Hampstead

I had a good day out last Wednesday in Hampstead. It was another trip for the "Three Chief Cataloguers" - now, two ex-chief cataloguers (because they have recently retired) and me. We all have regular partners but it is nice, sometimes, to go out with somebody different and although we don't have everything in common, we are sufficiently on the same wavelength to enjoy the same sort of things. Coffee and buns, mostly.

So we met at 10.30 at Hampstead Heath station and wandered round the corner to the tea-rooms and settled in for an hour of coffee and croissants. By the end of that, we were wondering where to have lunch, and decided on Kenwood, which should have been a reasonable walk across the Heath. It turned into something of a marathon, because (shameful to say) the 3CC got a bit lost. We weren't helped by the boys of Highgate School who were organising a charity walk and had tables set up at intervals to record progress. Their directions were hopeless - they clearly had no idea where they were, or where anything else was. And I have been tasked with writing a stiff note to the Director in charge of the Heath, decrying the lack of signposts. (We don't want great flashing neon signs, but tiny little fingerposts in a discreet and tasteful colour would have been most welcome).

Anyway, we eventually reached Kenwood and went straight to the cafe, and sat down with hot soup and got back into the conversation - for another hour or more. Then a walk round the collection (we had been meaning to go to Fenton House, but we felt that we had walked quite far enough) - and I hadn't seen the pictures for at least twenty years, and probably nearer thirty. It's a great collection. And free.

Then back across the Heath and another cup of tea and back to the station. Not a wild day, by any means, but a pleasant walk, a pleasant talk.

I suppose this is the sort of thing that retired people do every day.