“So is there a Mrs Beefeater?”

London with boys and cats.

These weekend posts - my week’s diary along with more frequent than occasional but I wouldn’t say regular extracts from my WIP - are usually for paid subscribers, but I decided to make this week’s available to all to save me repeating myself in the monthly round-up.

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So I said last week I was off to gallivant and we gallivanted all the way to London. Where it was extremely hot. But not as hot as here, now, today.

SATURDAY

For the past few years, we’ve spent a few days each summer cat sitting for a friend in Crouch End. I don’t think at this point they even really need cat sitters, but they’re kind enough to let us come and stay anyway.

This year, it was only for three full days (with travel either side) so we knew we had to pack a lot in.

And, yes, I know it’s ridiculous to get someone (my cousin, Clare) to look after our cat (Noodles) while we go off to look after other cats (Alan and Babs) but, you know, free holiday.

We had dinner in the garden and then the boys wanted to walk up to Alexandra Palace. I would have preferred to stay in the garden with wine, but off we went.

SUNDAY

When I was at primary school, we went to London for the day. I have no idea how we managed this since back then the train took four hours each way from Liverpool and we didn’t even live in Liverpool. My mum came too and so did Sam Wilkinson’s mum. Beyond that, this is all I remember:

• On the train from New Brighton to Liverpool looking at Sam Wilkinson’s mum’s freckly shoulders.

• The Natural History Museum. We saw a human skull and Mark someone (I could remember if I thought hard but I cba) fainted.

• The carriages in the Royal Mews behind Buckingham Palace. We had clipboards with questions on.

• The Tower of London. Being in a dark, narrow room - a corridor? - looking at the Crown Jewels, specifically what I now know is The Imperial State Crown, but until now just thought of as the big purple one, like it’s a Quality Street.

I wasn’t sure if this last one was a real memory, but it’s still basically the same set-up now, so it obviously was. Also had a real rush of memory walking through the entrance.

Later, we chatted to a Beefeater and he was saying they all live there, etc. I said “So are you all single?” (They’re not; they live there with their families, including one family with two kids who’ve never lived anywhere else.) And the boys teased me that they thought I was flirting. Like “So is there a Mrs Beefeater?”

Sheltered from a thunderstorm in a pub (do you know that every time you sit down in London it costs you £20?) and then headed to Soho via a circuitous route because the bus that should have taken us there didn’t stop.

Walking up Charing Cross Road, I said, stunned, “I’m so confused. All of these shops used to be… to be…” A woman walking just in front with a small child, turned and said “Bookshops.” Yes, it was the word “secondhand” I’d been groping for. “It’s changed so much,” I said. And the woman’s daughter, who I’d say wasn’t more than four, said “Everything changes.” Too true, tiny child!

MONDAY

I went for a run. In London. The treadmill runs are going great, but I know running on pavement is so different so I decided to try going back to the start of C25K for the outdoor runs and it worked! I did the whole thing. Delighted with myself.

Harry wanted to see some of the many cat statues dotted around London, so we made our way to Camden and the former Carreras Tobacco Factory (the boys were both amused by the ‘Absolutely No Smoking’ signs).

Borough Market for lunch and then the Do Ho Suh exhibition (and unexpected Louise Bourgeois spider).

I thought the exhibition was beautiful. The boys were unimpressed, so I sent them home in disgrace. I didn’t really, they went home alone while I went to meet a friend for dinner and drinks in Soho.

TUESDAY

Up and out early to go up the chimney at Battersea Power Station. I used to have a recurring dream about a lift bursting out of the top of a building so the moment we emerged almost made me woof, but other than that it was incredible.

WEDNESDAY

Second outdoor run. In London! So delighted with myself that I took a photo.

And then we made our way to Euston, via a couple more cat statues.

And home to Noodles ♥️

What was your best school trip? Ever met a Beefeater? Do you have a favourite animal statue? (I like the rope horse in Liverpool, apparently designed to symbolise man's struggle to free himself from slavery, but actually represents man’s inability to not rub the balls of an anatomically correct horse.)