So off to Clapham Junction where I pulled the first Bullingdon of the day from the eastern end of Grant Road East. Up to the Asparagus then right onto the A3205 which I followed all the way to Vauxhall Cross. Past the Old Imperial Laundry, past the Dogs' Home and through all the building sites to pull up just past Vauxhall Tower. Bright sunny day and I got nostalgic at the characteristic, summer smell of building sites. Tried the cycle lane in the run up to the stand at Vauxhall Cross. It did get one off the road, but one did have to be careful of the loss of right of way at the exits to large buildings. I remain unsure that one gains much with lanes which do this.
No guns visible in or around the MI6 building although the guards did have rather posh looking armour on, nothing like as bulky as the stuff used by the police. The hair seemed a bit long, so either the army have relaxed their rules about hair or these guards were civilians of some sort.
Given the position of the sun, not easy to get a good picture of the Hindu flavoured monument which has been put between Lord Archer's pad and the Bullingdon stand, the first being off-snap to the left and the second off-snap to the right. I wondered about such a large and important country as India having someone like (Narendra Damodardas) Modi in charge - the chap who had declared the monument open - but then stopped wondering when I remembered that our own country had toyed with having Bullingdon Boris.
The second leg took me from the Albert Embankment to Concert Hall Approach 2, where I had some bookings to vary at the Festival Hall, full on this day of recent alumni from University College. Lots of happy families, many of them from parts east, but including one very happy family who appeared to come from the West Indies, posing outside, not far, as it happens, from the head of Nelson Mandela.
The third took me from Concert Hall Approach 1 to Kennington Lane Rail Bridge. At this point having cycled a little further than I am used to these days and it being a warm day, I thought refreshment in order. Maybe I had also lost my taste - or my nerve - for cycling around the rather tricky Vauxhall Cross intersection, worse than the Elephant & Castle of old. The Madeira Café, where I have taken bacon sandwiches before now, seemed a little far, so I settled for Pret, a place I usually avoid on the grounds that the founders were Wykehamists who were rather precious about their sandwiches - while no doubt employing lots of immigrants on zero-hours minimum wage contracts like most other people in the sector.
But on this occasion I had a brie and tomato baguette, flavoured with a little basil (I think), which was really very good, much better than the same sort of thing from Upper Crust, an outlet for which I have something of a soft spot having been quite early into the fresh baguette sandwich business - but now falling prey to excess goo. And I was served by a very attentive supervisor, at least I assumed she was a supervisor as she was not wearing the uniform top that the others were wearing. Maybe I will lift the bar on Pret. I might also say the the MI6 building looked well from this angle; much better than usual.
No working Bullingdons at the nearby Vauxhall Cross so I had to walk back over to Kennington Lane Rail Bridge, where I had the next upset of the day. That is to say I have been complaining to all comers about the two way cycle lanes which have been appearing on one side of some of London's bridges, on the grounds that they are fine if you are going the right way, but dangerous if not, with all the crossing of traffic involved, perhaps in the dark and wet. But on this occasion I used the crossing which took me from the wrong side of the A3204, right across the Vauxhall Cross complex and dropping me off on the right side of the A3205, that is to say Nine Elms Lane. Not sure that I would be so keen in the dark, in the rush hour, but on this occasion it served well.
On past No.1 Embassy Gardens with its striking smoking tent on its roof. And on the second time of asking I managed to find the Masons Arms, once the site of a notable Christmas Lunch involving, inter alia, a whole lot of French people from the Chunnel operation, then terminating at Waterloo. It probably helped being on the right side of the road.
And so to the end of the fourth leg at Falcon Road, where I was able to pay a visit to the continental, that is to say, Turkish grocer there. Very well stocked he is too and I was able to relieve him of some dried figs, some Turkish Delight and a loaf of flat bread. The grocer apologised for having had to change his branch of figs. See reference 1 for our other supplier of flat bread, near Old Street tube station.
Onto the Red Cross shop across the road where I was able to pick up a new to me DVD for the evening to come at the very reasonable sum of £1.25. 'The Girl in the Café', not my usual sort of thing at all, being a romantic fairy tale about a civil servant and his new girl at a G8 summit in Reykjavík. But I rather liked it; a welcome change from our usual evening fare of Agatha Christie, more or less content free - which suits us quite well most of the time. I don't think I had come across Bill Nighy much before, perhaps just the odd guest appearance in 'Midsomer Murders', but BH assures me that this was just his kind of part and I thought he did it rather well.
Some excellent aeroplane spotting at Clapham Junction, with sky conditions very good indeed - and only catch was the periodic blocking of the western horizon by trains. A plus was lamppost handily lined up with the western descent, which made finding aeroplanes again a lot easier than it would otherwise have been. Quite a decent clutch of threes, the first for a while. There was also a swift over ASDA. See reference 2 for a recent sighting a bit further down the line.
PS: after poking google, I think there is some funny accent on the 'i' of Reykjavík. Never noticed it before and no idea now what it does to the 'i'.
Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/more-travel-variations.html.
Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/nature-notes.html.
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