Tue 1: I still had no broadband at the start of the month, so my original plan for an April Fool's Day post had to go unimagined. Thankfully I'd already knocked up my monthly FoI round-up before the connection died on Saturday, so a fictional tweak to that did the business. Wed 2: Liberation Day? More like Destabilise Global Trade And Destroy America's Economic Reputation With A Single Sheet Of Cardboard Day. Thu 3: I mentioned that I fell over outside Oval station and it really hurt, but I didn't mention that I also buggered my right knee. Walking was fine but walking up or down steps met with some resistance, awkwardly so, in a way I've never experienced before. "This had better not be permanent," I thought, and thankfully it wasn't, easing over the course of a week to no adverse sensation whatsoever. But I now have a better insight into mobility problems and how irreversibly restrictive they could be, plus a much greater respect for the ground. Fri 4: Worcester sauce crisps are back in the supermarket and this made me very happy. Hoping one day for a revival of lamb and mint sauce. Sat 5: In good news I wasn't charged £2.59 extra for receiving a text message via France while I was walking the Kent coast. I also wasn't charged extra while tethering my laptop to my mobile during my 11 day broadband outage, so I suspect I must be on an excellent data package.
Sun 6: The Silvertown Tunnel opens tomorrow and the SL4's southern terminus is ready and waiting at Grove Park. Ridiculously it has no bus stop so if you want to catch the bus you have to walk 200m up the road. From the station it's worse, it's 300m, which is hardly Super. Mon 7: I tried tapping in at Grove Park station with my 60+ card at 9.20am, forgetting I can't use it on rail lines until 9.27am, and it just beeped red and refused. 60+ cards don't store PAYG, thankfully, otherwise I'd have been charged £3.60 for a one stop journey. Tue 8: Once a year I like to ride the 389, London's shortest bus route, to re-enjoy the jolly communal feel as the driver greets their regulars. The ride is invariably shorter than the wait. Wed 9: I blogged about being on Flickr for 20 years, and apparently my photos got 31581 views in 24 hours as a result. Thanks! Just 243 views for my Dover to Deal album, though, which I'd posted several days late after my broadband returned. Thu 10: The tiny newsagent kiosk outside Bow Road station has just had a security screen installed across the front of the counter. I guess it's to protect the seller and/or to limit petty theft, but it's a shame it's been deemed necessary after all these years.
Fri 11: I spotted this delightful knitted figure in a bag on a fence at Ewell Court. Attached was a sticker that said "I hope I make you smile, Bring a chuckle to your day, If that is the case take me right away". I didn't have the heart to remove it. Sat 12: I watched the return of Doctor Who at 8am rather than 7pm thanks to streaming. It's still entertaining, meaningful and clever, and Ncuti remains utterly excellent, but I worry the show's also expensive, underwatched and going to be hibernated at the end of the series. Sun 13: It's the warmest day of the year so far. See also March 9th, March 21st, April 4th, April 28th, April 29th and April 30th. Mon 14: I have a family wedding to go to next month, and today I was asked what my collar size was so a white shirt can be obtained. It turns out I need a larger size, not because I've fattened up but because at work I never did my top button up but on this occasion I have to, apparently. Tue 15: My dad's BT phone is being converted to internet only, despite him having no mobile reception at his end of the village. We rang up to say this was potentially very risky but all they could advise was "sorry, but if you ever need to ring 999 during a power cut your mobile call would probably go through". We can't test this, alas.
Wed 16: "We counsel against reading this judgement as a triumph of one or more groups over another" said the Supreme Court spokesjudge, prior to one or more groups doing exactly that. Thu 17: I am perfectly capable of making a claim by myself, thanks, so if you're the exuberant employee who intervened on my behalf thinking you were being helpful, please never ever do that again because it's desperately unprofessional. Fri 18:kagi.com/smallweb is an intriguing accumulator. Every time you refresh the page you get a different post on a different blog, seemingly at random, helping you discover new voices. I discovered it because someone discovered this blog on there. Sat 19: I'd been reticent to return to the easternmost point in Greater London because on my last visit in 2008 one of the last houses had a particularly unpleasant loose dog. On today's visit I was thus pleased to discover that not only was there no sign of a dog but the entire house had been demolished. I might now also risk a return to the northernmost point in Greater London, given that the evil hound who spooked me in 2004 must be dead by now.
Sun 20: This Range Rover with the numberplate NOT 2B is parked round the back of a house on Cheyne Walk in Chelsea. Better still it's normally parked to the right of an Aston Martin with the numberplate 2 BE. They've been parked this way round for years and belong to property developer Robert Bourne and his wife Sally Greene, a theatre impresario. Mon 21: Awwww, the Pope's died after an overactive Easter. He was the only Pope I've ever seen in real life, a tiny figure on his balcony overlooking St Peter's Square doing his Sunday thing. I got the gist of his sermon (love everyone, you are loved) without understanding a word. Tue 22: Stratford High Street has a new convenience store called The Market, technically on Sugar House Lane - another underflat warren where the underprepared can buy snacks, sauce and shrinkwrapped meat to drop into stirfrys. Wed 23: If you enjoyed my St George's Day crossword, you should know it didn't exist at 7am and I published it at 8am. If you didn't enjoy my St George's Day crossword, or picked pedantic holes in it, its brief genesis may explain why. Thu 24: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood is excellent, a dystopian doomsday novel that's all the more prescient for having been written in 2003. I see now why it's been on my local library's Recommendations shelf for months. Fri 25: Egg custard tarts were reduced in the supermarket this morning, and I'd forgotten how large they are and how much I like them.
Sat 26: This very old roadsign namechecking handcarts, perambulators, invalid carriages and pedal cycles can be found at the foot of an alleyway in the Surrey village of Hooley. Sun 27: The Observer is now under the ownership of Tortoise Media, not the Guardian, and also has a bespoke website for the first time, but I'm not sure "less news, more artfully written" is a long-term winner. Mon 28: One reason Canada shouldn't be the 51st state of the USA because it has a larger population than the other 50, even California, so it should be multiple additional states. Another reason is that it'd be batshit expansionism. Tue 29: TfL have just confirmed they're shortening the cablecar's opening hours, as threatened in a consultation last year, because hardly anyone uses it early in the morning. From next week dangling will begin at 8am Mon-Thu and 9am Fri-Sat, so if you want to "take to the cloud" before 8am your very last chance is this Friday. Wed 30: I bought a new flip case for my mobile phone... and oh, it flips on the opposite side to what I'm used to. I now keep trying to open my phone upsidedown, and it feels weird, and I get in a total flap trying to take a photo in a hurry. I'm sure I'll get used to it, I did last time this happened.
Finally, let's see how my annual counts are going...
• Number of London boroughs visited: all 33 (at least seven times each)
• Number of London bus routes ridden: 530 (97%)
• Number of Z1-3 stations used: all
• Number of Z4-6 stations used: 71 (28%)
