On Thursday and Friday, Tigger went into the office to work. On both days, I remained at home on my own, a rather novel experience these days. Is it true that “Absence makes the heart grow fonder”? Definitely!

On Thursday we had our evening meal brought in. We ordered dough balls and pizza from PizzaExpress to be brought to our door by Deliveroo.

We know PizzaExpress of old but this was our first experience of Deliveroo. You order online and pay with your card and are given an estimated delivery time. A progress bar appears, showing the meal being prepared and then out for delivery. The delivery time slipped by 5 minutes but that’s acceptable.

The only downside is that whereas in the restaurant, you eat your starter and then they bring you your pizza, still oven hot, with home delivery, both arrive together and by the time you start on the pizza it is already cold. I suppose you could put the pizza in a warm oven – if you have one.

The heatwave seems finally to have abated and not a day too soon. How pleasant it is to feel cool and comfortable!

We allowed ourselves a slow start today and stayed put until lunchtime. Tigger proposed going out for lunch. I wasn’t too keen in the idea at first but then reflected that as our “firsts” so far have included bus rides and train rides perhaps it was time for the “first” of eating out.

Upper Street

We set out to look for a cafe that wasn’t too crowded. Our walk took us along the High Street to Liverpool Road. The above photo shows how busy the main road is. Traffic volume has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Chapel Market

We turned along Liverpool Road and then into Chapel Market. The most noticeable feature here was the extended empty space along the right-hand side. Usually, there would be stalls side by side along both sides and the empty space seemed rather strange.

Lurker
Photo by Tigger

What’s this? Boris Johnson lurking in an optician’s shop? Ah well, just another dummy among dummies, I suppose.

Sizzle

We found our way to Sizzle, a cafe in Chapel Market that had become one of our favourites because the food is well cooked and the prices moderate. It wasn’t too crowded and the food was as good as we remembered it to be.

Resting moth
Photo by Tigger

The weather was decidedly dull and was threatening rain. Neither of us felt any urge to wander so we returned home. On the front door, this tiny moth was taking a rest. We were careful not to disturb it. It will fly off about its business when it’s ready. Just like us, really!

Charles Baudelaire 1821–67

Note: the figure 89 is of course a reference to the French Revolution which broke out in 1789.

In memory of Brian Juden, a fine scholar of Baudelaire and of much else.