One of the best ways to escape the sticky heat of London in August is to take a short trip north of the city to Hampstead. In this "leafy" suburb of NW3, as the natives like to call it, one of London's largest parks is tucked in behind the high fences of diplomats' houses and the mansions of Arab businessmen. It is a closely guarded secret.
It can be a difficult place to find, unless you know it is there. The local residents are keen to keep their secret garden to themselves. But come the summer, even without signposts to guide the way, most Londoners spend at least one Saturday afternoon on Hampstead Heath.
There are some things about Londoners, myself included, that you get used to in time. No one seems able to cope with the Mediterranean weather. Walking home in the evenings you notice that everyone has thrown their windows open in the vain hope that a slight breeze might cool them down. Londoners love to complain about the heat.
Office workers and young children alike become tetchy in the summer and it seems only the Japanese and American tourists in Covent Garden can cope without fresh air. But come the weekend Londoners forget the fumes and the traffic along Oxford Street and the warm cans of Coke in the cafe beside the office and set off for the cool retreat of the parks.
At Kenwood House, set in the grounds of Hampstead Heath, the "Music in the Park" event this summer has attracted thousands, who sit back with their sandwiches and listen to Stravinsky one week and Gershwin the next. The constant din of traffic and the smell of the tube seem a million miles away. Indeed, there is so little noise apart from the conversation of the people sitting next to you on the grass it is hard to believe that this is London.
The trick at Kenwood House is to avoid paying £11.50 to sit on the grass and listen to the concert, and it can be done legally. The house, bequeathed to English Heritage in the 1920s by the 1st Lord Iveagh of the Guinness family, sits at the top of a hill overlooking a lake that would not have looked out of place on the set of Pride and Prejudice. And with three large areas of heath circling the house, it's not difficult to find a spot of grass in the public area to sit and listen to the concert on the other side of the trees. If you arrive in the early afternoon, you can listen to the orchestra practise and then make your way to Hampstead village at the top of the hill and take your pick of Italian food at Villa Bianca or French at the Dome restaurant. Certainly, the better the weather is in London the more people you will see sitting outside at tables eating their mixed salads or tortellini. And with the chance that you will be served by an Italian or French waiter, it simply adds to the Mediterranean ambience of a hot summer in London.
Friends visiting from Belfast and Kilkenny have confirmed that, although Londoners love to complain about the weather, hot or cold, it is one of the true delights of London.
Of course one of the difficulties of London in the summer is the Underground, when it is packed with sweaty commuters. But then we all feel sweaty and sticky so there isn't any mileage in complaining - at least to fellow passengers. It's much better to complain under your breath like a true Londoner.
Once you have escaped the tunnels, one of London's many churches is the best place to sit and contemplate something other than the heat. St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey are havens for tired feet and minds.
Although it may have been hard for pink-skinned Londoners to shed the city uniform of jacket and trousers, the sight of men walking to work in shorts this month has been a revelation. The women too, although gradually, have got used to the idea of skirts and dresses without tights. But come the end of September, we all know that our windows will be closed at night and the days of eating our lunch at pavement cafes will be over. Perhaps if we could have just a few more sunny days . . .