Mon 28: When I went to make my first cuppa of the day the tap spluttered to life, suggesting the water supply had been off overnight, but thankfully it powered back into action and I got my hot mug. Mon 28: Annoyed that it took me four goes to guess today's Daily Metro, I should definitely have got it in three. Mon 28:[gets on scales] A month ago I mentioned I'd put on three pounds during my holiday in Spain and it hadn't shifted. It still hasn't, indeed the last time I weighed this much was April 2020. I've decided not to buy any chocolate biscuits in Tesco this morning to see if that helps. Mon 28: My blogpost on Reading's Bayeux Tapestry has been picked up by the Hacker News aggregator portal and as a result has had thousands of extra readers. Amongst the comments are the inevitable "As an aside, I see that this blog has been around from early 2000s, and has been regularly updated, almost every day. Quite fascinating...", also "Jesus, you're not wrong. Click any random month from the last 20 years and there's a post from practically every day", also "Out of interest, how do people find these 'hidden gem' sites? I'd never find these from google".
Mon 28: I think that's a record for "the number of bikes I've seen ignoring the traffic lights at the Bow Roundabout over a ten second period", easily double figures. Mon 28: They've moved the mushrooms again, I wish they'd stop moving the mushrooms. Mon 28: Managed to pick up the only cucumber that didn't have a barcode on it, had to get help. Mon 28: Ah, the till wants my PIN number. Bugger I've got it wrong, maybe I mistyped. Bugger I've got it wrong again, maybe I got it round the wrong way. OK, I can't afford to get it wrong again, I'm sure it's this... bugger I've got it wrong again. Thankfully I had cash in my wallet, otherwise I'd have had to leave £40 of groceries behind. Mon 28: I think that's the first time I've ever carried five bags home from the supermarket.
Mon 28: My building society won't let me check my PIN number online, I can only do that in their app, which I don't have. Thankfully I keep a lot of paperwork, including the letter my building society sent me in 2018 with my card's new PIN number, the one they told me I should definitely destroy. Yes that's what I thought it was. Mon 28: According to the Royal Mint, their new six-colour 50p piece is "the first time Cluedo has been honoured on an official UK coin". Well of course it is you greedy desperate money-grabbers, of course it is. Mon 28: You don't have to guess where the 'tower and two trains' picture was taken. Every photo on diamondgeezer has alt text if you hover over it.
Mon 28: The local company that used to be called Jim'll Mixit, and is now just Mixit, has flyposted adverts on the hoardings that still surround the derelict gents lavatory at Bow Church. Mon 28: If'd you'd looked before you pressed the button you'd have seen there was no traffic coming so could have crossed anyway. Now the lights are going to change pointlessly in maybe 15 seconds time and inconvenience drivers, unnecessarily increasing transport entropy. Mon 28: Oh god it's the 9.45am nightmare of an entire class of schoolchildren piling into your train carriage, and suddenly that's every seat taken and several small hands clutching the pole beside you. But in this case the teachers are totally on top of things, the children are perfectly behaved and I hope they had an excellent visit somewhere in the Westminster area. Mon 28: Why do stations in west London have flower stalls outside while stations in east London never do? [rhetorical]
Mon 28: There are adverts all over the tube for a newTfLcampaign with the strapline 'The stop is just the start'. Apparently it's supported by "a multi-channel roll out across TV, OOH, cinema, social, print, digital and CRM", and agency VCCP reckon it's "by far and away some of the best work we've ever done with TfL". But I'm not sure how effectively the main message is going to hit home. “We needed to give people an emotional connection to the network that feels inspiring and inviting. By showing that every bus, Tube, train or tram stop is just the start of a new adventure or connection, we’re reminding Londoners that TfL is the key to getting out and truly experiencing the city.” I was thinking of writing a whole post about it but it's not really interesting enough.
Mon 28: Got on a Richmond train at Earl's Court because five minutes ago it had said the next train was to Wimbledon and I failed to notice they'd switched platforms. Was punished for my error when the smelly man opposite took off his shoes. Mon 28: On the bus we passed the All England Lawn Tennis Club, its 42 acres mostly inert because it's out of season. What a waste of land this is for eleven months of the year, flowering for just one. And I wondered if there are any other examples of enormous tracts of land used only briefly, seasonally, that could potentially be housing instead. Mon 28: On my Superloop journey across Sutton I listened to an interesting Radio 4 documentary about the 1976 IMF crisis. I think I was too young to understand it at the time. Denis Healey comes out of it quite well and only says 'silly billy' once. Mon 28: Picked up a London Heritage Quarter walking map at London Bridge station, which isn't even in the London Heritage Quarter, and just like Midtown the name's never going to catch on is it? Mon 28: During today's journey round London I've managed to read 80% of a best-selling hardback thriller. That's annoying because the remaining 20% isn't going to sustain me on tomorrow's journey so I'll need to take two books.
Mon 28: It's 25 years since I sold my car, which is perhaps just as well now the price of a litre of diesel has reached a record-breaking £2. It was 79p back then. Mon 28: If I keep chucking things out at this rate, I'm going to have to buy some more bin bags. Mon 28: It may not be normal to have mint sauce on fish but that's one of the benefits of living by yourself. Mon 28: I only checked my spam email because it's was a plot point in a soap opera, otherwise I might never have seen your message about the Letraset I sadly don't have. Mon 28: I enjoyed watching the first episode of Michael Palin's new travel documentary on Channel 5, in which he travels across the nefarious inequality of the Philippines archipelago. He has a knack of illuminating both the good and bad sides of an unfamiliar country without appearing judgemental. Nobody else would get a tour of the presidential palace simply because the president wanted to ask a question about the Fish Slapping Dance.
Mon 28: Disappointed that nobody left a comment pointing out that if Flamsted Avenue in Tokyngton really is named after a west Hertfordshire village, they spelt it wrong. Mon 28: Excited to report that the naff Brent climate change video I linked to yesterday has had 40 extra views, on top of the 163 it had in the first 15 years. Mon 28: Please don't leave a comment telling me that PIN Number is an example of Redundant Acronym Syndrome. I know it is but I chose to write it anyway, just like I sometimes deliberately write less when you'd prefer me to write fewer, because in the grand scheme of things it really doesn't matter.
