Mon 1: I no longer shop at Waitrose but I have two of their bags for life which I've used over 100 times during the last five years. Both bags are now pretty tatty with minor holes, and today one of those holes grew to catastrophic proportions during my journey home (as several passers-by kindly pointed out). No groceries were lost to the traffic on the A11, but it's finally time to get this one swapped. Tue 2: Back in 2018 I succeeded in riding aboard every London bus route over the space of 20 weeks. This year I thought I'd do that again and this time it took me 23 weeks because I wasn't taking it quite so seriously. That's at least one stop on every single route, including the dead annoying 385, 467 and X68. My first bus was a 191 back in February and my last was a 327 today, with 545 others inbetween. I fear the task might be harder soon. Wed 3: I took my Waitrose bag for life back to Waitrose. "We don't do bags for life any more," said the lady at the information desk. I pointed out where it said 'Recyclable bag, replaced free'. "We don't do bags for life any more," she said. I pointed out where it said 'The cashier will replace it when it is worn out'. "We don't do bags for life any more," she said. It turns out they stopped last September so I missed my chance. And it turns out what she should have done is offer me a 10p refund, but instead I left feeling about an inch high. Thu 4: I hate it when I visit a location and only while doing my research afterwards do I discover I narrowly missed seeing something unexpectedly famous a couple of minutes walk away. Fri 5: For the record, a 99 from one of the ice cream vans on Westminster Bridge costs £3.50. It's not exactly good value but I confess I was expecting it to be higher.
Sat 6: I told somebody I'd never met before what the Mystery Count is, and they were totally shocked because they weren't expecting that. Sun 7: A group of festival-going teens in my tube carriage were drinking from purple cans of beer and holding suspicious looking balloons, so I was mighty impressed when the driver left his cab and turfed them off at Whitechapel. "Are you telling us drinking alcohol is banned?" said the ringleader, unaware it'd been illegal since she was a toddler, and ended up getting a lecture about nitrous oxide instead. The group tried sneaking on again at the other end of the train but station staff weren't having that either. Mon 8: I took my Waitrose bag for life into Tesco in case the cashier there would replace it. "We don't do other people's bags," she said. So much for bags for life. Tue 9: I'd like to apologise to the two authors I know whose books I just borrowed from the library, rather than buying a proper hardback copy. Wed 10: The rose bush on my balcony has suddenly excelled itself by bringing forth ten ruby red blooms, all on a single new branch confirming that pruning really works. Thu 11: I spotted an advert for classified ads mag Loot outside a shop on the South Bank claiming "On sale here" and "it's the way you sell 'em", even though Loot folded in 2014. Fri 12: For this month's 'Programmes you might enjoy on BBC Sounds' I offer In Suburbia, a three part documentary in which Ian Hislop muses on the cultural significance of the outskirts (yes there's Betjeman, but also Hanif Kureishi and JC Carroll from The Members) and also a one-off documentary on the unfortunate history of public transport in Leeds.
Sat 13: I was waiting for a bus outside Romford station and this double-decker 375 turned up, which seemed a ridiculous luxury for what's officially one of London's 12 least used bus routes. Sun 14: The great John Rogers makes videos about walks, particularly East London walks, so I was delighted when this week's walk along the Mayes Brook was based on a post I wrote in 2016. The responsibility for getting the route right felt immense. Mon 15: I bit into a Kit-Kat and it was entirely waferless - all chocolate - and it was like discovering the four leaved clover of confectionery. Tue 16: I should probably restart my laptop a bit more often rather than endlessly putting it into Sleep mode. Wed 17: In an unexpected development, the Dangleway is now plastered with Pokemon vinyls as part of a brand synergy opportunity related to an event at ExCel this weekend. Catch 'em while you can.
Thu 18: The front of the old bit of the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel now says Tower Hamlets Town Hall on the front in gold letters, so that project's finally getting serious. Fri 19: This morning diamond geezer received its eleven millionth visitor, and in the past I've done a celebratory post every million visitors but this time I thought I'd give it a miss because eleven isn't so special. Maybe I'll make a fuss of twelve next year. Sat 20: At a set of traffic lights in Gunnersbury a driver pulled out of a sideroad, blocked the bus lane ahead of us and refused to reverse. A honking/swearing match ensued, which ended with a one-finger salute as the car eventually drove off. Some people think they rule the road. Sun 21: Yes she should have been looking where she was riding that bike, but no it's not true that "everyone who gets on a bicycle loses their brain", and no wonder public discourse in this country is in serious trouble. Mon 22: Supermarket update: My local big Tesco has permanently sealed the automatic doors closest to the street so now you have to walk all the way down to car park end to gain access. Apparently it's because of a knife incident, but this also comes on top of ripping out the tills at the street end and extending the self-service zone, as if management can't be bothered to pay for a staff presence any more. Tue 23: If you like tracking down identical-but-decorated larger-than-life models of animals, head to Bromley town centre where the Owl Prowl is underway. n.b. if you saw the Big Hoot in Hemel Hempstead back in March don't bother coming because these are the same dozen.
Wed 24: I walked through the grounds of Mount Vernon Hospital and was struck by how varied/cheap/ugly/unloved the assortment of buildings looked, because the NHS doesn't waste what little money it has on nice buildings. Thu 25: I rang my bank to see if they'd increased their interest rates and was pleasantly surprised to end the call with a new account paying 1.5%. It's been 13 years since I last got over 1%! "We can't send you an email when we put our rates up," said Alan, "and perhaps you could upgrade online next time rather than contacting us". Fri 26: Ellen from MyLondon has written a particularly vacuous 'news story' about Brewdog Waterloo based entirely on my recent blogpost and the subsequent Twitter furore. Her reportage focused on the high price of a pint ("One shocked social media user, Adam Becket, couldn’t believe it after he’d discovered a regular pint of the brand’s beer would exceed £7") and highlighted the fact I'd managed to discover how much a bowl of chips cost. Ellen is occasionally allowed out of the office to write stories based on first-hand evidence (‘I went to London's best Ecuadorian restaurant and it's the city's ultimate hidden gem’) but this clickbait shitpostery is increasingly what counts as local London news these days. Sat 27: Made a good start filling in the double alphabetical jigsaw prize crossword (and on Sunday hit 85% complete, including that ridiculous praying mantis, and finally polished off the lot on Tuesday). Sun 28: In the last week I've been ten metres into Kent (by entering a garden centre), 30m into Herts (by crossing a car park), 100m into Essex (by getting off a bus) and today 400m into Bucks (by following a towpath).
Mon 29: Spotted in Pagham just off the A23/A27... He-Van, Movers of the Universe. Tue 30: If you rely on my RSS feed to tell you I've written a new post, my apologies because it's been increasingly lethargic in noticing recently. It used to take a few minutes but recently it's been taking up to two hours and today it took a record 3 hours 15 minutes. This also affects updates to my Twitter account @diamondgzrblog, so my apologies if you've started wondering where on earth the latest post is. Wed 31: Since I got my z1-3 Travelcard six months ago I've been all over zones 4, 5 and 6, as you've probably noticed, but still managed to spend less than £10 on Pay As You Go. If you're patient you can get almost anywhere by bus rather than splashing out on trains.
