the river. But this jacket is certainly that sort of thing, whatever the proper name.
I have also learned that Banana Republic is now more a brand belonging to Gap, rather than an independent operation. See references 10 and 11. While tweed gets a mention, in connection with Selfridges at reference 12.
Slept on the way to Victoria, after which it was a long walk to the Victoria line platform, even longer than it might have been as I managed to misread the signs at one point. But I got there in the end.
Up to Margaret Street and into the cafe where I had, on a previous occasion, noticed at reference 1, been caught out by a burglar alarm. On this occasion a large black coffee, plus a cheese and salami toastie. I thought the stronger taste of salami did rather better in this context than the usual ham. And the coffee was strong stuff. All the better because you just walked in, said want you wanted, sat down - and in short order it arrived. Much less bother than Olle & Steen with their double queueing and baristas.
Street View not yet caught up.
Plus a selection of paintings of the slap on the paint variety. Not bad - and, as it happens, we are acquainted with an Epsom artist who specialises in this sort of thing, floral branch.
Serious surfacing action at the junction of Wigmore Street and Harley Street. Let's hope that all the good doctors roundabout were not to inconvenienced. For JMP, not to be confused with JMC, see companies house. The Internet address turned up by Bing. ' https://www.jmpsurfacing.co.uk/' does not seem to work - the second time such a thing has happened today. Did yesterday's BIOS update disturb the realm?
Into the hall, where a photographer appeared to be setting up cameras to take snaps of the action. I imagine he could remote control the snaps, but I don't think the camera did video and I don't think he could move the camera about remotely. Which must have made it all a bit hit and miss. Who knows.
The violinist looked very small and very young, and the pianist, while young, was not as young and not as small. And he was from Texas. To be found at reference 3. Kicking off, he gave me the impression that he did not like playing second fiddle (as it were), and did not give much space to Chang. Things got better as we moved through the programme, but for me the damage was done. But at least the Elgar pieces gave her more room for her to do her stuff.
Out to find Sunbelt rentals, yet again. Funny how I have been coming across them all over the place since first coming across them at the new Lidl headquarters building in Jubilee Way, during the plague.
No.98 bus from somewhere near John Lewis. To find that Pull & Bear are moving from the west of Oxford Circus to the east - which does not look anything like as tacky as it did twenty or thirty years ago - and that Microsoft have shut up shop. This last not being very surprising, as they did not seem to be doing a lot a business when I visited them. All the stuff on offer looked far too expensive and far too games orientated for me although they did offer a higher grade of sales staff. But were they on the real payroll or were they zero hours people?
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Out at Tottenham Court Road to admire a lights installation by Samia Halaby. To my surprise I rather liked it. Impressed even; maybe even BH would have liked it. With one of the things that struck me being the sense of space you got from time to time. A bit like being in a large church. An installation which moved and which was broken into a number of scenes, one of which is snapped above. I don't remember about sound track, so that cannot have been intrusive if it was there at all. As it happens, a Palestinian domiciled in the US. See reference 4.
The same car was parked outside the Ivy as when we last passed by. It is the manager?
Two thirds of a loaf from Fabrique at the top of Earlham Street, first noticed at reference 5. No buns on this occasion.
A bit further down, a whole new concept in shopping baskets. But the Rules Committee was not having them as shopping trolleys.
Into Neal's Yard Dairy where a chap was buying cheese against a wine tasting he was running a bit later that day, and I was impressed by how little space £200 plus worth of cheese took up, But then, I realised that I was spending getting on for £50 on my Poacher, augmented on this occasion by a spot of Stilton, which I thought would go well with the sour dough loaf just purchased. As indeed it did.
Slightly worried by the rather small stocks of Poacher. Hopefully not a bad omen.
Onto the tube at Leicester Square, down to Waterloo and onto a train to Chessington, along with a blue dustbin. A blue version of the green dustbin that we have outside our back door. I never found out what it was doing there.
