Northstalgia

Posted on 2007/09/14 13:46:51 (September 2007).

[Thursday 13th September]
Today was the three year anniversary of the day Chie and I got engaged (although you'll note there was actually no mention of it on the blog entry for that day - I didn't feel this was a very appropriate way to announce it at the time!).

So, call it a cliche if you will, but this evening we decided to return to the location where this historic event had taken place - Primrose Hill. We didn't stay that long, as we were both a bit hungry, but we had a quick sit down in more-or-less the same spot we'd sat in three years earlier, had a quick review of the past three years ("well, it could have been worse...") and then headed off to find some dinner.

We walked up to Belsize Park and Hampstead from there - where I used to live back in 2000/2001 - and our return to this charming (and pricey!) area of North London was predictably full of nostalgia. It occurred to me every almost every pub, restaurant (and even some of the shops and street corners) had a memory attached to it. Like the place I once spotted Bill Odie, the doctor's surgery where I took by ingrowing toenails, the North African place Ali took us to eat hideously over priced cous cous, or the recording studio I always used to boastingly point out to people (it's where George Michael records - although in hindsight I'm not sure why I was quite so proud of that!).

We had a vague plan to have dinner at a Japanese restaurant that we'd never made it to while I was living there, but on a quick perusal of the menu it didn't look particularly vegetarian friendly, so we changed our minds.

Instead we found ourselves wandering up a delightfully atmospheric little alleyway, and lo and behold at the end of it our adventurousness was rewarded with a fantastic little pub, that as far as I could recall I had never been to back when I lived in the area - The Holly Bush. It ticked all the right boxes - great location in a hidden away backstreet, nice old building, lovely interior, good atmosphere, decent beer, reasonable prices, and even the food was pretty good - I really enjoyed their vegetarian sausages (spinach and cheddar) and mash. Altogether an extremely satisfying find, which made for a very pleasant night out.

Well, happy anniversary then!!! I remember coming up to England for work and meeting you in Pangbourne before you were leaving for Japan. Your dad was there too, but I never got the detailed story of the engagement until some night in Tokyo... :)

Posted by Lox at 2007/09/15 07:15:31.

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