Trolley 790 and 791

A late circuit, following the late afternoon and entirely satisfactory completion of bread batch No.743. This despite the oven being incorrectly set to 175°C when the bread went in. Maybe a bit more than five minutes to bring it up to the proper heat, that is to say 225°C. I gave the bread an extra five minutes by way of compensation and it turned out fine.

My first was a large trolley from Waitrose, captured in the Kokoro Passage.

My second was a freebie, a small trolley from Waitrose, returned without score as it was inside the Ashley Centre perimeter.

My third was a pair of M&S trolleys, very nearly new, from a bit further into the Kokoro Passage. I left the larger M&S trolley left and the B&M trolleys right for someone else - and they had indeed gone by the time I next visited.

The gas hole outside TB.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/trolley-789.html.

Group search key: trolleysk.

Awesome

If a book catches my eye, I want a print copy and I don't want to pay full price for it, I usually start with Abebooks, only going to eBay when that fails or fails to suit. As a result, I have bought quite a lot of books from Awesome Books over the years.

For some reason, it came to my attention that Awesome Books was also known as Wrap Ltd, probably company No.03800600, which is run by a trio of Ahmeds and which pays a dividend to Anthracite Holdings Ltd, company No.10971795, owned by the same Ahmeds. 

Wrap Ltd is probably not the Wrap Distribution of reference 3, despite the overlap in activities.

While Awesome Books is listed as being dormant and with just one share, owned by one Aloysius Ihezie, probably the chap behind the foundation at reference 4.

To think that it was not so long ago that I used to buy my secondhand books from a rather scruffy shop next to Earlsfield Station.

References

Reference 1: https://www.abebooks.co.uk/. Founded in Canada in 1996, sold to Amazon in 2008.

Reference 2: https://www.awesomebooks.com/. Founded in 2003.

Reference 3: https://www.wrapdistribution.com/. Founded in 1999.

Reference 4: https://www.iheziefoundation.org/.

Barrows

[Syrian Kurdish security forces patrol a street in Qamishli, north Syria on Wednesday © Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images]

I don't think market barrows in this country ever progressed as far as this one, with the fruit & veg barrows of old being of much heavier construction, involving a lot of timber and iron. More or less extinct now, with such fruit & veg stalls as still exist making other arrangements. Built on the spot out of crates and such like, rather than free-standing mobile affairs. Maybe the difference is that our market traders now work out of vans and lorries, rather than having to push their stock about on barrows. 

Snap lifted from reference 1.

References

Reference 1: Syrian businesses left with unwanted goods as economy stalls: A deluge of cheap imports has undercut stocks accumulated under the protectionist Assad regime - Sarah Dadouch, Financial Times - 2025.

Reference 2: https://correspondent.afp.com/delil-souleiman. For something rather different.

Temple of Law

Ten days or so ago, back to the Temple Church in the heart of lawyer land for some violin sonatas with Sophia Rosa and Martin Roscoe. Beethoven Op.24 and Franck Sonata in A Major. With the only Sophia in the archive being the rather different one at reference 1. I thought that Martin Roscoe was doing rather better with lots of hits, but the ones that I checked turned out to be Roscoe Street, a place associated with my visits to St. Lukes. But we do have references 2 and 3.

The day started with my first Copilot enhanced email. My correspondent had given it a few basics to bite on and then let Copilot get on with it. A complete fabrication, but perfectly plausible. And, while I thought the email a little unusual, it did not cross my mind that it was a fake: I had to be told. I wonder how many people let Copilot make stuff up for them? Does it not occur to them that there is not much point - apart from a bit of fun - in sending someone a fake letter? I associated to the words that Swift puts into the mouth of a houyhnhnm to the effect that the whole point of having language is to communicate. Communicating something that is not true does not qualify. I can't remember whether Swift goes into why one might communicate something that is false - not quite the same as just making up something plausible.

Then mildly irritated that the people across the road got their broken drain cover attended to much more quickly than we are getting our broken water meter attended too. But then, it was alleged that our shiny new LibDem MP was put onto their case. Three vehicles and rather more men, all for one drain cover. But they did do quite a neat job. SQS - 'S' for Stanmore - to be found at reference 4.

Water still running down Meadway to its junction with Manor Green Road, despite the water works associated with the new house half way down. A hazard next winter when it freezes again?

Part of the gas works at the bottom of Station Approach. Presumably to pump water out of the holes so that work can proceed?

New, very flimsy tickets which you show to a window on the entry gate, rather than feeding it into a slot. Presumably the plot, over time, is to phase out the cardboard tickets altogether. And it has to be said, they are not very reliable, so maybe the new flimsies will be better. They worked fine on this occasion, once I got the knack of pressing the things down on the window.

