Walk to Golders Green, II

Yazgi Supermarket ... Halal Meat and Oyster Passes

Someone stopped me on the street and asked if I knew the way to the North Finchley Bus Station.

Today I could say, yes, stay on this side of the street and keep walking about long five blocks and you will be there.

A better truth would have been 15 minutes down this road and you will be there because I have taken to measuring space by how much time it takes me to walk through it.

HO LOK -- Chinese Take Away

I had to stop someone ask my way home a few days ago.

I was walking one hour down the Dollis Valley Greenwalk, and coming home I got lost in one of the residential areas that connects large segments of the walk.

A shop keeper gave me good directions after I failed to get answers from a school girl and from some workmen on the street.

The shop keeper also offered me a bottle of water. I can look pretty tired when I forget to apply my 3 pm lipstick.

Cafe Tuck In

I love the rural character of the walk along the Dollis Creek on its way to the Thames – the playground where the children can climb and jump from a fallen log – one about as big as the one down on Sandy Beach.

I stop to look through the fence at the community gardens, people out in the rubber boots, moving the dirt a bit and sinking seedlings into the ground.

Then the walk turned rural again and a person would not know that they are in the middle of London, walking alongside a brook.

Yahe Garden -- Chinese Sit Down

I feel I was born and raised a city person but maybe that is not true for in my childhood backyard were shooting stars, pussy willows, gophers, and fire flies.

Still, I am happy walking along the cement pavement and looking at the character of the residential districts.

 My new walking plans is to stick to one side of the street for as far as I can go in an hour, and then taking the return trip on the other side of the street.

At least that is the plan as long as I can remember which city I am in. I don’t need any more shop keepers offering me water.

Kopernik -- Polski Sklep

I was out just after 7 am this morning.

In front of a shop called On Board, I saw a small pile of clothes -- a shirt, some jeans, a pair of shoes, just as though someone had stepped out of them at that spot.

On the door to the store was a sign, “Do not leave clothes outside. They might be stolen.”

On Board -- on the sidewalk, really

Rebecca told me that a number of charity stores operate along the High Street – Bernardo Homes, Cancer Research.

That is where she purchased her red leather gloves.

And she has a bag at home, into which she is slipping everything the boys have grown out of, things she does not want to pack home.

Azerbaijan Restaurant
Would love to look at the menu there!

I was thinking about that sign, which even suggested you call the store and they would do a pick-up.

It might be just as powerful to have the clothes picked up by someone who needs them than to have them go from one person to another, but have a cash transaction in between.

 I guess both ways are good.

Bronze Sign:  Landlady, Lucy Burch
...on the door of the Elephant Inn ...
 ... I want one of those signs on my front door ...

The streets all look the same to me, so I took along a map yesterday and started to memorize street names.

Anything to keep my mind off of the fact that I am really exercising. Now I am starting to see where the tube signs are.

La Rugoletta --Ristorante & Pizzeria

And today I can see that the High Street is really broken into segments, just like the brook was.

The High Streets are signed: West Finchley High Street High Street, then Church End High Street.

And more importantly, I am learning how to get across the streets, when to watch for traffic lights, and when to do a shoulder check far over my right shoulder to see if a car is coming.

The Elephant Inn -- Thai Kitchen

I am always alert to the cuisine in London – fries and battered fish is standard.

 But on one end of the High Road, leaving this little hamlet and getting into another was a series of shops that made me pull out my camera.

 How could that many ethnic shops be situated on the same block, I asked myself: Polish, Azerbaijan, Thai, Chinese, Italian, Jewish – a world of adventure in one block!

Arta