One of the perks of living in the smallest flat is Camden was being 10 minutes walk from Primrose Hill. Fifteen minutes if you wanted to get to the top (although there might be breathlessness involved, depending on fitness levels). Twenty minutes if you needed to pick up some houmous and wine on the way…
But those days are long gone. No more shoebox flat just off Chalk Farm Road, no more 75 second walk to one of the most popular/hyped pubs in LDN town, no more fighting through goths on Saturday when doing your weekly food shop. Instead I’ve shipped out to one of the safest (apparently… if all of the coverage on the *whisper* London riots are true…) parts of N16. A little garden, space to walk around the furniture, pubs where you aren’t 13 years older than half of the people there… there are a lot of perks. But one of the most recent and most smug-inducing occurred just days ago.
Bank holiday weekend called for a jaunty cycle to Primrose Hill with Olly. Perhaps I wasn’t quite so jaunty at the thought of it, but I’ve finished paying for the bike on the Ride2Work scheme, so it’s probably time to start riding it! After a 30 minutes slog (you wouldn’t believe what an exercise dodger I am!), some of which was ever so slightly up hill, we made it to the lovely Gloucester Road at the base of Primrose Hill where I tottered off on tired and wobbly legs to have a much needed and restorative cream tea. Earl Grey, scones and jam. NOM! And then came the really good stuff…
You can’t go to Primrose Hill without having a little peep around the shops. There was no point looking at overpriced Greek Salad in Shepherd’s as I was already full of cream tea, so I dragged Olly into a shop (which will remain unnamed) which specialised in “vintage treasures”. How can you not be interested in “vintage treasures”? I set to work looking for some exciting feature piece for the flat while Olly rolled his eyes in the corner, but it wasn’t long before I was eye rolling too..£27 for a teacup, a saucer and a side plate?! My whole set which included FOUR of each (they actually chucked in 2 extra cups and 1 extra saucer), and wouldn’t look out of place in a “vintage treasure” store cost £15 on ebay!
But before I could leave in a faux disinterested (it’s not that I didn’t want any of this stuff… I just wouldn’t pay for it…) huff, a little pale green jug caught my eye. Tinted glass, a moulded pattern and a deco handle. Almost worth the £30 price tag… if I hadn’t paid £5 for an identical jug in burnt yellow glass just a month before.
True a second hand shop in Dalston doesn’t sound quite as nice as a “vintage treasure” emporium in Primrose Hill, but a price tag that’s a sixth of the price makes up for it.
I plan on filling it with Gerber Daisies and using it as a vase. That’s if the DIY is ever completed to the point when I can actually invite dinner guests around… Oh well, one step at a time.
threesmallapples 
Leave a Reply