Fri 1: I've now been publishing my 'unblogged' posts for 5 years, i.e. I've done 60 of them, so to still be getting 50 comments on the latest one is quite something, thanks. Sat 2: I broke the news that tube platform tickets were being withdrawn tonight, except at Southwark, and people were unexpectedly very interested indeed. My tweet on @diamondgzrblog got 369,000 views making it my 4th most successful tweet ever. Thanks Geoff, thanks Tim. Sun 3: When I launch a quiz at 7pm it really shows up the fact that most of you only read the blog first thing in the morning. Quizzes are normally completed in a few hours at most, but my body parts quiz took thirteen and a half. Mon 4: This was September's "well I totally wasted my time going there and writing about it" day. People generally aren't interested in reports of events that have now finished (and yes I know you were interested, but you are not 'people generally'). Tue 5: I wrote about a place in London I hoped nobody had been to, it being an obscure wood on the very edge of Havering. But of course one of you thought you'd been, one of you said you'd been (but left scant evidence), one of you waxed lyrical about childhood memories of this precise area before the woodland was planted, and three days later one of you said it was on one of your running routes, and basically I hoped in vain.
Wed 6: I wrote about a place in London I hoped everybody had been to, it being world-famous Trafalgar Square, but of course eventually one of you chirped up and said you'd never been. Specifically you said "I’ve spent a fair amount of time visiting London but have never been to Trafalgar Square", whatever a fair amount of time actually is, and sorry David the rest of us just think that's a bit weird. Thu 7: I carried on updating my table of "Dates on which the temperature somewhere in the UK exceeded 30°C" as the heatwave progressed, and the September column got so wide that on Day 5 Google emailed me to say my blog was no longer mobile-compliant. Fri 8: I got 21 comments on my post about 21 London 21s, and 21×2 comments on my 21st birthday post, so thanks everyone, I love it when that happens. Sat 9: I have a stats package which keeps track of how many visitors turn up on the blog each day, and today was by far the lowest total of the month, for which I blame a) it being a Saturday b) sunny weather luring people outdoors c) writing about Open House. Sun 10: I don't usually publish an unfinished post but my Open House schedule was tiring so I abandoned several write-ups partway through, and it was quite liberating coming back later when I was less busy and adding the missing paragraphs. I suspect people generally didn't go back and read them (and yes I know you read them, but you are not 'people generally') Mon 11: So I did it again. Tue 12: My photograph of Prince Henry's Room, the hardly-ever-open pre-Great-Fire throwback on Fleet Street, inexplicably ended up in Flickr Explore as the day's 471st best photo which meant a global audience turned up to look at it, and it's subsequently got over 100 likes and come on guys, I take much better photos than that.
Wed 13: I thought I'd burst the Open House logjam with a post about changed bus routes, and it was my favourite kind of post because I tried hard to get the initial list right but you then collectively chipped in and pointed out where it was wrong so hopefully the end result was 100% correct. Thu 14: Sometimes I rush writing my post because I'm going out for the evening and I always hope you won't notice. Then I worry that nobody ever notices so I should go out more often. Fri 15: I have since been back to Brookside Close, the Harrow version, and I can report that construction has now begun on the site of the demolished garages (see photo number six) and that concrete mixers have to reverse out of the cul-de-sac causing minor traffic chaos. Sat 16: I didn't write a post about the nominal takeover of Bond Street station by a major fashion brand because that's what they want you to do. All publicity is good publicity, even when the general consensus is "sheesh, what were you thinking prioritising corporate greed over customer confusion?" Sun 17: Readers should be reassured that you don't need to leave me a comment saying "I enjoyed reading it even if I didn't comment" because I'm going to write it anyway. Mon 18: I apologise for creating another of those images that flicks between different photos every five seconds, I know some of you hate them, but otherwise you'd have seen half a dozen fewer photos.
Tue 19: I've started using different typefaces on the blog more often, indeed there was one day this month when (if your device was suitably equipped) the entire post was written in Comic Sans. Wed 20: This year I got away with eight posts about Open House visits, and I'll try just to do no more than seven next year. Thu 21: I have no plans to donate my 9TC 2100 TV/clock/radio/cassette to a museum, thanks. I haven't kept it for 40 years just to get rid of it (plus, as I said, the tape deck no longer works). Fri 22: I remain amazed that the wider media still hasn't picked up on the fact that the tube map now contains air-conditioning snowflakes because it's precisely the sort of easily-written-up trifle that normally makes waves online. Sat 23: I have no plans to run 20 questions hide and seek again, sorry, partly because some of you took it much too seriously, partly because some of you didn't take it seriously enough, partly because you didn't get close to narrowing me down, but mainly because collectively you didn't manage to ask me 20 questions. Sun 24: You thought it was a post about crisp packet colours but it was in fact about BBC local radio dumbing down, and alas all we proved that the masses can indeed be entertained by something dumbed down, mainstream and predictable. Mon 25: My Dad asked, and yes, the strange winged object in my photo of Hatchlands Park was a kite, not a giant killer insect.
Tue 26: I'm always intrigued when someone chooses to ask a question they could have Googled, but then I remember there are two kinds of people, those who use search engines and those who don't. Members of the latter group often look at the former in awe like they have some kind of information superpower. Wed 27: My thanks to the reader who noticed I'd muddled a Road and an Avenue and emailed me about it, and it was all sorted within three minutes. Thu 28: In future, rather than going for an annotated bus journey, I might just pick a random route number and ask if anyone remembers it. Fri 29: Well spotted Ashley. My report from 22 Bishopsgate was almost identical in parts to my report from 8 Bishopsgate because the view from two neighbouring superskyscrapers was always going to be very similar. Sat 30: This month's 'surely' total is four. Please don't risk a surely, especially a "Surely...?" because the answer is invariably No and you just look like a smug twat. Sun 1: Today is the 5th anniversary of my first Unblogged post, and yet for some reason I've decided to celebrate it with this self-indulgent self-referential meta post about the blogged rather than the usual eclectic smorgasbord of the unblogged. It will not happen again.
