Clock in the ticket hall was five minutes fast, resulting in what turned out to be an unnecessary run up the stairs onto the platform. However, there was some consolation in that the train, when it did arrive, was a smart new train from Siemens, a first for me. Smart new indicator boards inside, probably capable of displaying advertisements, and used on this day for displaying rather more information than the old indicator boards could manage. No rolling lights, more like a regular computer screen. But thin, hard seats which might not be very comfortable for a long run.
Something going on at Ewell West involving lots of builders' huts. Something to be checked out in due course.
Passed the time to Waterloo pondering on French aspects of playing the alphabet game with towns. Did, for example, the letter 'K' count? Checking later, I find K present in both Littré and Larousse, but thin and mainly foreign. The only common word being the various sorts of kilo. Perhaps a thorough check is needed as I seem to recall that K is not the only anomaly. That sort of thing apart, I thought I managed quite well, managing at least 20 out of the 26 letters.
Bullingdon'd from Waterloo Station 3 to the Hop Exchange in 10 minutes 48 seconds.
Into the cheese shop to find that the inner shop was still shut and one was still buying one's cheese in what used to be the entrance or yard. But Lincolnshire Poacher all present and correct. As was a city boy in his mid thirties, who struck me as having a very well developed sense of his own importance.
Out to head off to the Barrowboy and Banker, and nearly there I was accosted by a smartly dressed Japanese lady coming the other way. She wanted to know where London Bridge was, maybe fifty yards behind her. I point and she gets very excited, explaining to me that she wanted the river, not the railway station. Eventually we get onto the same wavelength and she heads off, looking a bit sheepish rather nicely.
Into the BB&B, which was busy, and we had to wait a little while before we could sit down. I managed to slow things down by wanting to pay cash, which no longer seems to be the thing. Entertained by the rather pretentiously got-up Christmas menu which I removed from an unattended drawer, snapped above and featuring delicacies like Mrs Owton's bacon with roasted figs (a main course, seemingly) and Black Cab Christmas Pudding (perhaps moulded into the appropriate shape). But their wine is OK, and they only charge a premium of about a pound a glass for buying wine by the glass, rather than by the bottle.
Not impressed on the train by the advertisement for something called Body Worlds, which I believe to be an exhibition of garishly dissected human corpses, all yellow and pink, the work of a German doctor now deceased. All rather unpleasant as far as I am concerned (and no doubt plenty of others), but I seem to remember that he claimed that he had dying people queuing up at his door, as it were. And the Internet was not working on my telephone for some reason.
Half moon just rising east at Ewell West at 2115. Round left, flat - that is horns to be - right. Some years now since I was trying to work out - and remember - whether horns right meant waxing or waning.
Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/03/razumovsky.html. Two and a half years to be precise.
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