Sat 1: Kept bumping into Spanish and German football fans all over parts of London nowhere near where the Champions League final would be taking place. It's amazing how far a stadiumful spreads out. Dortmund had by far the better kit, and by far the worst outcome. Sun 2:Unblogged fact from my Brockley Three Peaks Walk: In 1905 One Tree Hill was laid out as a formal park with regimental rows of London Plane trees. These have since been interspersed with more typical woodland infill (sycamore, ash, oak, blackthorn), a combination it's thought is unique. Mon 3: The News At One on BBC1 has just been extended to an hour, ostensibly by adding another 15 minutes of national news after the local news. It's also relocated from London to Salford. The extra bit seemed quite lightweight, mostly padding, speculation and plugs, and the run-up to the local segment now feels much the same. I kept watching for a week but it didn't improve, it just felt like costcutting, so after many years of lunchtiming I think I'll be switching to the evening bulletins instead. Tue 4: Even after all these years, I see they're still releasing the work I did. Maybe that's why they didn't need me any more. Wed 5: The big hilltop Olympic rings in the Olympic Park always used to be one-sided. I hadn't noticed this before but they're now coloured on both sides. Apparently a discussion was held to decide whether the sequence of colours should be backwards or forwards, and thankfully the correct option won.
Thu 6: In Crayford I found five places I'd never crossed the Greater London boundary before, one with a coal tax post, and you'll be pleased to realise I restrained myself and didn't blog about them. Fri 7: In my quest to spot all the numberplate letter pairs, I've seen another four this month bringing my total to 513 out of 519. Yesterday I saw XW on a Mercedes in Crayford, and today I saw XG in Hainault and RL on a Ford Fiesta outside a surgery in Gants Hill, meaning it's taken just over six months to get the X's and R's done. FYI the pairs I've yet to see are NR, UE/UT/UV and VH/VJ. Sat 8: I was a bit surprised when my westbound District line train pulled in at the middle platform at Tower Hill. I knew they'd removed the buffers and reconnected the tracks, but I didn't realise trains occasionally used them. n.b. the normal platform contained an Out of Service train. Sun 9: Went for a ride on an 74 year-old RT as part of the London Bus Museum's excellent 406 Heritage Running Day. All the buses leaving Kingston were rammed. Driver really struggled getting up Epsom Downs so we spent 10 minutes parked up overlooking the racecourse while the engine stopped steaming. Conductor had to nip off at Tadworth to buy 6 litres of water. Arrived at Redhill 51 minutes late.
Mon 10: Today Bin Days are changing across Newham. It's not just different days, it's also a new insistence that bins must be placed at the edge of your property or they won't be collected, and that's another weekly faff you can blame on budget-squeezing. Tue 11: I was sitting on the tram in New Addington when a bloke and a large slobbery dog boarded and sat behind me. I was somewhat startled when the dog's head appeared over my shoulder. Moved elsewhere sharpish. Wed 12: The listed gents conveniences beneath the Gladstone statue at Bow Church continue to deteriorate. The railings have been bust even more, probably after being hit by a vehicle, and the broken listed bollard has been rolled above the staircase so risks falling and smashing. As a sticking plaster it's all now been surrounded with cones and orange barriers, but someone needs to fund repairs fairly soon or this Victorian delight risks decaying beyond hope of resurrection.
Thu 13: Sometimes people you knew 20 years ago but fell off your radar fall back onto your radar again suddenly and without announcement, and that's nice. Hi Chris. Fri 14: The demolition team have now moved into the second half of Robin Hood Gardens, the brutalist estate by the Blackwall Tunnel Approach. The building looks fairly intact for now, despite the noise, but its months are numbered. Sat 15: In my local corner shop the normal-sized packets of crisps, Wotsits, Quavers, Skips, etc are all pre-printed with a price of £1.25. I suspect this is to stop shops overcharging but it seems wildly overpriced to me, especially compared to supermarket multipacks. Plan ahead! Sun 16: The Great Exhibition Road Festival in South Kensington was extensive and looked absolutely brilliant fun if you were a curious child (which I no longer am, but this is not a criticism). Also I got to walk right to the back of Imperial College for the first time, and it's enormous.
