Deciding to walk home, I left East Finchley along the main road, past the library, past Alan’s Record Shop and over the flyover that crosses the noisy North Circular, then up the ridiculously titled Leisure Way.
I walked past the Hollywood Bowl and the Vue Cinema, and there was a strong smell of marijuana lingering in the air – like Camden Town on a summer evening. I walked up into North Finchley, trying not to be put off by the constant roar of traffic.
There was litter everywhere: beer cans, bits of cars, bits of pizza, broken biros, broken umbrellas, cigarette butts, cigarette packets, coffee cups, coffee cup lids, Coke cans, crisp packets, drinking straws, exploded fruit juice cartons, food packaging, fried-chicken boxes, lost gloves, McDonald’s wrappers, plastic bags, plastic bottles, plastic bottle lids, soggy cardboard, sweet wrappers and two bottles of glue.
What a horrible mess we have made of this country. I’d like to think there's still time to fix this problem – all you need is a forward-thinking government. Is that too much to ask?
In North Finchley, I couldn't resist going in a few charity shops. In North London Hospice I bought a £1 DVD (Bill Forsyth's 1983 masterpiece Local Hero, which I have been looking for for a long time), and in Cancer Research I bought a couple of CDs.
From North Finchley to Whetstone I was walking in medium-to-heavy rain, but it was quite refreshing because I had got hot wearing too many clothes following the "snowpocalypse" of last week.
Cats spotted: 0
