Arod

Ten days ago to the Wigmore Hall to hear the Arod Quartet give us Haydn Op.76 No.1 and Tchaikovsky Op.11. A Monday rather than a Sunday. A quartet we had heard just once before, as noticed at reference 1. On an occasion which must have been one of our last visits to Ponti's in Great Castle Street, now having been boarded up for a year or so.

The plan was to catch the 10:19 to Vauxhall which would give us time to take a snack at John Lewis, the thought being that All Bar One might not be that keen on serving tea and toast at lunch time. There was also the matter of needing to get a new jacket, with my Banana Republic one from a charity shop starting to look a bit tired. Something which I do not wear that often, but handy to have in the cupboard. Last noticed at reference 2.

Without incident to Oxford Circus and into John Lewis where we found that a branch of Waterstones had opened up. Up to the spacious cafeteria on the top floor, to find that it only had a few weeks to go before being taken over, most of the staff and all, by Benugo. I have wondered from time to time how John Lewis manages to offer such fine cafeterias - those in Sloane Square and Kingston being much the same - so I guess Benugo are going to find out. Will they be taking all the space?

I took a soft tuna baguette on this occasion, which turned out to be a minor error. The baguette was soft indeed and uninspiring. A fresh, old-style white bap would have been much better. And the tuna, having been puffed up with too much mayonnaise - or perhaps some special water - tasted wet. And there was too much of it. Adequate, but not good. Maybe we should have stuck with All Bar One: they could have said no after all, and, being a Monday, the perfectly decent sandwich bar opposite would probably have been open. Didn't cross my mind.

We then had a brief foray into jackets, to be defeated by the invasion of franchises. Rather than just going to Lester Bowden, the late lamented old-style outfitter in Epsom, and taking a look at their fine jacket rail, you had to traipse round all the franchises, looking at the rather feeble (if expensive) offerings at each in turn. Perhaps we will be reduced to going to Harrods or Selfridges? Although, as I recall, Selfridges is even worse on the franchise front than John Lewis. Don't know about Harrod's - can't remember when I was last there: there are a number of recent mentions in the archive, but I did not dig deep enough for an actual visit.

We did look in the window of the funny clothes shop in Wimpole Street, noticed at reference 3, at which we might have done our business, but it was very firmly shut.

Into the hall, where we had some interesting flowers. Four music stands and three computers. Unfortunately, I had a large young man in front of me who not only largely blocked my view, but also fidgeted most of the way through. I tried shutting my eyes, but that did not seem to work very well either. Net result, I did not enjoy the concert as much as I had been expecting. Beyond deciding that the Haydn was a proper quartet in parts, while the Tchaikovsky was more an exercise in tone and feel. BH did rather better.

After the concert, off to Waterloo to take a late lunch at the Italian Restaurant there. To be found at reference 4.

Started off modestly enough, with a half bottle of Sancerre. Except that it went down well enough that we took the other half.

I started with a soup involving pasta and beans, which was fine.

I failed to notice the guinea fowl at the bottom of the specials lists, and took a beef pasta dish instead. Also fine.

While BH was very pleased with her fish. I wound up with a slice of grandma's tart, which I had taken before, possibly a cross between a cheese cake and a custard tart.

Interesting skyscapes from the train around Vauxhall, it being much the same time of day as those previously noticed from the South London Road. No doubt something to do with the quality of late afternoon light in that part of town.

The RPPL had been restocked, but nothing of interest, and we settled down to wait for our connection on the bench outside. We were warned about some disruption to do with Worcester Park, but that failed to materialise. On the other hand, on the overhead display on our fine new Arterio train, the text jittered as it rolled across. Not been set up properly? Not spent enough on the displays, having spent all their money on the far too frequent and far too audible announcements?

Home to inspect the back garden in the bright, late afternoon light.

The new daffodil bed has been more or less taken over by Carex Pendula, which is fine by me. I like the plants and they are very low maintenance. Zero even.

Beyond that, the path leading to the brick compost heap. The variegated yellow archangels coming on right.

More archangel. The flowers do not last long, but they are very pretty while they last. And more low maintenance!

While we had an interesting, and rather threatening cloudscape out front. Don't think that it came to anything.

PS 1: arty shot from reference 5. Complete with a castle on a commanding height. A castle I have yet to track down.

PS 2: Gemini was quicker than DIY! See reference 7.

PS 3: no more crayfish. The Grill has moved on.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/11/schumann.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/02/sonatas.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/04/viols.html.

Reference 4: https://www.4fratellicaprini.co.uk/. The restaurant.

Reference 5: https://www.sancerremichelgirard.com/. The wine.

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_701. The train home.

Reference 7: https://www.tourdesfiefs.fr/. More lists of sponsors rather than arty shots..