Arrived at Epsom Station to find two ticket clerks ready and waiting behind their windows, while young people busied themselves at the nearby ticket machines. While I, despite having used the ticket clerks' bank card machine many times, still tried to stick my card in at the top, rather than in at the front, where it belongs. Not sure why I think top or why top thinking persists.
Interested to see that there appears to be new life inside the turbine hall of Battersea Power Station, idle for many months now, after the demolition and rebuilding of the four chimneys. What a waste of time and money: one recycled power station is quite enough for me and they would have done much better to just knock the thing down and start over. Although it might be argued that that might have given the foreigners paying for it all the impression that they were in charge. While fussing about with heritage gave us the impression that we were in charge.
Took my usual route to the cheese shop in Shorts Gardens, but supplemented my usual order with some more Gubbeen. Waterloo Station 3, Waterloo to Drury Lane, Covent Garden in 9m 57s.
Passed on the Crown on this occasion.
Poking around in Charing Cross Road for a replacement for my Larousse, now dropped while reaching for it while reading (Maigret) in bed rather too many times for its binding, I found and declined an older and smaller edition. Nicely rebound, it had started life many years ago as a form prize at Eton, which might have been nice to own, but at £20 a bit too dear. Particularly as it was not nearly as good as a reference book as the rather younger and larger edition which I already have.
Passed the date boxes on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, which looked much better in life than pictures of it had led me to expect. By far the best thing I have seen there - although, I should add that, as far as I am concerned, the standard has been pretty dreadful. A nice idea, but getting it right is clearly too much to ask of a busy Mayor of London. See reference 1.
Slightly irritated by various large pedalos buzzing about; even more of a nuisance than the regular cycles without manners.
Prompted by the Gill autobiography noticed at reference 2, I thought to take a look at his stations of the cross in Westminster Cathedral, so pulled in there. St. Martin's Street, West End to Abbey Orchard Street, Westminster in 12m 38s. Quite near the large Post Office building snapped above - so it is not just Surrey where the once proud Post Office buildings are getting recycled. And I think, quite recently, I saw a picture of a once proud Post Office building in some city in the north of Italy suffering the same fate - so it is not just us either.
The stations of the cross were larger than I remembered, at about three feet square, and also involved more lettering than I remembered, but not unreasonable given that Gill is perhaps more remembered now for his letter cutting and typefaces than for his other work. The various faces were oddly crude, and all seemed very much the same. Notwithstanding, the overall effect was good. A bit of dignified and not too pretty wall dressing which would indeed prompt reflection and good thoughts in the otherwise wandering minds of church goers.
I managed to mislay two of them at the back of the church, but the gap in the numbers prompted further search. Sadly, I still managed to miss the last two, No.13 and No.14, somewhere at the altar end. Return visit indicated. But I was able to buy a nice set of postcards of them for the modest sum of £2.50.
Along the way, I noticed that the faithful, people who had more business there than I did, were not shy about using the mobiles inside the cathedral. I associate to something in a Victorian novel about people who are in churches a lot being far more relaxed in them than the rest of us, inclined to be very hushed and respectful.
Pulled a Bullingdon for the third leg, back to Vauxhall. Slowly getting use to the complicated arrangements for cycles which we now have at some busy junctions. Howick Place, Westminster to Kennington Lane Rail Bridge, Vauxhall in 13m 31s.
Entertained on the train by a middle aged businessman, fairly well dressed and prosperous looking, conducting his family business on his mobile. Talking to his wife and then his son very much as if he were chairing some very important business meeting. Perhaps they put up with it for their generous allowances.
Home to bread - and some of the new Gubbeen. Very good they were too.
PS: about half way through the Gill autobiography now, skipping some of the more obscure, religious bits. And skipping ahead, I find the stations were done between 1914 and 1918, earning Gill honourable exemption from conscription until very near the end of the war.
Reference 1: https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/fourth-plinth-past-commissions.
Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/05/books-from-honiton.html.
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