Wed 1: It's good to see the stuff I was doing at work seven years ago is still being used. Thu 2: I was trying to work out which bus to take from Golders Green bus station, a key north London interchange, and it turns out there isn't a single helpful map anywhere and I ended up wandering across several dangerous bus lanes before eventually deducing that the stop I wanted was down the road. It's like they've given up. Fri 3: To celebrate the Platinum Jubilee I rode the whole of route 70 from Chiswick to South Kensington. It proved to be a slow convoluted trek via all sorts of well-to-do backroads, not best seen from a single decker. But I didn't blog about it because I learned my lesson with route 60 which I described in full for the Diamond Jubilee and now face blogging again when it becomes my birthday bus in three years' time.
Sat 4: The Platinum Jubilee concert was proper mainstream but a lot of fun (Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber excepted). But someone really should have noted that Diana Ross's voice sadly isn't what it was and unbooked her for Glastonbury later in the month. Sun 5: The irises on my balcony usually last a few weeks but this year they've only lasted one and then shrivelled, and I'm not sure if it's something I've done or something I haven't done or just the weather. Mon 6: Imagine if the Vote of Confidence in the Prime Minister had gone the other way, we could have had an even worse leader with trenchant state-shrinking views and the drive to carry them through, and sometimes be careful what you wish for. Tue 7: One of the many Crossrail lifts used to allow anyone to gain access to private passages on multiple floors nobody should have been able to enter, but they have now fixed it so that only two buttons work. Wed 8: I received one of those unexpected phone calls you really don't want to get, but within 48 hours it became clear that the alternative outcome could have been much worse, so it very much pays to ask. Thu 9: On the way home from Watford my Metropolitan line train was held up by a swan on the line. The driver was forced to divert at Croxley via the rarely-used North Curve and then reverse at Rickmansworth to get us to Moor Park. My 7 year-old self would have been utterly thrilled to have made that journey (and my 57 year-old self was pretty excited too). The swan was not harmed.
Fri 10: Things that appear on theNew Eltham village sign: apples, pair of semi-detached houses, beehive, steam train, sports pavilion, football, tennis racket, golf club and golf ball. I think they've overdone the sport there. Sat 11: After 18 months of thinking "ooh, my new phone's battery is holding up really well", there are now the first signs that it's slipping away a little faster and before long I might have to start charging it daily. Sun 12: Today's walk I never blogged about:theTrobridgehouses up Wakemens Hill, Roe Green Conservation Area, Eton Grove Open Space, the former De Havilland factory, Chandos Rec, Handel'schurch, Canons Park walled garden. Mon 13: BestMate is still testing positive for Covid ten days after feeling rough on the train home from Scotland, and I remain impressed by how many people I know are continuing to follow rules that no longer apply for the benefit of society at large. Tue 14: In the two years since I was last on Belmont Parade in Chislehurst, the corner shop (news and tobacco, newspaper deliveries, fax and photocopies, lottery, top-up. Oyster) has closed and been replaced by a dentist called Smile4U (your life-long partner for oral care), and I worry that nobody is documenting this inexorable incremental societal change.
Wed 15: They've been promising to redevelop Stroudley Walk E3 for at least eight years, probably much longer. This week works finally got underway, which has involved sealing off several decanted buildings and blocking off the entire southern half to create a construction compound, which has suddenly made getting to the remaining shops a lot more difficult (and probably for several more years, sigh). Thu 16: It's so warm today on Upper Tooting Road that our bus driver stopped to let kindly souls from the Khalsa Centre Gurdwara nip aboard and hand out free bottles of chilled water to everyone on board. Fri 17: A special hello to the neighbour who was so sure they were on the right floor of the building that they spent a full key-rattling minute trying to unlock my front door by mistake. Sat 18: I went but I never enjoy it and I left early. Sun 19: Today's walk I never blogged about: the Sunday market in Horniman Gardens (verdict: no), the Dawson's Heights estate (verdict: not currently), the unexpectedly good view from Dawson's Hill Park (verdict: ooh yes), the Alleyn's campus (verdict: overfenced), Green Dale Fields (verdict: common). Mon 20: In Winchmore Hill I passed a pub which already has a sign outside inviting you to book for Christmas, and I seriously doubt that anyone will be scanning their QR code to see festive menus any time soon.
Tue 21: A friend sent a photo message from 38000 feet above the Mid-Atlantic, and it only showed the back of the seat in front and the in-flight entertainment looked pretty poor, but wow wi-fi is really good these days. Wed 22: I'm reading the new Dave Eggers book, The Every, which is a sequel to his social media satire The Circle. It fizzes with ghastly authoritatian ideas the human race could plausibly sleepwalk into, but I'd hope never will. I also loved how it was precisely 577 pages long. Thu 23: Managed to grab a copy of the very last Time Out outside Tottenham Court Road station, and it turns out TfL have paid for a 6-page cover wrap, and their zoned culture map is very clever but simultaneously so diagrammatically flawed that I felt they were just taking liberties. Fri 24: Shocked by the US Supreme Court's verdict on Roe v Wade, which confirms that ghastly authoritarian ideas aren't just the province of fiction and that the human race is perfectly capable of sleepwalking into submission via the ballot box. Sat 25: I find the new purple circle on the Pride flag really distracting, mainly because everything else is a coloured stripe but also because it suggests previous flags weren't inclusive enough... and one day even today's flag may look disrespectfully out-of-date. Sun 26: Dammit, I nearly made it to six months of Wordle correctness but made a rookie error and blew RUSTY. I blame being distracted by the unexpected appearance of Bruce Springsteen. Mon 27: If I ever publish a book entitled London's Finest Retro Shopfronts, the West Wickham Cobbler totally merits a mention.
Tue 28: The first set of data from the 2021 census confirms that my home borough of TowerHamlets is the most densely-populated in England and also has the fastest growing population, up 22% since 2011. The new number you need to remember for the total UK population is 67 million. Wed 29: Dammit, one of the plastic covers on one of my earbud headphones has fallen off somewhere, could be anywhere, could even have been in Surrey. Thankfully I knew where I'd stored the tiny spares that fell out of the packet last year, so order was restored and no new purchase was necessary. Thu 30: I've travelled on the new section of Crossrail every single day since it opened (bar weekend closures for engineering works) and I wondered if anyone else can claim the same.
