The excitement of it. Another appointment at the Dentist.

I’ve never looked forward to a trip to the dentist as much as in 2021. Why? Because it’s a day out. Well not quite a day but most of it. Boy do I need one. This last lockdown has been a struggle. A mixture of the weather. Not seeing other people and engaging in everyday frivolities. Buying take away coffees and not being able to linger for the conversation. Being together in a household just the two of us. For 12 months. Usually we spend time apart. Different counties or countries. In 30 years we have never spent so long continually in each other’s company! But we are still talking even if Ian does say that most of it is nonsense.

With the sun shining I set off with a little trepidation. Would the train be busy. Would I feel any pain. Would I need the loo.

But first a walk to the station through our local park and through Holly Grove shrubbery. Spring has really sprung. Maybe a little early if the forecast is to be believed but the flowers were out in abundance. Our local council maintains the park and the shrubbery and I have to say does a great job.

The train was um. Empty. Two people in the whole carriage. Three including me. The 10.11 to London Victoria. Yes. Not rush hour but still empty. I had two choices. Victoria or London Bridge. As it was dry and sunny I chose the former. That way I could walk to Wimpole Street using a different route to last week.

It was bizarre again. The station was quiet. Not empty but quiet. I headed up past Lower Grosvenor park and skirted the garden walls of Buckingham Palace heading up to Hyde Park.

I’ve never really stopped at this little park but to be honest I don’t usually walk this way. Yes. There’s a joke in there but I’ll move on. It was the shell huts that I saw which made me want to know more. After nearly 40 years in the city I can still be an excited tourist.

I did a little detour down a side street and past The Goring Hotel. It’s on my list for afternoon tea when we can go out and about again. Featured heavily when there was a royal wedding.

Because you can take your time just looking around and not dodging other pedestrians you see more. No elbows. No one walking at you on their mobile and bumping into you and snarling. Like it’s all your fault.

I once read that you should look up at the buildings. You get to see so much detail. But also to look around you. This great bug hotel ‘ The Goring’ on the wall opposite the main hotel would have normally been missed.

The perimeter of the gardens of Buckingham Palace stretch for an age. High security. Cameras ~ I did a little wave as I walked past. Not sure if anyone was in.

Buckingham palace occupies 42 acres and the gardens are Grade II* listed. I have been in the gardens once. Not over the wall I might add but had the excitement of being invited to a garden party. To be honest what I saw of the gardens didn’t excite me. But maybe I didn’t see it all. Maybe I was looking at the net curtains.

Your never far from a statue or two in London. What essentially is a roundabout at the top of Constitution Hill is the Wellington Arch. A grade 1 listed monument and is across the road from Hyde Park.

Through the arches and past Rotten Row which as well as being empty of people was empty of horses. This wasn’t the crack of dawn it was 10.45am. A time when usually traffic would be buzzing and the pavements full. I had barely passed half a dozen people on the walk past Buckingham palace walls to this point. It was the same through Hyde Park. Yes. There were people out walking. But not that many.

I’m beginning to think statues are like buses. You don’t see one for ages and then all of a sudden three come along. Straight into the park and there he was.

The 18ft statue of Achilles, the Greek hero of the Trojan War, commemorates the soldier and politician, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852). It was installed by order of King George III and unveiled on 18 June 1822. Looking a bit cold and grey there Achilles.

I would have killed for a cuppa. But I suspect the toilets were closed and to be honest I can’t have one without the other. Not these days. And the cold weather.

As I headed out of the park I remembered the war animals monument on Park Lane and headed to have a look. I am usually on the No 36 bus or before the congestion charge and ULEZ driving along Park Lane. As I was walking and not in a hurry I had the time to stop and look.

It was inspired by Animals in War, a book by Jilly Cooper and a national appeal raised the £2 million cost of the memorial.

Something I didn’t expect to find in Mayfair. The Mayfair Chippy. I’ll remember for another day. A take away to eat in the park. I wonder if they do mushy peas.

An empty Selfridges. Usually this entrance is busy. People going in. Coming out with yellow bags. Today nobody was going anywhere.

The usually busy St Christopher’s Place. Restaurants closed. Shops closed. Galleries closed.

So onto the dentist. A 2 hour appointment. The second in just over a week. But I needed the rest after the walk from the station. Time to plan my return walk, to think of a different route. Typical. I arrived in bright sunshine but as I left the dentist the heavens opened and it was raining cats and dogs. That’s a stupid saying isn’t it?

I headed down through Soho into Covent Garden.

Floral street. The child in me always thinks of Terry Wogan when I see Floral Street. Why? Because he sang the floral dance. Not that I was a fan. Of the song I actually liked him when he did his interview show. But guess what. Floral Street was quite. Very.

Past the side street of the Royal Opera House with the twisted bridge over the road. If memory serves me right this is where the stage door is. Decades ago I was taken to the opera ‘Salome’ by a friend who knew Dame Gwyneth Jones. The first and only time I went backstage at Covent Garden to meet her in her dressing Room. I’d forgotten that. How??

When I first arrived in London I was fascinated with Covent Garden. I’d meet people at The Punch and Judy. Friends and relatives visiting would meet here too. Watching the street entertainers. The crowds of people. The piazza would be full. Not today. Not even the pigeons were around.

There are some great displays as usual to brighten up the market area.

Past The Lady which has moved out of its london offices. I knew it had been around for ages. The magazine was founded by Thomas Gibson Bowles the maternal grandfather of the  Mitford sisters. Bowles also founded Vanity Fair. The magazine has been produced since 1885. I haven’t had a continuous subscription.

Down to the Strand and to Charing Cross. My destination to catch the train. But I had time to kill and wandered down Villiers street. These arches and the rainbow doors may not mean much to you. But to a young man from Cardiff in the early eighties they meant one of the largest nightclubs I had ever seen.

Your never far from a green space in London and just next to Embankment Station are Embankment gardens which are kept beautifully. The beds a bit municipal for me but you can’t beat the colours.

The feeling had come back to my face. I’d stopped dribbling so it was time to head back home. Nothing less attractive than sitting in the train looking like this. But there again. Who is looking. There’s no one around.

It will be busier for sure on my next visit into central London as it’s not scheduled for a month. By then we will have passed 12 April and things will be slowly opening.

Well unless I can justify another walk. Maybe on the other side of the river. Maybe.