please empty your brain below
If relevant, please start your comment with a number from 1 to 30.

(questions will not be answered)

diamond geezer | Homepage | 02.10.23 - 12:00 a.m. | #

19 - Not reached your full potential - I take it you're having a laugh

30 - If any pedestrians allow themselves to be funnelled into that bin I will eat my hat.

cau1khead | 02.10.23 - 7:36 a.m. | #

6) the announcements at Paddington are "for the safety and convenience of passengers with heavy luggage, please use the lifts provided." What, so I should use the lifts to make things safer and more convenient for those with luggage?

21) I know my opening word is unlikely to come up (it's a plural) and still I persist.

30) I'm hoping that's a case of the paving team having got there before the 'moving street furniture' team, but that's a bit crap really.

martin | 02.10.23 - 7:50 a.m. | #

4 + 17 - unexpected gifts are a wonderful thing, but on balance I'd prefer a second-hand pot plant to a large initialised coaster (?). Something to put under your new plant, maybe.

Frank F | 02.10.23 - 7:51 a.m. | #

6) Got no pets these days, so I suppose I will have to borrow one if I go to Whitechapel.

scrumpy | 02.10.23 - 7:58 a.m. | #

4. Which bus stop M is now letterless?

popartist | 02.10.23 - 8:06 a.m. | #

16. When the RM was designed the average man or woman was shorter and lighter than today.

Rod | 02.10.23 - 8:06 a.m. | #

5. I hope Liam keeps his feet away from the brushes at the sides, else Escalatosaurus might eat them. Example.

Andrew | 02.10.23 - 8:11 a.m. | #

11 - The poster is weird, I think all they wanted to say was that the peak hour service is reduced slightly to approx. every 3 minutes and Saturdays mornings to every 4 minutes.

19 - Having a roof over your head, a full belly and paying your bills is already a fair enough achievement, judging from your comment, all the extra achievement didn't prevent bad stuff happening.

26 - Natural gas futures are up almost 30% this month and Russia has banned the export of diesel to Europe, so that 0.5% has a lot of work to do.

30 - more inconvenience for everyone else, the bus stop has been filled in as well, but cyclists on pavements is OK now if you lay some tarmac.

Still Anon | 02.10.23 - 8:11 a.m. | #

29 - Hurray! Finally - I have been wanting a Harrow Spider Map for ages. No doubt due to the two new Superloop routes at the station. It's online here.

TW | 02.10.23 - 8:22 a.m. | #

14. I once bought some cheap-ish trainers from M&S, and had a similar experience. Also never again…

Baldassaro | 02.10.23 - 8:23 a.m. | #

24. Who attached "ancient" to the description of that sign? It isn't ancient really.

29. The map states correctly that the SL9 between Harrow and South Harrow doesn't stop at Porlock Avenue or Shaftesbury Avenue. It wouldn't have needed to say that if the routing had been shown accurately: the SL9 runs via the direct road like the 395 and H10.

Ian | 02.10.23 - 8:24 a.m. | #

1. I'm glad there was a happy ending

19. You probably have more readers in a day than he has ever had; there is more than one way to measure success

Ian | 02.10.23 - 8:25 a.m. | #

18. Have already enjoyed sitting and enjoying the view from the new spaces that have opened up. I also went on a tour of the new UCL Marshgate building (as part of attending the opening day as a local resident). I'd been on a hard hat tour last year but still wasn't prepared for just how big it is. You can wander into the ground floor for the cafe, Institute of Making and a look upwards to the Luke Jeram globe any time. It makes a big thing of being a campus for the community.

Joan | 02.10.23 - 8:39 a.m. | #

6th. That *has* to be ironic.

David B | 02.10.23 - 8:52 a.m. | #

24: The photo made me laugh out loud - to the surprise of my wife!

John Simmons | 02.10.23 - 9:20 a.m. | #

30 - It's not obvious what a better cycle lane design would have been, but these lanes are good enough that I can now cycle down Leytonstone High Road with my kids, whereas previously I wouldn't have dared.

