Beethoven 250

The Wigmore, along with other places, is running lots of concerts to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth. Some of the concerts we might otherwise have gone to were at, what for us, were unsuitable times like 2200 - but we did find one lunchtime one to go to, Sunday before last. As it turned out a bright sunny morning, Waterloo trains down but Victoria trains up.

Flower power

Although Waterloo trains were not so down as to stop the coach with a flower turning up, No.62814. Number logged as my theory is that there is just the one of them, done for some reason at about the time the current people took over from Southwest Trains.

We were sat next to a talkative group of young people, a touch irritating but not so much that we moved. There were also a noticeable number of young ladies through the day wearing an approximation to beach wear, an approximation involving a gap in the middle and plenty of leg. Perhaps it is this year's fashion.

No.67001

And then as we approached Victoria, we had the rare treat of a sighting of a Class 67 locomotive, possibly drafted in to pull out the fancy train set sat at the station, the train set seeming to have lost its Puffing Poirot, that is to say steam locomotive. Steam locomotive which the punters paid good money for. Talking of which, it would be interesting to know if Suchet actually smokes, given that he makes something of a thing of smoking fancy little brown somethings on the screen, even to the point of appearing to enjoy them, which is more than many much younger actors can manage these days.

I was not fast enough on the draw to get a snap myself, so offer this one from Flickr, of what is presumably the first of class.

Brass plates

We went on to renew our acquaintance with All-Bar-One in Regent Street, having remembered in the nick of time to get off after two stops rather than four. There was also rather a long walk under Victoria Station, presumably something to do with it being remodelled. And we wondered who might be prepared to pay a lot extra to get medical attention from someone with such a scruffy looking door as that snapped above. What sort of medical attention was on offer? And just a short step from Harley Street too.

Programme

Concert very good - with the first item, which we knew, going down even better than the second, which we did not. With the Škampa String Quartet having been first heard about eight years ago, at the same place, and maybe three times since.

Soave

Rolling pins

We had though to fish and chip it at the Golden Hind (reference 1), but I had forgotten that it did not open on Sundays, so we settled for the Caldesi opposite instead. Bread, mixed hors d'oeuvres, a sort of pasta in a green sauce, tiramisu (good, for future reference). Taken with a 2017 Soave called variously Castelcerino, Filippi and Colli Scaligeri, which we rather liked. A type of wine first noticed at the end of reference 5. And I wound down with a spot of grappa - settling for white as the yellow was no longer available. The grappa glasses seemed to have been downgraded a bit, but this may have been the alcohol or the light talking.

The only slight downer, soon dissipated by alcohol, was that BH was not too pleased to be sitting under a bunch of rolling pins, which she thought belonged in the kitchen. While I thought the bottom one was perhaps fancy enough to sport bearings for the handles, for the comfort of the professional user.

This time

Last time

Out to stroll down to Green Park.

Nostalgia

A spot of nostalgia on the way in the form of a shop which had once been one of those United Dairies convenience stores, common when we were young. With one in particular being in range of the Uplands student (teacher) accommodation blocks in Leigham Court Road, in Streatham, a place we used to buy bread and cheese from on Saturday afternoons, both being quite respectable by today's standards. Oddly, the only place of that name turned up by gmaps is a care home which I do not recognise at all. The accommodation blocks were fairly new when we knew them, more than fifty years ago now, so perhaps they have been knocked down in the interval.

Affordable housing?

Ukrainian Church opposite firmly shut, as usual. On past some Peabody flats, which I thought were the council houses of their day, and so affordable, so perhaps things have moved on, this being Mayfair. Maids and so forth, when not living in, expected to live out in Essex somewhere and commute in.

Onto Grosvenor Square where there was some sort of butterfly festival - 'Butterfly biosphere: pleasures of the nectar dome' - going on inside a plastic dome, but the queue was rather long and we passed on to the open back door of the (Jesuit) Church of the Immaculate Conception.

Decoration of a chapel

Highly polished pine pews

A very grand church, elaborately decorated. With pine pews by way of contrast, when one might have expected hardwood. There were also a couple of pianos, already noticed at reference 6. A place last visited about five years ago, as noticed at reference 7. A rather short visit as we were not quite sure that we were supposed to be there, with the back door perhaps only having been left open so that a Chinese family could come in for a baptism. But definitely a place to go back to for a proper look.

Posh numeral

We wondered how much the car above, snapped (I think) in Berkeley Square, would be, including the expensive looking registration number? Or plaque minéralogique as they say in France. Finding out why is left as an exercise for the reader. Is it owner occupied (as it were) or a car hire job?

There was some kind of function going on in one of the houses nearby, minded by chaps in blue fancy dress. But they were very coy about what was going on and we learned nothing at all. Perhaps the word in discrete.

Cats and dogs

Onto to Victoria for our train, on which we wondered, not for the first time, why Battersea Dogs' Home did not sell up and come and live out in the suburbs. One might have thought that sale of such a site would pay for a lot of stray dogs. A bit hemmed in by roads and railways, but plenty of other flash developments in the immediate vicinity. And plenty of bits of marginal farm land which they could run their dogs on here in Epsom. Perhaps Glanmire Farm near us (reference 8), people who already know about animals. But then again, perhaps they are hanging on in the hope that they will be able to sell up for housing one day.

Saw an advertisement for a film of the International No.1 Bestseller about goldfinches noticed at references 9 and 10 - but we thought we would not bother. Maybe just a quick peek when it makes it to early evening viewing on ITV3, as sponsored by Viking River Cruises.

Reference 1: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=%C5%A0kampa.

Reference 2: https://www.goldenhindrestaurant.com/.

Reference 3: https://www.caldesi.com/.

Reference 4: http://www.cantinafilippi.it/. This website, given on back of the bottle, appears to be under construction, but also, oddly, to be part of a campaign funded under EC regulation No.1308/13. Perhaps one more bit of European nonsense for the Brexit crew to lock onto?

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/09/another-important-place.html.

Reference 6: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/09/piano-24.html.

Reference 7: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2014/03/wooden-boxes.html.

Reference 8: https://www.glanmire.co.uk/. With the picture here - all you get - not being much like what you see from the road.

Reference 9: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/05/goldfinch.html.

Reference 10: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/05/tartt-failure.html.