The occasion being my first proper visit since before the start of this second lockdown, that is to say since the visit last September, noticed at reference 1. Although I did manage a quickie to Borough Market after that, noticed at reference 2.
The first sea (or 'C') was replenishing cheese supplies. The second was looking for a copy of Clarissa more convenient to read in bed than the giant Penguin.
Already warm at 11:15 and set to be hot. Which meant that there were plenty of summer clothes on view by the time that I got out of Waterloo Station and onto my first Bullingdon for months. Not too many in working order on the stands on the ramp, but there was one for me and my key did work. So far so good.
Terroirs was looking very shut up, but I learned later that they are planning to reopen in September. Given that half their dining area is in a sub-basement with not too much ventilation and that there is virtually no space outside, probably the right call.
While the 'Crown' at Seven Dials had opened again, although I resisted the temptation to take a celebratory beverage. Maybe just a tad early.
Tried the two remaining second hand bookshops in Charing Cross road. One had heard of Clarissa but neither had got it.
Tried the new look Foyles. They had the fat Penguin version, but that was about it. They did have a special case for what was left of the Everyman series, but no Clarissa there, but didn't seem to have a case for the rather decent Oxford Classics, although I don't think that there would have been a Clarissa there either, the OUP website not having admitted to such a thing.
Tried a shop in Cecil Court and the shop man looked at me pityingly. Tried a second, but the shop man was on the phone and I was summoned away before he was off the phone. And so to Aquavit, the place noticed at reference 1. Lots of people around on the way: young people, young families, all sorts. But few of them looked as if they were at or near work.
I learned that it was not unusual for restaurants not to have cardboard menus anymore, never mind those fancy ones that came in fancy blue folders. And Aquavit was one of them. My Microsoft telephone not being quite the thing for menus, they were reduced to lending me their tablet - although I don't think they bothered about my contact details.
Started with breads, mainly crisp. Served with a butter frothed up with just a touch of smoked cod's roe. Very good it was too.
Onto meat balls served with lingonberry, pickled cucumber, potato mash. I was assured that the lingonberries were not cranberries - which I avoid, although the warfarin advice refers to the juice rather than the berries - and the mash was very good. Creamy white, with hardly any flavour, just texture. In a different world from some mash which I was served a few days later, of which more in dues course. Some sauce or gravy, also good.
Taken with the same Chablis as I had last time. I asked for it without bucket, so they decanted it into a glass pot instead. I don't think that this was a very good move, but the wine was still good. And there was a much better wine list than is usual in the sort of restaurants which I usually patronise, with maybe a dozen different whites.
Altogether a very pleasant spot, quite warm enough to be comfortable outside, but not in the sun and little or no breeze. Not many people wandering about either, although there was a Japanese girl, very nonchalant on her roller blades, probably texting and eating at the same time, although I had not cared to look closely enough to be sure.
Heading back to Waterloo, the Royal Opera Arcade, almost an ancient monument, was not looking very healthy, although a cello shop still seemed to be alive, if not actually open. Read all about it, and how at some distance from the Royal Opera House, it got its name, at reference 5.
I have used the stand at Cockspur Street often enough, and thought about it on this occasion, but decided against. Cockspur Street to Waterloo in the middle of the afternoon was not quite the same as London Bridge to Waterloo early evening. But I do know where to go about information about Kazakhstan. A place where some project management consultants I once used to work near made a lot of money.
In my days as a Whitehall Warrior, this used to be a rather sleepy Courage house called 'The Two Chairmen' - fitting the days two seas nicely. A pleasant spot for a quiet afternoon beverage, perhaps over a half corona. And, as it happens, when in London, Clarissa actually goes in for taking chairs, rather as we might take a taxi.
As luck would have, the Street View people last went by in 2014 (which surprised me), at which time the pub was still open. Perhaps by then owned by the owners of the giant Thai restaurant around the corner. I am sure the two became connected when the long serving tenants, both ladies as I recall, retired. I wonder now about the back history of the place, with the blank wall, presumably reflecting either bomb damage or demolition to make way for the piles to the right.
Across a busy Hungerford Bridge, to a busy street food scene on the South Bank. Social distancing not really an option, but I made my way through to the book stands under Waterloo Bridge. Sadly, much diminished and certainly no Clarissa's. But not a silly place to look. It was the sort of thing that they might have had in the past. I think it furnished by Scott Moncrieff version of Proust (portrait above). Two decent volumes from the US for a tenner or so - a book which might be even longer than Clarissa.
And so to Waterloo, to find that most of the shops on the Mezzanine level were closed up, and Le Cabin was still about to be a building site. Perhaps it is looking for a white knight to do something with it. The place which sold me a fine bacon and egg sandwich on one or two occasions. The best I had eaten for years. See reference 6.
I associate to the rather good French styled piano bar that operated for a while in what used to the toilets opposite Platform 1 and just below where Le Cabin is now. Despite all the money walking through the station, it didn't seem to fly and the place is now a rather shabby boozers' bar.
Sentimental visit to Smiths for a Guardian, but the checkout girl that I remember was missing, replaced by a checkout man. No Evening Standards to be seen, but they were clearly somewhere as some of the people on the train had them. A train which was rather hot, which made wearing a mask a pain, albeit a necessary pain.
Later in the evening, following lunchtime discussion of the matter, I bought a Kindle version of Clarissa for 0.99p. The transaction took ages to process and I eventually downloaded my money's worth via the excellent Kindle Cloud Reader. A good adjunct to the Amazon service, even if one rather resents how much money Amazon is sucking out of the world.
An edition which came from Centaur, the people who published the world's greatest 100 novels, of which this was one. But I completely failed to find out who they were, although there were a number of companies trading under the same name but for different purposes, some equine flavoured. Bing turned up a companies house registration of a publishing company which had been around for a while, dormant more recently and now struck off, whatever that might mean. Headquartered in the building in Victoria Street, St. Albans snapped above from Street View. Run by a chap called James Ball. Perhaps he sold out to Amazon and the name now only exists as a brand of books sold onto their Kindles. What he sold being good quality digital versions of ancient classics, almost Kindle ready. Maybe I will dig out, or come across, the whole story at some point.
In the meantime, the Kindle is serving very well, incompatibilities with the Penguin edition notwithstanding; indeed it might well prove a holiday favourite in years to come. So much of it, that one can always open it up and come to something with fresh eyes. Bit like opening the Bible at random.
Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-return-to-metropolis.html.
Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/10/cheese-time.html.
Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/06/correspondance.html. For a snap of the once readily available Everyman edition of Clarissa.
Reference 4: http://www.aquavitrestaurants.com/. Bing talks of Michelin stars, but I can find no evidence of that here. A pity as that would have been a first! Later: checking at the Michelin site, the place seems to rate a plate rather than a star. Perhaps a sort of consolation prize intended to encourage restaurants to stay in the game and to keep paying their inspection fees.
Reference 5: https://memoirsofametrogirl.com/2016/11/19/royal-opera-arcade-st-james-london-history-shopping-worlds-oldest-arcade/.
Reference 6: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/02/master-builder.html.
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