So picked up a Bullingdon at Eccleston Place and head off of Mayfair. One hairy moment coming around Hyde Park Corner, coming into it from Grosvenor Place and looking to leave it at Piccadilly. The catch, made worse by not knowing the junction very well, is that you head east out of Duke of Wellington Place in a lot of lanes of traffic, among which you think you ought to be in the middle, with traffic whizzing past on both sides. Signalling intentions not on as I want to go straight ahead and while I think there is a hand signal for this purpose I don't know what it is and I don't suppose many drivers do either. So I am pulling away from the lights opposite Apsley House and this chap behind me in a small black car gets really impatient and being uncertain of my intentions overtakes on the right, then cuts me up by veering left ahead of me to head up Park Lane. He also honked, always bad news for this cyclist as it startles one and can precipitate a wobble. Luckily not on this occasion and I found myself unscathed in Piccadilly, and shortly afterwards got mixed up in the one way system in Sackville Street. Two full stands later, I take the last slot in that at Bruton Street.
Into the first tailors that I come across which happens to be Crombies, where I am picked up by an attentive sales assistant. Yes sir, Crombies certainly do sell braces, just the one brand, just as Lester Bowden, but a rather better brand, their own brand in fact. Banker bright, wide front straps not elasticated at all, dorsal arrangements satisfactory. So I buy them and put them on on the spot, the assistant supplying a plastic bag into which to consign the old ones. Just one pair for now to see how we get on but, anticipating, so far so good. Much more positive fit and trousers near clear of shoes, as they should be.
Next stop Queen Mary's Gardens in Regents Park to see the roses, to which I had been alerted by the trusty Bullingdon map (now sadly rather tatty. Don't think that they do them any more). Parked up at the tennis courts, which seemed all very clubby and Hampstead like but I declined to either play or eat, both options being available, and headed onto into the gardens. Roses only just coming out but a very fine place indeed. More floribundas than the rose beds at Hampton Court, so they should be quite flashy in a week or so. Other bits of the gardens also good. All in all, a good find. Must go back when the roses have got going a bit more.
Next stop National Gallery, so off to St Martin's Street (not the Lane) where I take one of the last slots on the stand, and on into the gallery to take a peek at the Cézanne's where I am very taken with a very nice Gauguin copy of a Cézanne still life of fruit, another copy of which I picked up recently from the Oxfam shop in Ewell. Rather crowded but in this corner I was quiet enough.
Next stop South Bank for a late lunch to which end I take one of the last slots on the stand at Concert Hall Approach No. 1, to buy a couple of Moroccan style rolls from one of the stalls there. Wrapping of thin flat bread, filling of chick pea, cous-cous (I think) and spinach. Very good and very filling.
And so home, via W. H. Smith and their not terribly effective self service machinery. A good try, but they have yet to really crack the technology for this sort of purchase in this sort of context. Bring back the bucket of trust!
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