When this blog started I wrote a lot less, included far fewer photos, didn't go exploring much and discussed topics of limited importance. What if I tried that again now?
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Hasn't it been really wet recently? It's rained in London every day this month so far, though January 31st was dry so it's only 12 consecutive damp days. According to my favourite weather site at Hampstead we've already had more than the average rainfall for February and it's only the 12th of the month, and that's on top of a January that delivered 175% of normal rainfall. Apparently we've only had ten dry days this year and half of them were over a month ago.
As for cloud there have only been six sunny hours so far this month, which is grim, whereas four days in the first week of January had seven hours each. The UK climate is often perversely atypical in one way or another so we can't read too much into this, but in good news Secret London says "Londoners Are Set To Face Rainy Weather Every Day For The Next Two Weeks" so it's sure to clear up soon.
The longest distance between consecutive Winter Olympics: Vancouver to Sochi (9553 miles) The shortest distance between consecutive Winter Olympics: Garmisch-Partenkirchen to St Moritz (145 miles)
Thursday, February 12, 2026
I was heading west on the Elizabeth line yesterday when the lady next to me tapped me on the shoulder and asked "Does this train go to Terminal 5?" No it doesn't, I said, it goes to Terminal 4. She seemed quite flustered by this news. I told her she should stay on and change at Terminal 2 but that went straight over her head. "It doesn't go to Terminal 5?" she said, more in shock than as a question. She was a smiley well dressed soul, at a guess Italian, and the intricacies of the Elizabeth line were beyond her comprehension. Just stay on, I said, and change at Heathrow. "I stay on to the end?" she asked, and I had to say no again because it's a right faff getting to T5 if you accidentally end up at T4 and don't know what you're doing. She looked even more tense and looked at me as if to say "I don't understand what's going on." I tried to show her the tube map on my phone, but the tube map at Heathrow is a complex knot combining two lines and that didn't help either. She tried asking again and I told her I had to get off the train at Bond Street but she should stay on to Heathrow and change there. "But it doesn't go to Heathrow T5?" she asked and I had to say no because it didn't, just stay on the train. She followed me onto the platform.
I wanted to point her towards to a T5 train on the departures screen but annoyingly there wasn't one. They only run direct every half hour and just our luck there wasn't one on the board. Instead I pointed at the next T4 train and specifically the yellow text saying "change at T2&3 for T5" but that didn't register either. I don't think she understood the concept of changing trains so the more I pointed the more confused she got. Her linguistic ability to ask a question seemed pretty good but her comprehension of my explanations less so. I hoped to be able to direct her to a helpful member of staff on the platform but annoyingly there weren't any. Bond Street is supposed to be the station where you alight to alert staff about accessibility needs out west but there was nobody to ask, not even on the concourse at the foot of the escalators. I eventually found a line diagram on the wall and pointed at T2, T4 and T5 to show how the line branched, but that only baffled her more. Get the next Heathrow train, I said, the train that says T4, then change later. She smiled, still baffled, and turned to ask another passenger on the platform "Will this train go to T5?" Yes, he said, even though it wouldn't, and that was the matter settled.
I wandered off defeated by my inability to help, and wondered what would happen as the lady's journey progressed. Would she get on the T4 train only to ask someone else "Does this go to T5?" and get off again. Would she find some other good Samaritan further down the line who'd explain everything satisfactorily? Would she consult an app and suddenly everything would become clear? Would she ride to the end of the line at T4 not T5 and collapse in a gibbering emotional heap? Or would she hang around on the platform at Bond Street for so long that a T5 train would eventually appear and all would be well? Some days the London transport system is just too baffling to explain, even if you get lucky and happen to ask someone who knows what they're talking about.
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Aren't Arsenal doing well at the moment? They could of course still balls it up but six points clear in February is pretty good, plus it's only Brentford tonight, plus Tottenham are basically imploding, plus Wigan are bound to be a doddle in the Cup. Also Arteta has been saying all sorts of meaningful things like "We have to focus on ourselves" and "Let's put all the energy into what we do" and "We have to be able to adapt" and "The players' qualities are the most important thing" and "You have to win a lot of games", and when you're being managed by a tactical genius like that nothing can stop you.
