please empty your brain below
DG - I'm really curious to see the map from the app. Did you keep a screengrab of it?

Mike Newman | Homepage | 14.12.17 - 7:24 a.m. | #

Mike - there's a link to the map in the third paragraph.

Paul F | 14.12.17 - 7:40 a.m. | #

Interesting though this was,DG,can being instructed where to go truly be called drifting?

Jo W | 14.12.17 - 7:43 a.m. | #

Interesting wander, very 'Yoko'.

Kevin | 14.12.17 - 7:49 a.m. | #

Finally a cat post!

Debster | 14.12.17 - 7:54 a.m. | #

"something that's framed" --> this can also be a door or a window, don't you think?

Greg S | 14.12.17 - 8:44 a.m. | #

"Find an object that's out of place."
Surely, unless there was no hill, and unusual though it may be, the road sign was in the right place ...

strawbrick | 14.12.17 - 8:56 a.m. | #

My apologies for drifting incorrectly due to insufficiently pedantic interpretation.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 14.12.17 - 9:02 a.m. | #

Oh, Mr Geezer! That's almost certainly a black and white British shorthair moggy, not a tabby.

Apologies for splitting (cat) hairs, but have to be accurate, what with the internet being made of cats and all...

Marc | 14.12.17 - 10:00 a.m. | #

Seems to be more pedantry than usual here today, which is saying something...

Stuart | Homepage | 14.12.17 - 10:31 a.m. | #

Fun.

Surely the personal interpretation of the instructions is part of the game. Two people starting from the same point and given the same instructions would interpret many of the tasks differently. (Quite apart from the tendency of green cars to move about and hence cause yet another source of variability).

Malcolm | 14.12.17 - 11:28 a.m. | #

I like the sound of that app, but no! Far too much awkward social interaction for me! I'd just skip those - would that be cheating?

My dad introduced me to the Penny Ride when I was a child back in the days when we were allowed out on our own! A variation of the coin-toss walk you mentioned. The shortest one was when I got all "heads", and was back home in 5 minutes!!

Cornish Cockney | 14.12.17 - 11:30 a.m. | #

It has long been my ambition to seldom let a day pass without having significantly flâneured at some point.

DG: a fine come-back at 09.02 above ... it had me spitting out my tea!

Frank F | 14.12.17 - 11:42 a.m. | #

Find a cat. The best place to spot a cat must surely be a residential street...

We planned this so we could get a cat photo. The cat in question is technically a 'tuxedo cat' however, I believe, or a black and white shorthair if you are less poetically inclined. Really, you do need some good education about the feline species.

I'm also intrigued about the grave of the small girl. She must have been born in 1938, meaning that her mother must have been born circa 1920-ish. The likelyhood of her parents being alive is very small. I wonder who put the flowers on the grave. A sibling?

Antipodean | 14.12.17 - 11:46 a.m. | #

@Antipodean: Or maybe just someone who feels pity passing by. And don't forget she died in one of the nation's hardest times.

Patrickov | 14.12.17 - 12:11 p.m. | #

I did wonder about the war connection and someone passing by. But there was a receptacle for the flowers. It felt like a more planned / regular thing.

Antipodean | 14.12.17 - 1:21 p.m. | #

Thank you for your Dérive tour, I shall delve into that. Yet it would be a more structured approach than the Pobble trips we have made over many years. These have no fixed direction, destination or timing. Pobbles are remarkably interesting - by car, bike or foot - and there is always a bit of mystery, surprise and fascination.

Herbof | 14.12.17 - 1:43 p.m. | #

The flowers are an interesting detail, aren't they. A substantial monument for a 4 year old who died in wartime, but I suspect it was erected after the war. A parent is just about possible, but more likely a sibling, or perhaps a dutiful nephew or niece? Or a random stranger?

Andrew | 14.12.17 - 5:08 p.m. | #

Valerie's not the only person in the grave.
My photo also shows it's also the last resting place of Henry William Thomas, died November 1967 aged 70... who might have been the father. I note that the 50th anniversary of his death has just passed. It wouldn't surprise me if the mother was buried in the grave too.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 14.12.17 - 5:20 p.m. | #

Oh DG. Just when I thought this blog couldn't suit me better, you tell me about an app that aids aimless wandering around. It has been downloaded and I'm heading out...

Richard | 14.12.17 - 6:36 p.m. | #

I like the your oblique comment on policing in Bexley, returning to your favourite request "something that's framed", for your last observation.

correspondent | 14.12.17 - 7:19 p.m. | #

My parents used to play a version of this with us some weekends. We would just walk to the nearby bus stop and get on the first bus that came along regardless of where it was going. We would then wander off, usually through the countryside, until we hit another road and then find another bus stop and wait for another bus to take us further or back in the direction of home.
Of course in those days there were lots of bus routes and even the most out of the way bus stops had up-to-date timetables on them...

popartist | 14.12.17 - 10:29 p.m. | #

It's many years since I've thought of Courtleet Drive: my uncle used to live there. I don't think it was number 20 but I do remember how close the bakery was.

Ned | 14.12.17 - 11:58 p.m. | #

OMG you were in my neck of the woods! In case you didn't look closely, the memorial you photographed (top left) was for the 1923 Slade Green Munitions Disaster where 11 young women and their foreman died. There is a memorial service for them every year.

Kathryn | Homepage | 15.12.17 - 7:22 a.m. | #

Tried this on my lunch break and found a few new things on what I thought were familiar streets. I didn't talk to anyone though. Oh no.

As some of DG's comments indicate, the most interesting bit can be when you can't follow the instruction precisely and have to improvise with what's available.

CG | 19.12.17 - 1:52 p.m. | #











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