Chessington

Having done Wisley fairly recently, we thought it was time to take a swing around Chessington (reference 1). We also had the excuse that stocks of lawn sand were already quite low after just two sessions of perforation.

So off down Christchurch Road, which gave us an opportunity to survey the traffic on the new cycle way. I am pleased to report that, for the first time, we saw a cyclist actually on the cycle way - although in fairness I should say that there were about a dozen who were not. Also that, walking back later, I noticed that the cycle way was not being swept and was littered with a fair amount of possibly tyre-damaging litter from neighbouring bushes and trees. Not sure that I would use it if I was cycling that way.

Arrived at Chessington, to find that they were just putting the finished touches to the removal of Christmas stock and decoration, with the centre piece illustrated above. I was quite struck by the creativity of whoever it was who dreamed up the idea of smokey barbecue flavoured rock salt. Even, perhaps, starting to muscle in on the foodie territory claimed for its own by the sea salt people. Regarding the illustration, the careful reader will be able to spot BH, or at least some of her hair - and we were indeed able to find something which will come in useful later in the year.

Moving into the store proper, I was very much reminded of T. K. Maxx, perhaps a T. K. Maxx with a large restaurant operation stuck in the middle. Very much the same sort of mixture of tat and poshly wrapped tat, leavened with a dash of real posh.

Having loaded up the lawn sand, I decided to walk home and take another look at the housing estate on the site of West Park Hospital. Which turned out to be rather smart, with the houses that I saw not looking at all cheap, neither starter homes nor affordables - but I thought they had done quite a good job of blending the old and the new.

The water tower conversion was approaching completion, but I did not think that asking the chaps doing the outside paving was going to be very profitable and relied on google to tell me what was going on. A reliance which turned out to be quite misplaced, so I still don't know what the tower has been converted into - or how much of the available space has been soaked up with stairs and lift. Presumably somebody would have insisted on there being both. No sign of the peregrines. A before-snap of the tower at reference 2.

Quite a lot of leaf sprouting on the sunny side of the hedge along the western side of Horton Lane.

A load of garden rubbish dumped on the grass along Longmead Road. Did the person who got his hedge trimmed on the cheap give any thought to where the trimmings might end up? Will he or she write stroppy letters to the council about the rubbish on the roads?

PS: I have just learned that for some reason I know not, T. K. Maxx is known as T. J. Maxx in its native North America. See reference 3 for the full story.

Reference 1: http://www.chessingtongardencentre.co.uk/. Not to be confused with the world of adventure next door, a world which sports a much bigger car park and a Holiday Inn.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/water-tower.html.

Reference 3: http://www.tjx.com/index.html.