For twenty-threeconsecutiveFebruaries on diamond geezer I've kept myself busy by counting things. Ten different counts, to be precise, in a stats-tastic 28-day feature called The Count. You therefore won't be surprised to hear that I intend to do exactly the same again this year, indeed you'd be more surprised if I didn't. Expect to read a post of comparisons and contrasts at the end of the month.
I kicked off this annual exercise back in 2003 which means I already have over two decades of thrilling historical data to analyse and this'll be a 24th datapoint. Here's my selected list of ten countables for February 2026.
Count 1: Number of visits to this blog (Feb 2025 total: 97446) [↑4% on 2024] Count 2: Number of comments on this blog (Feb 2025 total: 764) [↓11%] Count 3: Number of words I write on this blog (Feb 2025 total: 38040) [↓3%] Count 4: Number of hours I spend out of the house (Feb 2025 total: 161) [↑7%] Count 5: Number of nights I go out and am vaguely sociable (Feb 2025 total: 4) [↑33%] Count 6: Number of bottles of lager I drink (Feb 2025 total: 4) [↑4] Count 7: Number of cups of tea I drink (Feb 2025 total: 126) [↑2%] Count 8: Number of trains I travel on (Feb 2025 total: 163) [↓38%] Count 9: Number of steps I walk (Feb 2025 total: 427000) [↓6%] Count 10: The Mystery Count(Feb 2025 total: 0) (again)
I've also been counting something in January, which is how many days I set foot in each of the London boroughs.
Enf
7
Harr
7
Barn
7
Hari
7
WFor
7
Hill
7
Eal
7
Bren
7
Cam
7
Isl
7
Hack
7
Redb
7
Hav
7
Hou
7
H&F
7
K&C
7
West
7
City
7
Tow
31
New
28
B&D
7
Rich
7
Wan
7
Lam
7
Sou
7
Lew
7
Grn
7
Bex
7
King
7
Mer
7
Cro
7
Bro
7
Sut
7
In a 31-day month that is ridiculous behaviour, sorry. We ascertained earlier that some of you have never been to Havering, Sutton, Barking & Dagenham and/or Harrow, but I've been to all of them exactly seven times since the start of the year! I like to do something mammoth in January - in 2024 it was riding every bus route and in 2025 it was visiting every z1-3 station - so 2026 is fairly tame by comparison. But rest assured I will not be keeping this up into February, it's time to count other things instead.
For twenty-three consecutive Februaries on diamond geezer I've kept myself busy by counting things. Ten different counts, to be precise, in a stats-tastic 28-day feature called The Count. You therefore won't be surprised to hear that I intend to do exactly the same again this year, indeed you'd be more surprised if I didn't. Expect to read a post of comparisons and contrasts at the end of the month.
