Kingston

This was the end of September, so there were bees on the ivy flowers, although you would not know that from the snap above. But beware: ivy flowers have a powerful smell, which may offend.

The object of the expedition being to buy me a shopping trolley, it having become a bit of a bother to carry serious shopping - like beef or plums - back from Epsom. Rather to my surprise, I had failed to find one in Epsom, not even in the otherwise well-stocked B&M. Or T K Maxx, or Wickes. And I did not fancy click n'collect from Argos. I want to look at the thing before purchase, not after.

Lots of traffic on the way to Kingston, which meant the journey took rather longer than usual. We did not manage to work out what, if anything, was going on.

We were told that the parking machines were not working on arrival at the Rose Car Park, but there was a large, bright and clean  trolley from Sainsbury's outside, with a maintenance sticker from Wanzl suggesting that they had last looked at it in June 2024. Did this mean their maintenance van visited your store, or your trolley went home for a bit?

Perhaps, considering the amount of air time I give Wanzl, they would give me a trip around their facilities, which I am sure would be interesting.

In any event, not the sort of trolley that I had in mind on this occasion. Apart from anything else, rather to big for personal rather than corporate use. Like office furniture.

Pleased to be able to report that the fish were back in the Hogsmill, by the old bridge. Are they salt water fish that like a bit of fresh for a change? Or vice-versa? I dare say the Hogsmill is flowing fast enough to be fresh at this point.

For the avoidance of doubt. Head to wind, as it were.

Coffee and cake on our way over to John Lewis, from our usual place, the 'Pâtisserie Les 3 Chocolats' in Thames Street, which had acquired a Middle Eastern flavour since we were last there. Which I tried. Not bad, if far too sweet for me make a habit of it. They still did the French or German fancies, if that is what you fancied.

Onto John Lewis, where shopping trolleys were barely visible in the luggage department, with a choice of just two. No good at all. And they were completely absent from T K Maxx and Fenwick's (the Bentall's of old). All very strange: you see plenty of them about, so where do people buy them from?

But we did manage to buy the chairs already noticed at reference 1.

A strangely decorated Christmas tree from elsewhere in the store. Presumably the people at John Lewis thought that the toilet rolls would appeal to children of a certain age - but it did not seem very Christmas or Christian to me.

Out in the fresh air, a bright and clean M&S trolley outside the church. BH did not fancy waiting while I took it back, even though it would have been a first from Kingston.

We then took a snack in the church, substantial in my case as I went for two sandwiches, not just one. We were spared the crisps that often grace these occasions. The bits of salad were fresh enough and I even ate my coleslaw, again better than is usual in such places, much better than it looked.

On the other hand, we did get a pot of orange-yellow fake flowers.

Blüthner present and correct, scored at No.41 more than five years ago. See reference 4.

Onto to the market where I got some very large nectarines from a fruit stall and a slab of date and walnut loaf from Olivier's - the people from whom I buy bread from time to time at Borough Market. See references 2 and 3. The market was fairly busy, I thought more East Asian than Middle Eastern, which last is more Epsom.

Lots of rather ugly public art. Ugly to my mind at least. What is it about local councils and art?

The reimagining of 'Emma' at the Rose did not look like our thing at all, but I was impressed by the amount of steel that had gone into the staircase up from the concourse area. See references 5 and 6.

No payment required on exit from the car park. Perhaps the attendant standing in for the broken machines was on a break.

Not nearly as much traffic on the way home, and after a break to buy our chairs online and to investigate trolleys at B&Q, onto the garden. Noting in passing that while B&Q did lots of trolleys, it was all mail order; no in-store, not even click n'collect.

Wisteria leaves seem to be odd-pinnate.

No terminal bud trickery that I could see. Furthermore, all the leaves that I counted had five pairs and one terminal leaflet. The most clear-cut case of odd-pinnate that I have ever come across.

The first of several barrows of leaves. As previously noticed, more twig than leaf. Think cladoptosis. And more acorns than either, probably accounting for well over half the weight. But I shan't be trying for acorn paste, porridge or anything else of that sort this year.

The large nectarines. They looked very impressive, but they were not ready to eat that day, and they did not go on to ripen properly either. Eatable, but not great. A problem we have often had with nectarines from Sainsbury's.

Rounded off the day with a 16oz brew of lentils, flavoured with 250g of Bastides sausage, from Sainsbury's. Different format and probably lower quality than the Bastides from Waitrose.

Unusual for me to use so many lentils in one go. But it all went down fast enough.

Last but not least, toasted fruit & nut loaf. Rather good. Not too sweet at all; bread rather than cake.

PS 1: from reference 6, I get the impression that the reimagining of 'Emma' means taking the skeleton of the plot, perhaps a few good one-liners, and building what is close to a musical on that foundation. Young people being presumed to relate to, to understand music & movement far better than they relate to words. From where I associate to my mother who rather looked down on the former as a very poor relation of the latter - which was her stock-in-trade as a teacher of English. Contrariwise, some of the English teachers at my secondary school were experimenting. On which subject, Bing turns up rather different memories, from a few years after my time, at reference 7.

But then, it also turns up reference 8. From where I associated to those irritating third-party hotel sites which respond to each and every query about hotels, irrespective of whether they have a hotel on their books anywhere near where you are looking to stay. Presumably they have to pay some search provider for the service. After that search of the archive turns up reference 9, where hotel sites get another mention, but to which there was, sadly, no follow-up. No more poetry.

PS 2: the invasion of the unsolicited pop-ups has reached Blogger. I suppose I ought to do something about this one, but just at the moment I am not too sure where to start. Perhaps in psmv6, presently at the starting gate.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/10/a-flatpack-story.html. It was an error here to have suggested that this expedition was all about chairs. That is only how it turned out.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/09/walkabout.html. Compare the sudden craving for fizzy orange at the end, to be compared with cravings for something wet and sweet noticed more recently.

Reference 3: https://www.oliviersbakery.com/.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/12/piano-41.html. 

Reference 5: https://www.rosetheatre.org/whats-on/emma-djh9. Emma at the Rose.

Reference 6: https://youtu.be/BUU_fY7MqzY. On YouTube.

Reference 7: https://garylongden.blogspot.com/2011/03/recollections-of-old-persean-1968-75.html.

Reference 8: https://www.brock.ac.uk/.

Reference 9: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/02/an-experiment.html.

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