The return to the metropolis

Last week saw my return to the metropolis proper after an absence of more than five months, with the last outing being noticed at reference 1. The ultimate outing was to Guildford, which while busier than Epsom, does not quite rank with the metropolis. The test outing was a couple of weeks ago, noticed at reference 2.

My two outings on Bullingdons were properly recorded on this occasion, both a little over eight minutes. While the outing down as missing presumed dead on the last occasion remains so.

Quiet at Epsom station, but all the passengers were masked up, apart from a few young people, who might have been attention seeking rather than principled. The train got busier as we went into London, perhaps peaking at Wimbledon.

The flock of cranes over Battersea Power Station had more or less vanished. Is it possible that this long running project is nearer completion? Is the Malaysian (I think) owner on the verge of getting some of his money back from selling the flats and other stuff now therein? Do the brand new chimneys insisted on by the heritage people do anything useful? Can people with weak eyes buy darkened flats without views? Or perhaps people with Alzeimer's, in the process of withdrawing from the world?

Good selection of Bullingdons on the ramp at Waterloo, plus a selection of young derelicts. A new feature.

The cheese shop in Short's Gardens was up and running, serving me almost exactly the 2lbs in two pieces that I asked for, rather than the usual nearly one kilo. Not that I mind particularly either way. They also sold me two Ellison's Orange apples, apples which I used to like as a child but don't remember eating since. I also remember their having a slight tang of aniseed about them. We shall see.

The nearby Crown at Seven Dials, a pub I use occasionally and which I have a soft spot for, it being one of the few pubs that I know that does not serve food, was closed. As was another nearby. Both Greene King houses, with Greene King just happening to get a mention in the last post. Rossopomodoro was being redecorated. Various other places shut up, but they were trying to get some life back into Upper St Martin's Lane by more or less closing it to traffic and putting chairs and tables out in the street. Some, but not many, takers.

An expensive glass of wine, nicely served, in what Street View (dated 2019) calls 'Cantina Laredo' - although the chairs and tables don't look quite right and I don't remember the name. While the web site at reference 3 suggests that they only operate in the US and in the Gulf. Perhaps I am reading it wrong.

Onto Trafalgar Square to see what was going on on the fourth plinth. Which turned out to be loud but not offensive like some of its predecessors. Nor even particularly ugly. So things are looking up a bit in that department.

I was surprised at the very modest size of the statue of George Washington, outside the National Gallery, depicted leaning on the fasces proper to a consul of Rome. Perhaps the allusion, at the time of casting, was to the consul of Republican Rome, rather than to the puppets which followed in Imperial Rome.

Onto Aquavit (reference 4) for a spot of outdoor lunch, a change from Terroirs where the outdoor facilities were rather limited. And having passed up on Wild Honey (reference 5), reasonably dear and with no outdoor facilities at all. More or less empty at 1245 this Friday lunchtime. As, indeed, was Aquavit, but they had bothered to put a few tables outside.

The food at Aquavit was very good, including, in my case, mixed bread, a salad involving salmon and beetroot and a chunk of pork belly. This last was as good pork belly as I remember eating, including the stuff we once used to eat regularly at home, baked under a layer of onion and potato. Must ask BH why we don't do it any more.

Reasonably careful Covid-wise, which included taking the picture above on my Microsoft telephone. But I suspect that Microsoft were not signed up to this particular scheme, and even if they were, I did not have a clue what to do with it. A picture supplemented by the pleasant young waitress (from Sardinia, rather than Sweden. Always amusing to catch them out in such matters as they are usually slightly embarrassed about it) taking down our telephone numbers.

Rather a good bottle of Chablis, a wine which I find very hit and miss in restaurants, but good on this occasion. With Daniel-Etienne Defaix being a big enough cheese in the either the wine world or the web world (reference 6) to come very near the top of the Bing hit list. Blurb refers to the wrong year, but probably much the same stuff. I did not take a chance on Scandinavian spirits, but they had some rather good Calvados, as good as and a lot cheaper than the stuff I usually take at Terroirs.

Entertainingly counter-intuitive cutlery, snapped above.

Further entertainment provided by one young lady taking lunch by herself at a nearby table, apparently a Japanese living and working in London with at least the odd trip to New York. And another young lady, nearly naked from the waist up, prancing about on extremely high heels for the benefit of a rather pudgy photographer. Young lady thought to come from eastern or central Europe where high heels are rated higher than they are here, these days at least.

At least one cyclist with one hand on the handle bars, the other hand holding a telephone to his ear.

And I learned that there are plenty of decent masks out there, if only I could find out where they were sold.

Confirmed that the Bard still lived in the middle of the refurbished fountain in the middle of Leicester Square. That the red brick building where I had a couple of wisdom teeth pulled, more than forty years ago now, was still there, albeit now a hotel.

Talk in my note of the meeting of a Quick restaurant, but I must have got that wrong as Wikipedia tells me this morning that this originally Belgian hamburger chain has not been in London for twenty years. Also that one of the early outlets was near the site of the famous Battle of Waterloo, a little to the south of Brussels.

Walked far enough to make a Bullingdon a reasonable proposition, turning right onto Waterloo Bridge, rather than venturing around Aldwych, which can be a bit hairy. Bridge a bit hairy as it had been reduced to one lane in each direction, rather than the usual two, with the result that traffic had to queue up behind one as one laboured across the bridge. Achieved a near pole position back at Waterloo without incident, nicely in time for the 1609 to Dorking. No Standards to be seen, although there had been a modest supply of Metros at Epsom earlier.

PS: the Ellison's Orange apples turned out to be very good, with the taste of aniseed that I had remembered. Good apples, but I don't think they keep very well. It made a pleasant change to eat a couple of properly fresh apples - BH only taking the odd segment.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/03/penultimate-outing.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/09/london-town.html.

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

Reference 4: http://www.aquavitrestaurants.com/.

Reference 5: https://www.wildhoneystjames.co.uk/.

Reference 6: http://chablisdefaix.com/vignoble_defaix_en.html.