Mon 17: The list of monthly closing times on the gates of Greenwich Park includes March 19.00 (20.00 from start of BST) and October 19.00 (18.00 from end of BST)... and I would definitely have listed them as "from end of GMT" and "from start of GMT" instead. Tue 18: Thanks for your recommendation to read Laurie Lee's As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning as part of my classic A-Z library book odyssey. Unfortunately it wasn't in stock so I borrowed Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively instead and that was affectingly brilliant. Today I swapped it for On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (and wow, premature ejaculation has never been so dramatic). Wed 19: The tram network now has one of those nice "Out and about" posters (in conjunction with Time Out). Of the ten highlighted locations five are west of Croydon town centre, four are in the town centre and only one is to the east (Lloyd Park), suggesting Time Out doesn't think much of New Addington, Elmers End and Beckenham. Thu 20: My bank emailed to say they were making three of my bank accounts paper-free. I rang back to request they didn't, and was told I had to wait until after they'd done it and only then I could request them to be switched back. B'stards. Fri 21: Another thing I spotted before the Taylor Swift concert at Wembley was a mass gathering of crowd control operatives, each donning their numbered orange or pink tabard and clutching a brown paper bag containing a bottle of water and their food rations for the day. It's not all sparkly glamour.
Sat 22: Why in Doctor Who finales does Russell T Davies always destroy the universe only to magically bring everyone back with an improbable act of faith and emotion? Every time. Still, it's been a great series compared to some recent ones, and Ncuti is just magnetic. Sun 23: Was very surprised to wake up and find the sun shining in through my bedroom blind because it never normally does that. It did today because a) the sun's at its highest in solstice week b) I don't normally sleep that late. Mon 24: Spotted travel journalist Simon Calder in a coffee shop near Waterloo. He was very on brand, wearing a cycle helmet and carrying a Brompton. Tue 25: I discovered a mysterious tweet from a Chinese blogger which was sending thousands of clickers through to my blog. After translation the text said "I found an awesome blog that has been updated almost daily since 2002. The style of the blog still looks like it was in 2002, but every picture posted in it is actually very beautiful." I'd disagree that it's every photo, but thanks laixintao!
Wed 26: Got off the bus in Totteridge and walked down the ridge in dazzling heat through hay meadows alive with butterflies, right down to the trickly Dollis Brook, and there was absolutely nobody else around and it was glorious. Peak summer can be so fleeting. Thu 27: The latest show BestMate is treating me to, in weekly streaming chunks, is Ted Lasso. It's not bad for a show about football - think Ned Flanders meets Footballers Wives - and I like how it's set within a small chunk of Richmond. What I can't take seriously is every time they mention it's the end of the 2020 Premier League season because that's very much not how it played out. Fri 28: Westfield Avenue E20 (between the Park and the shops) is being seriously dug up at present, this to a) improve the cycling experience b) improve the pedestrian experience c) add extra pedestrian crossings d) add more greenery e) move the bus stops to more desirable locations. Good news, and yet all I can think is "How did they get it so wrong just 12 years ago?" Sat 29: Route 211 has finally been permanently diverted from Waterloo to Battersea Power Station. The Men Who Change Tiles have done their job and The Men Who Change Timetables have done theirs, but The Developers Who Change The Map Online have messed up spectacularly, combining old and new in an improbable ultra-zigzag mess.
Sun 30: Cost of ticket to Glastonbury = £355. Cost of 3 days of TV licence = £1.39. I have got phenomenal value out of my £1.39 over this weekend (plus I was much closer to a fridge, a sofa and a flushing toilet).
