Horszowski Trio

Programme

Last Sunday to a morning concert at the Wigmore Hall, morning that is to the extent of a 1130 start.

Not impressed that the in-train clock shown on the shiny new in-train indicator board had not taken on the change to British Summer Time. Perhaps as a clock of German manufacture it was respecting the about to be passed European Directive about the abolition of said Summer Time.

Two ladies across the way from us in the train talking energetically in a foreign language, and, as is often the way, one of them was doing most of the talking. I thought that maybe they came from Central America but that were not talking Spanish. Maybe one of the original languages? But how many people who did not speak Spanish would make it to a suburban train in London from those parts?

Lots of people dressed up in red and white, some with full face paint, on the train between Wimbledon and Vauxhall and a lot more milling around outside at Vauxhall. A chap from Sunderland told me it was the most important match of the year, a match which turned out to be something called the Checkatrade Trophy Final at Wembley between Portsmouth and Sunderland. Sunderland lost on points. While I thought that Checkatrade was the place to find a new plumber.

Vauxhall Tube Station was shut for some reason so we caught a bus which we thought was going to Victoria, but which actually took us to Selfridges which was much better. We got, for example, to see the head which had been chopped off a large horse which decorates the top of Park Lane. BH got to sit next to a lady who knew all about John Bell & Croyden, apparently actually a branch of Lloyd's the Chemist, this last a subsidiary of some German operation. Apparently a lot of their trade comes from the Gulf States and they had some lean years after 9/11. And the mobility scooters which I though we covered in sequins were actually covered in jewels. Or at least some of them were. We agreed that rebranding the place as a Lloyd's would probably not be good for business.

Food mixer

Rather an expensive looking object in a shop window, from Kitchen Aid of St. Joseph's, Michigan. A promotional version of expensive domestic food mixer?

Bacon slicer

While the bacon slicer next door, also very expensive looking, appeared to be the real thing, rather than an outsize promotional version. Clearly need to pay more attention next time we are in the vicinity.

View from drafty seats

Coming up to the hall from the wrong direction, we had to take refreshments in the Benugo in Wigmore Street, rather than the All-Bar-One in Regent Street. One of those places which makes a virtue of there being raw concrete and pipework all over the place. Spoken English of the staff rather limited, once you tried to go beyond coffee, cake and tea. Nevertheless, I continue to like the stuff they sell in this chain.

The concert was more or less sold out and was very good. The Schumann Piano Trio No.1 (Op.63) was good, but new to us, while the Shostakovich Piano Trio No.2 (Op.67) was more accessible and very moving. Composed at roughly the same time as the book noticed at reference 2 was written.

Out to find an impressive mobile crane in Wimpole Street, which I stopped to photograph. BH not best pleased, but an interested passer-by noticed that she was not impressed and insisted in engaging her in crane chatter, just for the craic as they say on the other island. BH even less pleased.

Crane one

Crane two

Crane three

Crane four

The new-to-me Southern Cranes, introduced at reference 3.

Tube to Vauxhall where we called into the Sainsbury's by the station where the choice of flat white wine was not that great, but lack of choice was mitigated by the cheerful and chatty staff.

And so to Raynes Park platform library where we failed to find anything of interest. Unusually, given the amount of stuff there.

Platform library

Lunch at Stoneleigh.

Stoneleigh shed

Back at the station we were able to admire the 1960's vintage, pre-fabricated shed just across the rails from our platform. Perhaps a mess-hut from the days when there were railway staff who expected such things. We remembered that when we first moved to Epsom, thirty years ago now, the station at Stoneleigh had permanent staff and flower beds on the platforms. Long gone, needless to say, with the punters not prepared to pay for such things, having been tempted, not for the first time, by cheap and (not so) cheerful. 

But there were some coal tits messing about in the bushes.

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

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-great-patriotic-war.html.

Reference 3: https://www.southerncranes.co.uk/.