Trolley 548

Next up were the two Waitrose trolleys, different sizes but not too bad to wheel if you put the larger one in front. Snapped here against the new artwork which has appeared on the side of the Epsom branch of PureGym, to be found at reference 2. Artwork rather old fashioned for the spray paint and blow torch creationists of Ashley Road, so I wonder who they got to do it?

I took the start of the tour offered by the people at reference 3, on which two thoughts. First, rather a good way to get the feel of a place before you actually pay a visit. Second, there is a lot of expensive looking equipment. One wonders what the start-up cost is. Does the company off-load the risk onto franchisees? The equivalent of zero-hours contracts for the wannabee businessman?

I also learned, in the course of dropping the trolleys off, the small one to the special stash hidden behind the fag stall, that Waitrose are dropping sell-by dates on a lot of their fresh produce. I must probe, as one might have thought that these dates were quite useful for perishables - and not useless for baked beans, which last do not last forever.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/12/trolley-547.html.

Reference 2: https://www.puregym.com/gyms/epsom/.

Reference 3: https://xpansivedigital.com/. Maybe I will give some thought to how these videos are put together. How much do they share with Google's Street View?

Group search key: trolleysk.

Trolley 547

Being two of the six which had accumulated in the Kokoro passage over the weekend. Two small sized trolleys from the M&S Food Hall - which was busy. The first trolleys for a few weeks now, and the first trolleys of December.

The big brown tins of chocolate biscuits they get out at Christmas have appeared on a pallet in the clothes part of the store, marked down to £7, £10 being the price I remember from previous years. I shall consult BH.

While the road on the other side of the marketplace seemed unusually quiet. One did not need to wait for the lights to get across, even when pushing a couple of trolleys.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/11/trolley-546.html.

Group search key: trolleysk.

Impromptu guard

[The Tower of London looms over Jo Davies’s production © Tristram Kenton]

Quite by chance, I happened across a piece in the Financial Times on Friday evening a week ago about ENO losing its grant and their production of the G&S light opera 'The Yeomen of the Guard' - which I confused with 'Princess Ida' on account of this last including a song about guardsmen taking their helmets and cuirasses off on account of their being uncomfortable. The aria known as 'This helmet, I suppose'. But I was tempted, and G&S was very much part of BH's family background, particular the naval uncle and aunt, stalwart members of the (Gosport Amateur Operatic Society) for many years. Part to the extent of our having watched our DVD of 'Topsy Turvey' several times, perhaps even a number of times.

A production of the 'Yeomen' which did not run to many performances at all and which in any event was coming off the weekend just past. So, given that we don't do evenings any more, the matinée last Saturday was our last chance, possibly our last chance ever to see a full-on, professional production of a G&S light opera. Decent seats were a bit dear, but a half asleep BH gave it the nod, and fighting my way through the rather creaky ENO booking system, we were before close the proud possessors of two tickets in the middle of the dress circle for the following day.

Which disturbed the baking schedule, so the day started with a trip down to Waitrose to buy some white bread, possibly to accompany the sausage bought on the expedition noticed at reference 3, certainly to provide the foundation for some fried egg sandwiches. Brown bread doesn't cut it for these purposes. To find that the bakery section at Waitrose was badly infested with foreign, not to say sour-dough, bread, but I was able to buy a large white tin loaf. Not great, not as good, for example, as the white bloomers bought at the giant Tesco on the Isle of Wight in July, but adequate.

Bread dealt with, we were able to get a train to Waterloo, from where we strolled across to the Festival Hall to take our picnic, and to capture the piano noticed at reference 2. Passed on the street food market provided below. A bit cold apart from anything else.

Across the river, past the late lamented Terroirs and into ENO to take refreshment in the upstairs bar before taking our seats. A bit of a way from the stage but we had a clear view, I had my trusty monocular in lieu of opera glasses, and, as it turned out, the surtitles at the top of the arch worked really well from this angle. A quick flick of the eyes was enough, no need to crane up from a seat in the stalls. A great help to the older ear.

Very impressed by the width of the dress circle and the lack of much visible support for the upper circle. Presumably lots of cunning steel hidden away in the interior.

Auditorium pretty full, a lot of pensioners like ourselves, but plenty of people of working age and even some young people.

A simple but effective system involving biros and slips of paper for interval refreshments. But not so effective that they did not translate one and a half wines to two for no extra charge. A sentence with a triple negative but it seems alright!

