Not salt

We were moved last week to visit the Mole at Leatherhead and after some thought, decided to park in the Swan Centre as usual, where I was interested to come across the bags illustrated, which I assumed to contain some fancy version of salt for use in the winter.

Checking this morning, I find that it is actually a widely used fertiliser, which just happens to be quite a good de-icer, good in part because it is not corrosive in the way that salt is, and so popular in multi-storey car parks. One of the places you can buy the stuff from is Saudi Arabia (you were wrong if you thought that this place was just a huge tank of petrol with some rather odd people living on top of it), as can be seen at reference 1. Which tells us, inter alia, that the stuff is reasonably stable, but that ,when it decomposes, it gives off hydogen cyanide, aka prussic acid, aka zyklon-b and once used for executions in the US. I wonder what the operators of the Swan Centre car park would make of all this.

Or if you prefer to buy British, see reference 2.

The Mole turned out to be fairly quiet, so we divided our time between the many charity shops on the High Street and the (very old) church, unexpectedly open. The one with the large dormer windows to let light into the nave. Plus a two inch trilogy from Cormac McCarthy for 99p. See reference 3 for this author's last mention here.

The High Street had plenty of bars and restaurants, but the retail side looked a bit sad, with, for example, the ancient old-style hardware store having shut since our last visit. The Swan Centre seemed to lack the life of our Ashley Centre. All in all, the whole place, people included, seemed a bit run down, odd given that the area includes some of the most expensive housing in the land. Awash with celebrities and bankers. Some of which was visible on the bluffs above the river, just south of the church.

All of which caused me to wonder about talking heads like Mary Portas, a former window dresser for Harrods and of whom we were hearing a good deal not so long ago. Talking heads which I usually find rather tiresome: who are they to pontificate about how we should run our towns?Almost as bad as celebrity chefs. But wondering because it had occurred to me that if I was the owner of a moribund Swan Centre, I might well be prepared to bet a few thousand pounds on a few days of Mary's time if I thought she could wave some magic wand and bring some profit back into my investment.

Next thought was that conversion of the Centre into housing would be rather expensive, even supposing that the council would allow such a thing.

Thus concluding our visit to the town of the tanners.

Reference 1: http://www.sabic.com/me/en/productsandservices/fertilizers/prilled-rea-granular-rea.

Reference 2: http://www.rocksaltshop.co.uk/info/prilled-urea.html?gclid=CLDCpentw8gCFROdGwodmPwB9w.

Reference 3: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/fat-stamps.html.