please empty your brain below

This must have been some time ago - Palace have not played at home since Saturday 21st (hence the shopping, and football in the park)! Oh yes, found the comment!
That last paragraph is like a physical confrontation with your own mortality. Your blog posts are developing a surprising and intriguing metaphysical depth. Or maybe not.
As Croydon once declared itself to be 'the new Barcelona', perhaps in 10 years' time you could take a birthday trip out there (and ride their no. 60 bus route).
@ Waterhouse

Think so too. 50 for most of us means "half-way" was years ago.
"Shubbadabba shubbadabba doo", made me spit out my coffee in laughter.

The funniest phrase you've ever written on your blog.
75 minutes for nine miles, average speed 7.2 mph = ouch.

You were nearer horse and cart speed than B-type bus speed by a long way!

http://creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2011/12/sm_speed_by_alfred_leete_1915_0.jpg
A very entertaining account. You are on your way to becoming the Lobby Lud of the 21st century.
Does this mean we can claim a fiver from him if we correctly identify him?

I was once on a building tour with dg, and he recognised me and let me know afterwards by email...
I was expecting to see your little 'man carrying a slice of birthday cake' graphic yesterday, and when he didn't appear, I expected to see him today.
I'm getting concerned now, as I see this is the second year running that he's been missing. I do hope he is ok!
Yes, where is the man with the birthday cake? Has he retired?

dg writes: He popped up a month ago.
I spent the first five years of my life in Thornton Heath. My parents were very insistent that it was in Surrey, but I've been quite pleased more recently to lay claim to the relative cred of coming from South London.

And yes, where's the cake man?
So what were you doing over the Thames around midday yesterday? Not the Dangleway or the top of Tower Bridge surely, not for you Fiftieth?

How about a helicopter?

BTW - fifty isn't too bad, particularly when you're looking at 60 next year!
Fear not - bus route no 60 is on its third incarnation. The original route from Colindale to Old Ford being withdrawn in 1958, to be resurrected as a Cricklewood to Surrey Docks for a few years in the 1960s) and has already racked up more than thirty years in its present guise, it is high time for another Doctor Who-like regeneration so the chances are your first free-bus-pass ride will be to somewhere that isn't Croydon.
Lovely to see you've finally made it to Thornton Heath. My grandparents moved there in 1947 after the British left India, and my grandad became a local GP. Living outside London meant visiting my grandparents in Thornton Heath were the most exciting times of year - it seemed impossibly built up and full of hustle and bustle and excitement. I almost don't want to go back now as I imagine it looks quite shabby compared to my memories.
And the 109 goes to Croydon as well - see if you can make it that far.......
You almost got to where I was brought up (in South Norwood).

I support Palace - first match seen over 50 years ago! But, because I now live in Southend, I can't get to Selhurst Park as often as I would like - I wasn't at the Arsenal game on 21/03/15, but will be there next Saturday for the QPR game.

My dad was from Thornton Heath; sadly, he passed away last year and was cremated in the Crematorium just over the road from where he was born!

I went to Trinty School; for 2 years when it was where the Whitgift Centre now is, and then at the new buildings out at Shirley.

I fondly remember Allders, Grants and Kennards (now Debenhams). The last had an arcade with a small (and very smelly) zoo!
So how long is Streatham High Street? I grew up in Walthamstow, which was always very sure that its High Street, at 5/8 of a mile or so, was the longest, or at least the longest to be used as a market.
Plus you have the 51 coming up next - Orpington again! You did say you were saving it up...

Trivia: Out of your nine bus routes, this is the second one not to cross the River Thames.

Conclusion: DG loves the Thames. He has to cross it as part of his birthday celebration. The 46 was OK because he got a load of other rivers instead, but since the 50 doesn't get any closer to the Thames than Stockwell, he had to go flying over the Thames.

Hypothesis: DG was flying eastwards from Heathrow. That would certainly fit the above the Thames criteria.
@ the orange one - more likely, given the prevailing winds and the usual approach paths, he was flying westwards into Heathrow.

Or it could have been City Airport
*cough*
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dgeezer/sets/72157651274876191
I have done that round LA and it was fantastic. Looks like you had great weather. Great present.
Great photos DG. That looks like a real treat!
Is that really a "twin-engined" helicopter?
googling G-PGGY finds a Robinson R44 helicopter. Whiuch is a single-engine model.

I saw something like that flying over Blackfriars Bridge a little after 6pm. (It was flying - I was on a Boris Bike)
thanks timbo

Thought all helicopters that are allowed to fly over London (central) had to be twin-engined?
Ed: the followig is from a PDF on Arena Aviation's website:

To fly “anywhere” over London you need a twin engine aircraft. However it is
acceptable to use a single engine helicopter provided it can land clear of the built up area in the event of a
power failure. Single engine aircraft need floats to carry paying passengers along the River Thames -
something we can easily arrange on our R44s.

(Arena are also based at Redhill, and operate helicopters for the BBC and Sky, amongst others.)
The banners claim that Streatham High Road is over 2 miles long, although that presumably includes the part that is called Streatham Hill.
Length is not everything...?!










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