No.76 bus to Fleet Street, where I opted to collaborate with the tax dodgers Harris & Hoole previously noticed at reference 5. I would have preferred not to, but they were convenient and their coffee with cheese toastie is very reasonable - provided that is that you like lashings of melted cheese. Cheese which seemed to have been flavoured with something, something which was familiar but which I could not name. Three shots in my medium coffee which had quite a kick - not being very used to strong black coffee.

Furthermore, the barista had a wonderful smile.

Time to admire the handsome interior. A pretty good post-war rebuild. Not cheap, I don't suppose, so perhaps the lawyers chipped in a bit.

While this pocket organ was contributed, rather more recently, by a German lawyers' association. It opens up a bit at the back if you pull it away from the wall.

Not a large turnout, maybe thirty or forty of us, so rather than the seating being between and in the pews, we were sat on the other side of the stage, which was fine. Sitting in a pew means that you are facing the wrong way.

I wondered whether unwanted vibrations and reverberations were a problem with these temporary stages. Maybe thick fibre board or thick chip board muffles a lot of evils.

Once again, I thought the piano started off the Beethoven rather loud, but things got much better. Maybe the brain has to do a bit of tuning. But I failed to connect much with the Franck and the Elgar encore seemed a bit banal. A few days ago I thought probably reference 7 rather than reference 8. Now not so sure. But I am sure that it was Elgar.

Thought about taking a refreshment in the Old Bank of England, but decided against. But I did think that it would not have been a good place to take the trolley, not with me on this occasion.

There was a small but noisy pro-Israel demonstration outside King's College. Lots of flags. Quite a lot of police. One foot chase. But I failed to find out what it was all about. The first demonstration from their side that I recall seeing since the Hamas attack.

Passed on the Green Room, passed on Fishcotheque and the bar kitchen of old was still a building site, as it had been a year ago at reference 6. Maybe there is some serious work going on backstage.

However, as already advertised at reference 2, the noodlarium of Lower Marsh had somehow survived. I took wonton soup, soft fried noodles with chicken & onion and Fanta. All very good - and very good value. The won tun soup was quite watery and quite peppery, but that complemented the oil in the noodles nicely.

After I had ordered, I noticed an orange in a fruit ball at the end of the counter - which might have been for sale - but by then it was too late. Apart from breakfast buffets, fresh fruit does not seem to be an option very often these days. Let alone stewed fruit, prunes aside, and one does not see them very often either.

Passed an entry to the graffiti tunnel which leads to the Polish kitchen on the way back to the station.

And another informal litter bin.

Just made a two from the train at Clapham Junction. No doubt I could have converted it to a three if I had took a chance and nipped out onto the platform.

A reasonable haul at Raynes Park, including the cloth bound book above, a type of binding I associate with Phaidon art books of the same period, that is to say around the time of the Second World War. I have sorted out my confusion between Upton Sinclair and Sinclair Lewis, two roughly contemporary writers from the US and I have started reading the book - but presently stalled or diverted.

There were also some copies of the Royal Academy magazine, the sort of thing that used to be found in the better class of dentists' waiting rooms and hotel lounges. Bit of a puzzle for whom the magazine was now intended, as I would have thought that their old customers, keen on tasteful &n expensive objets d'art, might well be have been put out by the arrival of Dame Trace in the upper reaches of the Academy. That's not the sort of thing we signed up for. Maybe the Academy, like another old institution, the Church of England, has just got lost.

'In 2013, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Emin of unmade bed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for her contributions to the visual arts. She was made a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the King’s Birthday Honours in 2024'. On the other hand, her appointment as Eranda Professor of Drawing has lapsed.

And I was amused to find an advertisement for a gallery offering said objets d'art which was co-located with the B&M trolley operation in the farmyard noticed at reference 12.

Home to trolley hunting and a spot of shopping, for which see, for example, reference 10. Which suggests to me today that I may have been a bit unfair on Waitrose at reference 11 - even if some of the stuff on show was still in its shrink wrapping.

PS: I failed to turn up any new news about Sophia using Bing, so I asked Gemini, who turned up references 13, 14 and 15. He agreed with me that maybe large language models have raised the bar for robots such as Sophia, who may now look a bit dated. But then Gemini does tend to agree with reasonable suggestions. 

References

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/06/robots.html.

Reference 2: https://www.sophierosa.com/. The pictures may be one or two years old now.

Reference 3: https://www.martinroscoe.co.uk/.

Reference 4: https://sqsltd.co.uk/.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/12/winterreise.html.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-pub-crawl.html.

