Mon 1: Looking at the weather forecast for Copenhagen, I really need a new waterproof jacket to replace the one I left on the top deck of a number 77 bus last year. Found one in Decathlon, but I bet it won't be smart enough amongst the sartorially superior Danes. Tue 2: I was trying to work out why there are so many more middle class twenty-somethings living in my block these days, and have concluded it's not because they're wealthier, it's because they've been forced to share four-to a flat. Wed 3: Walking through Regent's Park I saw a helicopter approach and was surprised when it landed very close to me on the playing fields beside a just-arrived ambulance. A small crowd gathered, and eventually a small patient was transferred into the helicopter and off they flew, watched over by a Royal Parks police officer attempting to keep people out of the blast zone.
Thu 4: Highlight of flight to Copenhagen... almost being able to see the Isle of Sheppey through a sliver of window. Fri 5: The only sunny day of the holiday, so I force my travelling companions on a 10 mile route march around the city to tick off a dozen tourist attractions, on the proviso that they can sleep in as long as they like tomorrow morning. Sat 6: They sleep in as long as they like, so we reach our first tourist attraction of the day at 2pm and all the tickets have sold out. Sun 7: Stumble home at four in the morning, only to be woken at ten by our Airbnb hosts returning home early because they "thought we'd have flown home by now".
Mon 8: I like how the BBC weather forecast map includes Denmark, because the UK is portrait but a TV screen is landscape, so I've enjoyed watching all the showers dampening Copenhagen. Tue 9: Almost like clockwork, two days after stepping off a plane I develop a sniffly cough that'll plague me for the next week (and not go away for two). Wed 10: My local library has removed its cosy seating area and replaced it with an IT hub kitted out with a dozen tablets, supposedly so that local residents without computers can still access council services. It is of course completely empty. Thu 11: A bumble bee got stuck in a spider's web outside my window, so I thought I'd rescue it with the aid of a stick, but in reaching out I managed to knock my favourite clock off the windowsill, and now it doesn't work properly any more, and that's what you get for interrupting nature. Fri 12: The mouth of Chelsea Creek is now accessible, so long as you don't mind walking brazenly past signs saying 'Private' into a waterside community of eyewateringly exclusive apartments. Also two new footbridges now cross the river, linking to locked doors in the side of Lots Road Power Station, which somehow still isn't flats yet.
Sat 13: If you're of an age which means your favourite music is alternative late-70s/80s/early-90s, and fancy two hours of Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Cure and Garbage every Saturday evening, you'll likely enjoy Stereo Underground from BBC local radio in the southern counties (subscribe now via BBC Sounds). Sun 14: The Cricket World Cup final was such a cavalcade of unlikely events that I don't see how anybody can be 'proud' of England's victory, rather than considering the outcome to be utterly damned lucky. Mon 15: St Swithin's Day was sunny, if you're counting. Tue 16: I rewalked London Loop section 23 from Rainham to Upminster Bridge, because Havering is nicer than you think, and along the way diverted up to the summit of Ingrebourne Hill, a reclaimed landfill heap, and had the whole place to myself (other than the flying ants) and the 360° view was glorious.
Wed 17: I rang the Oyster helpline because I'd been overcharged, and the first time the call got cut off, and the second time it was like pulling teeth, so I bet I spent more on the phone calls than they refunded me. Thu 18: The most surreal moment on my Severn Valley Railway journey was when the yob in the seat behind me got his phone out and started playing a video really loudly without headphones... and the video was the 'Four Candles' sketch by the Two Ronnies, and the yob turned out to be the guard. Fri 19: Damn, I've been switched over to New Twitter, and obviously I don't like it because change is bad. In particular I hate the way it doesn't update in the background any more, because that's buggered up how I use it. I also long wistfully for the days when you could read more than two tweets on the same screen. Sat 20: The Deputy Mayor for Transport has tweeted a map of all the TfL bus routes in London, and before you get excited nobody's reversed any map-making decisions, but here's the large version. Sun 21: I think this is the first year that the Lambeth Country Show has had a queueing slalom to enter both the novelty vegetable sculpture tent and the Chucklehead Cider stall.
Mon 22: I never fail to be amazed by the difference between Central line neighbours Loughton and Debden - one a well-to-do The Only Way Is Essex hotspot and the other a council estate with a lowly parade of struggling shops. Tue 23: Three years ago I wrote a post tabling eight different futures, and today it was confirmed we've ended up with Future Number 1 (Brexit/Trump/Boris). One day A-Level students will write essays about how this happened. Wed 24: At lunchtime Theresa May was still Prime Minister, and by bedtime almost all of the Cabinet had been replaced and a far-right coup was successfully underway, and it's been three years since a day depressed me this much. Thu 25: I went to Heathrow Airport and stood beside the weather station on the Northern Perimeter Road at approximately the same time as it was recording Heathrow's highest ever temperature (37.9°C), and it's a shame about the clouds which rolled in otherwise it might have beaten the UK record, but instead Cambridge got that (in a much more pleasant location).
Fri 26: I got overcharged for my lemon tart at the supermarket. Someone put the reduced sticker on the opposite side of the box to the bar code and so the nice lady on the till completely missed it and charged me full price. Still, when I went back and politely complained they gave me the lemon tart for free, so all's good. Sat 27: The District line was 150 years old last year, so this year TfL have been handing out 50 free tote bags to lucky passengers at every station, so long as you happen to be there during the designated half hour slot. Today it was the turn of Becontree to Bow Road, so I've got one now thanks. Sun 28: I have a gladiolus on my balcony which, most summers, suddenly bursts forth with a single stalk of red flowers which bloom sequentially for about a week. It's ablaze right now... and ooh, it looks like two more stalks are pushing through, which'd be a first.
Mon 29: The replacement of the railway bridge between Alton and Chawton continues - the new one's now in place but the new link road underneath isn't yet finished - so the WatercressLine still isn't running east of Medstead. Don't get your hopes up it'll be complete by the end of the summer. Best come back next year. Tue 30: One of the joys of hitting your fifties is that when a part of your body starts aching, and is still aching three weeks later, you don't know whether it's a temporary thing or whether it heralds a condition you'll be living with for the rest of your life. Almost certainly the former, obviously, but there again... Wed 31: One day I will remember to start writing this post earlier in the month, ideally on Day One, rather than having to scrabble around at the very end trying to remember what was quirky and interesting.