A rather sentimental tale with one promising marriage at the end and a couple of make-do's. Not really my thing at all, but the blurb told us that Sullivan and others thought it one of his best from a musical point of view. Staging clever, with good use of a rotating stage. Some clever dance numbers and some clever foot work by the foot guards - that is to say the chaps with bearskins. Clapping at the end of each number which I am not used to and still find rather irritating. But, for once, I felt I saw the point of opera, even if it was not really my thing. Maybe ENO have a point and the accessibility of an English language performance more than makes up for what is lost in translation, at least for the casual customer. The show ended with a neat musical plea, along G&S lines, for ENO and its Arts Council grant.

[Scene from The Yeomen of the Guard D'Oyly Carte Opera Company 1906 Revival]

But I remembered the days in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when G&S light opera was very much a business. A business which was conducted in a fairly tough-minded way and which sometimes made a great deal of money for the principals. No question of government handouts in those days. So why should there be handouts now? If there are enough people who still want this sort of thing, let them pay a fair price for it. In which connection, this very short run can't be a very paying proposition. Lots of capital outlay and a big cast for not very much income. Think Mikado with its 500 and more performances on its first London outing, never mind all the clones scattered around the globe.

Out onto a crowded St. Martin's Lane. Swarms of young people out for a big Saturday night. Swarms which carried on all the way down Villiers Street and over the bridge to the Festival Hall. Passed on the Retro Bar in St. George's Court, just cranking into action for the busy night to come. Almost a tourist attraction.

Settled on the Archduke for food, taking more or less the last table, in the front room, rather than in the more enclosed areas beyond. But keeping my jacket on, I was fine. A bread basket, then a carafe of Vinho Verde plus half a fried chicken for him, some species of salad for her. All very satisfactory, very reasonably priced. Service quick and efficient.

Stopover at Raynes Park where I acquired a recent number of 'Le Monde Diplomatique', already noticed at reference 6, and a not-so-recent number of 'Buses', a magazine that appeared to be aimed at both the bus spotter and the professional bus person. A much more interesting read than might at first appear: the people at reference 7, rather than the address given on the front of the magazine itself. A revenue conscious magazine, with a lot of the online content only being available to paying customers.

It seems that back in 2019, the then new edition of the Volvo 9700 bus was all the thing, being exhibited at NEC as part of that year's bus show. Clearly something to be looked out for when trolleys, pianos, fakes and Wellingtonias are all going through slow patches.

Lots more young people milling around Epsom Station when we arrived. But there were also some taxis so that was all right.

A good outing. Dear, but good.

PS: the fried egg sandwich on Sunday morning was spot on. The important thing being, in the absence of lard, to get the cooking oil good and hot before cracking the egg into it. While the future of white bread may be the sort of thing snapped above, a part baked baguette from Ocado, sold sealed but at room temperature. Pop it in the oven for 10 minutes and off you go. It was pretty good - although one does need to have a care for the fillings in one's teeth - so the next step is to investigate what Sainsbury's do in this department, which we are told is something like that offered at reference 9.

References

Reference 1: When opera lost its voice: With funding now completely cut, what is the future for the English National Opera? - Jan Dalley, Financial Times - 2022.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/11/piano-64.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/11/a-visit-to-tooting.html.

Reference 4: https://tristramkenton.com/. Responsible for the opening snap.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yeomen_of_the_Guard. Responsible for the tower snap.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/11/a-view-from-across-water.html.

Reference 7: https://www.keybuses.com/.

Reference 8: Gosport Amateur Operatic Society (Through the eyes of William Delicate) or (A lifetime devotion) - William Delicate - circa 2006. The society ran for 47 years from 1959 to 2006. Mostly, but by no means exclusively, Gilbert and Sullivan. I believe copyright was an issue for societies such as these, with what were for them substantial fees being payable.

Reference 9: https://www.menissez.fr/en/produit/baguette-nature-precuite-four-a-pierre/. Bread part-baked in a stone oven and packaged in a protective atmosphere. One wonders what exactly 'stone oven' is a euphemism for. An electric oven which has been lined with ceramic tiles? And what about 'protective'?

Sound waves

[Bing's effort at three hums]

Waking up this morning, I thought that I could hear two hums and I decided that one of them was the radiator and that the other was a car sitting in the road outside, engine idling. BH peered out of the window and asserted that there was no such car in the road.