Harry | 02.10.23 - 9:29 a.m. | #

14 - I learned long ago that the £100 trainers I always buy are well worth the money, given that they last a couple of years. Bonus points for being the only things I can walk in without orthotics. (Asics GT2000, for anyone with flat feet)

Chz | 02.10.23 - 9:40 a.m. | #

4. What a great present. But, please be careful where it is displayed, you could find a bus queue by your front door! 😉

Jo W | 02.10.23 - 10:03 a.m. | #

9) It takes a while to figure out what type of cultural events still work with a baby/toddler/child. Since becoming a parent my time in libraries, museums, parks has increased substantially while theatres, bars, cinemas are substantially less.

10) I hope you tried to order one, we know your affection for a fondant centred ovoids

20) My wife has a long-standing crush on Jon Snow. At double her age I've never seen him as a major threat but shall avoid Granary Square on the off-chance.

TomH | 02.10.23 - 10:12 a.m. | #

22: I went to my company's east London office (beside Aldgate East station) for the first time in a month and a half last week, and the rubbish situation around there was not nice for the olfactory sense, especially on a nice, sunny day.

Greg | 02.10.23 - 10:20 a.m. | #

4) That's amazing!

9) Been there. Cultural outings tend to get downgraded to themed soft-plays for a fair few years. And now they have to be bribed with ice-cream or similar when being dragged around country houses and the like.

Jonnus | 02.10.23 - 10:22 a.m. | #

8: Did he know this? Or do you preserve your anonymity even within the blogging community?

Jonathan Wadman | 02.10.23 - 11:08 a.m. | #

30) Too many cycle lanes are at the expense of pedestrians, especially in such locations where a bus stop take up much of the pavement. That location needs physical calming measures to make cyclists give way though there.

Mikey C | 02.10.23 - 11:23 a.m. | #

30: Reminds me of the weird and wonderful Cycle Facility of the Month which sadly ceased activity in 2019. The archive is still online.

K. | 02.10.23 - 11:26 a.m. | #

4) What a brilliant gift! Would love to know what it actually is (as much as we'd like it to be, pretty sure it's not an original artifact from a Bus Stop M out there!).

6) Even by TfL standards that's particularly egregious.

11) Wonder if the Jubilee Line (or Central Line) has gotten a similar poster where the temporary timetable has a particularly noticeable impact given the crowds.

16) Though perhaps no worse than a crush loaded 'New' Routemaster where the 3 doors don't seem very well spread out (even more so with open boarding gone).

30) The bin is also probably a bit too far into the curb for it to be convenient for the binmen.

matthieu1221 | 02.10.23 - 11:26 a.m. | #

4. How lovely. Well done mystery gift giver.

13. Free prescriptions and the 60+ Oyster are but 2 consolations for reaching 60!

14. Shoezone are similar prices to Primark but seem to last longer - especially for those who walk a lot.

26. Why do they make us do that? Why not just apply the new rates to all non-fixed accounts?

28. Rolls eyes

Cornish Cockney | 02.10.23 - 11:50 a.m. | #

7th and this highlights how poorly targetted ULEZ is (excessively regressive for some scenarios, while missing out bigger polluters). ULEZ is a payment to pollute more than nuanced price signal to get heavily used older vehicles (of all types) out of more polluted areas.

13th I do hope you have considered quarterly or annual prescription prepayment if you are still paying. The breakeven is surprisingly low and can be bought retrospectively and then claim back charges already paid.

dg writes: 13. I’d be £70 worse off.

Milest | 02.10.23 - 11:55 a.m. | #

Know this bridge well having lived nearby for over 40 years. It used to carry trains into the now defunct Croxley Green station.

(Posted so the 2nd at least gets a token commentification!)

rogergh | 02.10.23 - 1:55 p.m. | #

30. The pavement has been significantly widened here - you can see the remains of the old bus stop box paint in the road. In the old layout the bus shelter advert took up more than half of the width, forcing pedestrians towards traffic.

Assuming the bin gets moved it's it's hard to see how pedestrians have lost anything.

