please empty your brain below

I share your admiration for Dollis Brook, even though I have only encountered bits of it in a comparatively disorganised fashion. And you give us a good description of the first part, with the narrative drive following the southward movement and the gradual urbanisation.

With reference to Totteridge being nice, and expensive, I would agree that it is both, but neither follows from the other. Arguably Totteridge is the only village in London, so further generalisation is tricky. But if you widen the concept of village, all combinations of niceness/nastiness and expensiveness/cheapness are available.
Come across doggers a lot, do you?
I did the same walk on Saturday in the reverse direction and continuing from Moat Mount via the Scratchwood Open Space to pick up the 107 bus back to Barnet. Totteridge fields were at their best and you can easily convince yourself that you are in the middle of the country. Not certain what I would have made of Londonistas greeting me with "Fine day for it" and cryptic hand signals: perhaps a Masonic lodge out on a treasure hunt.
My guess would be that any Londonist readers who were doing the walk would have succumbed to the same embarrassment which seemed to affect DG. A far more practical, and less embarrassing, way of checking whether someone had read the Londonist article would be to ask the thoroughly uncoded question "Have you read the Londonist article?". Or is that too simple?
Moat Mount was fairly local to me growing up (I used to get the 292 to Scratch Woods to go play, or stay on to the swimming pool at Borehamwood) and I walked the Barnet section of the Loop about a year ago, but now you've inspired me to make a return trip to do this walk next week during half term!
Ha, just catching up with this. I'll be surprised if anyone ever overcomes the awkwardness to give the secret hand signal (I'm not sure even I would, and it was my dumb idea), but if even two people ever discover each other this way, I will die a contented man. Matt Londonist.










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