Started off well with three highly dressed young women on the town platform at Epsom. Possibly Japanese, possible creationists from the university up the road.
Better still when I noticed the new improved train indicator boards. Same sort of thing as before but better - although I would not like to have to say whether it was worth what must have been the considerable expense, given that what we had before did well enough. The work noticed the week before at reference 1.
Pulled the first Bullingdon to do Waterloo Station 2, Waterloo to Roscoe Street, St. Luke's in 19 minutes 25 seconds.
Had a chat on the way with a Champagne Brompton, that is to say a smartly turned out older man, perhaps a bit younger than me, who ran to two Bromptons. A summer one which he was riding on this occasion plus a winter one, fully equipped with lights and dynamo. He thought that the new cycleway up Farringdon Road was the business - while I have not yet got quite used to it. One feature being the sometimes long waits at lights - with cyclists having their own lights with their own sequences - but the with the upside of the sometimes long runs between red lights. Plus I think that cyclist manners are slowly improving: some contraventions, but not that many and not that blatant.
Bacon sandwich shop alive and well. Manager the same, one waitress the same and one new waitress. Sandwich good. While I ate, I wondered about the premises opposite, 61 Banner Street, described as a room club, an operation which Bing suggests might be nothing more interesting than a letting agency; an operation which says that it puts the tenant before profits. Well they would, wouldn't they? See reference 2.
Fullish house at St. Luke's, with some locals rather than workers. I had what turned out to be programme fiddlers both right and left and only just restrained from making some acid comment left as I left after the concert.
Fliter, whom I do not appear to have heard since 2016 and noticed at reference 3, was in fine form and turned out in something like an old fashioned frock coat. A truly excellent performance, every bit as good as the last.
My only complaint was that while she managed to suppress the clapping between the relatively short pieces, which I like, she rather ran some of them together, which I don't like. The lovely Fiona T (from Radio 3) had, I think, explained that we were not to clap, so I think Fliter could have had more of a pause between pieces.
The encore was also very good, I think the posthumous 21st nocturne, in C minor. But a nocturne which does not count at all in my Paderewski edition, which stops at 19, Op.72 No.1, also described as posthumous. From which we deduce that the last two must have been considered non-canonical for some other reason. And why do you call 19 No.1 when there is no No.2? Perhaps I need to read the words more carefully.
Pulled the second Bullingdon from Finsbury Leisure Centre behind the church, but took an extra 27 seconds to make it back to the pole position at the top of the ramp at Waterloo. Passed a young lady on a cycle from Condor Cycles, having passed a Claude Butler ladies cycle outside the school at Pound Lane the day before.
Condor Cycles used to be a serious place in Gray's Inn Road, in the days when cycling was a less middle class, white collar sport than it is these days. While I used to ride a Claude Butler, a striking bright yellow, back in the late 1970's. At a time when our landlord was called Major General Butler, one of a long line of military Butlers, and his son went on to be a Brigadier at the very least, in Afghanistan. A son, as I recall, keen enough that when he failed to get into Sandhurst at his first attempt, joined up as a private and got in at the second attempt. One presumes that his determination went down well.
While Bromptons have done well too. A brand which was invented a few decades ago now and which has survived the great bike revival, has ridden the wave of enthusiasm. The Nescafé of folding bikes? Not that I was ever tempted myself, thinking that it would not be a great ride and that it would be a great bother on the tube and train.
Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-search-for-soames.html.
Reference 2: https://roomclub.com/room-finder-service/.
Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/04/fliter.html.
Reference 4: https://www.condorcycles.com/.
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