The North

Posted on 2014/05/11 22:32:18 (May 2014).

[Saturday 3rd May 2014]
Went to look at a flat in Kentish Town towards the end of the morning, starting off with a coffee at the Doppio Coffee Warehouse in "K-Town" which could almost have been set up by the estate agents, for all the gentrification buttons it was pressing. To be honest I didn't pay much attention to the flat itself, given my complete confusion about the schooling situation in the area.

After that we went for a quick lunch at the branch of Pizza East in Kentish Town. Stupidly I mentioned the P word on the way to the restaurant. Erika is a bit obsessed with pasta at the moment, and as soon as she think it's meal time, and she has an inkling that pasta is on the menu, she will essentially say the word over and over again, in an increasingly frustrated tone, until she gets it. It's a bit embarrassing when in public.

Chie wasn't actually eating, as she had plans to go for an early afternoon tea with some of her friends, as part of her continuing birthday weekend celebrations. So I suppose that was actually convenient, as she could focus on feeding Erika and I could eat my own. Wasn't particularly bowled over by the pizza to be honest, and the place overall put me in mind of Pizza Express trying to be hip.

After lunch, Chie headed off to afternoon tea, and amidst the usual protest from Erika whenever her Mummy leaves her I wheeled her up the hill to Hampstead Heath for a stroll and some fresh air. At the nearest corner of the heath there was a little farmer's market on (another standard device to lull you into a sense of gentrification), which we had a quick wander round, then followed by a playground which Erika seemed to enjoy (there were wooden animals to sit on, which seemed to be the highlight). Next we went to watch dogs splashing about in one of the ponds, Erika seemed to enjoy that too.

From there we took quite a long wander across the heath, during which Erika eventually nodded off. The scenery was particularly beautiful today, and it really felt like North London was pulling out all the stops. I think I made up my mind at that point that, even if Kentish Town had a lot of question marks around it, we should definitely be aiming for somewhere in walking distance of the heath.

On reaching Hampstead I went for a look around some of the shops to try and find a birthday present for Chie, but nothing was really jumping out at me. I headed down as far as Belsize Park, by which time Erika had woken up, and we headed into the branch of Daunt Books there to buy a couple of new books for her. They had little children's seats in the kids corner, and she sat there whilst I showed her a variety of books to see what she might like. That was rather lovely. Whilst in there I noticed a nappy change was required, so we headed across the road to Starbucks, and having learned from my previous experience of using Starbucks as a baby change facility, I avoided ordering coffee, and instead we each had some juice. So after the nappy change was done with we both sat there sipping on juice and watching the world go by. That too was rather lovely.

Got on the tube at Belsize Park and headed down to Oxford Circus so we could go to Liberty to look for a birthday present for Chie. That was a bit more successful. Headed home after that.

Made Lebanese food for dinner, although we didn't really eat very much of it, so conveniently this ended up being the bulk of our picnic tomorrow.

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