Trolley 248b

Captured somewhere along East Street, while en-route with trolley 248a. Wheel lock present but not deployed.

The rules for scoring do not cover this case very well, but as the two trolleys were wheeled as one from the second capture point to the stacks outside the Sainsbury's front entrance, the two trolleys were scored as one.

But the outing as a whole was enlivened by the sighting of a very tame thrush on the Meadway end of Ridgeway, the second time I have seen one there in the past few days. And a fairly small brown rat on the Hook Road end of Longmead Road. Scuttled down the bank of the stream as I drew near, perhaps to some cave or hole down there.

With neither thrushes nor rats being common sightings.

Trolley 248a

A Sainsbury's trolley captured in the passage between the High Street and the station. Some way from Kiln Lane, so not clear how or why it got there.

My need a nerd

I have three devices operating under the supervision of MS Windows, 365 variety. The telephone and the laptop know about British Summer Time (BST), but the desktop does not. And it won't let me change the time by hand unless I revert to manual clock setting, which seems a bit retrograde.

The only help I can find tells me that if I want BST on an MS telephone there is an app available, but that real computers do not recognise it at all. So Microsoft are up there with Ford, with our Ford car being one of the few devices in and around our house which does not do it. The others are all clocks with hands, although not so old as to be clockwork.

Both tiresome and puzzling.

Further to the conclave

The conclave suggested a few days ago at reference 1 still seems like the right answer to Brexit, at least in terms of process.

But this morning I woke to the thought it is like one of those civil wars which drag on for years, until both sides realise that neither side is strong enough to win and that they had best agree to a draw. The civil wars in Northern Ireland and in Columbia come to mind, but it seems that our parliamentarians have yet to reach this critical point and are still trying to slug it out.

Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/03/conclave.html.

A further visit to Bill's

Last we paid what I thought was our third visit to the Epsom branch of Bill's, but with search only revealing the one at reference 1. For the company itself see reference 2.

The evening started with the offer of a large, red, three seater leather sofa parked outside a house under refurbishment. A bit dusty and shabby but would probably clean up OK; sadly no use to us. Instead, we amused ourselves with pompous conversation about how wasteful it was that this particular house was undergoing major refurbishment for the second time in what might be as long as ten years. But at least the need for home improvement is keeping all those good people from eastern Europe in gainful employment. Maybe their families back home get to see some of the dosh.

The Maserati

The next road included a Maserati, probably a commuter rather than a resident, so it does not really count. But I suppose it might have been the same chap spotted just over a year ago in the margins of trolley 131 and noticed at reference 3.

Scruffy faux

The restaurant is in an old building at the western end of the market square, a place which has had a number of tenants over the years, with the only one we can remember being one that did Nepalese; one that we never visited despite best intentions. Now done up in what one might call scruffy faux, so we have a building which really is quite old but which is made to look old by mainly new decorations.

Not very full, but good ambience all the same. Cheerful waitresses. We wondered whether they were students of creation studies moonlighting to make up their grants. The young men present worked the bar.

I started with a couple of hot breads, served plain with some oil in one of those blue and white enamel bowls which are getting everywhere these days. Plus a board, plus a waxed paper cover. Rather better than average. While BH was pleased with her soup.

I took beef-burger to follow, also rather better than average, with rather less goo. I used some of the hot bread to make lumps of burger up into mouth sized sandwiches. Chips satisfactory. BH's fish not so clever.

The wine

The desserts did not attract but the new-to-us wine was entirely satisfactory, as was the cognac which chased it down. No idea whether the 'tuffo' in the name has anything to do with the 'tufo' of the Greco di Tufo which we make a point of taking when available.

All in all, an entirely satisfactory visit. Will it be another four years before we are back again?

Reference 1: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-visit-to-bills.html.

Reference 2: http://bills-website.co.uk/.

Reference 3: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/03/trolley-131.html.

Reference 4: http://www.morgassisuperiore.it/. 'Bouquet very delicate while intense, elegant flower notes, white and citrus fruit aromas. On the palate long almost bitter finish, with a decisive imprint of freshness, witness of the wine's potential for ageing'. Almost a limited edition as they only do 90,000 bottles or so a year.

Trolley 247

An M&S food hall trolley captured on the sunny side of the High Street and snapped under the canopy of what used to be the Canopy Restaurant and before that Roosters, the place that thrived for a while selling unhealthy snacks - fried chicken lumps with chips - to the area's secondary school boys on late night adventures.

I found the Canopy a bit small and claustrophobic and a just a touch pretentious - although I did have quite a decent bacon sandwich there once. The people who have it now, according to my hairdresser next door, made the mistake of messing with the interior of a heritage building before they got the council onside and work has now been paused for some months.

On return to the stack, I noticed that all the other trolleys of this size were fitted with coin operated locks - but is seems unlikely that anyone would have bothered to wheel the thing from Ashtead - even supposing that the trolleys there are lock free. See reference 1 for the last notice, complete with extra 's' in Ashtead.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/03/fake-30.html.

Making friends with a cat

Making friends with a cat up the road. Having her own, quite happy to get up close and personal with this one.

Note £2 bargain from Sainsbury's on the right. Very good value as it turned out and we only hope they will still be selling them when it finally gives up - even if we have to go up to a tenner.