Pubwatch

Heading off to check the 'Beehive' by the Oval, I was interested to see a lot of work going on to realign the sidewalk leading from West Hill to the railway station. As far as one can tell it is intended that the result should be capricious, with the width of the sidewalk varying from 3 feet to 3 yards, capricious in the sense that I could not see much rhyme or reason in its wanderings. And odd in that along the stretch illustrated, someone was going to great expense to add less than a foot to the width. Is this a good use of Surrey Roads money? Or is it developer money, with the developer being made to do this as punishment for some technical default on the station redevelopment? Money which cannot easily be diverted to some more sensible use - like replacing the trees that died outside the shiny new station because no-one watered them and then setting aside some watering money for next summer.

Onto the Beehive (http://www.thebeehivepub.co.uk/) which used, some years ago, to be a rather dark and dingy pub frequented by working men and which has now been rather nicely refurbished, while still being a mainly a working men's pub, complete with two cheerful barmaids, one young and one not quite so young. Much better job than, for example, the 'Chessington Oak', which had been quite a decent boozer called the 'Blackamoor's Head', fully equipped with both saloon and public bars, before the pub designers got at it. And furthermore, at the Beehive they sold a very good ham baguette, in two halves, so for all the world like two ham rolls of yesteryear. Decent ham and the computer managed to tell the kitchen to omit the mustard. There was a concession to the designers in that it came on a shiny white plate, square with rounded corners and with just a dab of salad. But they managed not to add any crisps or chips, which was good as I prefer my ham rolls naked and unadorned. There was also a higher class smoking den, equipped with the same chairs and tables as we were sitting at.

Then to Luso Wine (see 14th September or http://www.lusotrading.co.uk/), having run low on white and thinking to try a bit of Portuguese. It turns out that the Portuguese are much stronger on red than white, but I managed a couple of decent looking bottles, plus a bottle of white port, of which I had never previously heard. Or perhaps it was green, which I imagine is what is meant by 'Vinho Verde'. Opened the 'Foral de Évora' in the evening (over the episodic BBC version of 'Vanity Fair' on  DVD) and very good it was too. With the foral associating to floral and making me think of floral highlights. Also of the brand of Greco di Tufo sold at the Neapolitan Kitchen in Ewell Village, rather better than that from Waitrose.

Home in the rain, taking in a quick game of aeroplanes in the rain at the end of the platform at Wimbledon. Lighted planes visible despite the rain, but because of the cloud they were only dropping into view half way across so I did not do better than a couple of ones going on two. But I stirred a station guard into action who came to see what I was up to, possibly checking that I was not about to wander off the end of the platform under a train and thereby thoroughly messing up the rush hour timetable on a Friday evening. Perhaps that is why passengers are forbidden (see 26th October) the far end of the platform where it is hard to keep an eye on them.