Graham | 02.10.23 - 2:53 p.m. | #

2. I remember watching some filming taking place of this lattice bridge which involved some canal canoeing terrorists placing explosives on it. It was ages ago (around sixty years) but does anyone know what the film might have been?

DGD | 02.10.23 - 3:48 p.m. | #

30. Other awkwardnesses in Leytonstone, not pictured, include a pedestrian crossing chopped into small islands by converging cycle lanes and a main road narrowed just enough that when cars park in the designated spaces buses can't pass in both directions simultaneously.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 02.10.23 - 3:51 p.m. | #

Maybe 10 (creme eggs) is just the logical progression of 15 (mince pies)? Even on the day after Easter you can always look forward to the next one.

Peter | 02.10.23 - 4:38 p.m. | #

29. The Harrow spider bus map also states that the 183 runs a 24 hour service at weekends. I think that was stopped when covid lockdown started.

David | 02.10.23 - 6:33 p.m. | #

28 - By the time you are grasping the paper towel, your hands ought not to be dripping. Shake!

sjhoward | Homepage | 02.10.23 - 6:48 p.m. | #

17. Thought you counted everything...so we can rule out new neighbours as the Mystery Count.

Jonalot | 02.10.23 - 8:09 p.m. | #

2 - that's the first time I've heard anyone mention Fanny Craddock's house since 1973 when we moved out of a flat in Heath Farm House, just across the canal from her. The removal van driver was very amused by the bonfire in the garden, he reckoned she must've been burning the toast.

Pippa Sandford | 02.10.23 - 8:34 p.m. | #

28. I went to the loo in Horizon 22 today. Either they have spotted their error and moved the towel dispenser or they are differently positioned in each cubicle. That design flaw wasn't present in the one I used.

IslandDweller | 02.10.23 - 10:07 p.m. | #

18. I measured and prepared a pricing schedule for the hard and soft landscape finishes for these works when they were tendered during 2021. I must go back and see what the finished product looks like.....

Paul | 02.10.23 - 10:49 p.m. | #

2. DGD - possibly 'The Bargee' (1964), with Harry H Corbett and many other 'faces':
"having learned from Christine that the father is one of the canal workers, Joe drains the canal pound, padlocks the lock gates, and attaches a home-made bomb".

Gordon | 02.10.23 - 11:25 p.m. | #

Days which have not inspired comment:
3 12 23 25 27

(but the vast majority have, cheers!)

diamond geezer | Homepage | 02.10.23 - 11:59 p.m. | #

28) the second-highest loos in London have more sensibly-placed paper towels, being directly above the sink. (I didn't use the ones on 58M.)

martin | 03.10.23 - 8:26 a.m. | #

24. My photo of the Send Ripley roadsign made it into Flickr Explore for 2nd October, about halfway down. It looks quite out of place amid the wildlife and landscapes.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 03.10.23 - 9:39 a.m. | #

11: As usual, nobody bothered to *read* the poster before putting it up to see how stupid it looks.

30: Leytonstone has done this correctly, unlike Enfield which recklessly and unnecessarily dangerously routes cycle lanes *between* bus stops and buses -- without so much as a give way sign.

But Leytonstone has missed out on a different safety error: properly there should be to be a zebra crossing between the pavement and the bus stop island. And that zebra crossing would also allow that bin to move alongside the bus shelter where there's plenty of room for it.

Harry (not the cyclist one above) | 03.10.23 - 10:16 a.m. | #

9 - One year I queued at an Open House property just behind a family. The teenage son sat on the kerb and complained 'This is so boring' and 'You've ruined my Sunday', all the while playing on his tablet. I found it as entertaining as an episode of Outnumbered.

JonathanC | 03.10.23 - 11:09 a.m. | #

21 had been commented on, by Martin in the third comment.

Commenting this as I hope eventually to get an analysis of percentage of days commented on each month, and want the data correct!

dg writes: updated, sorry.

TomH | 04.10.23 - 8:22 a.m. | #











TridentScan v2.10.0 | Privacy Policy