Stopped off at the HWH for a spot (or two) of their Valpollicella. Where I admired the stoppers they used for their opened wine bottles. The barmaid told me that they definitely helped opened wine last a bit longer and that they were to be had from Amazon, as indeed they were. Snapped above and used for the first time this afternoon. Further report in due course.
Back up the steps to the platform, I wondered about how serious an exercise it would be to jump up, ankles together. Or for the serious person, hopping up. Maybe I need to inquire about this sort of thing of the Crossfit people who live across the road from us. Or maybe the even more serious looking people who live underneath the arches at Grant Road? For whom see reference 6.
I continue to be intrigued by the mixture of soft and hard boundaries offered by the large posters on the platform at Earlsfield.
Thought about Richard II, a play I know better than the Tempest. The Bridge Theatre being an interesting place which we have visited once before. But, not sure about a stunning new rendering for the audience of today, we thought we would wait for some reviews. Wind up going anyway?
After which the patterning of the line of trees, sharp against the lowering sky, caught my eye.
Raynes Park platform library full of fat paperback, ladies fiction and thrillers. Nothing for me on this occasion. Has the man who did Drinks Business and Spirits Business moved on? But I do have a copy of Spirits Business, dated November last year, from which I share some trivia.
Not as much fun as Drinks Business, which is more wine orientated. Not a serious wine person, but even less of a serious spirits person. Tequila, no. Gin, no. Vodka, no. Rum occasionally. Can't tell Scotch from Bourbon. And while Spirits Business is big on gin, it does not seem to be into Armagnac or Calvados.
Although while there might be no Calvados, there is date gin for the discerning customer from the Middle East.
And back with Scotch, there is the 'Chapter One: The first release' from Glenlivet. To which end, they have partnered with the renowned artist Red Hong Yi, known as ‘The Artist Who Paints Without A Brush’, to design the limited edition packaging. It is also Glenlivet's first venture into the use of red wine casks in the maturing process. How many flavour notes - to use a bit of master-of-wine-jargon - do they clock along the way?
All in all, not much for me.
Notwithstanding which, Reis Packaging of reference 7 are clearly the people to go to if you want a quality bottle for your offering.
[Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre. Credit: Raven B. Varona]
And RTDs seem to be the tin of the moment. Ready to drink confections, usually involving spirits and sugar. A couple of chaps called Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre are getting in on the act with something called 'Gin & Juice'. While Bing thinks that they are resistance temperature detectors. Google adds that they might be ailments or something to with boxing. But add the qualifier 'tin' and Google gets properly into gear, as snapped above.
The Lyaness bar in the Sea Containers Hotel gets three pins for something, whatever that might mean. Of reference 8. A place to visit when I am in London Bridge? Could they do me a tomato juice without Worcester Sauce - a juice I was reminded that I rather liked the other day.
Then towards the end, we get an advertisement for Spanish luxury gin, from the people at reference 9. While I had thought that gin was a London thing, particularly in the 18th century, before the regulators came online. But then I remembered that gin crops up in Švejk, so there must be a European angle, at least in translation. Whatever the case, just 7,000 bottles of this gin have been released from the 2024 pot, so get in line now.
References
Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/10/cross-dressing.html.
Reference 2: https://jmcsurfacing.co.uk/. Not too proud to do the drives of houses.
Reference 3: https://www.jonathanware.org/.
Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samia_Halaby.
Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/12/log-fired-oven.html.
Reference 6: https://www.crossfit.com/.
Reference 7: https://reispackaging.com/. 'Over 70 years of experience in the standard wine market in Germany and three decades of excellence in luxury glass packaging'.
Reference 8: https://www.seacontainerslondon.com/eat-drink/lyaness/.
Reference 9: https://letribute.com/en-gb.
Reference 10: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Republic.
Reference 11: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweed.
Reference 12: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/02/double-wigmore.html.
Reference 13: https://ravenbvarona.com/. A fancy website, but I failed to find the snap of Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre offered by Spirits Business.
Reference 14: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hong_Yi. Malaysia, Australia and Shanghai.