Poacher day

The beginning of the month saw another expedition to London Bridge to buy cheese: consumption may have fallen in the hot weather and has been partially displaced by breakfast bananas - something to do with Potassium - but it is still there. Observing in passing that bananas is one of the things which seem to go quite well with brown bread. 

From where I associate today to my father's story of his days as a young, bachelor dentist, and the puzzlement of his landlady at his being content to eat brown bread bananas sandwiches for all his working days lunches. I don't know whether he used one of those tinned steel boxes, sometimes with hinged lids, which used to be used for such purposes, which Simenon mentions from time to time and which I remember from building sites of old. Cream with green trim.

Some debate about whether I was going to use a Bullingdon on return or whether I was going to go on a strawberry sandwich hunt, it seeming likely that such would be available somewhere in the vicinity of London Bridge - and for which see reference 1. In the event, settled for the Bullingdon.

The demolition at the bottom of Station Approach was on the move.

Puzzled by two pints of milk in old-style bottles being left outside the door to the block of flats just before one gets to the entrance to Epsom Station. Who were they for? Who delivered them? I dare the Tesco's next door sold milk, but I would be very surprised if they sold any in bottles.

Cladding to the base of some of the brick pillars underneath London Bridge Station. Décor, defensive (against the possibility of being rammed with a small truck or attacked with an explosive charge) - or both?

And why the two sizes of pillar - clearly more defensive than décor in this case?

Entertained at the cheese shop at Borough by a counter hand who talked about her cheese cutting being better with her dominant hand. This in the context of explaining to me that she worked quite hard at getting the weight spot on; not so much the total, as the accuracy with which she could cut my ~1kg piece in half to be wrapped. Given the proximity of Guys, I wondered whether she had been something medical in a previous life - but it must have been a while ago as she seemed to know quite a lot about cheese. And about my heritage plastic bag, long discontinued in favour of paper, and only carried by discerning customers of long standing. 

I probably overdid how long my standing was, which checking this afternoon is just about nine years, although an ancestor got a mention back in 2009. See references 2 and 3.

Pulled my Bullingdon and headed off down Southwark Bridge Road, with my route roughly indicated by the chain of orange dots. Head north from the last one to Clapham Junction. The stretch from Clapham Common tube being right under the flight path down to Heathrow: good for singletons, but not much good for doubles unless one dismounts.

Nearly ran down a small lady on a small bicycle, somewhere behind Elephant & Castle. She was dressed in dark clothes and her bicycle was black too; an excuse of sorts for not seeing her earlier. She looked rather cross, but was too polite to shout at me.

Art work, probably somewhere on the Kennington Road. Probably something to do with the tube line running along underneath, not quite sure what. Looks a bit big to be a ventilation shaft.

I fail to turn up the art itself on the key 'street art kennington road "London Wall 1983-1992"' or in Street View, but the first artist I tried turned up reference 4. Probably the right one. Must remember to mark down the location next time I go by.

Pushed onto St. John's Road and headed up to Grant Road, a place I more often start from than end up at - to find that it was full. U-turn and back to Falcon Road, taking in a busy and muscle bound CrossFit underneath the arches on the way.

Across the road from the stand, took a fine bacon sandwich from Piggies, with the red blind in the snap above, next door to the International Stores which I use from time to time. With tea, just about £4, so very reasonably priced. The meals looked pretty good value too, although I was not in the market for one on this occasion. Not that different in appearance from some of the the meat, rice and salad dishes one might get at the Estrela of Vauxhall - good deal cheaper though. At least one of the customers looked as if he had come out of CrossFit. Black Lycra and biceps.

A couple of train spotters on the town end of my platform, a dad with what looked like his special needs son. A very proper activity. I should have engaged them and found out if they were into the aeroplane game, but I suppose I was too busy playing - scoring just the one two.

Nil return at the Raynes Park Platform Library (RPPL), but at least the toilets were up and running on this occasion.

Nearly new Arterio train for the last leg, travelling on 'Thames Racer'. I learned later than all 90 trainsets will be named, at least some by celebrities. Around £1b in total, so £10m a set of 10 or £1m a carriage. Not in the same league as front doors for the House of Lords (for which see reference 5), but it still seem rather a lot for a box on wheels with a few seats. Do the railways continue with what I understand to be a long tradition of over-engineering? In their defense, their trains do get a lot of use and they are expected to last a long time.

Not much in the way of structural support inside, with the main impression being open all the way, as far as the eye could see. None of the plugs for telephones and laptops you get on Southern, not that that bothers me. Not much in the way of poles or bars to hang onto, but there were handles. And plenty of irritating announcements. General impression was of a smart, clean bit of blue themed design.

And so home to the remainder of the beef, previously noticed.

PS 1: and today, this advertisement in my email. Perhaps the Google advertisement server has forgotten my age. Or perhaps the secret squirrels forgot to put age on their purchase order.

Clicking got me to more good stuff. Stonewall entirely appropriate given the history... And the money looks quite decent for work experience. I wonder what accommodation means? When I was little, the Civil Service still ran hostels for young provincials come up to town, but I can't imagine that they still do.

PS 2: later on, it dawned on me that the way forward on the street art was satellite view in gmaps. Much quicker that Street View, particularly given this last's tendency to freeze. Resolution plenty good enough to pick out a feature like a tube station ventilation shaft, or whatever it is. My first attempt failed, as, as luck would have it, the street art is at some kind of a join in the gmaps database, and coming at the art from the wrong direction, you get the rather inferior work that preceded the present one. My second attempt was more careful and succeeded. Gmaps 51.4665009,-0.1289083 and I deduce that, putting the title aside, the present work is less than five years old. I had vaguely thought that 1992 was a long time ago.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/07/taxing-matters.html.

Reference 2: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2009/12/lentil-lore.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/08/cheese-hunt.html.

Reference 4: https://artuk.org/discover/artists/clyde-maggie-b-1952.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/08/up-birds.html.

Reference 6: https://lincolnshirepoachercheese.com/. The poacher in question. I have not investigated the origins - if any - of the name of the cheese.