pumpkinstrokemarrow

The other day back to St. Luke's for more Bach, fortified by the now traditional bacon sandwich from Whitecross Street. The Bach was brought to us by a personable Iranian, Mahan Esfahani on a handsome harpsicord, a harpsicord which was sufficiently grand to have a delicately painted soundboard, with the delicate painting invisible unless you were up close and personal with the thing. We got a sonata, then some preludes and fugues from the well tempered clavier book and lastly a partita. Hearing them, one wondered how one could ever play such stuff on a piano - but we shall find out next week when we will hear just that.

Afterwards, on the way to the local Wetherspoons, nearly knocked down by rushing youth, which reminded us that people occasionally get murdered in Old Street. Took my first pints of beer since my operation. Very good it was too and no untoward side effects. Pleased to report that the DT was in better condition than on my last visit: not only were all the bits present and working but the thing had been freshly cleaned and no longer smelt of drains.

Wandered back across Blackfriars Bridge and along the river to Waterloo.

Somewhere near the place illustrated, Ballet Rambert is building a new corporate headquarters. I had not realised they were quite in this league so I was prompted to take a look at their website. Very flashy it was too, so flashy that it takes ages to download through my total broadband connection.

A bit further down the road I came across a flashy coach called 'Veolia', an outfit that I thought were into dust carts. But they have a flashy website too and so I now stand corrected; as well as dust carriers they are one of Europe's leading people carriers.

For the first time in some time, took a sandwich from the Waterloo 'Upper Crust', an outfit I used to shop with quite a lot when I used to travel quite a lot. Settled for a cheese and tomato baguette, having forgotten that they put an unwanted dollop of mayo. into the things. OK otherwise.

Then for the second time in some time, took an 'Economist' to be slightly irritated by their know all tone. But amused by one page of advertisements. I could buy the Albanian national oil company or a ministry watch from Dent. These last must be prodigiously expensive because on their website (http://www.dentlondon.com/), instead of a price you get 'Please fill in the form below and we'll be in contact as soon as we receive your message. Depending on your requirements, we will then arrange for a Dent representative to meet with you at the earliest opportunity'. But maybe if you can afford to buy an oil company, you can also manage the odd watch. Alternatively, if neither of these opportunities attracted you, could tender for the supply of engineering services to do with the construction of a railway tunnel somewhere in northern India. Whoever makes up these pages must have a sense of humour.

The presently convenient DT on the exit platform at Epsom remains clean and sparkling.

Prompted by a long article in the TLS, wound down with a partial viewing of an entertaining rendition of 'Ivanhoe', made up from a television series from 1982. Apparently the thing is shown on Swedish television every New Year's Day. Why of earth do they do this? Why on earth would the Swedes be into Walter Scott at all? Why would anyone these days? The man might have been a monster star in his day, to the extent of having a railway station named for his work (a feat not matched by the bard), but I think I completely failed the one time I tried to read him. I can feel a visit to Gutenberg coming on...

PS: (later) it did. Kindle now ivanhoed. Plus, Amazon think I might like the Christopher Lee flavoured version. I expect I'll go for that too.