Worked at it a bit harder, and I got up to three hums, sometimes four. The first two, plus one for noises from pipework elsewhere in the house, and another for noises in the ear, that is to say, noises arising from a different kind of pipework.

But eventually I decided that BH was right, and that I was hearing two hums from the two radiators in the room concerned. Radiators that differed in that one was much nearer and the other was the one that needed bleeding from time to time, despite looking identical and being at the identical height to the other. Enough difference to account for the slightly different hum.

What would my two brothers, both with musical ears, have made of it all?

PS: a little later: it now turns out that the nearer radiator is more or less permanently turned off. But there are pipes running under the floor boards there and hot water will be moving when the heating clicks in. All far too complicated for this time in the morning, that is to say just after 09:00.

References

Reference 1: Study explains how sound waves travel through disordered materials: This work may lead to new heat- and shatter-resistant glass for smartphones and tablets - Amit Malewar, Tech Explorist - 2021. The source of the snap above.

Impromptu piano

An expedition which started all about cheese but mission crept to include some piano at the Wigmore Hall.

A cold, bright day and I arrived at the top of the ramp at Waterloo to find that a lot of the Bullingdons had gone electric and their posts were sporting flashing red lights, whatever that might have meant. But working my way down the ramp I found a regular and was able to pedal off to the cheese shop in Shorts Gardens. The new wheeze was to take my bicycle lock so that I could leave the bike outside the cheese shop while I stocked up on Lincolnshire Poacher. And, for a change, a piece of Gubbeen, from an interesting looking Irish outfit in the far south west.

Not a cow to be seen in the snap above, at a resolution at which one would have thought they would be visible if they were there. And their website at reference 1 does suggest that there are cows - along with pigs and poultry. The pigs might live in one of the sheds, but what about the cows? They also do knives, knives which look in the pictures as if they have been damascened. To judge from the pictures, you probably pay art prices for them.

Back on the Bullingdon and headed up to Oxford Street. Where a passing police car honked me, turned his blue light and siren on briefly, before coasting gently down Oxford Street towards Marble Arch. Making much the same speed as I was. Perhaps the driver's hand hit the wrong button.

Stand outside the Portuguese Consulate in Portland Place was full, which was unusual, so I threaded my way through to Hinde Street, just by the Wallace Collection in Manchester Square. Using the bicycle lock and just the one Bullingdon had speeded things up considerably and so I had plenty of time to spare. Which I started on by taking my sandwiches on one of the benches outside the Wallace Collection. Not so much time to spare that I wanted to go in.

The church in Hinde Street was not open, but they had compromised and fashioned a place where you could sit in the porch - or look through the plate glass into the church proper. Decided that the columns holding up the balcony must be fake, that is to say tubular steel dressed up to look like stone. I wonder now whether the large columns at the back are fake too, after the way of the ones which burned down at Clandon. Impressive place for all that, even seen through the glass. See references 5 and 6.

Thought about but declined the Cock & Lion in favour of the bar at the hall, which turned out to be shut. As was the Beat One across the road, the place which once used to be called the Pelican, have an Irish flavour and stock a good range of Irish whisky. The place where I once caught the barmaid practising her pouring; apparently an important part of the brand. Settled for a sit in the Beckstein Room.

Passing on the way a smart looking wagon from Stage Freight of reference 3. Presumably the driver had not been told about the servants' entrance around the back. From Leeds, and clearly made of the right stuff as they are into shopping trolleys as well as orchestras.

The hall was something less than half full. Programme notes by one Richard Wigmore, clearly an interesting chap in his own right, to be found at reference 7. I read that Schumann, along with Sullivan (of Gilbert & Sullivan) was another burrower in Schubert's cupboards. Perhaps a rite of passage for musicians of the second half of the nineteenth century.

I rather liked the opening pieces, more than I expected, which was a bonus. And to me there seemed to be echoes from Shostakovich's preludes in both the Sibelius (Op.75) and the Matthews - for which last the composer was present and took his bow. To follow, the Schubert (D760, the Wanderer Fantasy) seemed a little loud to start with, but I settled to it. A piece I used to hear or listen to a lot in the past. A piece which I thought I had heard Jonathan Bliss play on another lunchtime occasion, but an occasion which I cannot presently trace.

A Chopin nocturne by way of encore, familiar enough although I could not put a number to it. The musical people behind me probably could have, but I decided not to ask.

