Trolleys 832, 833 and 834

The trolley we noticed on leaving the station on Sunday afternoon had vanished by Monday morning, but there was one in the Kokoro passage. Possibly the same one.

The was also a rather scruffy looking young man, possibly known to the mental health services, in charge of a powerful looking dog. The sort of dog with a large head and short legs which I associate with dog fighting and other unsavoury sports. A pity that it is so easy for such a person to get hold of such an animal, but hard to see what can sensibly be done about it.

While crossing the market, a rather less scruffy man, a little older, with what I took to be a ridgeback. Another large dog which one would not want to mess with.

Rather less threatening, if equally irritating, a lady sitting next to the figure of Emily Davison, feeding the pigeons with the crusts from her sandwiches. There seemed to be a lot of crusts and a lot of pigeons. I never did like these statues of the great and the good, done up to look as it they are sitting on a public bench.

Having returned the trolley to M&S, I thought that it was time to pay a visit to Leighton's, the people who look after my eyes. People who, this morning, I thought used to be called something else, an independent with a good reputation and serious staff. But I could not remember their name, prompting the helpful interchange with Gemini above. I associate to reading a few years ago that Google, alarmed by the success of large language models, were worried about the future of their search engine, and poured a lot of money into Bard, then Gemini. At the time, I did not see what they were worrying about, but perhaps now I do.

Interestingly, when I ask Bing for 'Linwood Strong', the first few hits are all to too with Leighton's, as if they have somehow captured queries of that sort.

Got inside to find that they had had a cancellation, so they could do me more or less immediately, with just enough time for me to deal with the M&S trolley near B&M. Pushed into their shade in the snap above.

Wheeled it back through the Ashley Centre where I puzzled about what I had taken to be the new fake beams decorating various parts of the ceiling. I had assumed that they were the same as those noticed at reference 3.

Zooming, it seems likely that what might be taken for end grain is actually trim of some kind, although the pales edges visible at the ends may be an artefact of image processing, rather than something that is actually there.

And Google turns up lots of wood effect plastic. To the point where you get young ladies making videos of themselves playing with the stuff. So I vote for fake.

Back to Leighton's, where I was processed in three takes. Preliminary testing, including an elementary hearing test, just in case they could sell me some of that. Proper testing by the optician, who, as well of a lot of fancy, computer controlled instruments, still deployed a box full of lenses mounted in large metal washers, washers which he popped into a frame balanced on my nose. My recollection had been that the whole operation was more or less computerised these days, but then, I now know that my last test was four years ago. Then the bit where I choose various lens and frame options before moving onto payment. Quality staff, all very pleasant and efficient. I emerged something over 83 minutes later, having spent something over £830. Just about £10 a minute.

Home to potato pie and fresh pineapple. Serially that is, rather than in parallel.

Out a bit later to another M&S trolley in the Kokoro Passage. After returning it to M&S, where it was snapped up before I made it to the stack, I thought about another pineapple, but held that over for another day.

Onto to Ebbisham Square where I spotted another M&S trolley, tucked away to the side, but decided to visit the newly reopened library instead. It was all very smart and pleasant and I was pleased to see that there were still plenty of books. A good library for a not very big town. Good opening hours. We are lucky.

It was also busy with young people, apparently some kind of informal homework club.

Using my special email account for such purposes - not altogether trusting the library software to wipe what it has learned about me when I logged out - I sent myself an email. In the course of which, Google was quite careful about checking that I was who I said I was. A bit later on, I checked that it had arrived OK.

Its payload was a snap of the hussars from the 13th: 'Officers and men of the 13th Light Dragoons-survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade by Roger Fenton 1855', although the image above is actually a rather better quality version of the same image. Its significance will become clear in due course.

I also took out a book, just to make sure that that side of my library account was still working too. Perhaps I should send a copy to Elkins, the champion Brit Basher noticed at reference 6. I often wonder what, if anything, she has to say about the various US inspired tragedies over the years.

I had to abandon the fourth trolley, because I was already a little late for Scrabble. Which, I might say, I won fairly comfortably. With our new Longmans dictionary delivering a few surprises along the way. Another fine present from RPPL.

I went home along the path next to Court Recreation Ground, reasonably busy with pedestrians at the time. To be passed at a dangerous speed by a boy - perhaps a young teenager - coming the other way on his bicycle. I had my stick and I was a bit cross with myself for not being quick enough to stop him and have words.

PS: a correspondent has sent in a new picture of the bent crane. Apparently we are not the only people to be snapping it. Stiff climb for driver, even if there is a lift half way. Too stiff to be healthy, I would have thought, given that you are sat down for such large chunks of the day. Last noticed at reference 8.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/05/trolley-831.html.

Reference 2: https://www.leightons.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/fake-172.html.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Davison. A lady with an interesting history - even if I do not approve of throwing yourself at racing race horses. But then, neither the first nor the last time that the obtuseness of our ruling classes had unpleasant sequelae.

Reference 5: The making of India: the untold story of British enterprise - Kartar Lalvani - 2016.

Reference 6: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2013/07/elkins-and-out.html.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_Hussars.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/01/pork-imperfect.html.

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