King's Cross

Last week to King's Cross to hear some of Bach's Cello Suites, No.3 and No.5 on this occasion. That once rough & seedy area which is now getting seriously gentrified.

The programme

A bright but cold day, with the first entertainment being a leaf eating pigeon across the tracks from our platform at Epsom Station. It appeared to be gorging on all the bursting buds it could reach: perhaps birds feel the need for fresh vegetables after the winter, just as we did before the invention of all-year-round greengrocery.

Then we had four or five rather manic young cyclists, all hyped up after what we supposed was their jaunt up Box Hill and then on their way home to Earlsfield. Long time since I would attempt Box Hill. Maybe forty years ago I might have given it a go.

Concourse piano

The usual long walk from the Victoria Line platforms out into the station, passing the piano above on the way. Not sure what the deal was: maybe it is there all the time and people just walk up and play it. This chap seemed to know what he was at, as did his successor some hours later.

By dint of reading the instructions, we actually found the best way out, heading directly towards the canal, rather than walking up the whole of York Way. Partly for this reason, we had a little time in hand so called in the new-to-us Vinotec for a spot of refreshment. A busy bar in the flashy new King’s Boulevard.

Vinotec - publicity shot

A place which had a fine wine list, for a restaurant never mind a pub, and we decided without further ado to dine there after the show, booking a table just in case. With the form with the wine being that if a group of you ordered a bottle, they poured the whole lot out on delivery, going through a bit of a performance to make sure that all the glasses were filled to exactly the same level. Not a form that I had come across before. Not a form that would always be appropriate, but I suppose you could always cancel the performance.

The wine

They could also manage a nice drop of white by the glass, a 2017 Kerner from Alto Adige. Quite by chance, from the same stable as the stuff noticed at reference 5, bought in the wine shop in Bridge Road, across the road from Hampton Court Palace - which I hope is still up and running as we have had some good wine from them over the years. Maybe the odd cigar - in the olden days that is.

Cranes one

Fine display of cranes outside, including natty little painted robots marking the floors of the lift shafts. By the time they are finished there will be much less light and the place will be much like any other big office development in central London. But there will still be the canal, on this day sporting a small work in Dame Trace's 'Detritus' series.

Detritus

A case of art imitating life, as she had done a really good job of imitating a coot's nest. See reference 6 for a previous encounter with the series.

Into the hall at Kings Place to find ourselves next to a lady from Portland, Oregon, the place, as I explained to her, that was famous in this country for the production of badly behaved ice dancers. She explained that it was not nearly as cold there in the winter as it was in her native Chicago. She was also as dismayed that roughly half of the voters of the US had voted for Trump as we were that roughly half the voters of the UK had voted for Brexit. With neither the Democrats nor the Labour Party yet having presentable candidates for the top job next time around. She may even have been what we call Old Labour over here. More stamina than us, despite being of much the same age, as she was there for the day, all three shows of it, more than we are good for these days.

Coin, whom I do not think we have come across before, did us really well, and the venue suited the music really well. With the two suites nicely broken by a couple of lighter pieces, very roughly contemporary with the suites. Both suites very affecting: it is really rather odd how what is more or less a single stream of not very fast notes can be so affecting. On a technical note, I think that he told us the he had to retune one of his strings for the second suite, and part of the point of the lighter pieces was to settled the retuned string down, before moving onto the main course, as it were. Plus there were four bits of what look like metallic trim on the four corners, a bit like flowers. Don't recall seeing such before.

Audience enthusiastic and we thought it likely that there were a fair number of his groupies there.

Arthropod art

We inspected the arthropod art on the way out, complete with instructions about not touching the art, let alone climbing into it. Which we thought a pity. It looked very sturdy and a small child would have thought it great fun. And if it wasn't very sturdy it should have been; it certainly looked expensive enough, even without the premium for original art. See reference 7 for an earlier sighting.

Back to Vinotec to dine. Fairly busy, although they would probably have let us in without booking. A bottle of the Kerner mentioned above. Sour dough bread with olive oil - with sour dough not being my favourite bread, but this was good of its kind. Two roast chicken dinners - very good. The best pub Sunday roast we recall having had. Half a roast chicken, slightly rolled, on top of a little mound of much better vegetables than is usual on such occasions. Including some genuine sprouting broccoli. Including rather superfluous, but adequate, Yorkshire puddings. A take on Bakewell Tart for dessert, taken with a red pudding wine (a small dose of red proved OK on this occasion), a bit like a port, but called Galateo from Banyuls. Possibly a Coume del Mas Galateo - 2017, as sold by the Hedonism people in Davies Street, people whom I have not visited for a while. Wine good, tart satisfactory, but they made the mistake of serving it with a very thick cream, when something much lighter, more syllabub like, would have been much more suitable.

Service good, plus we had a lady climber next to us who provided some additional interest. At least the sort of lady that assists at rock climbing walls and goes rock climbing in the south of Spain. I was able to air my mainly armchair knowledge of such matters, helped along by the Kerner, until she made her pretty excuses. After she had claimed to be able to do nearly one eight finger pull up.

But cream apart, a very good meal and should occasion arise we will go there again. Sadly I forgot to visit their well-stocked off-license. Maybe in the margins of the next trip to the cheese shop?

Crane two

Crane three

Pity about how distorting the fish-eye lens on my telephone is. Maybe someday someone will write the code which takes the distortion out. Thinking with my fingers, such code sounds well within the bounds of possibility these days. Or is it a question of processing time? We have to wait until telephones pack more power?

Better buskers than usual around the station. Entertainingly modern tunnel along the way, the sort of thing you expect at an airport rather than a railway station.

Fine sunset in clouds to the west, between Vauxhall and Wimbledon.

Scored a minus one on aeroplanes at Wimbledon, with just the one, going the wrong way, looking to have taken off from Heathrow and heading east, rather than heading west into Heathrow. Which reminds me that I need to review the rules against the possibility of there being changes to directional preferences. See reference 8.

Magazines

Scored an alpha plus at Raynes Park, with a splendid haul of English language magazines from Pakistan, on which I shall report separately.

Cello's metallic trim

PS: asking Bing for 'cello antique coin' didn't do much good, turning up lots of money. But 'cello antique christophe coin' did the business, turning up the snap above, very probably the very cello used on this occasion. Metallic flowers - or whatever - visible if you click to enlarge.

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/06/suites-suite.html. The last London suites.

Reference 2: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/05/surprising-cello.html. The surprise Ashburton suites.

Reference 3: Bach Cello Suites - Jean-Guihen Queyras - April 2020, Milton Court. Possibly the next suites: an ambitious format, but there are two escape opportunities should need arise.

Reference 4: https://www.kloster-neustift.it/en/. The wine.

Reference 5: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/search?q=praepositus. The first cousin of the wine.

Reference 6: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=trace+detritus+couper.

Reference 7: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/04/more-aret.html.

Reference 8: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/03/fortean-times.html. The haul which included the Heathrow consultation document - 'Airspace and Future Operations Consultation Document - January 2019 - which talks, inter alia, about directional preferences. Not previously heard of.