Screwfix

A day which started with one of our rare visits to Ashtead, to top up with white pudding and various other bits and bobs at the butcher there, late of Manor Green Road. He had what we wanted, with the only qualification being that he could only do fat, straight white pudding rather than the traditional horseshoe variety.

We also took in the M&S food hall there, I guess about the same size as the one at Epsom, albeit with a rather different layout.

And I fortified myself with a bacon sandwich at one of the cafés, probably the one called Handley's, on the other side of the road from the butcher. The probably arising from that part of the fascia being obscured by the café icon in Street View.

A little dry, partly the result of the bread being thin sliced factory and not as fresh as it might be, partly that of the bacon being higher grade with very little fat. Not up to the standards of Whitecross Street in town, but not bad for the suburbs.

Unusual tea. I dare say I would get used to it if we were to make a habit of using the place.

In the afternoon, my first turn around town for a while, starting with the now customary visit to the pond, on this occasion somewhat duck infested.

Over the hill into town and across to East Street, where, after the various vicissitudes here noticed, Big Yellow Box appeared to be open for business, even if the substantial looking gates to their loading bay were firmly shut.

Completion included planting an instant front garden, visible right, with their perhaps being lucky with the turn of the weather. We shall see if they bother to water it in in the weeks to come.

And so to the Screwfix passage to find the Russian vine in full flower, what I think must be its second showing of the year.

On the other hand, checking the record, it was not flowering in May this year (reference 2) and it was flowering in July last year (reference 3).

Gemini is clear enough. The vine flowers on the new shoots that have grown in the first part of the year in the second part of the year. His response to a supplementary is snapped above.

While the whitebeam looked well enough, although I dare say it lost some leaves over the summer. The fruit is now starting to ripen, starting to shift from green to red.

A circuit accompanied by a light drizzle, but my summer raincoat served well enough. Indeed, it has served well enough over the years, even though it was poor value compared with the my autumn raincoat, noticed at reference 1.

PS 1: must try to remember that Blogger search is case blind. Older brain being confused by the conventions in these matters varying slightly from search tool to search tool. It is also reliable in the sense that posts can be found by searches as soon as they are posted, unlike some other searches, where it can take a while for new material to make it to the search indexes. I suppose the difference is that blog space is trivially small compared with the Internet as a whole, or indeed the average corporate Intranet.

PS 2:  I read this morning at reference 5 of a rather ugly Trump take on the French 'Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile'. I wonder that no-one has suggested bas relief panels at the foot of the columns, depicting him and his family making money. The sort of thing which decorates our own Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.

However, according to reference 6, from where I have taken the snap above, the inspiration was from Delhi, for which see reference 7. Notwithstanding which, I associate to the similarly ugly Victoria Memorial outside our own Buckingham Palace. A style known to students of architecture as late empire grandiose.

PS 3: I also read at reference 8, of Grant Thornton, once a respectable accounting partnership, selling out to private finance. While I dare say one can dress it up in different clothes, it looks very much to me like the then partners cashing in. All part of the rather unsatisfactory business of so much of our business disappearing inside private finance, where standards of visibility are very low. The start of Gemini's take on all this is snapped above.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-coup.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/05/no42.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/07/trolleys-911-912-and-913.html. Just warming up for the big push on trolleys.

Reference 4: https://www.cordings.co.uk/.

Reference 5: Trump says 250ft arch will be ‘military complex’ with drones and snipers: President claims national security justification for controversial Washington monument - Alex Rogers, Financial Times - 2026.

Reference 6: https://www.indianeagle.com/travelbeats/trump-plans-washington-dc-arch-tallest-in-world/. From which (travel) site it would appear that there are lots of flashy buildings in India.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Gate. From the days of the Raj, designed by Lutyens.

Reference 8: Grant Thornton boss defends private equity ownership: Malcolm Gomersall says new structure will improve audit quality due to increased scrutiny - Ellesheva Kissin, Financial Times - 2026.

Group search key: 20260918, cordings.