pumpkinstrokemarrow

Happened to wander into the HMV shop at Guildford yesterday, a shop which seemed huge compared with its late lamented cousin in Epsom. Big enough that although there did not seem to be many people in it, they were doing enough business to keep 8 checkouts busy with the queue steady at about 20 people. Oddly, one of the checkout clerks was permitted, for some reason, not to wear the regulation, bright blue sweat shirt; perhaps she was what they call a captain at Sainbury's.

There was a very small classical sub-section in the very large music section, which I flicked through, thinking that perhaps I would find something that I could add to my collection of two CDs. Then very oddly, I came across a three CD set of Shostakovitch's preludes and fugues played by the same Melnikov whom I had heard at the Wigmore, on or around April 28th, aggressively priced at £13.99. A snip, and I join the queue. Our best guess was that the thing was an unwanted gift which having been bought in London had been returned to Guildford.

Back home to find them ideally suited to the new gear from Sevenoaks. A very satisfactory purchase.

Along the way noticed two or three Qashqai rugs in Dickens and Jones. So the third and last oddity was the fact that our Qashqai rug from no less a store than Liberty's of London was both significantly better and significantly cheaper than those on offer yesterday at Guildford.

PS: the CD's came from the respectable sounding label Harmonia Mundi (http://www.harmoniamundi.com). But their web site makes the mistake of printing in white on top of a photograph. Practically illegible, which is a pity as they look to put out some good stuff.