Reference 7: https://youtu.be/78U9EZ_tD9M - chanson de matin.

Reference 8: https://youtu.be/GoUuozWmoFM - salut d'amour.

Reference 9: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/02/trolley-772.html.

Reference 10: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/02/trolley-775.html.

Reference 11: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/faure-and-franck.html.

Reference 12: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/02/trolley-771.html.

Reference 13: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_(robot).

Reference 14: https://robotsguide.com/robots/sophia.

Reference 15: https://www.livemint.com/news/trends/time-to-invest-in-indian-stock-market-female-humanoid-sophia-answers-veteran-market-investor-samir-aroras-question-11740297182340.html.

Trolley 789

The day's small haul started with a non-scoring trolley, probably from the Rifleman side of the Hook Road Bridge. No owning lorry to be seen, nor were there any suitable outlets in the immediate vicinity. A mystery.

But at least it was clear who the trolley belonged to, with Martin Brower specialising in delivering to food outlets like McDonald's. Maybe now I have come across them, I will start to see their lorries. Don't recall seeing one in the past.

Curo action at the Majestic site. Gentle whirring noise once it got going, presumably an electric motor. Not yet computed why there are two tubes, one red and one black. I supposed something to do with lubricating the business end of the auger, but further than that I did not get.

Trolley finally captured as I was heading down Middle Lane, towards the Screwfix underpass. Back with it to Sainsbury's, then headed for the footbridge at the bottom of West Street, the one that leads to the gas depot and the tip.

There were quite a few celandines out in the sun in the passage leading to the footbridge, but not yet in full flood.

But there was a fine pot hole outside the tip.

Wound up proceedings with lentil soup, having intended something a little firmer. 8oz of red lentils, twice washed, then into 2 pints of water around 90 minutes from the off. Boiled for a few minutes, then down to simmer. Plus a small stump of finely chopped white cabbage at some point. Then, a bit later butter, garlic, onion and 200g of saucisson sec. Added to the lentils a few minutes before the off. Served with 5oz of brown rice and greens. We did most of it in that first shift, and very good it was too.

I took the balance for breakfast, microwaved with what remained of the rice stirred in and some fresh greens on top. The greens turned out rather pale, looking more like mutant lettuce than greens. But they were OK, if not as good as boiled.

PS: the gas works at Station Approach look to be coming to an end, with the blacktop finish being put onto the various backfilled holes as I passed.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/trolleys-787-and-788.html.

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

Group search key: trolleysk.

Big washer

I am not doing much on the washer collecting front these days, but there was the weight from York, noticed at reference 1, now a piece of study paraphernalia. 

And yesterday there was the disc snapped above, recovered from West Hill. One side smooth, the other rough, as if it had been coated with something abrasive. My guess was a part of a car and that the mechanic at Epsom Autos would know straight away what it was. As it was, I asked Google Images.

Without any indication of size, his guesses were a bit wild, including something from Streetelite - a motor parts supplier which only seems to exist on Facebook - and mower blade washer - whatever one of those is. I then worked out how to add some descriptors to the image search and got the very specific response snapped above. Which I believe is wrong, although not wildly wrong, with the thing suggested having a dished face rather than two flat faces. More work needed.

In the meantime, I associated to the stone balls of reference 2, more tactile objects, not so big that you could not carry one around in your coat pocket. The idea being that you belonged to some kind of men's club, perhaps a dining & drinking club, perhaps Masonic, and the form was that when fellow members met they had to exhibit their washers. The member either without his washer or with the smaller washer had to buy the next round.

In the absence of any washer, you just adjourned to the nearest public house anyway, for refreshment.

I further associate to a club which did something very similar with ties which were sober striped on one side and saucy on the other, as in seaside postcard of old. I at first thought that I had known a member of such a club, but now I am not so sure. Maybe it was just a story. Bing was pretty hopeless on the key 'ties with saucy images on the back', but Google did rather better. Not quite what I had in mind, but at least he got the idea.

And just to be sure, I fed the top half of the image above back into image search, and he found it without trouble, quite properly not paying any attention to the missing bottom half. From there to the greeting screen at reference 3, which certainly suggests that saucy ties might be part of the offering, but everything in the tie department is terribly sober. And terribly expensive - you pay a great deal to get 'D&G' in the corner.

My washer will join the York among the study paraphernalia.

PS 1: puzzled why searching for 'York' was pulling up so many posts since that at reference 1 - until Edge's 'find on page' feature revealed that the York in question was New York, often as in the New York Times. The vagaries of even simple searching.

