UK 2022: Part 4

A reasonably priced hotel bridged the one-night gap between our Dover and Finchley sits. It also gave us a chance to check out what was going to be our new neighbourhood for the next three weeks.

The following morning our host kindly picked us up from the hotel and drove us to their house where we met the family, including Juno, the dog, and Cotton, the cat. We instantly liked them and it felt like meeting up with old friends we hadn’t seen in a while!

Juno loved her family and spent our first evening on the stairs waiting and watching for them. She also howled during most of our first night. We later found out that Juno regularly hung out on the stairs and once there wouldn’t budge unless food or walks were involved. The howls, however, never made another appearance.

The next day, once she realised we’d feed her, play with her and give her really long walks Juno got the spring back in her step and a very waggy tail.

Cotton, the cat, on the other hand, didn’t seem bothered either way. She was a bit feisty though so you never quite knew if she’d be nice to you or not.

We had two pairs of gerbils to care for too. One pair belonged to a neighbour and was just holidaying with us. Sadly, one of the gerbils died the night before we arrived and the other of the pair only lasted another week. We were left with just the neighbours’ gerbils who were very inquisitive, loved to chew boxes, and thankfully stayed the course with us.

Finchley was my dream location. There was a decent high street about 10 minutes walk away, and the tube station was only a further 5 minutes on foot. The high street offered a great bus service too and there were loads of local-ish places to visit within easy reach.

Not only that, the garden backed onto woodland so taking Juno on her daily walks was a breeze. She was mostly well-behaved on and off the lead but we did have a few worrying moments when she just didn’t come back for what seemed like an age. She had endless energy, loved to run and play (had an uncanny knack for finding balls), and probably covered ten times the distance we did on each walk. That’s saying something because we walked her for hours. She slept well though!

The theatre featured regularly in our itinerary too. Fortunately, we had additional dog care support for the nights we wanted to go out.

We took a gamble on the light-hearted opera ‘Rita’ at Charing Cross Theatre. The theatre is crouched under the arches near Charing Cross tube station. There are limited seats in this small arena which leaves you feeling like you’re watching a school play rather than a West-End show. We enjoyed the quirky, upbeat performance, despite the very simple story, but were grateful it was only 75 minutes long!

We also saw a couple of ‘proper’ West End shows.

The first was ‘Life of Pi’ at Wyndham’s Theatre. The dialogue was hard to hear in the cheap seats but the show is magical. With clever scenery changes and surprising use of the stage, it certainly offered some wonder-ful moments, not to mention the menagerie of puppets that brought the story to life.

And also ‘Drifters Girl’, at the Garrick Theatre. Not a huge amount to say about this one apart from the music was fun.

However, ‘Tom, Dick, and Harry’ stole our hearts. It was our first trip to Alexandra Palace, affectionately known as Ally Pally, which is a magnificent venue (and btw sells the best hot dogs!) and the perfect setting for the daring true story of WWII’s Greatest Escape. Tom, Dick, and Harry being the names of the three escape tunnels.

The adaptation was genius! The relatively small cast played multiple roles energetically and brilliantly and with typically fast-paced, dry British humour which had us chuckling throughout. It was interactive at times too, and as we had front-row seats Olly, and a few other lucky audience members, were able to bask in their five minutes of fame.

Honestly, it was an absolute blast and kept us giggling and chattering for the long bus ride home to Juno, who was waiting on the stairs for us.

Olly and I sure felt like these two little kids when using the bus, and yes we’d always try for the front seat!

We visited lots of our old London haunts but discovered new ones too.

My grandmother ran this pub when my dad was a boy!

The house was really a home from home for us. We ate our homecooked meals in the light, spacious kitchen which also doubled as our office. Juno, when not on the stairs would be with us and occasionally Cotton would grace us with her presence.

As usual, we ate well. We get rather over-excited about grocery shopping – Tesco, M&S, and Aldi are more often than not on the top of our must-visit tourist attraction list. The range and quality of food is amazing and entry is free!

We both cook, but Olly loves to cook and happily experiments with recipes. That’s a real bonus for me (most of the time)! It also means that during our stays we can load our plates with all the things we love even if they don’t really go together.

As well as shopping, eating, and spending time in the city we also took every chance we could to be out in the green spaces. If we could keep up with her, Juno was thrilled to show us all her favourite spots.