Gabi said yes: We can go to the Back to the Future musical (again). We have booked tickets for tonight. But first we start the day at the Disney Store on Oxford Street. There’s a massive amount of Stitch plush toys. Sadly Gabi can’t find the Christmas tree decorations and the figure that she had seen on the internet.

Then it’s time for lunch. In keeping with the evening programme, we have booked the Back to the Future Afternoon Tea, which has been on offer for a few months now. It’s definitely unusual and a reminder that not everything served on an étagère automatically qualifies as afternoon tea. Instead of sandwiches on the bottom plate, there are small burgers and hot dogs, instead of scones on the middle plate there are burritos, mac & cheese rolls and shrimp tortillas, and at the top there are brownies, apple cobblers and macarons.

We start the afternoon in Selfridges. Jellycat’s cute plush toys are still a big hit here. They even have ski goggles! And popcorn bags that double as a handbag. There’s also a fish & chips stand where you can order fish, chips and mushy peas – all in Jellycat plush toy form, of course. The food is then ‘prepared’ with great fanfare and packaged as a take-away, just as it would be at a real fish & chips stand.

After some more strolling through the Shoe Gallery and the Christmas department, we are back outside. We drive to the east of Oxford Circus and visit Carnaby Street and our favourite Liberty department store. Here, too, we are excited about the Christmas department. And Gabi finds the earrings she’s been looking for.

We move the car again to visit our other favourite department store, Fortnum & Mason. We buy a jar of mustard and the honeycomb that we like to eat with cheese. And of course we want to visit the Christmas department here too. In the delicatessen area in the basement, we order two bagels at the bagel bar. These will be our late-night dinner when we get home from the musical. On the way back to the car, I take out my iPhone quicker than ever: there’s a rare old Ferrari F40 driving through the street, obviously looking for a parking space. Wow!

We move the car again one last time as the maximum parking time is four hours. Then we are ready for the musical. That is, after we’ve eaten the burrito that we didn’t manage at lunchtime. I’ve put on my new red shirt, identical to the one Doc Brown wears at the end of Part 1 of the trilogy (along with the transparent tie and glossy yellow coat). But either no-one notices, or no-one comments on it. Gabi has been counting: It’s my fifth and her last time seeing the musical. I still really enjoy watching it. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll have the opportunity to see it in New York or Tokyo. It’s already on Broadway, and next year it will start in Japan. And there will be a North American tour through various cities. I’m delighted that the film, which is almost 40 years old, continues to captivate people all over the world.