Double linguine

A visit to London without my telephone - forgotten until we were half way to Ewell West - so a snap lite post. To the Wigmore to hear the Doric Quartet give us Mendelssohn Op.12 and the Janáček 'Kreutszer Sonata' - which Wikipedia confirms was indeed connected with Tolstoy's short story of the same name. Although it does not tell of three composers all agreeing to have a go - which is my recollection of the matter - only one or two of whom actually coughed up.

With our looking to have last heard the Doric about eighteen months ago, as noticed at reference 2.

No telephone meant buying the car parking ticket in the ticket machine, but luckily BH remembers the car number, a trick that I cannot yet manage. Presumably the ticket machine is wired up to the Internet, so that it can tell RingGo about the payment.

Proceeded in good order to All Bar One at Oxford Circus where we took tea (him), coffee (her), toast and smarties. Toast which I think is pretty good, despite being sour dough, and good value. Makes a change from the sugary buns offered by Olle & Steen.

Did the cloakroom at the Hall and then into the full auditorium for a concert which turned out well.

From there to the Cock & Lion for an apéritif, with one or two members of the quartet following us in. With their entourage including the very young child of one of them.

From there to Lina Stores, almost next door. Green salad, focaccia, big grilled prawns to start. All good. Followed by double linguine for him and something more modest for her. The linguine appeared to be a popular dish, and although one portion was not really enough, I did hesitate about going for the second, perhaps a little too much. But I went for it anyway.

A carafe of white wine from Lombardy, the wine of the week. Which did fine.

The place was more or less full when we arrived at around 13:30, with a good mixture of people, both old and young. Some looking a touch left over from the night before - this being a Sunday. A sprinkling of children.

There was another room downstairs, perhaps more bar than restaurant. Near empty and rather gloomy looking, but I dare say it would do well enough if it was busy of an evening.

Intrigued on exit by some exotic looking aerials on some of the roofs of Marylebone Lane. Perhaps left over from some previous era.

Intrigued on our platform at Waterloo Station by the row of three story sheds, maybe three metres square but a good deal higher.White trimmed in black in the snap above.

A bit more open plan in this one. Signals? Water for steam trains?

Gemini seems to know all about them and tells me that they were part of the hydraulic power systems used at one time for various heavy lifting jobs. Prompted, he goes on to confirm that this was all mixed up with the hydraulic power systems I had come across at the Kirkaldy Testing Museum in Southwark Street, as noticed at reference 3, back in 2021.

As it happens, it looks as if this was the outing on which I discovered the spiral sausages from P&V, which we have taken on various occasions since. Most recently, only yesterday! Very good they are too.

However, I thought to go on to ask Bing about all this, and he turned up a railway buffs forum which talked of luggage lifts, which is not quite the same as the accumulators that Gemini talked of. More plausible, as lifts would have been needed to serve all platforms, while accumulators sound more central services.

Going back to Gemini, he agrees with this new diagnosis, and tells me that all these lifts were built to an Armstrong design. Which is consistent with such a lift having been demolished as part of the Eurostar works. Mentioned at reference 4, but which rated a picture somewhere else.

Along the way Gemini talks of manhole covers in and around Southwark Street:

'... Southwark Street was a hub for this technology because it was close to the Falcon Wharf Pumping Station (near where Tate Modern is today). This was the very first station in the LHP network. If you look closely at the pavements around Southwark Street today, you can still find heavy cast-iron manhole covers embossed with "L.H.P.Co."...'.

Something to check on my next cheese outing.

In the meantime, a reminder that Gemini sometimes gets things wrong. Best to check if you care.

PS: an afterthought: an example of a question I might not have bothered asking in the absence of a tool like Gemini. I am getting stuff done which would not otherwise get done. Getting more work out of the same labour input, rather than getting the same work out of less labour input. A business, as opposed to a pensioner, might make a different call.

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_Quartet_No._1_(Jan%C3%A1%C4%8Dek).

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/11/a-proper-concert.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/11/facts-not-opinions.html.

Reference 4: http://www.glias.org.uk/journals/19-c.pdf. 'A gazetteer of hydraulic power in London - Tim R Smith - c2020'.