Bifanas, Epsom style

Bifanas, which were last noticed at reference 1.

This day started with a circuit to buy some soft rolls from Waitrose, a circuit which included the trolley snapped above, outside the undertaker in Pound Lane. A Wanzl Light 100 from Sainsbury's, containing two rat traps and some bits of old wood. A trolley which had been made in January 2010, so quite old, and last looked at by the Wanzl service team in August 2024. Three of the wheels were probably original, while one, back right, was one of the black plastic wheels used for a while to lock trolleys if you attempted to remove them from Kiln Lane. I think they gave up on that one.

Not captured.

The bifanas were made with some slices of left over pork tenderloin, plus some onions fried in a little butter and seasoned with some carraway seeds. This after the fashion, I am given to understand, of the people of Évora, in the south (of Portugal).

Not bad at all, although I thought the bread was a little too soft and damp. Perhaps a bit more cooking is indicated, at least for these purposes.

A bit later on, a second circuit, during which I was able to inspect the wall going up in front of our local Wellingtonia, No.11 of reference 3, the previous wall having been disturbed by various roots. Looks like a good job is being done, so maybe £20 a brick all in?

Hopefully the Wellingtonia will recover from the damage being done to its roots. No idea how shallow they are. Visible top right in the snap above.

Then a bit later on, coming back down Meadway, towards No.11 as it happens, I was able to inspect the reason for its closure. We have been noticing water coming out of the hill in the winter for years, and had assumed that it was just the lie of the land. Occasionally resulting in unpleasant ice at the bottom of the hill on winter mornings. But clearly Thames Water knew better, as they had dug a substantial hole in the road - full of water on this occasion.

And despite the piece of grass on the top of the hill being called Clay Hill Green, there is clearly chalk just a short way down. I have seen chalk down holes in our roads before, but this was what might be called a confirmed sighting. A lump of the wet chalk was abstracted as evidence.

PS 1: you can buy bricks for around £1 a go, depending on quality, type and the the number you are buying.

PS 2: at the end of reference 4 (about a table lamp) I included a picture of a modern wooden puzzle. The one I had in mind has turned up and is snapped above, with the key piece partially pulled out. I think Chinese, from Singapore, from the naval uncle who was stationed there after the war.

PS 3: Friday morning: I have been irritated for some time by my telephone's habit of turning anything that looks like a time or a date into blue underline - which is rather lost against the black background and which is rather irritating. Looking at settings was no good, but five minutes with Gemini did the trick. Blue underline is now off - blue underline, which, according to Gemini is not a popular feature.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/02/bifana.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89vora.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/07/wellingtonia-11.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/02/a-table-lamp.html.

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