Trolleys 862 and 863

This being a trolley captured outside the station on return from an expedition to London Bridge, to be reported on more fully in due course. A medium trolley from the M&S food hall, snapped here at the top of Station Way and returned in the usual way.

The market square was busy with children, perhaps hundreds of them, with the big attraction and the big queue being for that snapped above. The idea seemed to be that the eight children (or whatever) familiarised them selves with jumping around, after which they were stood on their spots and the inflatable arm started to rotate. They had to jump over the arm as it went over their spot and were out if they fell over, or perhaps fell over sufficiently clumsily. Whatever the exact rules were, it appeared to be hugely popular. 

Supplemented by a number of other, smaller attractions, each with their little crowd. Plus the street food vans which were doing a good trade.

I was impressed that our council managed to drum up such an event.

No seats out on the terrace, but I did take a drop of Adnam's Shere Drop inside. Very good it was too.

The only catch being that I can find no trace of a beer of this name on the Internet today - so clearly I shall have to go back to check up.

I thought that the corner trim between the two ranks of windows was a successful bit of detailing. Old or new?

Out to tidy up this B&M trolley from outside Cappadocia. Even less space for trolleys at the front of the store than last time. The bedding plant trolleys are winning.

It was hot and humid and it had been a busy day, so at this point I hopped into a taxi outside the station. A taxi which appeared to be operated by a company operating out of Coventry - except that when I go to the website suggested, 'www.london-taxis.co.uk', I get redirected to the people at reference 2, at a different address in Coventry. Maybe they just sell taxis, rather than operate them. A puzzle for another day.

PS 1: reference 3 caught my eye. It seems very odd that such a big economy, world leader in all kinds of manufacturing, can't provide its big city workers with somewhere to take the odd beverage. It is not as if they moralise about booze in the way of prohibition types back in the 1920s - and my understanding is that they are quite keen on both fags and booze.

[A gathering at KO Home Bar. Image: KK Zhang]

'... Loneliness has emerged as a notable trend among China’s younger generation since the late 2010s. In 2019, a survey by China Youth Daily found that 97.2% of respondents aged 18 to 35 working in big cities reported feeling lonely. The pandemic compounded the issue...'. 

Bing did not seem to know anything about it, but Google turned up various stuff, including reference 4, from where the snap and quote above were taken.

PS 2: the Chinese are clearly very exact people.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/06/trolley-861.html.

Reference 2: https://www.levc.com/.

Reference 3: Cash-strapped Beijing drinkers turn to unlicensed home bars: Spread of illicit speakeasies underlines weak consumption in world’s second-largest economy - Joe Leahy, Nian Liu, Wenjie Ding, Ryan McMorrow, Financial Times - 2025.

Reference 4: https://jingdaily.com/posts/cocktails-and-connection-china-home-bar-trend.

Group search key: trolleysk, 20250530.