Inspection day

BH tells me that some nanny quango or other, or perhaps some child development version of Ms. Portas, has castigated Epsom & Ewell Borough Council for its poor provision of facilities for children, this castigation pushing our hard pressed council into spending some of their (or rather our) money on upgrading the skateboard facility in the park which Google Maps calls Long Grove Park despite its being adjacent to Southfield Park Primary School. I wonder if Google have a mapping control unit buried somewhere in Idaho to which you can send emails labelling places on their maps and to which some bright spark sent an email saying that since this park used to be part of the grounds of Long Grove Hospital, that ought to be the name of the park? Despite the fact that some of us are trying hard to hold the line that there is no need for mental hospitals and that it is probably better not to remind people that those before us thought otherwise. Let their would-be customers be cared for in the community! I think there is some kind of a free for all when it comes to posting pictures onto Google's maps, but I had not thought that this extended to labels. Surely they take some responsibility for what they put out under their banner?

Anyway, inspection last week revealed the skate park is still in good hands, having been handed over to a specialised skate park contractor who has now been on site for some months, certainly landscaping and possibly enlarging what was there before. Some of the new earth banks are quite steep and it will be interesting to see how they settle down. Will the grass take? Will they actually, physically settle down, so disturbing their tasteful sculpting? I wonder also if the boys who use such places will be grateful. Or do they only really like to use places which are vaguely illicit and will be put off by this grand display of licitness? Certainly the contractor feels the need to lock his diggers inside containers overnight (see above), a proceeding I have not come across before.

But maybe I am going on a bit. The skate park attracted quite a lot of use in the past and maybe it will attract even more in the future.

Next stop inspection of the Blackfriars branch of El Vino's (http://www.elvino.co.uk/), the Fleet Street branch of which was famous for a while for trying to keep women out of the public bar at the front and to confine them to the saloon bar at the back. Not that the public bar was ever that public, being mainly the preserve of journalists and lawyers on the liquid lunch. Noisy and pushy bunch they were too; not very welcoming to people who were obviously from some other gang. But I do remember going there a long time ago, at a quiet time, to buy a bottle of the then favoured Blue Nun, to be told by the oldish chap who was minding the shop that day that he thought that he could do rather better than that sir. And so he did.

Anyway, heading north from Epsom, arrived at the stand at Vauxhall Cross to find it being replenished so no problem about it being empty (which has happened once or twice). Along the river to Lambeth Bridge, over the bridge and along the other side of the river to Parliament Square, around the square and from there onto the Victoria Embankment. Attracted an impatient honk from a white van at the turning to Temple Place, waiting the few seconds while I peddled across the left hand exit being too much for its driver. Up the ramp onto the exit from Blackfriars Bridge to find the Bullingdon Stand there closed so had to push on to the one at Stonecutter Street, rather further from El Vino's than I had intended.

Into El Vino's to find it pleasantly quiet and old fashioned, with an ambience not unlike that of a boozer of the same era. Quite unlike the glitzy, glassy sort of thing favoured by watering hole designers these days. A bit disappointed by the wine list, not offering all that much by the glass, looking strong on French red by the bottle, but a bit weak on white, preferably German, this being my country of the month. I suppose their list seemed  much more distinguished in the days when grocers (at least in England) did not sell wine and wine bars had not been invented. Notwithstanding, not a bad place at all for a drink and a natter.

Strolled back along the south of the river to Vauxhall, paying a visit to a hotel I used to use a bit when I was a servant of the Home Department, the Park Plaza, the place on the Albert Embankment with a ball room with a huge window overlooking the river. Again, not a bad place for a drink and a natter, albeit of a rather different kind. Also good to be reminded that I no longer get made to go to the sort of corporate hugging events which were all the rage at the time that I retired and which are core business for places like this, for all the world as if the Home Department was some pyramid sales outfit.

And so to Vauxhall Station where, quite by chance, I located the Bullingdon Stand actually under the overground station. For some years now I have been walking across to that called Vauxhall Cross. It is, of course, possible that the one I failed to find before would have been empty most of the times that I wanted to use it, being that much nearer the station. But the real test, of course, is will I be able to find the place again, tucked under one of the arches as it is? Which arch was that?

Had not had time to visit Luso Trading on this occasion, but we did liven up the evening Poirot with a bottle of their 'Alvarihno' from the 'Palacio da Brejoeira'. Very good it was too, despite not being German. Also, and this was a first for us, in a bottle which had been numbered by hand, this one being 35986. Someone has been busy with the biro. Someone has also been busy with the rather elaborate web site at http://www.palaciodabrejoeira.pt.