Kedgeree and a car wash

This month, the Mexican Wrestler celebrates a complicated car wash and enjoys a bit of kedgeree – all at Jempson’s in Peasmarsh.

Jesus Carveros is an artist living in Rye. His work takes many forms – from spoken word and performance to appropriated found pieces to pottery, painting and sculpture. He also works with text as part of his practice.

Jesus describes himself as “a Mexican wrestler that doesn’t wrestle”. It’s more a way of life. 

“Diary Entries” is a series of text-based pieces we are publishing in Rye News. We think you might find them intriguing and inspiring…

I went to Jempson’s in Peasmarsh today.

I love it there.

The first thing I did was go to the car wash.

Not the drive thru.

It never gets into the corners and cracks.

I prefer the car wash they call the jet wash.

Basically you do it yourself.

You used to go to the shop and pay them and they’d give you a token.

Then you’d put the token in the machine.

Well you don’t do that anymore.

Now you park in the space and you have a series of digital options to choose from.

The first is how long you want to spend doing it yourself.

I thought 8 minutes would be enough time so I paid for 8 minutes. It cost £4.

Cheaper than it cost previously by 50p.

Next you have a series of options regarding what you want to do. This is where it gets challenging.

There’s 3 different coloured pipes offering 3 different functions. You choose what you want by pressing an area on a screen. There’s an attachment that sprays out foam.

An attachment that sprays out water.

And an attachment that has a brush on it that has water coming through the bristles.

To be honest you have to spend time trying to work out what the 3 options are as it’s not explained that well.

2 of the pipes hang from above.

The other is on the ground.

Once you pay by putting your credit or debit card up to the machine, a timer comes on.

Now you’ve got 8 minutes to wash your car yourself.

The digital clock has large numerals on it so you can see it while you’re washing and brushing and spraying.

It’s pretty stressful as you have to allocate a certain amount of time to each task.

First spraying the foam.

This wasn’t an option previously.

It’s quite therapeutic when you’re doing it.

A wall of white foam bursts from the nozzle like a fountain.

You walk around the vehicle, covering it in white foam.

Then you press the brush icon on the digital screen.

And you rush around with the brush, getting the foam off.

It feels like life is rushing past as the digital clock reminds you that you only have a certain amount of time remaining.

Then comes the last part of the process.

The high pressure spray.

This is a bit more fun than foaming or brushing.

The race against time continues.

I had around 80 seconds to spray the car and get the suds off.

I just managed to finish the task when the buzzer went and the machine stopped.

Then I gave a sigh of relief.

I’d done it.

I’d managed to use Jempson’s new jet wash without asking anyone what to do.

This was a satisfying moment.

I got into my car and drove to a parking space and stopped and got out.

I’d normally wipe the car down with a cloth but it was so nippy I left it and walked to the store.

The first thing you see is newspapers.

I always stop and read the front covers.

It was lunchtime so I walked to the cafe.

I think they’ve had a rethink about what they sell as there are quite a few new options that look very tasty.

There didn’t use to be.

I saw they offered kedgeree.

This is unusual these days.

Not many cafes sell kedgeree.

It was £13.50 which I thought was enough.

I had a glass of water and some kedgeree for lunch and read a newspaper.

There weren’t many people there.

Just a couple of blokes talking about the good ol’ days.

The kedgeree was OK.

I finished it and bought some scotch eggs from the meat counter. They were £4.50 each.

My sons love Scotch eggs.

I don’t eat meat. I wonder how long shops will be able to call them Scotch eggs as they’re not from Scotland.

These days Brussels sprouts aren’t called Brussels sprouts unless they are from Brussels.

Which most aren’t.

Maybe Jempson’s will need to rename Scotch eggs “meat eggs”.

It doesn’t have the same ring to it though.

I wonder if anyone will be “offended” by the fact Scotch eggs aren’t from Scotland.

I bet someone will.

Image Credits: Roderick Field .