In odd moments, an odd visual illusion where the bright yellow underside of the piano somehow got attached to the brown wood panelling behind the piano, the whole forming a sort of round-fronted, low pulpit in front of the piano. An illusion I seemed to be able to turn on and off, more or less at will.

Afterwards, pulled a second Bullingdon on which to more or less roll down to Victoria. Rather odd feeling, rolling down the more or less pedestrianised Bond Street. But not pedestrianised enough to stop a very fancy looking Ferrari being parked outside one of the shops. Presumably a footballer, known for their taste in fancy or flashy looking cars. Bit of trouble with low flying sun in Park Lane, but not enough for me stop and don the shades.

Thought about one of the sports bars in the development opposite Victoria Station, but decided in favour of the Wetherspoons inside the station, a place I used to use when I commuted through Victoria. But then caught a waiting train to Horsham instead. A ten coach train, so you might have a bit of a scramble at Mitcham Junction which an announcer told us could only manage seven coaches.

Spotted a clump a three Wellingtonia at Sutton and a singleton beyond Priest Hill at Ewell East. To be run down in due course,

Strolled down to the Blenheim, to find it shut, despite it being a Friday afternoon - a busy session under previous management, when they catered to the van man trade. So that was that.

But managing on arrival to notice that the winter flowering jasmine - probably Jasminum nudiflorum - is in full flower. Despite there still being plenty of leaves and so not properly nudiflorum at all. Cortana says flowering November to March, but BH says it is unusual for ours to flower before Christmas. While to the left we have the bergenia - probably Bergenia crassifolia - is also trying to flower. Both Cortana and BH say early spring.

References

Reference 1: https://www.gubbeen.com/.

Reference 2: https://www.beatone.co.uk/oxford-street.

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

Reference 4: https://www.tongpianoduo.com/. There turns out to be two Tongs.

Reference 5a: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-interior-of-church-at-hinde-street.html.

Reference 5b: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/06/vivaldi.html.

Reference 6: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/06/more-clandon.html.

Reference 7: http://wigmoresworld.co.uk/about-aim/.

Living

Last week, one of our rare visits to the cinema, to the Epsom Odeon to see a film called 'Living' involving Oliver Hermanus, Kazuo Ishiguro and Bill Nighy. A film which BH had somehow got to hear about.

An Epsom Odeon which seems to have been expensively refurbished since we were last there, with fancy seats and lots of leg room. But fancy seats which were not quite the right size for me and I would have been better off in an old style cinema seat. But one got a good view of the screen, even if it took me some minutes to adjust to sound seeming to be coming out of the walls and the ceiling. 

The film came with what seemed to me to be a rather retro wrapping, presumably part of taking us back to the early 1950's when the story was set. But very up-to-minute credits at the end which included a full COVID team. Presumably in charge of disinfectants and protective clothing.

The film was largely set in County Hall, despite the workers therein appearing to cross Westminster Bridge on their way to work from Waterloo Station. And as a former civil servant, while I recognised some of what goes on in the film, I was rather irritated by this caricature of public service. In fact, I found the whole film rather tiresome until Nighy died, was buried and reappeared in various flashbacks. For me, this second half of the film was much more successful; moving even. A small cog in a large machine achieved success with a small playground in bombed out Stepney. A success despite the many bureaucratic barriers in its way. A success despite the likelihood that the playground would be swept away in some future round of redevelopment.

To our left we had a couple of ladies out for the afternoon who found it hard to stop talking and laughing. One wondered what they were doing there at all. A warm place to natter? There could not have been more than a dozen or so of us altogether, so one hoped that Odeon did better with their other films, later in the day. This particular film rating just one showing a day at the unseasonably early hour of 12:45. Clearly and rightly not thought to be everybody's cup of tea. 

But I did notice that there was a lot of fantasy on offer. Perhaps the equivalent of the horror films of our younger days in the late 1960's? Perhaps without quite so many busty maidens heaving under Dracula's knife. Or perhaps I should say teeth.

Out for cake etc at the Persian establishment now occupying what used to be Caspars, across the road from the cinema. BH thought Christian Persians, possibly the persecuted Christians whom I came across earlier in the year on Westminster Bridge, noticed at reference 6 and who still send me emails from time to time. A rather good baklava by way of cake, latte for her and Johnny Walker for him. Gold label, in a rather dubious bottle, was too near empty, so I settled for black label. The bottle in question was the sort shown top left and looked a bit lurid in the light in question, but perhaps thought more suitable for a restaurant which sold cocktails, than one of the regular bottles right.

