The push

A day or so after the capture reported at reference 1, it was time to return the trolley to Sainsbury's, snapped above outside its temporary home.

A Wanzl 'Light 100' trolley of the class of February 2025. Not in bad condition considering that it spends most of its time outside. Just a little mud to brush off the underside of the basket.

Going down Manor Green Road with my trolley, I was tooted by No.38, who clearly remembered me from our meeting on Clay Hill Green - just about two years ago now. Sadly, I did not remember him fast enough to stop him for a moan about the elusive No.39.

Perched over the stream at the Hook Road end of Longmead Road. I don't suppose I will be fishing any more trolleys out, not unless I happen to have an able-bodied visitor at just the right time. As there was, as it happens, for the trolley at reference 2, back in 2019.

With the Screwfix whitebeam. Note expanse of blue sky, not something that we have been seeing too much of of late.

The underpass was more or less free of complementary graffiti, so they must have applied some of that easy-wipe varnish at some point. And it remains, to my mind, far and away the best of the bunch, there being quite a lot of this sort of thing scattered about the town.

However, the bridge above was looking a bit tired. Even a hint of sagging. But I dare say it is properly checked on a regular basis.

The view down Middle Lane, it being much easier to push a trolley down the middle of the road than bumping along the uneven pavement. I did have to pull over a couple of times.

Nearly there. The next question was where to take my much deserved refreshment?

Costa Coffee in Sainsbury's was a non-starter. Their tea is very strange and complete absence of anything like a bacon sandwich.

Then there was the caravan tucked into a corner by the entrance to Wickes. They clearly did fried stuff, but they also did school children from Glynn (on the other side of the car park) - and there seemed to be very little in the way of seating. So pass.

Then there was a place on East Street, more or less by the Kiln Lane turning. I think I have used it once. But in the end I settled for Los Amigos, at the beginning of East Street, quite near both the school of dancing and our strip club. A place which I use from time to time and which I know does a very decent bacon sandwich.

They don't seem to run to a website, but Bing knows all about them, putting the new-to-me listing site at reference 4 at the top of its list.

A listing website which lists nowhere in any of Gaithersburg, Tupper Lake or Anaheim - and which can manage only one in Los Angeles -  the LA Crystal Hotel, 123 E Artesia Blvd, Carson, CA 90220.

Which gmaps at least has heard of. Maybe their UK coverage is a bit better - but how much did they pay Bing to get to the top of his list?

On the way, the self-storage place on the Majestic site had come on a lot since I last passed it. There is still work going on, but maybe they really will open in the Spring. Nothing to be seen at reference 5, although there are clearly plenty of them about. Maybe one day I will meet someone who uses them - there must be plenty of them too.

In the end, I actually took a bacon roll rather than a bacon sandwich. The rolls were lying on the counter and I thought I would give one a go. Not bad, but perhaps not quite as good as thick-cut factory white.

Four dancers at a corner table, three girls and a boy. All terribly young. Rather more blue collars and a few oddments like myself.

While outside, on the window of the strip club, we had the curious notice which I have tried to snap above. I did not manage to work it out at the time and I fail to work it out now. Is it an invitation to apply for a job working the bar? Is it an invitation to put in reasons why the license to have a bar should be withdrawn? The building was looking fairly shabby, including a broken window, but the rather tacky website appears to be alive and well today. A mystery.

Onto Waitrose to buy some white bread, there being a gap in the homemade supply. I settled for a small bloomer, certified free of the dough sour presently infesting bread counters everywhere. Rather dear at something over £2.50, but rather good, so worth it. 

The only catch being that the 'find your item' widget at the self-checkout did not seem to recognise this particular loaf and there was no partner at hand to sort it out for me. So I had to pass it off as a ciabatta or some such, which may have cost a few pence less. I did not feel too bad about this as Waitrose do quite well out of me, even if I am not collecting many of their trolleys these days. Used to, back in the day.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/02/over-hill.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/no38.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/12/trolley-345.html.

Reference 4: https://placejuice.com/los-amigos-cafe-amc2kyk.

Reference 5: https://www.bigyellow.co.uk/.

Group search key: 20260204.