PS 2: it came to me later that the story about ties probably came from a colleague at what was then called OPCS, now vanished inside ONS. I now think that he was actually wearing such a tie when he told us the story. Maybe fifty years ago now.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/01/useful-weight.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-carved-stone-balls-of-aberdeen.html.

Reference 3: https://www.dolcegabbana.com/en-gb/.

Trolleys 787 and 788

A Waitrose trolley captured on Station Approach.

And I thought I might as well tidy up this medium sized trolley from the M&S on my way out. One of the street food vans visible top left.

By way of reward, three of their pink grapefruits and one rather elaborate olive loaf, involving two sorts of flour, two sorts of olives (Nocellara and Kalamata), a sour dough starter and 35 hours. Rather dear at around 350g of it for approximately 1p per gram. Not bad for sour dough, but 35 hours and a thick, hard crust notwithstanding, I thought rather doughy and undercooked.

First Line Recovery attempting a come back at Blenheim Road. Must have caught the Ford people off-guard.

While the gas hole outside TB, reported at reference 1, was now deep enough that there was not much to be seen of a man standing in it.

PS 1: the Wikipedia people have yet to firm up a naming convention for their olive entries. See references 2 and 3. So a mixture of Sicilian green and Greek black olives. All a bit precious - as well as a bit pricey.

PS 2: Lent specials from the Texas Mesquite Grill. Of Cypress, Texas. Not their usual sort of thing at all. See, for example, reference 4. I notice in passing that their fish and chips (top right) at $24.95 - near £20 at today's exchange rate - seems a bit more than we would charge. From memory, Fishcotheque of Waterloo do a good haddock and chips for £15 - and I had thought food was cheap in the US.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/trolleys-784-785-and-786.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocellara_del_Belice.

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

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/10/not-thing.html.

Group search key: trolleysk.

Wellingtonia 119

Certainly one, probably two Wellingtonia in the grounds of Tyrwhitt House, near Leatherhead, the access controlled HQ of the organisation at reference 3. Combat Stress, founded as the Ex-services Welfare Society after the First World War. Tyrwhitt House was opened in 1933 and named for Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt, then the president of the organisation. For whom see reference 4.

Not a common name, so there may be some connection with trade, that is to say Charles 'the shirt' Tyrwhitt.

The old house was once called Oak Lawn, but I can find out nothing about that - beyond the site being deemed to be of no archaeological interest at reference 5. The old name survives as the name of the road. The layout of the original drive also survives today.

What I take to be a coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens rather than Sequoiadendron giganteum) was rather more accessible by the gate - although I could have got a better shot had I cared to stand in the middle of the road.

The occasion also provided an opportunity to take a proper picture of the fine tree captured from the train at reference 2.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/02/wellingtonia-116-117-and-118.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/12/wellingtonia-55.html.

Reference 3: https://combatstress.org.uk/about-us.

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

Reference 5: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/issue.xhtml?recordId=1217108.

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoiadendron_giganteum.

Group search key: wgc.

Fauré and Franck

Generally speaking we get on well with piano quartets and piano quintets, so Franck was the draw for this concert, with his F minor piano quintet. With the concluding phrase 'con fuoco' being chopped off the bottom of the programme above. Plus Fauré's Op.121 string quartet.

Search of the archive reveals a very modest amount of Fauré and rather less Franck. But both these works were new to us. Musicians to be found at references 2 and 3. Also both new - although I have been reminded in the margins that Windows search cares about neither case nor accents, while Word search does care about accents.

Once again, failed to work out what had caught my eye about the white bricks the other week. It will come to me one day.

I don't think it was anything to do with their not being the standard size or shape.

Arrived at Wigmore Street to be greeted by a speeding digger in among the continuing roadworks. After which into Olle & Steen, where we had a couple of small children, one very small, one very lively and very cute. There was a leaking tomato crisis while we were in visual contact. Brown paper bags contraindicated.

We got on well enough with the new-to-us music, but not so well that we will be looking out for more. But always good to push at the boundaries a bit.

Outside, a flash car -  a Lamborghini - with occupants but without a front registration plate. There was one at the back. But my guess is that is a violation.

Google Images says a Lamborghini Huracán LP610-4 Spyder. While my knowledge extends no further than the plaque.

Guess right, with a fine of up to £1,000 for violation. Maybe more for second and subsequent offences, but maybe that counts as contempt of court. Snap above from the horse's mouth. Maybe if you can stump up the £100,000 and likely more needed for the car you don't care about the occasional piffling fine.

We thought to try St. Christopher Place for lunch, winding up at Olivelli of reference 4, which the waitress told us had been a family concern, but had now sold out to a small chain. This branch was called Mayfair. A middle-of-the-road Italian flavoured restaurant, rather smaller but along similar lines to Ponti's of Great Castle Street.

