No live fish

More than a week ago now to Kingston, to admire the festive sights and polish off the festive shopping. A visit on which, as it turned out, we tweeted no fewer than two pianos, already noticed.

Had trouble with the barrier at the Rose car park, but we made it in the end. BH went on to score four kerbs up on the way to the reasonably clear level green nine, where we parked.

First stop, the fish in the Hogsmill. But, for the first time that I can remember, the water was turbid after all the rain and we saw no fish, either on the police station side of the road or the other.

Onto to the café inside the Rose Theatre, where we found two very cute children on an outing of some sort with mum and her parents. We also learned about something called the Kingston Pound of reference 1. A relatively new venture the point of which seems to be to promote Kingston and to promote the sourcing of goods and services from Kingston, rather than bringing them in from the outside. It looks to be a modest operation so far, indeed not clear to me that it is very alive at all. But see also references 2 and 3. Whereas cynical me had thought that these local currencies were all about evading VAT.

One that got away

From there we got ourselves into a sort of passage behind church railings, which turned out not to be a passage at all. With the added disappointment for me of a trolley which I was unable to score. We retraced our steps to go into All Saints' the proper way, a pleasant enough space, dedicated to a variety of activities and functions, but not terribly holy - but what else can they do? I don't suppose they get many customers of the proper sort.

Place for prayer

And while there did not seem to be a proper altar any more, there was a small space reserved for quiet contemplation and prayer, complete with lit sanctuary lamp.

Out through another door, into the Christmas shed land. Lots of brown wood sheds, a little more variegated than those at Polesden Lacey, noticed at reference 4, and mainly selling various kinds of hot food. On which we passed, it being too soon after elevenses and not time for lunch.

There were also a few real market stalls, although the fish stall was just a relic of the three that there used to be. On the up side, we were able to buy our first Californian walnuts for some years. About a kilo, which have turned out very well. Still a few left.

Onto John Lewis, where the decorations were reasonably low key, majoring on pieces of gold foil strung on long strings and reasonably effective. Spotting the haberdashery department across the well, I thought to ask about pack thread last noticed at reference 5, with current holdings not be enough for more than another one or two duffel coats. The lady there had never heard of the stuff and certainly could not offer anything on the traditional, sturdy wooden reel. The best she could do was a sort of textured button thread, which would probably have done, but I baulked at the £4.50 or so she wanted for it. So I made a rather feeble excuse about needing to consult BH and scuttled off.

We are not amused

The gallery

Onto Bentall's, a shopping centre now divided between Bentall's proper and a large range of other shops, arranged on several floors around a central atrium. Complete with lifts and escalators which double as décor. A rather more useful place than I had remembered. I also remembered that we bought our front room carpet from a franchise within Bentall's proper - with the only trace of this purchase that I can turn up being reference 6, despite the carpet having been bought during bloglife. And we came across what looked like a rather expensive art gallery, one of many branches of the people at reference 7. Zoom on the label failed on this occasion, but I have now found out that the work snapped is 'Breath of Ages' by one Simon Kenny of reference 8, a chap from Ireland who appears to have developed a successful formula. As an original painting £3,500; if it had been a print maybe £1,000. Budding artists might like to know that the good people at Whitewall do consider unsolicited submissions.

No Polish shop that we could find to inquire about kabanosi.

The mouth of the Hogsmill

Still no fish in the Hogsmill, although there were a lot of swans.

Having failed to find the expected noodlarium in the vicinity of the swans, we took fish and chips at the Ram, handy for the car park. Pleasant staff and pleasant ambience, but food not as good and certainly not as good value as Wetherspoon's.

I managed one kerb on the way down from green nine.

Reference 1: https://kingstonpound.org/.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_union.

Reference 3: https://www.boomcu.com/.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/11/grotto.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/11/duffel-coat.html.

Reference 6: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/08/shopping-in-kingston.html.

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

Reference 8: https://simonkenny.artweb.com/.

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