Sat 1: The world is still reverberating after Trump and Vance admonished Zelensky in the White House yesterday, and you can sense that 2025 is going to be a turning point in geopolitical history but not in a good way. Sun 2:Fish and Ships, the smart chippie just west of Victoria Park, has folded and been replaced by yet another cafe doing yet more coffee. Daytime refreshment is increasingly where it's at. Mon 3:Last month I told you about the Algerian visiting London who'd spotted one of his father's poems inscribed by the Millennium Dome and contacted me via Flickr to try to find precisely where it was. I'm delighted to say that I got a message after he'd flown home saying "I was able to find the location thanks to your message! My father was really happy to see that it was still there :)", so hurrah for the internet. Tue 4: If you upgrade your broadband contract in March they let you skip the 1st April price increase. Also, when your 24 month contract expires it's March again. Wed 5: The salon at 733 Leytonstone High Road is called Gent's Barber Shop, an apostrophe error repeated three times across multiple signage. They got Men's Haircuts right on the price list but also claimed these cost 15£, so I'm not giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Thu 6: A film crew had taken over a street on the eastern edge of the City with a long-armed camera raised in the middle of the street to film what looked liked a police chase along the balconies of the Middlesex Street Estate. Unfortunately I missed the action, merely hanging around for quarter of an hour during a reset, but I now want to know what they were filming and whether I'll ever see it. Fri 7: I walked to a nearby tube station to get my Senior Railcard discount added to my Oyster card. The member of staff looked mildly peeved and said "oh I suppose so", before adding it swiftly and professionally. I won't say where this was, but it is the station I most associate with passive aggressive signage. Sat 8: My body has decided to celebrate my upcoming birthday with a massive blister on my left foot. I managed a five mile walk in the Essex countryside no problem, thankfully, but decided against the eight mile option. Sun 9: There's a colourful poster in the waiting room at Croxley station which says "You are Loved & Wanted in London". This might be a warm, comforting and inclusive message were it not for the fact Croxley is not in London so it looks creepy and weird. If you're responsible for slapping up TfL posters, perhaps don't thoughtlessly post Mayor of London propaganda in Hertfordshire.
Mon 10: This new chess programme on BBC2 is very poor, all personality-obsessed and over-excitable with confected tension and barely any focus on the chess. Bring back The Master Game! Tue 11: On the Scott Mills Breakfast Show they were discussing the songs people wanted played at their funeral, then a few records later played the song I want played at mine. It's barely two minutes long so would slot in perfectly at the start. Wed 12: BBC4 have started repeating The Fall And Rise of Reginald Perrin again, and this brought hundreds of people to the blog keen to find out where in Ealing his house was located. Great! Super! Thu 13: Following a Windows update, my laptop has started showing a row of browser thumbnails every time I accidentally hover over the taskbar. This annoying feature is the default behaviour but previously I'd managed to find a cunning registry tweak which stopped it. Alas they've now nullified the tweak so it's inescapable. What's wrong with giving us choices rather than a single prescribed option?
Fri 14: It's been several years since the legendary hot cross bun ceremony was held at The Widow's Son in Bromley-by-Bow, mainly because the pub's suffered repeated ownership crises, but in good news it's open again so things should be up and hanging again this April. The owner said hi anyway. Sat 15: I went for a walk up the Olympic Park and got lucky beneath the cycle bridges, spotting my first kingfisher since 2021. It skimmed low above the river for at least 100m, like a sharp blue dart, and I suspect it was looking for brunch. Sun 16: Walking through Stepney I assumed the gleaming gold-fronted bakery on Ben Jonson Road must be a gentrified interloper but it is in fact the same business as before - Johnny Walls - now focusing on pastries and drizzled treats rather than a traditional but lacklustre selection of pasties and loaves.
Mon 17: Had a 40 minute phone chat with my nephew about life and stuff. This never normally happens (and should probably be more normal). Tue 18: I was going to write a post about fractional addresses, having spotted a cafe at 1½ Ardleigh Road in Dalston, but then my 60+ card turned up so I wrote about that instead. Another day. Wed 19: Today, striding across sunny Farthing Downs, was the first "I've worn too many layers I need to take one off" day of 2025. Thu 20: Last time I visited Crewe Market Hall I feared for its commercial success, the sense of tumbleweed being palpable. But I walked in tonight and every table was packed with happy punters enjoying food and drink, and all because Thursday night is Quiz Night (from 7pm, hosted by The Cat). This is what successful community engagement looks like. Fri 21: I spotted a new Silvertown Cycle Shuttle bus out doing driver training near City Hall. The bus you saw at the press junket might have had a snazzy blue vinyl wrap but this had a bog-standard red exterior, as hijacked off route 323.
Sat 22: Merton council are celebrating the borough's 60th birthday with community parties and a festival. The only borough which isn't 60 tomorrow is Harrow which is 90. Sun 23: On a packed purple train speeding into Paddington, a kind younger gentleman offered me a seat. Sigh, I thought, how does he know I've just turned 60? It's not the first time it's happened, the first being when I was 58, but I really don't need a seat (yet) thanks, so feel free to hold off for several more years. Mon 24: On the radio travel news I heard about delays on the M67 in Denton, and previously that would have gone right over my head but this time I was thinking "ooh, I know where that is, just past the station and the KFC approaching that giant roundabout", and this is how travel broadens your mind. Tue 25: Does anyone know why a pub in Rotherhithe might be rammed with hockey players on a Tuesday evening? Wed 26: Some BBC Sounds programmes I've enjoyed this month: a 2 hour Johnnie Walker tribute on what would have been his 80th birthday; X-Man - an 8 part series psychoanalysing the fantasy roots of the Elon Musk origin story; a '5 years on' documentary using archive clips to document the 3-month emergence of Covid; a 60th anniversary look at what the children in the Sound of Music did next. Thu 27: I bought fish and chips at the splendidly traditional Uncle Jim's Fish Bar in Plaistow. While I was waiting at least two youths came in for a kebab but left when they spotted the sign saying Cash Only, and I don't know how the business survives in this modern age.
Fri 28: A new Brambly Hedgewalking trail is being added on Chingford Plain, looping round Connaught Water with 17 delightful wooden hedgehog sculptures to spot. Author Jill Barklem lived locally in Loughton. The official launch will be in the summer once they've finished the all-weather path, but given the lack of rain recently the usual mudbath is absent so you could delight your toddlers now. Sat 29: If you're wondering where my final Bow Roundabout roadworks update is, they still haven't removed the cones in the contraflow lane, three weeks after everything else vanished, despite everything looking fully complete. Rest assured a lengthy write-up will appear eventually. Sun 30: I was waiting at Bus Stop M this morning when a 276 bus approached and pulled over. I boarded and the conversation went like this... Driver: You're supposed to hold your arm out. Me: But it's not a request stop. Driver: Are you telling me how to do my job? Me: Are you telling me how to do my bus stop?
He reiterated the need to signal and I pointed out I'd been using this stop for 25 years without a requirement to do so. The conversation remained civil, if increasingly strained, and I decided to withdraw from the bus to avoid further awkwardness. Mon 31: I managed to write today's post by tethering my laptop to my mobile, opening up a blank Blogger window, de-tethering to save on data usage, writing for hours, then finally tethering again and pressing publish. Links and photos will follow after my broadband is reconnected.
