Festal thoughts

Up bright and early yesterday to take a peek at Epsom before serious festivities kicked in.

First stop at the junction of West Hill and West Street, where there is a larger fire thorn than ours, a fire thorn which was the scene of much avian activity. Activity which might have included the redwings which had visited us the day before but which certainly included some tits.

Returned a stray glass to the Marquis which was just limbering up towards opening. From there past a former regular of the long closed Albion, taking a fag on the pavement outside TK Maxx, looking a bit bereft. Café Rouge and Wetherspoons were open. Viceroy open while the rather more diverse - possibly middle eastern - Surrey Cars was shut, which was unexpected.

The town centre Costcutter was still shut at 1100, despite having been open later in the day for the last two Christmases. Maybe they were due to open at noon. Had they been open I would have bought a packet of plain digestive biscuits as a small protest against seasonal excess.

Rather to my surprise, MacDonald's was shut. Rifleman open.

Not many people about, but plenty of cars and the odd RouteCall bus, presumably driven by volunteers. Good for them. And plenty of planes. I suppose the schedulers are loathe to abandon all those slots on Christmas Day, in the middle of an otherwise busy season.

I was flagged down by an older couple in a smaller car in Ewell Village, which had been heading east and wanted directions for Hampton Court, some miles to the west. It never ceases to surprise me that people travel about in areas they do not know without taking any precautions. These ones did not look as if they could not afford an AZ but maybe they had attempted, too old, to move onto new technology in the form of satnav, which they could not then get to work. Was it a Christmas present from thoughtless grandchildren?

Epsom Coaches shut. Stream running down Longmead Road doing well, although it had clearly been a foot or so higher at some point. The convenience store in Pound Lane was conveniently open, the only shop that I came across that was. TB open - in its run up to repossession in the New Year by Greene King who think to make a gastro pub out of it. Will they succeed where others have failed or is it all a plot to persuade the council to let them build flats on the site? (My own solution would to let them build their block of much-needed flats, provided only  that they stick a bar in at the bottom. A bar of a more sensible size for the neighbourhood trade they are likely to get than the one we have now).

Nearer home, made a point of checking which cars were in, which were out and which cars were visiting. Important food for gossip later.

Much later, the day closed with the BBC telling us all about the mole stream flooding through the bottom of Leatherhead, to the accompaniment of a place marked Google Map showing us the large number of electricity distribution incidents in Kent and Sussex. I thought it telling that when a big and sophisticated outfit like the BBC needed to mark up a map for transmission in a hurry, they turned to Google Maps and their place marks.

PS: just the one redwing in our fire thorn this morning, after complete absence yesterday.