pumpkinstrokemarrow

It being pleasantly mild yesterday afternoon, clearly time for a stroll in London. Starting at Waterloo, the first stop, the chipper just past the Old Vic in Waterloo Road being shut, was the more exotic but equally excellent Mamuśka (http://mamuska.net/), a relaxed and informal Polish restaurant at the Elephant and Castle. I played safe with bigos, but some interesting shredded beetroot and some pierogi were added to broaden my horizons. On my next visit I shall be more adventurous.

Basic needs fulfilled, we decided it was time to head up towards St Pauls to inspect the reconstructed tower of St Augustine's, built into the newish St Paul's choir school, just to the east of the cathedral itself. On the way we took in the wardrobe dealer illustrated, the first time I have come across a business with this description, sadly shut. To be fair, I imagine the market in free standing wardrobes is relatively weak these days, probably confined to rooming houses. We, along with the rest of the world, have fitted cupboards in our bedrooms; ugly & space consuming but practical.

Very impressed by the reconstructed tower; a fine bit of repro. baroque. Also impressed this morning to think that a church so close to St Paul's proper was destroyed in the blitz. It must have been a near thing for St Paul's the Proper.

Not so impressed by the bash-the-bankers camp. It looked well past its sell by date. Just hanging on for form while they are ground down by the wheels of justice. This is not to say that they do not have a point but it is a pity they could not have found some less messy way to make it. It is perhaps a weakness of residential protests that they will attract a rather eclectic bunch of people.

Bussed it back to Robert Dyas in St Martin's Lane to see if they could help with something to rebuild the handle of one of my trusty Globetrotter suitcases (as featured in all the best television dramas set between 1930 and 1950). They were unable to help, so perhaps a visit to the giant one in Dorking is called for. Or maybe the fancy hardware store - some relation to Buck & Ryan, late of Tottenham Court Road - in Guildford. I shall report further in due course.

On the train home, thoughts returned to matters of public policy. First, I read somewhere that the Battersea Power Station site is presently worth, encumbered as it is with a lump of heritage, about £500m. This number would double if one was allowed to flatten the lump. No contest to my mind. Complete mystery why we persist with trying to find a use for this eyesore instead of cashing the site in to help with our disordered finances. Second, I also find it odd that we propose to save the money being spent on an army vehicle park near Tewkesbury by shipping all the vehicles to some place in Germany. Apart from anything else, what about the damage to our balance of payments? Third and last, I am wondering when the Canadians will cave in and start to sell some of their huge supplies of fresh water to the US. It is going to happen one day, wilderness & salmon rivers notwithstanding. Will it happen before the Germans restart their nuclear power programme?