[FLYING BANANA]

........................................ every time I go for a leisurely walk across Hampstead zheath with Michael we get lost, and yesterday was no exception.
We got the tube up as far as Highgate then walked up to Hampstead Heath, done this walk loads of times so not bothered about the distance. I had my £5 paper sun hat on so my head was protected from the sun.

Onto the Heath we went, our destination was Kenwood House. Well worth a visit to the house and it’s free to get in. The cafe subsidies the house, well at there prices I would expect so.
We made it ok to the cafe. A Salmon and dill fish cake was £11.95, bowl of tomato and coriander soup £6.50, quiche and salad £13.50. Tin of Coke Cola £1.85 or a bottle of water 1.65.
We had two rounds of Ham sandwiches and two packets of crisps and that came to £13.50. And did not bother with a drink.

So then we set off for Hampstead except Michael was convinced that we just need to follow the path and bear left, we should have gone to the right but we did not know that at the time. Now I love walking, it’s never bothered me. Have walked many a mile when I lived up in Essex. Done a bit of walking in Cornwall.
But not having brought my walking boots just my leather shoes my feet were beginning to suffer after an hour, yes 1 hour of us getting lost. I started to get annoyed with Michael.

We finally stopped and asked a dog walker who said that we needed to retrace our steps back to the crossroads of paths and take the right hand path. Which we did. Still no sign of where we was. I finally stopped two young ladies who showed us on the map where we were and where we was going. We thanked them and continued and came off the Heath in front of the Freemasons Inn.
The first pint of Aspall’s cider never touched the sides.

The second pint was well needed as well. We sat outside and watched the world go by. And then Michael produced a map of the Heath.....................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU HAVE A MAP?
“Oh! Well! I wasn’t sure whether to produce it as you seemed to annoyed with me”.
ME ANNOYED? I just laughed and he joined in. A third pint was soon sitting in front of us.
The plan was now to walk back towards the Heath and bear right towards where Laura lived.

(Now Laura is not living at her flat as her boyfriends father unexpectedly passed away a week or so ago, so they have been living back at the parents house helping to sort out the various things that had to be done. Her future father in law had died on a cruise in the Caribbean. So the problems getting the body back. Her mother in law had flown back a few days ago. Ollie, Laura’s boyfriend, is not the best of people to have in crisis. So it has fallen on Laura’s shoulders to help.
Plus Laura has a part time job in the jewellery trade, so she has to cope with that as well).

So our plan was to meet Laura at the flat then go for a bite to eat and maybe a beer or two. Michael had to find Laura’s flat using a map, although he goes there every two weeks, he still needed the map as we was approaching from a different direction.
We arrived at the flat just as Laura did, she had come by cab. We went into the very small but light and airy flat.
Kettle on and I got the guided tour, Michael was left in charge of making the tea.
When we was alone in the bedroom, no no not like that, she burst into tears and she hugged me. She said that she was finding hard to cope, Ollie and his sister were useless at organising anything. After awhile she wiped the tears away.

I left her to get herself back together again. Michael had made the tea and had poured the tea out. We chatted whilst we waited for Laura.
She wanted to see the pictures of the new house and we chatted about that and a few other things.
Then time for us to go and find food and a beer.

To be continued.........