Thursday, February 12, 2026
I got a hyacinth for Christmas, essentially a bulb on a jar, and left it behind the curtains with some water to do its thing. According to the instructions you're supposed to leave it for 10-12 weeks but it's already burst into flower so I've shifted it to my windowsill instead. Unfortunately the thick stem is really floppy and keeps leaning over and I'm really struggling to keep it upright. I've tried turning the bulb, I've tried attaching an elastic band and I've tried resting it against a giant bobbin but it keeps slipping and leaning over anyway. My latest brainwave is to blutak a green Berol pen to the windowframe so it sticks out, then rest the hyacinth on that, but I'm not convinced it'll ever stay put for more than an hour or two.
Anyone else have problems with floppy hyacinths and know how best to keep one upright?
2026 means local council elections in London and the early collateral is already piling into my letterbox. The Greens left a card saying they'd called, with a handwritten "Sorry we missed you". They've also sent Issue 1 of 'Bow East News', which to be fair contains very little about Bow East and is more about the three candidates. One's a research scientist, one's a legal assistant and one is the Head of Public Affairs and Communications for a Palestine Rights organisation. Labour's candidate for Mayor of Tower Hamlets also came round, got no response and left a leaflet but that's more a survey about what I want rather than what he's offfering. Nothing yet from the Liberal Democrats or Conservatives or Aspire but the election is still three months off, plus Aspire don't need support from my ward to sweep the board again and reinstate the innately dubious Lutfur Rahman as Mayor. Watch this space.
Thursday, February 12, 2026
The joy of old-school blogging is that it doesn't take long to write. All of the above took only three hours whereas a typical 2026 blogpost can take much longer than that, not to mention all the time taken out and about doing research. No outdoor travels were required for any of the above, other than a train journey I was making anyway and an incident that was all over in five minutes flat. It just wasn't possible to go exploring midweek in 2003 when I had a job, plus I also had a busy social life so blogging had to be something it was possible to dash off between removing my tie and vanishing out the door for a beer. I dashed out the door again last night so a blogpost done and dusted before 7pm was an absolute godsend. Also when you write about stuff that happened to you or stuff you saw online there's no need to do any research because it's not about facts and nobody can pick holes. Normal service will be restored soon with an in-depth visit to somewhere historically intricate or an extensive takedown of some embryonic transport project but in the meantime I hope a dose of meaningless minutiae satisfied sufficiently.
Hasn't it been really wet recently? It's rained in London every day this month so far, though January 31st was dry so it's only 12 consecutive damp days. According to my favourite weather site at Hampstead we've already had more than the average rainfall for February and it's only the 12th of the month, and that's on top of a January that delivered 175% of normal rainfall. Apparently we've only had ten dry days this year and half of them were over a month ago.
I got a hyacinth for Christmas, essentially a bulb on a jar, and left it behind the curtains with some water to do its thing. According to the instructions you're supposed to leave it for 10-12 weeks but it's already burst into flower so I've shifted it to my windowsill instead. Unfortunately the thick stem is really floppy and keeps leaning over and I'm really struggling to keep it upright. I've tried turning the bulb, I've tried attaching an elastic band and I've tried resting it against a giant bobbin but it keeps slipping and leaning over anyway. My latest brainwave is to blutak a green Berol pen to the windowframe so it sticks out, then rest the hyacinth on that, but I'm not convinced it'll ever stay put for more than an hour or two.
2026 means local council elections in London and the early collateral is already piling into my letterbox. The Greens left a card saying they'd called, with a handwritten "Sorry we missed you". They've also sent Issue 1 of 'Bow East News', which to be fair contains very little about Bow East and is more about the three candidates. One's a research scientist, one's a legal assistant and one is the Head of Public Affairs and Communications for a Palestine Rights organisation. Labour's candidate for Mayor of Tower Hamlets also came round, got no response and left a leaflet but that's more a survey about what I want rather than what he's offfering. Nothing yet from the Liberal Democrats or Conservatives or Aspire but the election is still three months off, plus Aspire don't need support from my ward to sweep the board again and reinstate the innately dubious Lutfur Rahman as Mayor. Watch this space.
