Chiaroscuro

Thursday was another St. Luke's day, so off bright and early to pick up the very last Bullingdon at Vauxhall Cross to take the scenic route to the Finsbury Leisure Centre. Down the river to Westminster Bridge, over the bridge, around Westminster Square, up Whitehall and up Charing Cross Road, where I had the edification of watching a fat young man blithely cycling slowly up the middle of his lane (at least it was the right one) without any regard for traffic lights, or anything much else as far as I could see. Prompted to commit a violation on my own account, being nervous of the disturbed junction at Tottenham Court Road, and I turned right at Cambridge Circus onto the A401 (aka Shaftesbury Avenue). Continued onto Clerkenwell Road and along to St. Luke's where I missed my turning and committed a second violation by turning left into Helmet Row. Got away with this one too. Sadly, all this took long enough to earn me an additional charge of £1 for the Bullingdon, but I was still early enough for a bacon sandwich with tea at the excellent Market Café in Whitecross Street. Keen and pleasant staff, who demonstrated their customer facing skills by hooking in a couple who had peered in the window and moved on, thinking the place was too full. Waitress got out there to hook them in quick as a flash.

From thence to St. Luke's to hear the Chiaroscuro Quartet (http://chiaroscuroquartet.com/) do a couple of Mozart quartets. Cheerful young quartet, who must have been very young when they started some seven years ago. Russian, Spanish, Swedish and French. The pronunciation of their name by the mistress of ceremonies led to a discussion of what it meant and having checked the OED (1893 edition), I can now record that it is a compound formed from the Latin clarus (light) and obscurus (dark), a compound which was first made famous by Caravaggio. Obviously quite wrong to pronounce the word as if it were chiaro-scuro.

Quartets C major (K465, 'Dissonance') and E-flat major (K428) were very good and I remembered that the first time that I heard the first was probably more than 30 years ago at Kettle's Yard at Cambridge, an interesting venue, at that time featuring both modern art and modern music. Décor interesting too. Still there and to be found at http://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/. The quartet - apart from the cello - stood to their work and the first violin took full advantage of the freedom this gave her. One suspected that the standing was her idea. No programme shufflers on this occasion, just a couple of Islington mums who thought that small children and Mozart should get on. They didn't make a noise but they did fidget, a touch irritating when they were right in front of one.

Took a token refreshment afterwards at the local Wetherspoons and then to Berry Street where I picked up a second Bullingdon for the return leg. Another scenic route which got quite complicated around Smithfield Market. But I did come across the building illustrated, which I thought had solved the problem of how to sit a large building on the ground rather well, as well as the Millbank Tower and a lot better than most other office blocks. I shall have to keep an eye on it and see how it looks when it is finished and occupied, assuming, that is, that I can find the thing again.

Onto Konditor & Cook for a couple of cakes for tea, where asking for a foreign version of a Bakewell Tart, I got given a couple of triangular slices of a dark fruit tart with a pale, almond flavoured & spongy base. Very good they were too. Shop fully kitted out for Halloween, staff and cakes both, with a bonus in the form of a short, near bald celebrity from one of the nearby studios. He was behaving as if he more or less owned the place; I suppose the staff just have to put up with it. Hopefully he puts some money over their counter as well as gracing the place with his august presence.

Finished this leg inside the half hour limit and being a touch early for the Epsom train, wound up the proceedings with a quick visit to the wine bar above platform 1 (http://www.corney-barrow.co.uk/) where I took a very decent (if rather dear) Gavi de Gavi. Much better than the keg something from Chile that I had had from the Wetherspoons - and so it ought to be at around twice the price. Staff polite, but my age meant that I was unable to compete for attention with their mobile phones. But still a very civilised place for an afternoon tipple; maybe not so hot when it is crowded in the early evening.