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 | 30.11.20 - 12:00 a.m. | #

13: Down here our Kit Kats have been coming in plastic wrappers (with a shiny coated paper wrapping inside to mimic the foil) for years.

Mystery Shopper | 30.11.20 - 7:10 a.m. | #

7. Stroudley Walk has a postcode which sounds like an exclamation that a particularly grossed out American teenager would make.

Jamesthegill | 30.11.20 - 7:19 a.m. | #

25 - also known as Poplar bus garage and before that it was a trolleybus depot, it still has the London Transport tiling surrounding the boards to the right of the bricked up entrance.

28 - now I've discovered a site listing canal boats, apparently it was built by the Liverpool Boat Company, who have a site that hasn't been updated since 2007.

Still Anon | 30.11.20 - 7:42 a.m. | #

5. In all my years as an angler I only ever got to see two. I can relate to the thrill you got at seeing it.

MO | 30.11.20 - 7:48 a.m. | #

5,9: Very envious. Once saw a bright flash of metallic blue by the riverside but that was that was that. Such a beautiful bird.

30. I have only ever bought beer at ~7am if I've been out all night.

Kevin | 30.11.20 - 7:53 a.m. | #

5, 9. Don’t know how good your sound recollection is but kingfishers often call when flying, so it can be easier to hear them and thus be looking out for them flying. Not easy by any means, but a bit easier. I’m sure the internet will find you the call without too much trouble. They are pretty silent when still.

ROBERT Butlin | 30.11.20 - 8:05 a.m. | #

5. I saw my first kingfisher five years ago as it sat in a tree above a concrete channelled stream in Catford. My second sighting was at the start of lockdown, this time in Brookmill Park in Lewisham. Maybe they are becoming more common in London?

ganching | Homepage | 30.11.20 - 8:30 a.m. | #

18: The 18th's DG post definitely had a whiff of "TfL has done something and DG doesn't want to address the TfLephant in the room". I even wondered if DF was <snip>ping anyone who brought up the marketing stunt in the comments.

dg writes: The 18th's posts were written the day before.

For the record, the values in the contract on TfL's website total to £380,000, which is less than I had expected and certainly a drop in the water.

TheLupineOne | 30.11.20 - 8:33 a.m. | #

22 - this implies that DG has been South Of The River.

Ian | 30.11.20 - 8:33 a.m. | #

17 - My condolences, DG. It's been hard on families that way. My beau-père is in hospital in France and there's no way we can see him.

5,9 - We've seen one on Wilderness Island this year, but my son is much more amused by the wagtails with their... well, wagging tails.

22 - I always liked that little flourish on what's otherwise a fairly drab frontage.

Wandler | 30.11.20 - 8:37 a.m. | #

28 - The owners are thinking of changing the name.
hittingthedeck.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-big-purchase.html

Fred | 30.11.20 - 8:45 a.m. | #

17. My condolences on your loss. Dreading similar news, particularly with the prospect of a third peak. Best wishes for good health to everyone.

Andrew | 30.11.20 - 9:04 a.m. | #

Esra Gib: here is the owners blog, for some pics inside. hittingthedeck.blogspot.com

Doug Robinson | 30.11.20 - 9:13 a.m. | #

5/9 I have only seen a kingfisher on one occasion and quite unexpectedly. Been back to the same place several times but haven’t seen it again.

Peter | 30.11.20 - 9:30 a.m. | #

5) Seen a fair few Kingfishers in recent years in London, surprisingly they don't seem to mind the ugly "concrete box" rivers like the Turkey Brook in Enfield

Mikey C | 30.11.20 - 10:01 a.m. | #

1) Do you still buy a daily paper? Or was that dropped as an inessential purchase?

3) By my estimate about half of shoppers seem to bear no regard at all to any directional signing in aisles

17) Condolences from me as well, I've done one funeral via Zoom as well and I felt it lacked the sense of closure an in-person event carries

20) Is this the first time one of your photos will appear in print?

TomH | 30.11.20 - 10:02 a.m. | #

28: it took me a while to work Out Esra Gib.

Sdrager

zin92 | 30.11.20 - 10:02 a.m. | #

13 back as a teen-ager doing maths and physics I was fascinated to find how kit kat used to arrange the inner foil.
It wasn't set square, it was at a slight angle, and I realised that due to the particular proportions of length width height you could use slightly smaller foil that way.
Sadly they stopped doing it some years ago. Must have had a special wrapping machine.
Anyone else ever notice that?

Joho | Homepage | 30.11.20 - 10:12 a.m. | #

16: Hmm, I’ve seen something like that before. Ah, yes, in the new development between Spitalfields Market and Bishopsgate. That one’s called “Dogman And Rabbitgirl With Coffee”, apparently.

