The eastern end of Stamford Street was up the spout, guarded by a member of the Metropolitan Police Cycle-Mounted Division (MPCMD, not to be confused with the RCMP) and which would have been an annoyance had I been mounted. As it was I proceeded on foot as far as Stonecutter Street. The stands were still flashing red and I was running out of time, it looking like a choice between walking and no bacon or a taxi. Settled for the last which carried me off to Whitecross Street, just about it time for a bacon sandwich.
To be disturbed by the HSBC fraud department, who appeared to be based nearer Bangalore than Birmingham and who after a secret security question interaction conducted in open restaurant, told me that they were worried by a series of attempted transactions involving TFL, all of which had been declined by the bank. Nothing to do with TFL at all. They did not say what had got them going in the first place, but after a bit they unblocked my card and I was able to finish what was left of my bacon sandwich in peace. Having broken the unwritten code that says you do not have loud conversations with your camera in a restaurant.
Made it to St. Luke's in time to hear Natalie Clein again, this time with the violinist Antony Marwood.. Not bad, but she made what I might call the Cooper error (see reference 1) of running the first two items of the programme together, without a break between for one to gather one's wits. This was. she told us, to help us better appreciate the links between the two items, between the Bach and the Ravel. Didn't work for me, already confused by the printed programme not matching the played programme, which was, I think, Bach then Ravel then Kodály. There were some good bits, reminding me of a bit in a Fred Hoyle science fiction novel about how we, brought up in the classical tradition, had mostly forgotten the beauty of simplicity and single notes, but, in the round, mostly too modern for me. I like some discernible-to-me structure.
Out to be greeted outside the Wetherspoons by three chaps from the mosque at Morden, trying to persuade passers by that not all Muslims were like the murderous thugs in Syria. One can sympathise with them, as they themselves are persecuted by mainstream Muslims as heretics, and if not burnt at the stake, sometimes lynched or otherwise disposed of in riots in their Pakistani homeland. But they had no sense of choosing their ground, any more than they had had at Hampton Court previously (see reference 2). As it was, they were just a bit in the way and irritating, which did nothing for their cause. See reference 3 for our first encounter.
That apart, while they are entirely entitled to their beliefs, I do find them rather odd and I can see why they might annoy mainstreamers, Shia or Sunni. All to do with what I was recently reminded that Freud christened (as it were) the narcissism of small differences - something us lefties know all about. They believe, for example that the second coming has already happened.
Out of Wetherspoons to Roscoe Street where I was immediately treated to a green light and was able to pedal off into the damp and gloomy afternoon, dropping off without incident at Waterloo Station 3, which, if memory serves, is somewhere up the ramp. Three stands for the price of one, like at Grant Road, Clapham Junction, to which I must return. Excellent Turkish Delight to be had nearby.
Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/schubert.html.
Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/herald-tilt.html.
Reference 3: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Merton+Campus+of+South+Thames+College.
PS: efforts to find the concert for a second try on BBC iplayer failed this morning. Lots of Clein but not the right ones. BBC might plead, I suppose, that this concert has not yet been broadcast, but what about the other two?
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