Ham and cheese

TFL record

Last week back on the cheese, on what turned out to be a mild and overcast day. Chose the short raincoat (from Cordings) as being more suitable for cycle work than the long raincoat (from charity shop), supplemented with folding umbrella (from Ottawa).

Pulled a Bullingdon from the second position on the ramp and cycled off to a well gummed up north side of Waterloo Bridge. Seemed to be waiting for ages for the buses to make a move. But it could not have been that long as the whole journey only took a little over 12 minutes.

Shorts Gardens also gummed up, perhaps with motor traffic come to admire the Christmas decorations strung across the street (in mid November). Took the usual kilo or so of Poacher and toyed with the idea of getting something a bit fancier, perhaps a spot of Gubbeen, but decided against. Maybe I was right, maybe 70g of hard cheese a day is enough.

Thinking of lunch, I was lucky enough to come across a little shop in Neal Street which sold excellent ham rolls. See reference 1. The first roll was taken on the step of the Seven Dials monument, from where I was able to admire a variety of smartly dressed people, including a procession of Chinese, the men in business suits, the ladies in elaborate dresses (if that is the right word), split up the sides from ankle to knee. I enjoyed the roll so much that I bought another, and took this second one on the smokers' bench, thoughtfully provided outside the crystal balls shop in Shorts Gardens, a hundred yards or so to the east of the cheese shop.

Smokers' bench

Having finished my second roll, I thought it best to make way for a small group of fake smokers, fake in the sense that they did not appear to be smoking real cigarettes.

Pulled a second Bullingdon for a gentle roll down the Aldwych and then back across Waterloo Bridge, from where I was able to admire the fully shrouded Big Ben, hanging its head in shame, as it were, at the abject failure of our political classes to bring Brexit to a satisfactory conclusion. To get to grips with, inter alia, the fact that, with the popular vote split right down the middle, winner take all is not a good strategy and some kind of compromise is in order - in which connection I suppose it would have helped if we had had more practise at the coalitions, the deals and the horse trading that most Europeans seem to be at most of the time. Without coming to grief either.

It took 20 seconds longer to get back than to get out, perhaps because the southern end of the bridge was even more gummed up than the northern end had been. Came near to getting a first in the form of parking the Bullingdon in the same slot that I had taken one from earlier, but had to settle for the next door pole position instead.

Pole position

With the brown bag by way of evidence. Rewarded myself with a spot of 2017 Falanghino del Sannio from Le Cabin, above the entrance to platform 1. Bottled by the people at reference 3. Light and pleasant - a relative as I now know of the Greco di Tufo which we look out for. And I remain a fan of the mezzanine conversion at Waterloo: someone did a good job there.

Reference 1: https://www.enriquetomas.com/en/.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Bourbaki. Somewhere along the way, I passed the shop at the top of Neal Street which now sells crystal balls and which once sold me a remaindered copy of Bourbaki on sets. Which I still have, largely unread. Crystal balls clearly a big business in Covent Garden.

Reference 3: http://www.laguardiense.it/.