CJS | 30.11.20 - 10:29 a.m. | #

5+9. Became borderline obsessed with the Kingfisher due to a picture I saw aged 7 on the cover of The Observer's Book of Birds. I have spent a lifetime looking but never finding. This despite walking a mile or so along a chalk stream a couple of times a week.
Some years ago I thought I'd spotted one (I hadn't) while walking The Thames Path near Teddington. I stood stock still, which drew the attention of a passing walker who, when I explained the reason for my statue-like state, whipped out his camera and showed me all the pictures he'd taken of the blue beauty about 5 minutes previously on the same spot!

Frank F | 30.11.20 - 10:48 a.m. | #

17. I'm sorry for your loss. A friend of mine died suddenly in April and watching her funeral at home, without being able to share the grief, was horrible.

Jonathan Wadman | 30.11.20 - 11:10 a.m. | #

14: I think you should have written that as a haiku.

Baldassaro | 30.11.20 - 11:18 a.m. | #

14. Ah, I was miscounting. Well done! (Blush)

Baldassaro | 30.11.20 - 11:26 a.m. | #

13. Equally disturbing, Nestle are dropping their use of Fairtrade chocolate in KitKat.

Andrew S | 30.11.20 - 12:33 p.m. | #

25. Crisis has had to cut back to serving relatively few guests in hotels this year. They're doing their best, but there will be a lot of lonely people (guests and volunteers) this year.

Lux | 30.11.20 - 1:26 p.m. | #

13. The plastic-wrapped multipack KitKats haven't hit my local shops yet. But when they do, I'll probably stop buying them. The foil and paper wrapping is a lot more satisfying, and I'm convinced it makes the chocolate a lot less likely to melt too.

Frankie Roberto | 30.11.20 - 1:37 p.m. | #

30. Only 20 bottles?

Interesting price comment. I like Bulmers Original Premium Cider (500ml bottle). Waitrose have it on offer today £1.75, usually £2.00. Yet Tesco's sell boxes of 8 for £6, so my garage is groaning as I always top up the delivery to the minimum each time to avoid cancelling an order and risk being bumped off their customer list.

J. | 30.11.20 - 1:44 p.m. | #

3. There's always one - and it's often me, but I'll usually notice and double back the right way rather than carrying on.

4. Phew!

5/9. I've only seen one - and it was not in the UK!

8. Really?? They actually did that last year?! *rolls eyes*

11. Chuckles

12. Something to look forward to. Let's hope we're no longer in lockdown anymore!

17. Condolences

20. Wow!! Unexpected!

24. Ours is usually 10 from 3 households - not this year!

28. Took me a while to get it!

Cornish Cockney | 30.11.20 - 1:52 p.m. | #

28: Canal barges commonly have the name of the barge with the "home" dock underneath.
20 years ago I saw an excellent example of this at Canary Wharf:

The Dogs
Bow Locks

Strawbrick | 30.11.20 - 2:34 p.m. | #

5/9 - Congratulations on seeing your first (and second) Kingfisher! Reading all the other comments about people having either never seen one or only seen one or two has me a little embarassed since I have been referred to as a "Kingfisher magnet". I just seem to have the knack of spotting them whenever they're around. I have a good ear so I can usually hear them coming but otherwise I guess I just have a good sense of anticipation for them. That said...

23 - ...I've lost count of the number of times I got excited at a random pice of plastic lying around.

18 - I thought the Oxford Circus rebranding was quite clever myself even though I have no interest in that particular console. I thought the other rebrandings that went with it were a bit contrived though.

X-Plaistow | 30.11.20 - 2:46 p.m. | #

5) You never forget your first spotting of a Kingfisher! I saw my first one darting down a culverted river in a city I used to live in. Given the culvert had no landing opportunities I suspect it was going 'oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit' in its head.

30) I noticed 'Beers of Europe' were selling genuine imported brewed in Germany 'Becks' recently. As I am a massive beer snob, I wonder if it tastes any different.

R | 30.11.20 - 9:53 p.m. | #

Days which have not inspired comment:
2 6 10 15 19 21 26 27 29
(but the vast majority have, cheers!)

diamond geezer | Homepage | 01.12.20 - 12:00 a.m. | #

25
I remember this depot in the last days of trolleybuses, with files of Routemasters ready to roll out on changeover day. Autumn of 1959.

Gripper | 01.12.20 - 1:22 a.m. | #

30) ah, but it's not just a seat and the bottle being opened - it's the rent, the rates, the licensing for the music, the satellite TV subscription, all the other staff, the cleaning, electricity to keep it refrigerated, the fridge itself, the convivial surroundings, the draymen, the pubco's cut... I would balk a little at a fiver for a bottle of Beck's, but it's not pure profit for the publican, and is helping keep other bits of the economy turning round.

(At 50p a bottle it's probably a loss-leader for the supermarket)

martin | 01.12.20 - 9:07 a.m. | #

5/9 Just seen the kingfisher in the centre of the Olympic Park again. Smug face. Maybe it’s a new resident, or maybe all you have to do is look.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 01.12.20 - 2:33 p.m. | #

5/9
I should have been paying more attention when I was there yesterday.

martin | 02.12.20 - 2:35 a.m. | #











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