Supplementary cello

An extra visit to the Wigmore Hall for some cello and piano: Sol Gabetta cello and Kristian Bezuidenhout piano. Brahms Op,99, Mendelssohn Op.58 and, for the encore, an arrangement of the Chopin Étude Op.25, No.7. Not my usual thing at all. But a concert which was more or less sold out when I booked my ticket a couple of days before hand. I was lucky to get a good seat on the right hand side, almost certainly a return, again not my usual thing at all. 

It turned out to be another cold and dreary day and I opted for a lift to the station with my stick, but without my trolley.

Niketown seemed to be closed for refurbishment by Coffey, possibly of reference 4. Who seem to be more civil engineers than builders, big in the water works business. But they do claim to do other stuff, and Bing is not offering any other Coffeys.

Back to the little coffee bar opposite All Bar One in Regent Street, where, once again, I happened to turn up in a gap in the queue. What Street View calls the Mustard Cafê but I am not so sure. Once again, salami toastie and coffee, this past from Carraro of reference 2. Good coffee, but you also get an expensive looking, syrupy video at reference 3.

I puzzled about the position of what appeared to be windows to the outside world, perhaps a light well? Outside world visible middle right, beyond the counter.

Satellite View leaves me none the wiser. One of those fancy, hundred year old, red brick buildings of which there are plenty in the area. The impressive line of chimney pots visible to the right belongs to the corner building, the ground floor at least, of which, is occupied by SpaceNK, the people at reference 1.

A bargain pouffe opposite the hall. Now less than £1,000! I wonder how long it would take BH and I to knock something of the sort up? I dare say we could get something near enough for less than £100 in materials, although we would have trouble matching the smooth finish to the thing.

On into the hall, where two chaps behind me were discussing the business of booking returns. It seems that one of them was very keen on it for some reason - presumably one of those people who does not like to book himself up in advance. I learn that you might have to go into the website several times over a couple of hours or so, but that you almost invariably get there. I associate to a friend who seemed to like queuing for returns at theatres, in person. He never failed either.

Interesting cello part in the Brahms, although I found the Mendelssohn more accessible. I liked the encore, slight thing though it was.

An impressively tall mobile concrete pump at the site by the funny little church at Henrietta Street, now the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

The way of Jesus, lifted from reference 5. We actually got inside back in 2011, as noticed at reference 6. Where I am also reminded of the late lamented Toucan. The Soho Square branch may still survive.

More of same.

On to the Half Way House at Earlsfield, noticing on the way that Lime Bicycles seem to be cleaning up their act. Not so many heaps of them littering the pavements, more lines of them outside places like railway and tube stations.

Some fake tiles, presumably in the washroom. They looked like tiles and did not feel hollow to the tap, but I think they must have been put up in sheets. Not very carefully: a more careful worker would have taken more trouble to line things up properly at the corner and would have avoided the short ends.

The barmaid, perhaps the manageress, knew her business, striking just the right note with both customers and others. Customers which she referred to as guests. From where I sat with my glass of Valpolicella, looking back towards the railway station, I could see four fast food outlets and four estate agents - and not much else.

Grey and wet outside, useless for aeroplanes. But I was impressed by the monster step up into the train from the town end of the platform. I also noticed that it was easy enough for one's winter-gloved hand to slip on the handrails provided. Care needed!

A good haul at Raynes Park, the first such for a while. A selection from a much larger selection of numbers of 'The Linguist', which did not turn out to be as interesting as I thought it might be. More a talking shop for the day to day affairs of working translators. I learned that literary translators do not do very well and that computer game translation is a whole new speciality. Secret Services very visible, but then, I suppose, they are the biggest single employer of linguists.

A piece which told me how some languages have odd strengths and weaknesses. The Spaniards to not have a good word for our 'silly', while English is well endowed with words about medical matters, with, for example, a rich pain vocabulary.

The fishy atlas, from the US, appeared to be directed at amateur aquarium enthusiasts. In particular, the people who keep sponges and other marine obscurities as pets. I think Volume 1 did fishes while volumes 2, 3 and eventually 4 did the invertebrates. This volume 3 does molluscs (Mollusca), segmented worms (Annelida) and echinoderms (Echinodermata) - some of which are very rum looking animals altogether. A German company, published in the USA, printed in Singapore. 500 or so small pages on shiny white paper. This last presumably to carry all the photographs.

From Mergus Verlag of Osnabrück, seemingly at a private address, 'Wilhelmstraße 19, 49078 Osnabrück, Germany'. No website, just lots of listings on other people's. The present book looks quite expensive, £30 or more.

All very odd. Also that there are enough people around with this particular collecting bug to justify publishing a glossy book of this sort.

PS: in the margins of this post, I noticed half a dozen or so comic pigeons bouncing around in the plum tree, just about visible behind the leylandii. Breakfasting off the flowers and buds. Three of them still present, one still visible, after my telephone scared the others away. Birds were a major pest of stone fruit in the garden of my childhood - but it was tits and finches at that time rather than pigeons. 

Maybe this year, back much improved, I will get around to finishing the leylandii's haircut.

Reflection of study table lamp lower left.

References

Reference 1: https://www.spacenk.com/uk/home.

Reference 2: https://www.carraro.uk/.

Reference 3: https://youtu.be/C5y1UPAxwxs.

Reference 4: http://coffeyconstruction.co.uk/.

Reference 5: https://licc.org.uk/.

Reference 6: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2011/02/mubaraks.html.