When I woke this morning I was really happy at my adventures from yesterday. They may not have been big – I found a vintage board game! But, what got me was how that little task gave me a great sense of mission – and it was fun. It wasn’t something I HAD to do, it was something I WANTED to do.
And so today, I decided to carry on with this.
Today, I would continue my search for another vintage board game in a different part of town via some more as-yet-for-me-unridden-bus-routes. So I start the day at East Finchley. Now, there’s a very good reason why I started the day here, and that was because I had slyly put into my diary a little property viewing.
It wasn’t something I was meant to be doing and I don’t really want to move, given I’ve only been in my revamped flat a few months, but in the spirit of finding more happy, I decided I would go take a look and stop wondering and pondering and instead go see.
So, the block of flats is ideally situated on the A1 which is great for traffic watching. It also backs onto a little stream and the multi-million pound homes of The Bishops Avenue. The block ‘Belvedere Court’ is a Grade II listed block built in the 1930s and the reason why I so wanted to look inside was my attraction and addiction to the circular bit – and I’d found a flat for sale in one of the circular bits!!
So once inside the building, replete with in-keeping carpets, I look around wanting to feel like I wanted to live there. Once up inside the circular reception I am prepared to be dazzled and wanting to move straight away.
Alas, the feeling never comes. But I am happy with that. I am happy that I don’t want to move and that I have now seen and got rid of this idea I had in my head.
And so onwards.
East Finchley doesn’t produce much of interest and I soon find myself on the bus to Crouch End, via a small transfer at Muswell Hill (again!).
Crouch End is a fab place. There’s lots of shops, bars and restaurants and the area, despite being a bit of a grey, dreary day has a lovely bustle to it. And so I bustle here and there…and despite managing to resist temptation at many lovely looking food places, cannot walk by the bath buns for sale. 90p lighter and a whole inch wider on my hips I continue.
Many shops later and I am dizzy with offerings – but nothing of the vintage game offering which is what I’d come out in search for.
I did, however, manage to pick up a delightful pop-up book about Victorian Houses. I know I’m not the target, but similarly to the bath bun, there are some things I just cannot resist.
Up and down the high street I wander. In and out. Here and there. And then in the last shop of the Broadway, stuffed unceremoniously under a shelf full of soft toys I spy my prize: The Game of Life.
How I didn’t burst into song is beside me. I clutch greedily at the box, tossing the soft toys willy-nilly and canter to the cash desk.
“I have been looking all over North London to find this!” I declare to the serving lady. She looks at me bemused, perhaps wondering to herself if I’d heard of the internet.
“I didn’t want to buy it online,” I tell her, anticipating her thoughts, “I wanted the thrill of the hunt – to find my happy!”
At this point, even I am aware of my OTT exhilaration and start to edge back. Need to tone it down.
She grabs the game from me and smiles broadly.
“This is a brilliant game, I was playing it with my nephew just recently – he got so mad because he kept having babies!”
OMG I almost faint – a fellow gamer who understands my thrill!
“I’d never played it before – you will have so much fun!” She continues.
Encouraged by her willing excitement, my spirits raise even higher and I spout yet more about my life that she doesn’t need to hear – in great detail -about my board game day and how excited I am.
I’m sure she wished she’d never asked.
But she didn’t say anything.
Instead, she listened enrapt, like I was telling her the *most interesting thing* ever. And then she replied. “You know, that sounds so much fun, you must come back and show me the photos.”
Finding More Happy? Her comment made my day 🙂