Trolleys 998, 999 and 1,000

The first trolley of the day, a large M&S trolley was captured coming into town off West Hill.

The second was a medium small, again from M&S, captured outside T K Maxx.

My third, and the long sought after No.1000, was captured underneath Hudson House, another medium small from M&S. Appropriate given how M&S have dominated the run to the finish line.

From March of this year, so not very old at all.

With a news flash concerning the delivery of No.1000 to be found at reference 2.

The fish van was not present in the market, as expected, but I was able to buy some fish as noticed at that same reference 2 and I was able to make progress on the odd pinnate front, kicked off at reference 3. The wannabee tree of heaven outside the old telephone exchange on East Street. I dare say the new one still occupies a corner of the building, which I suppose is now much too large.

Doesn't look very odd in this first snap, with the pairs just keeping on coming until they run out of puff.

But then, this one does. Plus the small terminal leaflet is more strongly serrated than the others. A function of leaflet size?

With the leaflets clearly being alternate rather than opposite in this zoom of another snap.

While at the tip of another leaf, viewed from underneath, the rachis continues as a fragile lead. I think one would need to dissect it, under a microscope, to be able to say whether there was a pair of leaves on the way, or just the one.

Then more odd pinnate. 

So all grist to the mill, but I did not regard this as finished business. It still seems odd for a fast growing rachis pushing out pairs of leaflets suddenly stopping with a single leaflet.

Out again in the afternoon, to notice my first trolley of the new era on Station Approach, near the entrance to the station. A medium small from the M&S food hall. Zoom onto the maker's plate does not quite reveal the date, but a forced guess would be this very September - so more or less brand new - this despite the scratches on the legs.

With a friend hard by, by the letter box. Both left in-situ for some other trolley collector to deal with.

On round Court Recreation Ground, to find serious demolition underway at the town end of the Waterloo Road parade, at the top of the passage. With the fencing around the demolition having been rather sloppily erected and occupying a good part of the passage.

But I was able to resume matters odd-pinnate with the sumac like tree at the start of the recreation ground, noticed at the end of reference 3. The first couple of groups, including the one above, looked odd-pinnate.

Then the next groups were more mixed, both odd-pinnate and even-pinnate. I am now not at all clear that this distinction is a very good one. Perhaps a bit of digging on the botanical front - as opposed to the plant spotting one - is called for.

But none of the delicate, feathery growth of the shoots in East Street that I started the day with. Is that enough to make them different species. The first the tree of heaven, the second some kind of sumac?

Regarding the former, on the snap of the underside a bit above, Google Images now offers the above, along with lots of very similar young shoots labelled tree of heaven, a lot of them from the USA. But maybe we have a consensus building here.

PS 1: there was something of a muddle on the No.1000 front. A couple of days ago, I thought that I had miscounted, but this turns out to have been result of clerical error during transfer of the relevant snaps from telephone to laptop. A slightly more reliable business in the days when I had a Microsoft telephone and it all plugged into OneDrive. Not perfect, with Microsoft dropping the odd ball, but better.

PS 2: with this post being honoured, after a fashion, by the visit of POTUS to the posh housing estate a little to the west of our own, possibly visible from the top of our downs on a clear day. Our king has several beefeaters on hand to guard his life, one of whom is visible top left. But where are the troopers from the Life Guards proper? Or from the First Battalion of one of the regiments of Foot Guards, housed down in Windsor town? Then who is the serious looking chap standing right behind him? And where is the US Secret Service? Does Melania insist on her taster being allowed into the royal kitchens?

I hope it all turns out to have been worth it. But read all about it at reference 4.

PS 3: I wonder today if you still need a private income to manage as an officer in said First Battalion. Mess bills and all that.

PS 4: a stray: on a number of occasions recently I have done something unimportant, without knowing why, without there being any conscious reason, only to realise later that there was a perfectly good reason, but one which had not been in my (conscious) mind at the time. Not the sort of of dodgy reason that Freud believed the id was hiding from the ego (if I had got the jargon right), just a perfectly ordinary reason that might have appeared on one's whiteboard if one had whiteboarded the activity in question.

In any event, an example of how conscious and unconscious processing are sometimes intertwined. I associate to a slightly different example which sometimes crops up in connection with my sequential collection of car registration plates. I catch myself looking at one without knowing why, then suddenly realise that the number on the plate is, or is near to, the one that I am looking for. Presently No.39, on which I have been stuck for some time now. Getting on for two years to be precise: maybe the chap at FLR (the owner of FLR being another chap who is keen on registration plates) was right and I am never going to spot one. See reference 5 for No.38.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/09/trolleys-996-and-997.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/09/more-breaking-news.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/09/trolleys-988-and-989.html.

Reference 4: Donald Trump soaks up the glory of his second UK state visit: But after spending time with the King, the US president may face a tricky final day as he holds talks with Sir Keir Starmer - James Politi, David Sheppard, George Parker, Financial Times - 2025.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/no38.html.

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