An establishment which we knew in a former life as Caspar's, noticed in 2014 at reference 5. But it must have been some years before that that we used the place, possibly as much as twenty years ago. Dining out has not been the same in Epsom since.

Antecedents

Wikipedia tells me that the filmscript was written by the entirely respectable Kazuo Ishiguro, an English writer who happens to have been born in Nagasaki. We have, at least in the past, owned at least one of his novels, 'An Artist of the Floating World' and we have seen one of his films 'The Remains of the Day'. We may still own the DVD, despite the chuck-out on the arrival of the smart television.

Based on the Japanese film 'Ikuru' which I am fairly sure we have not seen.

Loosely based in turn on the Tolstoy novella 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich', a novella which I have read in the past and still own a copy, No.432 from the small blue, hardback series of 'The World's Classics' from OUP, published in 1935 and quite possibly my father's copy - from the days when the Soviet Union was a good thing, at least to those of the left. A few years before it became a good thing for everybody else for being mainly responsible for defeating Hitler.

A story which I remember as being a story about how a painful, terminal illness made the patient such a pain to be with, that all his friends and acquaintances gradually dropped off, to the point that when he finally died, he was more or less alone. A memory which does not seem to have much connection with the present film at all. However, I have put my hand on the book again and I hope to reread the novella over the next few days. We shall see if memory is playing me false yet again.

PS: some time later: now whizzed through the story, all 73 small pages of it, and memory does seem to have been fairly defective. The novella is about a senior civil servant (legal variety), with wife and children, some deceased, who contracts an unpleasant disease in his middle years and suffers a lonely, protracted, undignified and painful death. A novella about dying, the subjective experience and the way that those around death react to it. All rather depressing - although there is some comfort to be had from the better treatment options available well over a century later. So not like the film at all and not much like my memory of it. Not lonely because everyone deserted him, but lonely because almost no-one could be honest, kind and natural about it.

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_(2022_film). 2022.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikiru. 1952.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Ivan_Ilyich. 1886.

Reference 4: The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Leo Tolstoy - 1886.

Reference 5: http://psmv2.blogspot.com/2014/12/chateaubriant.html.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/05/sweded.html.

Heritage old and older

The first item really being a moan about heritage folk. Having this morning acquired a bit of gossip about how Côte Brasserie are not going to move into the antique premises once occupied by Lester Bowden, Epsom's late lamented fancy tailor, then Lakeland and now vacant, in part because they were not allowed to disturb some bit of interior heritage wall. I think there were some distinguishing features, apart from just being old, but it seems to me to be perverse to deter occupiers in a town which is getting short of proper retail activity, in favour of a bit of old wall. What exactly is it that the heritage people think that they are saving?

The snap above being taken in Côte Lewes and lifted from reference 1.

The second item being a very large Roman barge that I also came across this morning. One of two barges built by the Emperor Caligula, probably for show but possibly dressed up in religious clothes, given that they floated on a religious lake, the same lake made famous by Sir James Frazer, for which see reference 5 and 6. I had not thought that the Romans could build something so big. Although, while I dare say they floated, I don't suppose they would have lasted very long on the open sea. Excavated by Mussolini, but mostly destroyed in the course of the second world war. See reference 3.

[Ruins by the shores of Lake Nemi, in an 1831 engraving. Lifted from reference 3]

I came across them in the course trying (unsuccessfully) to track down an anecdote from Rome in Freud's big book on dreams at reference 4. The anecdote being that there was a Roman emperor who had someone executed who was dumb enough to tell him that he had dreamed about assassinating him, that is to say the emperor. The context being ruminations about whether dreaming about bad things made one a bad person. The extent to which dreaming about doing bad things was apt to result in one actually doing those bad things. If at all.

References 

Reference 1: https://www.thegraphicfoodie.co.uk/2018/05/review-cote-brasserie-lewes.html.

Reference 2: https://www.cote.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemi_ships.

Reference 4: The interpretation of dreams – Sigmund Freud – 1899/1954.

Reference 5: The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion - Sir James George Frazer - 1890-1915. A real-life Casaubon, with the prior fictional version being rather harshly treated by George Eliot. To my mind, anyway.

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_Nemorensis.