Cheese

With the Epsom Waitrose cheese department now collapsed, the easiest way to get my Lincolnshire Poacher (see reference 1) is to go to the Neal's Yard shop just outside Borough Market, so with supplies getting dangerously low, off to Borough last week.

Started off as a bright clear day and I was able to score a near two at Wimbledon and a three from Earlsfield, a first three from a carriage, as opposed to from the platform. The middle aeroplane of the three was a very large BA jumbo, demonstrating once again that at Earlsfield the aeroplanes are some way off converging onto a single flight path down to Heathrow.

Followed by the sight at Vauxhall of a large sheet of brick cladding being lowered into place on the face of one of the buildings going up north of the tracks. Which all goes to show that brickwork is not always what it looks like.

And the sight of a triangular spire of dazzling light, which, as the train moved on, rapidly resolved itself into the Shard. It would have been quite a pain for a low flying pilot coming in at an unlucky angle.

For some reason, the loaders had chosen to load the ramp (the stands known to TFL as Waterloo Station 1 to 3) from the top, rather than from their usual bottom, so I was able to take a Bullingdon from the pole position illustrated, complete with my shopping bag by way of confirmatory evidence. Pedaled off to the Hop Exchange without incident, to find the cheese shop all present and correct, up and running. Cheese supplies now secured for a fortnight or so, with consumption in the winter being a little lower than consumption in the summer as we are much more likely to take porridge for breakfast, instead of the usual brown bread and cheese.

Off of Southwark Cathedral to inspect the Bard's brother's tomb in the choir. I also found a memorial to the Bard himself, complete with a reclining replica of the man himself and a modern memorial window above. Impressive line up of bells down the centre of the nave, recently refurbished and nearly ready for being hung up again. It seemed like a lot of bell for a not particularly big tower. Fine organ, on which I happened to catch the voluntary at the end a service.Very impressive from ten feet from the pipes. Just in case, there was a spare organ nearby, a miniature in a small wooden, glass fronted box, maybe three feet high.

A touch of the ecumenicals in that the votive candles, much the same as what we call night lights, little pats of wicked wax cast in a container made of some very thin & rust free metal, were of the St. Patrick brand and presumably made somewhere in Ireland. However, the ecumenicals dispersed by google, who explains that St. Patrick is the name of a sort of candle, and these particular ones may well have been sold by Edens, the internet enabled ecclesiastical suppliers, with 'St Patrick Metal Case Votive Lights - Pack of 100' looking like just the boxes I saw peeping out from underneath the candle stand. See reference 2.

Out of the cathedral to stumble on an establishment which offered courses in baking. Sadly, investigation at reference 3 suggested that their main business was corporate hugging courses, dressed up as baking courses. And despite the name, the baking courses were more about fancy goods than bread, so I would spend most of my day (and £150 or so) learning about baking stuff other than the English white bloomers which interest me. Maybe on another occasion, I will try talking to the receptionist, too busy on her computer on this occasion to bother with a potential customer. Maybe also, I should sample their products before sampling their courses. Make sure that they really can cut it.

Rounded off the outing by a visit to the afternoon drinking scene at the Tooting Wetherspoons. Slightly younger and slightly more male mix than you might get at a matinée at the theatre. Cheerful enough, noisy even. Back through Earlsfield where it had clouded over and I only managed a one, although I could hear others.

I also took the time at Tooting Broadway tube station to inspect what appeared to be an antique platform clock, made by the New York Self Winding Clock Company - once owners of an important patent about same, a patent about a battery driven contraption which wound your clock up one turn of the winding key, once an hour on the hour, thus dispensing with the need for teams of clock winders to work their way around the network. Presumably, it was better, for some obscure electro-mechanical reason, to use the battery power to wind the main spring rather than to use it to drive the clock direct. Perhaps the main spring could be relied on to deliver a steady, time-keeping power, irrespective of the state of the battery, which last could not be so relied on.

Reference 1: https://lincolnshirepoachercheese.com/.

Reference 2: http://www.eden.co.uk/.

Reference 3: http://www.breadahead.com/.

Group search key: brc.