Wine adequate - Vernaccia di San Gimignano Rocca delle Macie of reference 6 - and we learned later that we would have done better with the one on the right, which was off-menu. We had not realised that it was for sale, rather a table ornament, and by the time the waitress put us right it was too late.

Both Bing and Google respond to the search key 'Borgo del Mandorlo - Sicilia - Nero D'Avola', but neither turns up a source, only middlemen.

I started with some rather messy prawns. But they tasted OK.

Followed by veal which had too much lemon on it for me. But they were quick to provide a generous portion of bread, even if it was brown sour dough. And BH was well pleased with her risotto, visible behind.

Their take on tiramisu.

More Thames Water problems outside.

Clever window displays at Selfridges, although you would not know that from the snap above. Involving wind, as I recall, to blow the fabric about in an arty way.

It seemed that there was a new butchery concession in the ground floor food hall, with a butcher who was happy to talk and who had a fine display of meat, with fore rib coming in at £3.60 for 100g, maybe 25% more than Ben the Butcher? He also had bones. And he explained how it was some shoulders of lamb had the leg sticking out, and some had it neatly folded in. All down to judicious application of rubber bands. 

Altogether a much bigger and more attractive display than that at Waitrose of Epsom, rather tired by comparison.

There did not seem to be much food in the ground floor food hall: you could not do a weekly shop there. But by then, we had had more or less enough and did not explore down stairs. Just settled for some of their quite decent kabanos. The chap on the checkout knew all about mincemeat for mince pies and knew that they only carried the stuff at Christmas.

Out of there to catch our bus to Victoria and so home.

Very forward & lively young girl on the train, with her - her sister and mum just down from a visit to somewhere north of Edinburgh. Various fun and games. Mum in pretty good shape considering.

PS: maybe we will get to try the branch in The Cut at Waterloo. The founding branch, in Store Street, Bloomsbury, now deceased, is snapped above.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/02/trolley-774.html.

Reference 2: https://www.quatuor-hermes.com/.

Reference 3: https://philippecassard.com/.

Reference 4: https://ristoranteolivelli.co.uk/.

Reference 5: https://wineclub.roccadellemacie.com/it/wine-club/. 

Trolleys 784, 785 and 786

Three M&S food hall trolleys, picked up from three different places around the town. The first from the bottom of the ramp leading up from the Kokoro Passage to Station Approach.

The second, previously spurned, from the car park which one accesses from the Rio Grill. A very small trolley, but for some reason popular this day, as I saw several in action in the store.

The third from outside Lloyds Bank at the central crossroads.

The timber window frame was interesting in that it appeared to be neither original nor double glazed. Nor could it, or any part of it, be opened. Perhaps that is normal for bank windows like this one.

After returning this trolley, I am fairly sure I saw the second one in action in the store - with the paint on the front leg being much less conspicuous in the artificial light there than it had been outside.

Along the way, I was reminded what a bright and cheerful place the Ashley Centre is. There may be a few gaps, but there are still plenty of people about and there is a good atmosphere. Whoever built the place and whoever has run it since knew their business: I believe that it has succeeded and survived in a way that many similar places have not. But the loss of Smiths, should that come to pass, would be a bit of a blow, as was the loss of Dickens & Jones.

And the column above looks much better for being wrapped up again. The raw concrete with its profusion of ancient fixing holes had looked a bit sad. Which I thought had been noticed before, but I have failed to find any such post this morning.

Back in the open, it was a bright sunny morning, so I took a sit in the sun on a bench in Court Recreation Ground. All very pleasant - and including an opportunity to eavesdrop on chunks of conversation of passers-by. Conversations which one could hear as the people concerned approached, but not as they departed. Which must have been to do with the direction of projection, rather than seeing mouths, as I was looking out over the recreation ground and they were behind me.

Out to learn that I had forgotten all about the bowling green which used to be next to that was the groundsman's house and was now a vet's. It took me more than an hour to bring it back into mind. It had probably paused during Covid and failed to recover afterwards.

We also had a chap from Thames Water who appeared to be taking a census of their drain covers with the help of his mobile phone. All part of the maintenance record no doubt.

And to find a serious gas flavoured hole being dug outside TB. Opening maybe two feet by three feet and three feet deep. Nothing to be seen at the bottom of the hole and nobody about to ask.

Later the same day, a short circuit took in the Meadway roundabout, where I was pleased to see that three new trees had been planted to replace the stumps that had been grubbed up a few days previously. Probably small ornamentals rather than timber trees.

We shall see how they get on.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/trolley-783.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/03/trolley-782.html.

Group search key: trolleysk.