Friday, November 4/2022

Early-ish walk out for bread and yoghurt and back through the market where we pick up more raspberries and cherry tomatoes and a bunch of fresh, plump asparagus. Really hard to avoid buying far more than we have space or remaining time for. Stall selling hot Ethiopian food, and on the other side of the road a Moroccan restaurant serving tagines at little outside tables. The Turkish restaurant a few doors away.

First task is to get a small bluetooth speaker, having worn our previous one to the point of battery no return. So to Marble Arch Argos as our choice out of stock in the others. Warm sun in Hyde Park and benches a little the worse for the pigeons. Then to Waterstones Piccadilly Street, the largest bookstore in Europe. They don’t have what I want but are very nice about looking. 

Then round the corner to Jermyn Street. Not for bespoke shirts or handmade shoes, though they’re available, but to check out Paxton and Whitfield, cheese makers extraordinaire. Partnership registered in 1797 but the origins go back a half century before that to a stall at Aldwych Market. Cheese from traditional English cheesemongers, hand cut and wrapped. Would be easy to spend a royal fortune - and yes, they are by appointment and have been going back to Queen Victoria. We don’t, but do come away with a lovely little unpasteurised Cote Hill Blue from a farm in Lincolnshire.