On this occasion the grouper, that is to say me, trolled off to Cambridge to hear the Endellion Quartet, more usually heard in former years in the Dorking Halls. The occasion was also a follow up from the Brahms via Schoenberg reported on 12th April, our being offered Haydn's String Quartet Op.50 No.2, Bartok's String Quartet No.1 and the Brahms Piano Quartet No.1, Op.25, this last in the format originally intended.
Warmed up with two sandwiches from the market square M&S, the site, I believe, of a former cinema (not that we from Epsom can talk, with our largest cinema having morphed into a TKMaxx). £3 for sandwiches described as ham on brown with mustard mayonnaise; quite fresh and nicely presented but tasting a lot more of mustard mayonnaise than ham, this last being that extremely thin stuff favoured by Sainsbury's, prettily folded to make it look as if there were lots of it. Which gave rise to the thought that if the pretty folding and the fancy box had been omitted one might have been allowed a bit more of the ham instead of all the mayo.. Maybe even ham hand reared and slaughtered, the traditional way, in Wiltshire.
On to the West Road concert hall, which despite being a lot newer, was not that unlike the Dorking Halls in size and in the sort of audience attracted. Perhaps a little younger, but not by all that much. The Endellion were their usual excellent selves, supported in the Brahms by a first year engineering student from Hong Kong on the piano. He was short and good, although I thought a little loud, often a failing of the younger performer. But this may have been more to do with my having, as the last seat left, a seat at the very front right, with my nose more or less resting on the front of the stage. Which was far too close and meant that I heard rather more of the cello and the piano that I perhaps ought to have: for the Brahms at least I would have done better to be a bit further back. It all seems to depend; some works are fine up front and personal, some are not - but I am not very good at saying which is which beforehand. One consequence of all this was that the opening bars of the last movement of the Brahms were not quite as gloriously triumphant as they are on my 'legendary' recording of Amadeus doing it for Deutsche Grammophon.
Back via Kings Cross where I found that technology had advanced to the point where the computerised platform announcements on the underground were actually coming from the mouth of the platform attendant via a device which looked rather like a mobile phone and might even have been one. Certainly an improvement on the computer. Topological puzzle in that the walk between the overground platform and the underground platform was hugely longer going than coming. Coming one seemed to miss out on the smart new tunnel altogether.
Onto to Waitrose Small at Vauxhall, newly opened but next to the bus station, not quite as well placed as the Sainsbury Local which was next to the train station. The Waitrose Small had clearly taken a leaf out of the Tesco Cuddly Coffee Shop wheeze in the papers recently and were trying to be very friendly, to the point where the staff would not need much prompting to start talking about your dog, your baby or the weather. They also carried expensive bread from Gail's Artisan Bakery. I bought a couple of sour dough creations for just over £6 for two 1lb loaves, so about the same price as Carluccio's at Waterloo and perhaps 5 times more than it costs me to bake 2lbs of not such posh bread (although more suitable for every day use). Perhaps further, some market research gang has been hired to find the price which generates the most revenue, getting the right balance between volume profit and unit profit, and all the multiples, being subscribers to the one gang, use the one price. First loaf involving potatoes and flavourings was very good. A little chewy, to the point where one was a little nervous about one's larger fillings, but very good just the same.
Checking with Professor Google I find that it is the proprietors at http://www.gailsbread.co.uk/ who have sold their souls to the devil. Let's hope that they have an appropriately long spoon as a small firm selling to a very big one can very easily find itself trapped in a rather unprofitable place. Worse than wage slaves in all but name. Although for the present they appear to be a middle sized chain of fancy bakers with perhaps 20 outlets across London, with the web site not very informative about the history. So one is left wondering whether Waitrose have taken a share of the equity in the same way as Tesco took a share of the equity of the cuddly coffee company. Or are they actually a cuddly brand in some large & uncuddly operation, for example Virgin Baked Products PLC? Or are they following in the footsteps of Valerie of the patisserie? Will they grow too fast and lose their grip on the quality of the product and its package?
The all important brown paper bag, for once big enough for the loaf which was in it, is illustrated. The bar coded sticker needed to make the thing fit for a small supermarket is not visible on the verso.
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